Reaching Emma

9.

I was excited that it was almost the weekend. We made plans to go to Andrew's house party tonight. After the last bell rang, David and I walked with the girls out to the parking lot.

"You're coming to my house to get ready, right?" Anna asked Emma, who nodded in response.

"And my brother can give us a ride to the party. We'll pick you guys up around 9:30" David reminded them. They waved a quick good-bye and walked towards Anna's car. I followed David back to his house, we were going to hang out and play some video games before the party.

David's brother reluctantly drove us to the party, as promised. We picked up Jack, who told us that Samantha was getting ready at Anna's house too. When we stopped at Anna's house, we had to ring the bell twice before Anna finally invited us inside. She assured us that they were almost ready and just needed to put their shoes on.

I could hear Emma's voice before I saw her turn the corner, "Are you sure it's not too much, Samantha?" She looked up, shocked to see David, Jack, and I. I could hear music blasting from the hallway that she had just come from, so I assumed that she hadn't heard the doorbell, "Oh, hi guys!"

"YES! You look so sexy Emma! Nobody will be able to take their eyes off you!" Samantha complimented as she pulled her shoes on standing in the entryway with us.

Samantha was right, I couldn't take my eyes off of Emma. She was wearing a dark blue dress that hugged all her curves, and stopped just above her knees. It showed off her body and dipped low under her collarbone, revealing her chest just a little.

"See? Luke's already drooling." Samantha said. Her words dawned on me and I turned to face her, my eyes jokingly narrowing a little bit.

"What? She looks hot, doesn't she?" Samantha retorted, smirking with an eyebrow raised as she motioned towards Emma.

I cleared my throat and turned back to Emma, "Uh yeah, you look really nice" I said, trying not to stare at her again. Her cheeks turned a shade darker as we locked eyes.

"Thanks. Should we, um, get going?" Emma muttered.

When we arrived at Andrew's house we could hear the music blasting from the street. Andrew was notorious for throwing great house parties. I had no idea how he could always pull it off with his parents and neighbors. Anna pulled Emma and Samantha inside, as David, Jack and I followed suit. I could see all the heads turning as the girls walked in. We quickly lost sight of them as they ran off to find some friends from the soccer team. Jack and I went straight to the kitchen, grabbing some beers from the fridge, then headed over to where a bunch of our teammates were playing beer pong.

After Jack and David beat Andrew and Ryan at beer pong and I went to the kitchen to get another drink. I couldn't remember how many I'd had so far, but I was feeling pretty good. I spotted Emma on the other side of the kitchen, getting herself another beer. I made my way towards Emma, but Ryan beat me to her. I watched as he threw a sloppy arm over her shoulders and could see Emma cringe from where I was standing. Ugh, didn't she already reject him? I should see her casually shake off his arm; he was too drunk to realize how sloppy he looked. I grabbed a beer on my way towards them.

"Hey guys, how's it going?" I said interrupting Ryan's attempt to put his arm back around Emma. Ryan looked annoyed at me and muttered a quick goodbye as he slunk away, probably realizing that he didn't have a chance with Emma tonight.

I could hear Emma breathe out a sigh of relief as she looked up at me. She said hello and her words sounded a bit slurred. I wonder how many drinks she'd had, but I'm sure that I probably sounded the same.

"How's your first Roosevelt party going?" I asked, trying my best to focus on my drink, when all I really wanted to do was hold her close. That dress was really getting to me.

"It's really fun!" She hopped onto the kitchen counter, sitting so we were about the same height, "There are a bunch of people here that I don't recognize from school though."

"Yeah, Andrew's parties are pretty popular so news of them usually travels to nearby schools too. He usually doesn't mind a bunch of people coming, as long as it doesn't get too out of hand," I explained.

Anna seemed to pop up out of nowhere and said, "GUYS LET'S GO DANCE!" She tugged on Emma's hand, who quickly grabbed mine and we were both pulled into the living room. All the furniture was pushed against the walls and the music was shaking the walls. Emma and Anna started dancing, I watched as David appeared behind Anna, wrapping his arms around her.

The song changed and I heard Emma yell over the music, "I LOVE THIS SONG!" as she started dancing to the beat. I grabbed her hand and spun her around, laughing. We spent the next few songs dancing together and goofing around until we were both exhausted. I grabbed her hand again and we headed to the kitchen to get another drink. We stood in the kitchen where it felt about 10 degrees cooler than the makeshift dance floor in the living room.

Feeling more confident, I put my hands on her hips and lifted her onto the counter, where she sat before we went dancing.

"Thanks!" she said and smiled at me. Our faces were much closer now that she was almost eye-level with me. I had no idea where the time went, but we stayed in the kitchen for a while, people-watching and laughing at how drunk everyone else seemed, even though we probably weren't much better. It was getting loud as the music from the living room spilled in the kitchen. I leaned close to Emma to hear what she was saying, but quickly got lost in her eyes. Her dark blue dress made her usually bright eyes look a shade darker. My arms rested on the counter on either side of her and, without meaning to, I glanced down at her lips briefly, before meeting her eyes again.

"You guys ready to go?" David clapped a hand on my back, bringing me back to reality.

"Sure" I replied. I helped Emma off the counter and we all headed to the front yard, waiting for David's brother to drive us home.

We crammed into the car and David's brother dropped all the girls off at Anna's, I guess they were staying at her house instead of going home drunk. I had the same plan, I was spending the night at David's house. My parents didn't mind too much if I drank, as long as I was smart about it and didn't get arrested or do anything stupid like drive. I passed out on the couch in David's room just moments after we got back to his house.