Dirty Sex by Ashley Bartlett Page A

weren’t my thing. Neither
    were games.
    • 85 •

    AShley BArtlett
    “Yes. I was playing so I made you go. Instead of watching the
    game, you got drunk with Melanie under the bleachers.” Carson seemed
    to know more than I did. But the story did seem familiar.
    “Coop? Cooper, I knew you’d show up.” I turned and should
    have looked at her eyes, except my gaze strayed a bit south. “Oh, yeah,
    definitely you.”
    “Shit, Mel?” Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the guys
    rolling their eyes and fighting laughter. “How are you?” Now I
    remembered her. Mel Tricks. I thought Tricks was actually her last
    name. Guess it was just a not-so-flattering nickname. Last names would
    be a good idea in the future. I promised myself that I would know the
    last name of the next woman I kissed.
    “Great. I’m going to school in LA now. You?”
    “Still at Sac State with these losers.” Ryan was standing close
    enough for me to yank him next to me. I hated talking to people. No
    way I was talking to her alone.
    “I’m not a loser,” he replied indignantly. “How’s it going, Mel?”
    “Not bad. I was kind of hoping I’d run into you.” One of her hands
    landed on my arm. Interesting. No, not interesting. I managed to smile
    when I really just wanted to watch a psycho massacring teenagers on a
    very large screen. Over Mel’s shoulder, I caught sight of Reese. Maybe
    she’d help me since the guys were no help. She still owed me from the
    bar that night she got home.
    “Hey, peanut butter,” I called to see if she would bite. Then I
    remembered why Mel and I were under the bleachers. So her girlfriend
    wouldn’t find us. Her girlfriend Reese. Shit.
    “Hey, babe,” Reese called back.
    Mel turned to see who I was talking to. Simultaneously, they
    straightened their shoulders and narrowed their eyes. Mel started
    looking back and forth between Reese and me. We weren’t known for
    nice pet names.
    “Hi, Reese.” Mel attempted to be cordial. Their breakup had been
    one of the most fucked up I’d seen. They did it in true high school
    fashion, screaming matches in the quad, vandalizing cars, sabotaging
    grades.
    “Mel.” Reese nodded at her then committed to the scene. She
    marched past her ex and draped an arm over my shoulders. I slung
    mine around her waist.
    • 86 •

    Dirty Sex
    Hoping I wouldn’t be heard over the noise outside the theaters, I
    whispered to Reese, “I’m sorry.”
    “You’ll pay,” she returned just as quietly.
    “Jesus, Reese, what happened to your face?” Mel started staring.
    “You should have seen the other guy,” I said. No one other than
    my family knew what happened. We planned to keep it that way. “No,
    for real. We were coming out of Twenty-One a couple weeks ago and
    these assholes were ragging on a kid who just came out of the club,
    right?” This lie was inspired. “Reese was fuckin’ brilliant.” As if I were
    proud, I pulled her closer.
    “It wasn’t me. Obviously.” Reese indicated her face. “I just got
    hit. You should have seen Coop.”
    “I’d show you the bruises, but Reese said I need to keep my shirt
    on in public.” Then I started laughing like I was hilarious. Reese joined
    in.
    “They’re crazy.” Ryan couldn’t let us just tell lies to Mel Tricks,
    especially when it was so obvious. “You should have seen them when I
    picked them up. My car is still being cleaned.”
    “Oh my God.” Melanie finally added two and two. “Are you guys
    together?” It was better than what I remember of her performance in
    high school math. “Weird.”
    “It seems like we’ve been this way forever.” Reese started doing
    that play with my hair thing. I gave her a look to stop it. She opted for
    brushing a kiss across my cheek. This movie was going to suck now.
    It’s way too hard to be scared and grossed out by blood at the same time
    as being horny.
    “Gotcha.” Mel dug around in her purse. “Sorry, just a sec. Just
    wondering where my