Run Away With Me

Of Rats And Women

When I pull up to the house, all of the lights are off and the sun is nearly set in the background. Jack must still be out on his date.

I pull out my phone and scroll through my contacts. I come across Mason and my thumb hovers over the call button.

But instead I back out and find another number instead.

It rings for a few minutes but finally she answers just before I give up.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Kayla! Are you doing anything tonight?"

"No, don't think so. But that doesn't mean I'm not open to suggestions." She sounds like she's smiling. Kayla is always smiling.

"I was thinking girls night. Hot tub, drinks, shitty pop music. You in?"

"Of course! Just us two or did you invite anyone else?"

"I wanted to invite Tansy, Tiffani and Sophia but I don't have their numbers. Would you mind group messaging everyone?"

"Sure! I'll go and text them and then head over. See you in, like, half an hour."

After hanging up I made sure we had enough alcohol left for our small group. Sophia and I are both lightweights so it wouldn't take much to get us drunk. But Kayla and Tiffany can drink the best of us under any table.

I heard the front door unlocking and walked over in time to see Jack coming into the house. When he noticed me, he smiled brightly.

"Hey, you! How was your date? Did he charm your pants off with all his art lingo?"

"Ha-ha, very funny. No, as it turns out, Alec is a business major."

"Ah, so he charmed your pants off with business lingo. Got it."

"We haven't set a date, but expect a wedding invitation." I joke and pass a water bottle across the kitchen island. "How was your date?"

"Let's just say, I am down to four numbers in my phone now."

"That bad, huh?"

"I made one comment about how I liked her shirt-"

"Flattery will get you everywhere." I nodded in agreement.

"That's what I thought. But instead it started an hour long conversation about the designer and their rise to popularity but their inevitable downfall because their lack of ckeeping up with consumer demands and interests."

"Wow, is she a business major?"

"Just very interested in the inner workings of fashion. Her words not mine. When I finally got off the subject of clothes, I think I got five words in before she went on another tangent of my body."

"That's...bad?" I push myself up so I am sitting on the counter, holding my own water bottle.

"It is when it's all she talks about for another hour. 'Wow, you have great abs', 'how did you tone your arms like that', 'do all guys have such pretty eyes?'" He mocks in a high pitch voice.

"You're, right. Sounds awful." I tease to which he deadpans.

'Whatever. Your date with smarty arty pants, you guys gunna do it again?"

"I think so." I blush. "He said he would call."

"And was that before or after he kissed you?" He walks around the island and stands right in front of me.

"How did you-"

"It is all over your face. You're doing that blush thing," He places a finger below my clavicle and drags it slowly up to my jaw. "That starts at your neck and spreads across your cheeks. It's the same blush from the other night when we-"