CHAPTER 15
“Come on,” Will said as he grabbed my hand leading me up to the attic after mother had left and the twins were in bed. “I have one more birthday surprise for you.”
“Will, you’ve already filled me with ice cream cake and wrote another wonderful story. You don’t need to give me anything more.”
“Stop it. It’s not everyday you turn sixteen. This is like a rite of passage. Besides, it’s not a big deal. Andrew made me do it on my sixteenth birthday because Tucker made him do it on his. I’m carrying on a tradition.”
“I don’t know if I want to be involved in any tradition brought about by the Wells brothers.” I replied suspiciously. Andrew was William’s best friend back in LA, and both he and his brother Tucker were notorious geeks. I imagined Will making me do some weird Klingon ritual.
As we got to the top of the stairs, he led me to the mattresses in the west end of the attic. “I know what you’re thinking. I promise you it has nothing to do with any movie with the word ‘Star’ in the title.” He sat me down on a mattress and then went to rummage through one of the trunks.
“Ah ha!” I heard him exclaim. He stood back up proudly, displaying two bottles of wine in his hand.
“Wine? When did you find that?” I asked as I looked at the bottles hesitantly. I had drunk a beer before at the big party Cordelia held after the homecoming game last year. After about five sips I stopped drinking it because I started to get dizzy. I decided me and alcohol weren’t very mixey and I didn’t want anything bad or embarrassing to happen to me.
“I found it when we were first exploring. I made a mental note about it for special occasions. I didn’t want the twins to know about it so I didn’t say anything and put another box on top of it. There’s actually a whole case, but I think for tonight two will be plenty.” Will took a wine opener out of his pocket and started to twist open the cork.
“Why didn’t you tell me? I didn’t know you were a closet drinker.” This side of my brother surprised me. He always played by the rules. I didn’t think he did things like underage drinking, especially with Andrew of all people. “It scares me to picture you and Andrew drinking wine together on your sixteenth birthday. It seems sort of gay. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.”
“First of all, it wasn’t wine on my birthday. It was a bottle of Jack Daniels, which is much more manly. And second of all, there may have been a porn movie involved as well, with women in it before you get smart, which is so not gay.” William handed me one of the uncorked bottles of wine and sat Indian style across from me. He tapped his bottle against mine in a toast and brought his bottle up to his lips. “Drink up,” he said before taking a large sip.
Figuring nothing bad or embarrassing was going to happen to me if I did get drunk since I was stuck in the attic one way or another; I took a large gulp from my wine bottle. “Blech.” I shuddered when I finished.
“You’ll get used to it once you drink more of it,” William said as he chuckled at my reaction. “You should be lucky it’s wine and not whiskey. The first sip of Jack I took, I spit it right back out. That stuff burns. But Andrew insisted I drink it – we had to finish the bottle.” He kept drinking as he told me about their sixteenth birthdays.
“I guess alcohol and porn were Tucker’s way of introducing Andrew to the ways of the adult world. The alcohol was just to loosen him up. Tucker said the porn was since Andrew was ‘sweet sixteen and never been kissed,’ though I suspect it was really Tucker’s trying to figure out whether or not Andrew was gay.”
“Is he?” I asked, curiosity getting the best of me. Everyone at school thought he was because he acted so effeminate.
“No, he’s not. In fact, he always had a crush on you. You never noticed how goofy he acted around you?” Will asked, since it was so obvious to him that Andrew liked me.
“No, I just thought that’s how he always acted. He was a goofy kid.” I said as I blushed. I was embarrassed that Will’s friend thought of me that way. I never thought of myself as crush-worthy.
“Well, don’t worry. I told him to get over it. You’re way too good for him.” Will smiled as he looked at me. “You look cute when you blush.” He laughed.
“Shut up!” I said looking down, as I took another swig from the bottle. “Blech.”
“Anyway, I figured since we had the alcohol I might as well bring you in on the tradition. No porn though since we don’t have a TV and I think that would be a little inappropriate considering. Besides, unlike Andrew, we all know you’re not sweet sixteen and never been kissed. Not with that joker Parker around.” Will took another drink from his bottle.
“Why don’t you like him?” I asked. One thing Tucker got right; the alcohol sure loosened you up. I had always wanted to ask Will that question, but never had the guts to before. The wine was definitely getting to me.
“He’s not good enough for you either.” Will said with a shrug. “He thinks he’s better than he is. He was always so sweet to you to your face, when he was at the house and stuff. But he talked a lot of trash in the locker room.”
Will saw the hurt look on my face and began quickly. “Not about you, Bethy. Just about other girls wanting him. Like if anything ever happened between you two, he’d be fine because he had other girls lining up for him. I hated him for that. For even thinking anyone could be better than you… could replace you.”
Will tilted his head as he looked at me. “I’m sorry. It’s your birthday. I didn’t mean to depress you. I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“No, it’s ok. It’s not like I’m still with him. Besides, it’s actually kind of sweet what you said. If you ask me though, I don’t think you’ll ever think anyone is good enough for me.”
“That’s probably true. Most guys are just dicks anyway, especially in high school. Usually they’re all just looking for a piece of ass.”
“What about you? Were you looking for some ass? You watched the porn on your birthday. I guess that means you were sweet sixteen and never been kissed.” I laughed, taking another sip of my wine.
He took another mouthful of his drink as he looked away. He was about half way through his bottle by now. “I don’t think you want to know the answer to that one.” He groaned and I noticed he was blushing.
“Oh, come on. You look so cute when you blush.” I laughed while I pinched his cheek, throwing his words from earlier back in his face.
“Then I guess the answer would be no. I had been kissed before.”
“Really?” His answer took me completely by surprise. I had never seen William anywhere near a girl before, not at school or at home. He was always talking about Cecily and I knew she didn’t even know who he was until the play this year. “How come I didn’t know about this?” I was sort of hurt he had never told me.
“Beth, you really don’t want to know.” He looked mortified.
“Well, now you’ve got me completely curious. You’re still a virgin, aren’t you?” I asked in a low whisper.
“Elizabeth!” He cried, shocked at my question. He put down his bottle and flopped down on his back, flinging his arm over his eyes. “This is so not a conversation I want to be having with my sister.”
“Oh, no you don’t. We don’t have anyone else to talk about this stuff with, we should share.” I put down my bottle of wine and took hold of the arm that shielded Will’s eyes. Straddling his waist, I got both his arms pinned over his head. “I want to know details. I’ve never seen you with a girl before so who were you kissing that I don’t know about? And if I didn’t know about that, it’s a natural conclusion that you may have done more I don’t know about.”
“Come on, Beth. I am a teenage boy. If an opportunity presents itself, I’m not going to say no.” Will laughed at the look of shock on my face.
“Here I thought you were so innocent, saving yourself for the fair Cecily.” Releasing his wrists, I sat up and put one hand over my heart and one to my forehead in a melodramatic swoon.
“Ha ha. Very funny.” He said, getting up and lifting me off him. “And to satisfy your curiosity, I’m still a virgin. I’ve just done some other stuff.” He shrugged grabbing his wine bottle again and drinking from it.
“You’re killing me! Who?” I demanded to know, picking up my bottle again. This was good gossip. I didn’t realize how much I missed girl talk.
“My first kiss was Cordelia. My second was Amy. It happened to be on the same night.” He told me with a mischievous smirk on his face.
“Get out! Cordelia and Amy were my best friends. They would have told me. I would have known. You’re totally lying.” I took a big gulp of my drink. There’s no way Will could have kissed either one of them and me not know about it.
“Am I? It was your slumber party last year on your fifteenth birthday. I don’t think they told you because they didn’t want you to know. I think they planned it. In fact, I know they did. They seduced me in the kitchen.”
“Ok, buddy. I want the whole story.” I said while poking him in the chest.
“Sure you can handle it? It’s quite scandalous.” There was that smirk again on Will’s face.
“Oh, I can handle it. Spill.”
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Author's Chapter Notes:
I don't know if anyone actually ever goes back and checks the reviews that they leave, but if you have a question or a concern I do try to answer them there. So you can go check out my responses if you're interested. Thanks for all who reviewed and I hope you enjoy this chapter. Happy Thanksgiving to those in the States.