(Then) Brody

Miami

"Come on, man," Jack said, shaking his head.  "Have a little fun for once."  He was looking at a couple of scantily clad girls that were sitting by the keg.  "Which one do you like better?"

I'd been in Miami for a month, and it had been harder to break out of my "good kid" role than I'd thought it would be.  I finally had the chance to grieve for my sister, because I was no longer the glue holding the family together, but the grieving was already old.  It felt strange to be doing it now, so long afterwards.  I reasoned that I never really had a chance when it was fresh, but that just kicked up old resentments and made everything more complicated.  I wanted to move past it and enjoy my college experience, but I felt guilty about it.

I looked over the girls carefully.  One was clearly drunk, and both held plastic cups of keg beer in their hands, giggling as the drunker one sloshed some onto the unamused girl on her other side.  I sighed and said, "I guess the one in the black," indicating the less drunk of the two.  She was pretty, with long dark hair and round brown eyes.  I mean, they were both pretty, but sloppy drunk girls aren't really my style.

"Bet you the case of your choice that I can get the other one's number before you can get hers," Jack said, grinning lasciviously at me.  He was a terrible influence, but I was also tired of watching my friends go home with different girls every night while I went back to my dorm room by myself, drunk and miserable.

"You're on," I said, shaking his extended hand.  He waggled his eyebrows at me and we got up to walk over to the girls.

"Ladies," Jack said, stepping between them, a hand on each back.  The girls giggled.  Jack was seriously good looking and I had witnessed several times the effect his face and wit had on the female students here.  He introduced us both to them and I grinned at the one in black.  Kelly, I think she said her name was.  I made small talk with her for a little while while Jack worked on charming the pants off the other girl.  It didn't take long, and he was soon leading her away, throwing a wink over his shoulder at me.

Kelly looked at me expectantly.  "Maybe you could walk me back to my room," she suggested, laying a hand on my arm and smiling.

"Of course," I responded, smiling back.  "Wouldn't let a gorgeous girl walk alone."  She really was hot.  As she turned and walked towards the door, I couldn't help but admire the curve of her ass in the shorts that were barely long enough to cover it. 

She pointed us towards her dorm, and I settled an arm around her waist as we walked.  When we got to her dorm, I asked for her number.  She laughed.  "I'd rather you just came up," she said, her hand on my chest.  So I did.

Jack and I called our bet a draw, since neither of us actually ended up with a phone number.  Subsequent nights became easier.  I wondered if drugs and drinking did for Ken what sex did for me.  If so, I could start to understand his undoing.  It was simple and I didn't have to think.  In fact, I couldn't think.  That was the biggest draw.  And then after awhile, it even became fun.  I began to develop a reputation, and while it wasn't a wholesome one, it wasn't completely negative either.  Girls began to seek me out, making it all even easier.   Of course, none of the girls were girls I'd bring to meet my family, but let's be real...I wasn't planning on subjecting anyone to that trainwreck for a very long time. 

One night, I was out at a bar with a habit of serving the under-21 crowd with Jack, Gray, and Aaron, when Aaron spotted some girls he knew from a class.  We walked over to join them, and one of them, Alexa, raised her eyebrows at me.  "The infamous Brody Adler," she quipped, looking me up and down.

"Infamous?" I joked back.  "You wound me." 

She snorted, her full lips twitching into an almost-smile.  "And not even with the good grace to act ashamed of your reputation," she said haughtily.  Man, she was hot. And the fact that she wasn't throwing herself at me made me want her even more. 

I shrugged and leaned against the table next to her, my arm brushing her shoulder.  "Not really my style."

She rolled her eyes.  "So I've heard."  Even thought her disdain for me was apparent, she made no move to remedy the fact that our bodies were touching.  As the night went on, her banter slowly moved from semi-hostile to flirty, and she even let me buy her a drink.  When Jack told me they were leaving, I said I'd catch up with them outside.

I turned to Alexa.  "Can I call you?" I asked.

She laughed.  "Not a chance.  But why don't you give me your number, and if I decide I want to see if the rumors are true, I'll give you a call."  She looked blatantly south of my waistband as she said this, then let her eyes travel slowly back up to my face.  This was unprecedented, but she had me intrigued, so I gave her my number and left.

I was shocked when she called not even a week later, at 11pm on a Thursday night.

"Is this the infamous Brody Adler, or did he give me a fake number?" came the voice on the other end when I picked up.  I recognized her voice right away.

"Alexa, I'm surprised you called," I replied.

"Well, that makes two of us, except I'm surprised you recognized my voice and remembered my name," she tossed back.  "Can I come over?"  Right to the chase.  I told her she could, and she said she'd be there in a half hour.  I jumped in the shower and kicked some dirty dishes under my bed.  I was glad I wasn't too messy.

She looked around my room.  "A single, how convenient," she said with a smirk. 

"Believe it not, I didn't get a single for the sole purpose of hooking up," I replied.  She nodded like she didn't quite believe it but wasn't going to waste her energy arguing.  She dropped her purse on my desk chair and sat on the edge of my bed.  I leaned against the wall near the door and watched her.  Her eyes drifted around the room, then stopped at me.

"You're not nervous, are you?" she said, looking a little surprised.

"You don't get a reputation like mine if you get nervous when a hot girl is in your room in the middle of the night," I said arrogantly.  Truthfully though, I was nervous and I had no idea why, but hell if I was going to tell her that.

She cocked an eyebrow at me and smirked again.  "Well maybe you should come sit by me.  I didn't come here to talk about the weather or enjoy the view from a different dorm room."

I walked slowly over to her, letting my eyes slide up and down her body as I went.  "Then what did you come here for?" I asked, sitting next to her.  In response, she pushed me back on the bed and kissed me.

Alexa and I saw each several more times over the next few weeks.  Always at night, always in my room, and she always left right after.  One night, I asked her to stay.  She sat up and shook her head.  "Brody, you're a great guy to fuck, but not really a great guy to spend the night with," she said dismissively.  "Next you'll be asking me out on a date."  She got up and pulled her clothes back on.

I sat up too.  Her hand was on the doorknob when I said, "And what if I did ask you out on a date?"  She turned in surprise.  She didn't say anything for several long seconds.  Then she said, "I think you should stick with what you're good at," and she was gone.  I laid back and pondered her words.  Was sex really all I was good for at this point?

I was surprised when she called again a few nights later.  She stayed for about 15 minutes after we were finished, which was about 14 minutes longer than usual.  It gave me hope.  I didn't ask her to stay, but I thought that eventually she might change her mind.   She kept coming, once or twice a week, every week for months.  One night, it began pouring while she was there, and she ended up spending the night.  I was not surprised to find her gone in the morning, though. 

Finally, six months into hooking up, I did ask her out on a date.  She had just gotten there and was sitting on my bed.  I sat in the chair and asked her.  She laughed.  "I thought I told you to stick to what you're good at," she said, standing and walking over to me.  She tugged at my belt and smiled coyly.  "Come on, I don't have all night.  Can you shut up and get naked?"  She was shocked when I asked her to leave.

Alexa didn't call me again, and when we'd run into each other out, she was chilly towards me.  I took a brief hiatus from hooking up, but was quickly tempted by eager girls that seemed happy I was available again.  Not that I had ever been unavailable, apparently.  But I hadn't hooked up with another girl since before the first time Alexa had called me.

In the end, it was easier to just fall back into casual sex.  Putting in the effort to win Alexa over had been hard work, and I had failed, so why bother again?  I made it through the rest of my college days without ever asking another girl out, and that was fine with me.