Chapter 48: Party Gossip Gallore...

A week ago, Jocelyn would have given Alex the time of day, but not much more than that. She had never had much interest in him all through high school, nor middle school before it. When they shared classes, it was good to sit near him so she could occasionally borrow his notes or copy his homework, and class projects were always much easier when he was part of her group. But she'd never have considered going out with him. Thankfully, he had never been among those who tried to ask.

Now, however, he had her full attention. She sat up straight on the couch right next to him, only mildly conscious of the fact doing so pushed her chest forward flirtatiously. She wasn't consciously aware of the way she was staring, though, or the fact that she would infrequently, subtly, lick her lips, or turn her smooth, shapely mocha legs toward his. Jocelyn had every intention of flirting, but she figured she was doing that just from looking at him attentively.

She was also aware that there were three other girls in the living room paying very close attention to him for what was clearly the very same reason. Four, if one included Sherri's earlier involvement -- but the pretty hostess of the party had just been called away to take care of some minor emergency or another. They were all essentially the prettiest girls Jocelyn had seen at the crowded party so far, too. Others were in the room as well, all part of the same conversation, though not all so obviously interested in holding Alex's personal attention. There were a couple other girls, a couple of guys, and even that odd Gothic Justin Beiber-looking guy was looming intently in one corner, with his own date now essentially ignoring him in favor of Alex.

Jocelyn was at least unencumbered, though, and she had another advantage over her competition. She had known Alex for, like, forever. Most everyone else in the living room were strangers.

"I always knew you were brave," Jocelyn smiled. "You were the guy who stood up to that crazy sub we had in Spanish when she started giving people detention for sneezing."

"Oh, whatever. I was freaking out. I just didn't want to get hauled away someplace to get shot in the head. So I got shot in the chest right there in the parking garage instead, 'cause I'm brilliant like that," Alex smirked wryly.

"I heard you jumped in front of the gun to protect your friend," said Brittany.

"That's what I heard, too," nodded Britney.

"Wow, did you really do that?" asked Brittnee.

Behind her tight-lipped smile, Jocelyn gritted her teeth. Three blondes with the same goddamn name but different spellings, she thought, and not a whole brain between them. I feel like I'm on a reality show.

"No, she was out of the way from it," Alex said, shaking his head. "She had tripped the other guy, too. It's not like she was cowering behind me."

"Shit, I'd have shoved that gun up the dude's ass," snorted Tucker, seated on the couch that had been moved opposite Jocelyn and Alex. He was next to Britney with his arm around her. Jocelyn couldn't help but observe how Britney didn't seem to really notice her date anymore. Jocelyn wished she would, both to shut him up and to turn her away from Alex.

"Right on," agreed Tucker's friend, some jock named Jimmy. "What'd you do after you got shot?"

There was an odd tenor to his voice in that question. Jocelyn heard it, and turned to him with a bit of a scowl. It was as if Jimmy thought Alex getting shot was some failure on the part of her longtime friend and school buddy.

"I pretty much fell down at that point," Alex said dryly. "That's kind of what happens usually."

"Yeah, I guess maybe if you were a bigger guy you might stay on your feet," Tucker shrugged. He was, of course, a bigger guy. His tone was also unmistakably dickish.

Jocelyn glanced over at Alex, wondering what he'd say. She had already gotten the whole story from Taylor, which was why she'd brought it up in the first place. She could see that Alex was watering down his own heroics. He had done more than just fall down. She found his humble telling of it all adorable, but at the same time she bristled at the running commentary from the two guys suffering from penis envy.

"Naw," came a Southern drawl from behind Jimmy. "Size don' matter much. Ah fell down when ah got shot, too, an' ah'm bigger'n Alex." Wade stood behind Tucker, Britney and Jimmy's couch, wearing one of those plain gray shirts marked "Army," his John Deere ball cap and a smug grin. He had a beer bottle in his hand.

"Yeah?" Jimmy asked, frowning a bit at this new intrusion. "Where'd you get shot?"

"Afghanistan," Wade said evenly. "Wanna see mah scar?"

"Sure, dawg," Jimmy chuckled, figuring he'd call the hick's bluff.

"Oh no," Alex murmured just loud enough for Jocelyn to hear over the music. He had a grin on his face, but he warned her, "You might not wanna see this."

Wade had already dropped his pants and turned away before Alex was done talking. He gave the other two guys and Tucker's girlfriend a good view of his ass. "Ah know this might sound strange," Wade said over the chorus of shrieks and guys jumping away in shocked protest, "but if'n one of y'all boys'd give it a kiss, it might hurt a bit less."

"Aw, dude!" Tucker yelled.

"Fuckin' freak!" Jimmy snapped.

"Wade," Alex laughed, "put that thing away! That's against the Geneva Convention!"

Jocelyn saw it, and wasn't entirely freaked out -- in fact, she wasn't put off at all, really -- but she buried her face in Alex's shoulder in feigned surprise anyway. He put his arm around her as he laughed, probably without really thinking about it. She felt very grateful to Wade on a couple of levels after that. He had scattered most of the room.

"Ah think ah need a cigarette. 'n maybe another beer," Wade said. Thankfully, his pants were back on already.

"I think you need therapy," Alex chuckled.

"I think you need to be cut off already," Jocelyn snickered. She stayed tucked against Alex. He clearly wasn't objecting.

"Nonsense. This was only my first beer. Ah only ever moon people sober. Y' never know what horrible things might happen if'n y' show yer ass when drunk." With that, he wandered off to find the front door.

"Alex," came a sultry voice. Jocelyn and Alex both looked up to see Alex's girlfriend slink through the room. Jocelyn thought she was amazing: sexy, confident, a body to kill for and a face to match. Older, but physically flawless. And that whole fire dance thing had really put some early energy into the party.

Jocelyn suspected Alex's girlfriend was created on a lab table. She also had to admit to herself that Lorelei's charisma was a little intimidating. For a moment, Jocelyn wondered if she should move, but Lorelei didn't seem the least bit phased by her presence or her position.

"Hey you," Alex smiled. "Where've you been?" His voice when he spoke with her was very easy, which Jocelyn couldn't get over. He'd always been shy with girls, to the point that it was one of the things that made him unattractive in high school. How did that all change so fast?

"Tending bar with Drew," Lorelei grinned. Her voice dropped to a conspiratorial level that included only Alex and, without the slightest hesitation, Jocelyn. "We've been putting a little less into the drinks than we've let on. Several of your fellow underaged partygoers aren't nearly as intoxicated as they'd like to believe. We had thought about going the other way, but this just seemed naughtier. Would you like anything, though? I'm perfectly willing to drive later."

"I'm good," Alex said, shaking his head.

"I came to ask if you had seen Jason turn up yet?"

"Nah, I got a text from him about a half hour ago. He's working tonight, so he'll be here a bit late."

"Jason Dexter?" Jocelyn wondered aloud.

"Yeah."

"Oh, he's coming? I haven't seen him in ages."

Alex smirked. "He'll be flattered all to hell that you remembered his name."

Jocelyn waved a dismissive hand at Alex as she stayed cuddled up to his side. "Psh. Whatever. I remembered you, didn't I?"

Lorelei reached over to touch Alex's free hand, a touch that lingered for a moment before she pulled away. "I'll be around," she said. Her eyes never lost their sparkle while she looked at him. A moment later, she followed the same path Wade took outside.

With Lorelei gone, Jocelyn turned in on Alex more. She put her hand on his chest. "Okay, Taylor told me a little about her, but what the hell's up with that?" she grinned.

"What do you mean?"

"If I saw a hottie like me curled up on my man the way I am on you right now -- and I'm not sayin' I've got a man right now, 'cause I don't -- but if that was me, I'd be tellin' a bitch off. And she doesn't seem like she's weak or nothin'. But she didn't even blink at me!"

Alex grunted. It seemed to be a bit of an awkward subject for him. "Well, she knows I have no interest in losing her. She's got zero insecurity issues. And we've talked about, you know, that sort of stuff."

"Uh-huh...?" Her tone conveyed a clear demand for elaboration.

"And we've, um, y'know, set our boundaries for ourselves. And with each other. Informed consent and...stuff."

"Uh-huh?"

Alex swallowed. The Most Desirable Hottie, unofficially of course, of his graduating class looked on expectantly. "And we're never going to break up, ever. So there's that."

"So where are your boundaries?"

Alex admitted, in a quiet and somewhat embarrassed voice, "I pretty much don't have any."

************

"So many more stars in Afghanistan," Lorelei observed. Wade turned his head away from the sky to his unexpected company. He had already finished his cigarette, and was now simply standing in the shadow of the house looking at the nighttime sky.

"Yeah," he said. "Yeah, there are. Lotta light pollution in the city."

"I wanted to come out here to say thank you."

"For what?"

"You may well have saved Alex's life the other night. And very likely mine. Had Gorge not been dealt with the way you all handled him, I don't know what would have happened."

Wade shrugged. "Wasn't like Alex jus' sat on his hands."

"No. But he did not stand alone, and that made all the difference." Wade shrugged again, but said nothing. Lorelei went on. "I want you to know that you have nothing to fear from me, for Alex's sake or your own, or any of his friends. He has my absolute loyalty."

He looked at her for a long moment, and finally shrugged. "Ah've always figured he was a good judge of character."

Lorelei nodded. "I would like to consider you and the others my friends as well."

"Ah guess ah'd like that, too," Wade said after a long moment.

"You sound a bit wary," Lorelei smiled softly.

"Well, mah buddy's supernatural seductress demon girlfriend whatever just snuck up to me all by her lonesome t' say she wants t' be mah 'friend' while the hottest gal in our graduatin' class is in there practically in his lap. It's potentially a little awkward."

Lorelei's smile broadened a bit. She could certainly see the humor in what he said, along with the worldly wisdom. "I understand," she said. "Which is why you should probably forget," the succubus breathed, stepping directly into Wade to wrap one hand around his neck and draw him close, "that we ever did this."

Wade was a strong-willed, self-confident and independent soul. He had to be, to have gone where he'd been and then returned home to deal with his emotional wounds as he had. But against Lorelei's direct efforts, he could only hold out for a moment or two. Wade was too lonely and ultimately too vulnerable after all he'd been through to turn away a succubus who approached him under the auspices of affection and friendship.

She held him close, breathing deeply as she invaded his mouth with her aggressive, insistent kiss. He reciprocated, unable to resist the physical urges she aroused in him. Lorelei slipped one hand low, grabbing at his groin and urging him to a level of arousal he had never been to before and then her hand withdrew, and her kiss became less insistent. When her mouth parted from his and she said, "Ssshhh, Wade," laying her hands gently upon the sides of his face, he quickly grew calm.

"Forget the kiss," Lorelei instructed. "Do not long for me. Remember all else...including this," she whispered, and with that, Lorelei embraced him neither as a lover, nor as a target of seduction, but as a friend.

He wouldn't remember exactly how that hug happened, but he would remember hugging her back. He would remember her saying, "I have been around a very long time, Wade. I have seen war many, many times. I may well be the worst counselor in the world, but should you wish to talk, I am here, and I am your friend."

Wade held her there in the darkness and nodded his head. "Likewise," he mumbled.