In Every Way

16

An hour later we're hanging out in the garage, energy from all around is spilling into every corner of the space. The same girls from the other night are here as well. Courtney, I learn, is the blonde, and Sophia has the black hair keeping true to her grunge fashion sense with fishnets and ripped jeans and a crop top. I stand out amongst these pop-punk-rockers with the pair of mom jeans and pink tank top I borrowed from Carmen. Thank god we're the same size or I would have nothing to wear but dance clothes. I made sure to wear another one of my front clasping bralette's since Cooper seemed to like the other one so much. I'm not expecting anything but at the same time...
    Being here is so much more relaxing knowing I don't have anywhere to be tomorrow. Well, I guess, this is where I have to be. I even loosened up enough to accept the beer Bruno offered when we first got here. It's terrible tasting and fizzy and feels heavy in my stomach but it's fun to hang with Cooper and his friends like this. So normal. They are all laughing at Mark's terribly inappropriate jokes, dancing to the nirvana album Jett is playing through the speakers, talking all things about the tour and music and the universe.
I've never had a group of close friends outside the studio other than the girls who lived and breathed dance like I did. And even then there was always the underlying fact that we were low key each other's competition, knowing each other's strengths and weaknesses but also traveling every weekend together and encouraging whoever gets a scholarship at the conventions.
I jump away as Bruno falls off the platform, beer sloshing out of his cup and onto the floor around us.
"Would you sit the fuck down already?" Cooper grabs Bruno by his ripped denim jacket and slings him to the couch. He topples over, clearly drunk.
Mark laughs. "Seriously man, you gotta get it together. You have the balance of a two year old."
"Not all of us can be pre-Madonna ballerina's like Cooper's girl over here," Bruno slurs. "He told us you go to that preppy little ballet school in the city."
"Her name is Avery dickhead." Cooper nudges him, hard. "And she's fucking good."
"Wait, you're a ballerina?" Courtney chimes in from Jett's lap. "No wonder. You're body is literally perfect."
I blush with all the attention. "Thanks."
"If she's so good then she wouldn't mind a little competition would she?"
All the guys groan and moan in agony at Bruno's suggestion.
"We aren't doing any of your stupid, shitty ass competitions," Mark says. "Remember what happened the last time?"
"Just because someone ended up in the hospital doesn't mean we can't have a friendly-"
"No!" Mark and Jett say in unison, causing them to clink beers with goofy grins.
"What kind of competitions?" I ask, throughly interested. My competitive side is always ready to go in any situation. "What happened last time?"
"He challenged someone to a beer bong chugging contest to see who could go the longest."
"It didn't end well," Cooper laughs before sipping on his bottle.
Bruno eyes him with a glazed over expression. "You weren't saying that about the wet tshirt contest a few months ago."
Cooper rolls his eyes and tightens his arm around my waist.
"How 'bout I'll let you choose, sweetheart," Bruno smiles at me. "Unless you're scared."
"What do I get if I win?" I challenge.
"I'll give you all the dirt you want to know on this guy." He punches Cooper's arm.
"Tempting." I glance to Cooper, who looks worried, with a facetious hint to my gaze. "And if I lose?"
"I get to draw a penis on your forehead."
My laugh is obnoxious as Cooper says, "Fucking idiot."
"Don't do it," Mark warns.
"You should make it a balance contest since Bruno clearly can't even see straight right now," Jett suggests as he scrolls through his music and clicks a new song. "I want to watch him eat shit."
"Fuck you guys." Bruno stands. "My balance is perfect. You in or what pre-Madonna?"
I was literally born and raised to have perfectly centered balance. He has no idea what he's in for. I look to Cooper. "I can't wait to hear all the dirt he has on you." Everyone croons at my diss. "Okay Bruno, you're on."
He gestures with his newly tattooed arm to the platform. "After you."
I bypass the platform and go straight for the three foot tall manila colored stool, standing up top of it.
"Yo, this girl is crazy!" Bruno laughs. "I'm not standing on one of those."
"That's okay, either way I'm going to win."
"Ooooo!" The boys say in a low unison.
"You're fucking toast, man," Mark yells over the music.
I smirk at Bruno as he stands on the platform. He challenges me with, "One leg."
In seconds I pull my right leg into posé, connecting the side of my foot to my knee, tightening my ankle and pressing down through my big and little toe, snickering as he struggles to lift his up even an inch.
"My money is on Avery," Courtney watches thoughtfully.
Sophia laughs. "I bet he doesn't even make it a full minute."
"Shut up!" Bruno furrows. "I'm trying to concentrate, damnit."
"One minute on the clock," Jett holds up the timer on his phone.
To up the stakes I pull my posé higher, hitching my knee to my elbow and développéing my right leg through the air into a full extension. The room literally goes quiet as I raise my arms into fifth position above my head and then relevé onto the ball of my foot.
"Holy shit," Bruno trembles. He falls thirty seconds in, whining like a little baby.
I make a show of holding my leg until the timer goes off and everyone freaks out, praising me with claps and whistles. Cooper is by my side as they hound Bruno for the loss, sweeping me into his arms.
"I don't think you'll ever cease to amaze me." He sets me down, looking to Bruno. "How does it feel to be beat by a girl?"
"I didn't know she could do that."
"Told you she was fucking good."
Bruno grabs another beer and pops it open. "I don't know why you're so happy I'm about tell her everything I know. Hope and pray she never finds out about Cincinnati."
"Not Cincinnati!" Jett squeals.
"I'll beat your ass senseless if you tell her about that." Cooper warns with a light glare. "That goes for all of you jackasses."
"I want to know about Cincinnati..." I bat my lashes at him then look to Bruno. "I did win."
Cooper glares harder but Bruno only shrugs playfully. "She did win."
"He got so black out drunk he pissed his pants and threw up in my guitar case!" Jett laughs into hysterics.
"Ew!" snatch my nose.
"Or how about when he passed out in the alley and we thought he was some homeless fool and almost left his ass in Pittsburgh?"
Cooper groans, embarrassed. "Did anyone ever tell you I hate hanging out with you guys?"
"You love us." Mark sends him an air kiss.
I laugh at their banter. Enjoying Cooper squirm under the flames of his shameful nights. The guys continue to tell stories amongst themselves as Cooper looks down at me. "You really want to sit out here and listen to all this?"
"No." I smile. "We can go inside if you want." I love hanging out with his friends but I came here to spend time with him over anything.
"Alright we're heading in," Cooper grabs one last beer.
"Awh come on! You can't take the heat pretty boy?!"   
    Bruno yells before we go inside, "You may have won this round pre-Madonna but I will slay you next time! Mark my words-"
The garage door closes before he can finish his sentence.
"They're so obnoxious." Cooper grabs my hand.
"I think they're funny."
"Don't believe anything they tell you about me. I only pissed my pants once and I never threw up in the guitar case Jett is a fucking liar trying to cover up his own party foul," he laughs as if he can see the memory.
"Sure," I smile, sarcastic.
He catches a glimpse of me as I follow him into his room, smirking, then presses me against the door as soon as we're inside. "This is all I wanted to be doing tonight."
"The night's still not over, silly."
"Thank god." He dips down to kiss me.
"And we have all of tomorrow, too."
"Mmm." He pulls away, brushing his nose to mine. "When do we get to stretch?"
I giggle from my blush, reaching my hands into his hair. I observe the inch of dark root budding underneath the bleached ends. "You have so much root growing in."
"Yeah, I meant to touch it up this weekend. I usually don't let it get this bad." He runs his fingers through his ends. "Want to help me do it?"
"You don't go to a salon?"
"I usually just do it myself. It's not hard." He walks to a Walgreens bag on the dresser and pulls out the box dye. "See?"
"You seriously want me to? I don't even bleach my hair."
"If you mess it up I'll just shave it." He heads into the bathroom, so I follow. "Just read the mixing directions."
I read the detailed instructions wondering what developer and toner's even are. Meanwhile Cooper takes off his shirt and sits on a stool he brings in from the kitchen. He pulls a hand towel over his shoulders and watches me, taking a long sip from his beer.
    I mix, put on the gloves, and try my hardest to part off his hair in thin enough sections for it to lift properly. I've seen those girls who have yellow roots and white ends because someone didn't let it sit on long enough and I don't want to be at fault. "Would you really shave your head if I messed up?"
    "I've done it before. But I prefer it like this."
    "What made you bleach it in the first place?" I stroke the brush.
    He laughs at himself when he says, "Lost a bet to Bruno. It's one of the many losses I wasn't mad about. I've done colors too."
    "Have you done pink?"
    "Pink, blue, purple, green." He brings his bottle to his lips. "I'm down for anything."
    "And what about your nails?"
    He holds them out. They're chipped in some places but have been painted black since we met. It's a detail I've always wondered about. "There was some dude, I think it was in Texas, but he made a comment about them being painted, called me a pussy or something, started an all out brawl in the bar. Jett walked away with a busted lip, Bruno somehow was unscathed, Mark and I had bloody knuckles for a week."
    "Does it bother you when people say stuff like that?"
    "Honestly? No. If you're gonna do things that go against the norm you have to be ready for gender-phobic, anti-progressive assholes to retaliate. We didn't even start the fight. They got pissed because the assholes girlfriend was more interested in my nail color than him."
    I snort. "It is a good conversation starter. I'm sure plenty of girls can't resist asking you about it."
    "But not you, right?"
    "What do you mean?"
    "When I approached you and Carmen at the bar you didn't even glance at them. Didn't say a thing about my hair either. Or my piercings."
    I take one last scoop of bleach and feather it to the rest of the roots. The other sections are already turning yellow. "Is that a bad thing?"
"It was unexpected, but, no, I liked it. That's why I said you were different."
    "You want to know what I first noticed about you?"
    He finishes his beer and clinks it to counter so he can use his free his hands and hook them behind my thighs as I stand between his legs and finish the front of his hair. "Yes."
    "I had no idea what I was doing there in the first place but Carmen forced me to go out that night. It was so easy for her to let go and dance to herself like everyone around us were. Eventually I was like 'I'm literally a trained dancer why can't I pick this up?', but once you started playing your solo up there I didn't have to think at all. I just... danced."
    "I remember. It was a major fucking turn on to watch you dance like that to my music."
    "But after that it was your boots."
    "My boots?" he laughs.
    "Yeah, your black snake skin boots. And this stupidly attractive downturned smirk of yours."
    "Downturned?" He looks around me into the mirror and laughs. "Holy shit it is."
    "I like it." I smile at him.
    "Want to know what I first noticed about you? Besides you looking so fucking hot dancing like that?"
    "Please tell me."
    "You were sitting on that stool, bent over fixing your shoe, but there was something so graceful about the way you held yourself. Your posture was perfect, your legs were fucking out of this world in that pink dress, and your side profile was just too attractive. The little swoop to your nose was the cherry on top." He swipes his thumbs along my nose playfully. I giggle at his shower of compliments, never having heard what I look like through other peoples perspective. "Your hair was slicked back to show off your cheek bones and you just looked like you were glowing. I didn't know what it was but there was no way I wasn't going to try and talk to you."
    "Well I'm glad you did." I take off the gloves and hang my arms over his shoulders. "Never would have thought that night I would end up two weeks later bleaching your hair in your bathroom."
    He laughs. "I did. I imagined it all. Like every little in between thing I did with my day was going to be either filled with you or thinking of you."
    Wow. "Is it repetitive of me to bring up how deep you are?"
    "Not as long as it isn't repetitive for me to remind you how perfect you are."
    My lips pinch, trying to hold back a wide grin. "I think I needed someone like you. Someone who isn't afraid to be themselves and go against the norm and what's expected of them. To push me outside my comfort zone and demand I live a little. You're deep enough to make up for my shallow, one track mind."
    "Don't say that."
    "It's true. I'm boring. All I think about is dance and my career and how to get ahead. I don't have a group of friends like that one out there who has stories and dirt on each other, who would fight a group of guys for making a comment about their friend. I love seeing the way you are around them but it also makes me sad because... I'll never have that."
    "First of all, I would beat the shit out of anyone who said something sideways about you. Even look at you the wrong way and there would be hell to pay. Those guys out there included. And you know what? I think it's pretty damn great that you're even able to recognize these things about yourself. But now that you know what you want, you can start doing it. Build a group of friends. You already have Carmen. And me, obviously. If you really want the guys to be your friends than so be it. You told me once you go for what you want and if it doesn't happen, what do you do?"
    "Work harder," I whisper.
    "You're way too hard on yourself sometimes, Avery. I don't know if it's because of your background training in such a competitive world but it's okay to have faults. And It's okay to want something outside of dance. Balance, remember?"
    I nod my head, unable to respond to him. He's right in every way. I just need to soak it all in.
    "Good." He brings my face into a kiss. "Now let's wash this bleach out before my scalp sets on fire. It burns like hell."
    I laugh at that. "Okay, how do we rinse it out? The sink?"
    "That would get everywhere." He goes to the shower and turns it on. "I'll just do it in here."
    "Okay I'll wait out-"
    "Wait." He trails his fingers on mine. "Shower with me."
    I think I audibly swallow. "Really?"
"Only if you want." He walks over and turns off the switch so there's only a dim light from the bedroom casting in. Still enough to see but I think he's trying to make me comfortable. "I'll get in first."
I nod, struck by a bolt of lightening at the thought of doing this. I've always wondered what it would be like when I finally broke this barrier with someone but I never dated long enough to get to this point. I mean it's not like I've dated Cooper long at all. I never liked anyone enough to even think about it. He just seems to always be the exception. Even though I never would have suggested me joining him, I'm glad he did. This is why he's such a good opposite to me. Because yes, yes I do want to shower with him.
He isn't shy one bit as he strips his clothes, briefs and all. Not that he has anything to be shy about because look at him. He says I'm perfect but really he's the perfect one. He kisses me before whispering, "Take your time." And closes the curtain behind him.
I don't need to work up the courage to go in after him, I just clear my head, knowing exactly where this is going.
    He's facing into the shower head, rinsing out the last of the bleach, turning to me when I close us in.
His hands rest on either side of my hips I'm pulled into him, switching sides so I'm now under the water. It's warm and welcoming. Our bodies are completely pressed together and I can't think of anything else but his touch as calloused thumbs run down my arms at a leisurely pace.
    "Let's get you clean," he whispers. "Hand me the loofa and the soap."
    I turn to face the water, allowing him to start by running the loofa along my back, working sudsy circles down my arms and onto my stomach. I close my eyes and lean further into his body so he can reach around to my front. Steam rolls thick like fog around us. I know he's enjoying the view of all of this from over my shoulder because I can feel him hardening against my back.
    "Your tits are amazing." He uses his other hand to help move the soap around, gently gliding over my nipple. I lean my head back into him, giving a better view.
    "They're not that special," I whisper.
     "I could play with them all day. They fit perfectly in my hand." He grabs one tight, surprising me and causing air to suck through my teeth with pleasure. "Turn around," he instructs.
  I swivel, and when my eyes open, I'm reminded of why Cooper is such an exception to my rule. He's like a freaking god. After taking my time to look at every piece of his naked body, at all the tattoos, all the piercings, I finally make eye contact and catch a goofy grin on his face. I realize just how long I've been staring and look away, embarrassed.
    "Sorry..." I almost laugh at my obnoxiousness.
    "Why? I take my time looking at you." I find his eyes focusing on places that make me squirm. "You can stare at me whenever you want," he grins. "Give me your hands." He places them on his chest. My breathing hitches with the contact. "You can touch me whenever you want, too," his tone has changed into something deadly.
    Discarding the loofa, he uses his hands to spread more soap over my skin as my own run down his chest to his stomach. I trace the distinct v-line where his waist band would sit then bring them back up, hooking my arms on his shoulders as his reaches farther down my back. Wanting to feel closer to him, I stand on my tip toes. His lips press against my neck and he slides his fingers between my legs. He doesn't stay there long but the touch feels so good.
    Cooper squats as he works now at my legs, eye level to my belly button. I rest my hands on his shoulders as I look down at him. My eyes flutter with the gentle feeling his lips give when he places small kisses on my thighs. They find their way to my most sensitive spot in my middle and I gasp quietly when he licks me there. With every moan he grasps harder from behind, pulling me closer to his mouth, guiding one of my legs over his shoulder which opens me up more, allowing him more access.
    "Oh god..." I break the silence and wrap my fingers into his freshly bleached hair, pulling hard.
    "Fuck... you're gorgeous."
    I look down because of his comment to find him staring up at me, while he replaces one sensation with another, rubbing me with his fingers. Which feels almost as good.
    "Do you like this?" He asks. I nod my head, closing my eyes. "Don't look away. Look at me." His fingers move faster and I can barely stand my legs are starting to shake so bad. "I want to watch you cum this way. You don't even know how much you're turning me on right now." He blinks through the drops of water that are falling from my hair and I use my hand to brush them away, keeping my fingers around his cheek. He has no idea what he's doing to me.
    I watch him kiss my stomach and lick the drops away from my inner thighs. His mouth reaches me again and this time the pleasure is so much that my legs give out and I have to grab his shoulders for support. I'm surprised by his strength as he lifts me up just enough for him to get me to come completely undone. The building of pleasure where his mouth is concentrating builds and builds until I reach a climax, wanting nothing more than to let him do this to me forever. My breathing is ragged by the end and I feel so dizzy from the hot, thick air I have to balance myself against him as he stands.
    His grin is telling. "I don't ever want to shower alone again if that's what I get to do to you every time." He swipes my hair all the way back and I let my head hang, allowing the water to run through it.
    "Then don't," I whisper, matching his grin. There is no denying how amazing that experience just was. Now I know what I've been missing out on.
    He laughs. "I don't know if you could handle it. I can tell you're drained."
    "It's just been a long day."
    "I can make you feel good in places other than the shower too." He promises, with a peck.
    "Do tell." I peck him back.
    "Like the kitchen counter... for instance. I could bend you over that thing for days." He grabs the shampoo and starts to massage it into my head. His words make my sensitive, swollen center ache for more.
    "Where else?" I ask, needing to hear this. Being this way with him opens up parts of me I can't explore anywhere else. There's no other human being on this planet who has ever brought this side out of me. I want to embrace it as much as I can because honestly, sometimes, this seems too good to be true.
    "The desk in my room. I could fuck you over that. In multiple different ways."
    "Where else would you fuck me?" It feels foreign coming from my mouth but totally right at the same time.
    "Fuck..." he rubs in the conditioner but can't seem to keep his mouth off mine. "I would fuck you on the bed every chance I got."
    "You would?" I reach my hand down, deciding to be brave, needing to feel him. He did just say I can touch him whenever I want to. I grab his shaft and start to move against it.
    "That feels good," he whispers into my mouth, kissing me at a sloppy pace. "Fuck. Keep going." One of his hands wraps into my now clean hair as he pushes my back against the wall. He grinds himself into me over and over again until his breathing is ragged in my ear and both his hands grasp tightly to my skin as he lets out a slight groan.
    "Yeah." He groans. "I'm never letting you shower alone. Ever." He pulls away with a grin, washing himself and my hand then shutting the water off.