Page 3 of Shamed
“Tell me honestly, do my tits really look big in this top? They feel tiny.”
The ping-pong ball goes flying, and I glare over my shoulder at Marni. “You made me miss that shot with your boob talk. You should have to take a shot as well.”
Marni scoops the ping-pong ball off the ground by someone’s foot and shoots it into one of the red solo cups on the table with ease. “Duh, that was the plan. I just wanted you todrink more. I know they look fab.” She squeezes each boob with a satisfied grin.
Jersey lifts her long, black, red-tipped hair off her neck and back, then fans her face with her other hand. “Let’s get another drink and go outside for a bit. It’s so hot in here with all these people. I can feel my makeup melting off.”
Noticing that it is indeed melting off, I move to stand in front of her, and with a couple swipes of my finger, I remove the mascara smudged under her eye. She gets weirdly embarrassed about those types of things. “It looks like half the school is here.”
Marni leans in to talk over the blaring music. “Seth and his brother have the house to themselves for the weekend, so it doesn’t surprise me that they’d have the biggest party of the year.”
“Yeah, that makes sense.” I look around at the empty cups and half-eaten food everywhere. “I wonder if they’re going to hire a cleaning crew to clean up after this. Do you think we should offer to stay and help?”
“No. And who cares,” Jersey complains. “I need some air. Let’sgoalready.”
“You don’t have to be so nice and helpful all the time,” Marni adds after a scrunch of her face. “Come on.”
After a quick detour to the kitchen to grab more drinks, we head out the front door for the much-needed air. Jersey andMarni remain standing while I perch on the edge of the front porch where there’s a garden full of pretty flowers.
People loiter around on the lawn, coming and going through the front door, but it’s less congested and the air is nice and cool.
“All right,” Marni says after taking a sip from her cup. “Date, fuck, or marry . . . Seth, Jim, and Derek.”
I scrunch my nose at the selection, then decide to annoy her. “If we’re dating or married, wouldn’t we be fucking, anyway? And if we’re married, we would have dated as well.”
She huffs out a sigh with an exaggerated eyeroll. “Stop being so difficult. Okay, I’m going to change it now and be very specific.Kiss only. Blowjob only. Or marry. Same people.”
“Okay, let me think.” I make a show of tapping my finger on my chin, contemplating my options for her question.
None of the guys from our senior year are appealing to me. Don’t get me wrong, they’re my friends and we all hang out, and I did lose my virginity to Tristan, who she noticeably left out from the question—probably because she knows I feel like an idiot about it—butfriendsis the key word there.
“All right, kiss Jim, since I already have and know he’s good at it. Marry Derek, because he seems like he’d be a doting husband. That leaves a blowjob for Seth.”
“Derek totally seems like good husband material,” Jersey agrees. “But I’d switch the other two.”
“I agree with Jennifer for kissing Jim, since I have as well,” Marni tells us, her grin sly. “But I’d switch the other ones. I’ve heard Seth has a big dong, and I’d rather be married to that.”
The three of us burst into giggles before drinking from our cups.
“Where did you hear he was big?” Jersey asks, something I was wondering as well. He is one of the only popular guys shehasn’tbeen with. “All of his hook-ups are from other schools.”
Marni leans in to talk quietly as if it’s some big secret. “Remember when Michelle got sick at school last month? Well, she couldn’t make it to the girl’s bathroom, so she burst into the guy’s one to puke and caught him with his pants down. She told me last week that it wasmassive.”
“I’m changing my answer,” Jersey quickly blurts, causing a laugh to bubble up from my chest.
My mind feels light and my body loose, and I know that whenever I start getting the giggles, the alcohol is taking effect and doing its job. It’s a welcome change to the stresses of finishing high school in two weeks and Dad pressuring me to work with him.
“Hey, didn’t you say Dylan was going to be working with your dad through the summer?” Marni asks, as if hearing my thoughts.
“Ugh, yes.”
“Dylan’s fucking hot. What’s the deal with you two? Didn’t you make out with him at Michelle’s pool party?” Jersey goes to take another sip of her drink but realizes it’s empty and pushes her lips out in a pout.
“Yeah, but he’s also a jerk and all about sucking up to my dad. Plus, he gives me a weird feeling whenever we talk.” His father is friends with mine, and unlike me, Dylan’s more than happy to work in my dad’s company. I suspect it’s the only reason Dad allowed me to pick something other than a business degree.
Dylan is also one of the guys who called me a “fucking tease”. He was very pushy and was more than a little ticked-off when I didn’t let him go further than third base with me, and he had even pushed me that far.
I never bothered to mention that to the girls, though.
