[1] EXPOSED

Prologue 1

Prologue 1                                                                     

        Have you ever done something so embarrassing that you wanted to just crawl in a hole and die? Or maybe you wanted to turn invisible and scoot your little legs right out the nearest door? Maybe you wanted to turn back time for only sixty seconds; just enough to fix the situation and tell yourself that what you were about to do was a BAD IDEA.

          Like you and most people, I, too, have embarrassed myself. But I tell you one thing, until you’ve experienced what I’ve gone through, you won’t know the meaning of embarrassment. Let me tell you how it all began…

         It was a Friday night and my friend Ben was having a small party at his house. We lived in a town called Andrews, which was sort of near the beach but sort of not at the same time. It wasn’t all that big, but it wasn’t all that small either. Growing up somewhere else might have been a little easier, but I had my friends here and they had me. There was Kylie, who had short spiky red hair and a little diamond nose stud. Then there was Rachel, who was the quiet one but loads of fun, especially at parties. And then there was Ben, who could only be described as a “cool nerd” because he had the perfect house and personality for hosting parties, but deep inside he would much rather spend his nights reading about astronomy or playing online computer games.

           But then, there was Phoenix.

          “Jewel, I’m going to go take another shot, do you want one?” Phoenix asked me as he stood up from the light blue wicker couch on the back porch. I should have said no, but I wasn’t going back to my house tonight, so I didn’t see a problem with it.

          I brushed the back of my high-cut jean shorts off as I stood up and told my friends where I was going. They all seemed too out of it to really care, but they smiled and waved me off as if they were giving me permission to go wherever I wanted.

         After I waved goodbye, Phoenix grabbed my delicate hand and led me inside the house, where a couple of people were playing video games and some more people were eating snacks and listening to music. Phoenix had a smile that made my heart melt and he had beautiful dirty blonde hair that went a little past his ears. It flipped outward like a surfer’s hair but wasn’t long enough to get in his face. We weren’t dating, but if tonight went well, we had potential as a couple.

        He leaned over the counter and poured a shot for me first, and then one for himself. “Ready?” He laughed, “One, two…”

         “Three!” I exclaimed as I downed the shot and tried to ignore the warm feeling that went through my nose and out my mouth. That vodka was strong, and the past couple of shots I had were starting to creep up on me. After slamming the shot glass down, I wobbled back towards the sliding glass doors only to have Phoenix catch me before I reached for the protruding handle.

        “You know, we don’t have to go back outside if you don’t want to…” He licked his lips and pulled me towards the hallway only a few feet away. His touch was gentle but I could tell he was used to getting what he wanted.

        “But… Ben… and Kylie… and Rachel… they’re all outside,” I pointed to a closed window behind me and Phoenix shrugged, shaking his head like it didn’t really matter.

       “I want to talk to you alone though,” he said, giving me puppy dog eyes, “I really like you, Jewel… you’re an amazing person. Nobody can change that, and I mean it.”

       I watched him genuinely smile at me and I smiled right back, “I like you too, Phoenix. You’re a really special guy.” We made eye contact for a few moments before Phoenix scratched the back of his neck and squeaked out a request.