Someone To Love

A Lesson To Love

The music sinks into my bones with its annoying, jarring rhythm. The constant carousel of guys parading around me, wanting to give me far more than their phone numbers, is starting to grate on my every last sexual nerve. And, God knows I can't breathe with this linebacker trying to suck an artery out of my neck every few minutes.

"Excuse me," I say, clawing my way through the mass tangle of flesh.

I haven't seen Cruise in hours. It's almost New Years, and I've spent far too long drowning in the deep end of unwanted male suitors.

"Lauren!" I spot her over by the stairwell, and she gives a brief wave.

"You really packed 'em in tonight." She wobbles on her heels. "I thought you were trying to bag Cruise?"

"Shh!" I push my finger to my mouth in a panic. God, she's wasted, and she's going to ruin everything. "I was - I am. He sent me out on a mission, then I saw him with this girl, and I got all pissy and hung out with the football team." Basketball team, too, but that's beside the point.

"I did you a favor." She shouts it all whispery - employing the secret keeping method preferred by drunks the world over. "I told Cruise to stop dicking around." She starts in on a tittering laugh and doesn't let up until she falls into my arms from the apparent hilarity of it all.

I'd ask why in the hell she'd say that, to Cruise of all people, when I specifically enlisted him in activities that involve his honorary member, but it's clear she's completely toasted. Normally, I'd be upset, but I opt to file this misstep under drunken debauchery. Lauren's too shit-faced to realize what she's done. It's the "dicking around" I'm most looking forward to with Cruise.

I do a quick visual sweep of the area for her presumably sober BFF, so I can lovingly pass her along.

"Where's Ally?" It'll be midnight in less than five minutes, and if I don't find my smoking hot roommate, who knows whose lips he'll be gracing with my New Year's kiss?

"Dear God." Ally magically appears and helps me land Lauren in the stairwell. "I can't find her boyfriend." She shrugs into me. "Lauren thinks he's cheating." She leans in. "She's totally paranoid. He is so not cheating. Have you seen him? He's lucky he has Lauren."

"Right." I hope to God it wasn't Lauren's boyfriend who tried to give me a necklace of hickeys. I may or may not have accidentally kneed him in the balls to make my great escape.

"Oh look, there's Cruise." She nods behind my shoulder as her eyes swell the size of grapefruits "Never mind. Let's get Lauren to the car instead."

"Never mind what?" I try to spin around, but she secures me by the wrists. "Oh I get it. He's with some other girl." I give one bionic pull and wrangle out of her death grip in time to see Cruise heading in my direction sans any female appendages. I lower my chin and do my best to seduce him.

The countdown begins, and Ally jumps on the nearest jock.

"Just in time." I beam as he strides over. He gives the slight glimmer of a smile, but overall, he looks a little ticked as if some emotional altercation just occurred. I cut a glance behind him, and a girl with strawberry blond hair douses me with a look of venom. She sears me with a fresh brand of hatred and my stomach pinches as if I've genuinely done something wrong.

"Three, two - one!" The crowd breaks out in cheers and screams.

Cruise softens into me, molding his body to mine. He latches onto my gaze, and we meditate on one another for a brief moment. Cruise dips in with a grin. Our lips crash together in one hot, delicious kiss. His tongue maneuvers through my mouth, slow and deliberate. He holds the slight taste of beer and spearmint, and his warm, familiar cologne springs my senses to life. This was no frat boy trying to pick me up for the night. This isn't Pennington from whose touch I would repel. This is Cruise, and something about the way he kisses me, the way our bodies sway in time - it's as if we were meant to do this all along.