Edit: This story was formerly titled "Hellie and the House Party"
Hellie looked up from her book. She wasn't really sure how she'd gotten invited to this party, other than the fact that she'd gone to lunch twice with the hostess, Karen. She and Karen were work friends, but this was the first time Hellie had seen Karen's house. There were a few people here from her job, but the rest were Karen's family, people she went to school with, and definitely some obvious crashers. But that's what happens when you have loud music and about eighty coolers full of drinks. Hellie wasn't complaining. Although, it was way more fun to get drunk when you were actually with other people, and Hellie really hadn't been up to breaking the ice with anybody yet. Georgina Kincaid was more interesting than the dudebros gathered around the ping pong table and the middle-aged office types out on the porch. Hellie watched a girl in a hot pink halter top giggling next to a guy with a backwards baseball cap. Ick.
Hellie straightened the strap of her own lacy black tank top and adjusted her white shorts. She wasn't dressed in the summery colors that most of the guests wore. Oops. Maybe she would just disappear into the background...
"Hey."
Hellie looked up to see a guy in a blue button-down. He looked a little out of place himself.
"Hi." Hellie smiled. She wasn't shy, just...lazy.
He nodded to her book with a flop of his straw-colored hair. "What're you reading?"
"Oh, it's part of a book series about a succubus." She waited for him to ask what a succubus was.
"Really? That sounds awesome! Is there a lot of sex?"
Hellie laughed. "There's enough, but there's a pretty decent story, too."
"Sounds like my kind of book." He winked. "Isn't it awkward reading in here?"
Hellie shrugged. "It's more awkward talking over this music."
"Yeah?"
"I feel like I'm yelling."
He nodded. "Here, let's go in the kitchen. You look like you could use a new beer anyway."
She stood and followed him through a doorway. Aside from two guys raiding the fridge and arguing ("Dude grab the hummus." "Are you kidding me right now? Hummus is disgusting."), plus the hum of the bass coming from the other room, the kitchen was quiet.
Hellie bent down and dug through a cooler next to the fridge. She was half-hoping he'd look at her ass. "You want one?" she asked him, whipping her copper-striped dark brown hair back over her shoulder as she turned her head.
"Sure, thanks," he said.
She stood and handed it to him. "Here."
"Thanks," he said again. "I'm Michael."
"Hellie."
"Hell-y?"
Hellie sighed. "Helena. But I hate it. Therefore, Hellie."
"I like it. It's cute." He grinned. "And a little naughty."
Hellie nodded. "It fits me."
His grin widened. "Are you a little naughty, Hellie?"
She giggled. "More than a little. Nice to meet you."
"Nicer to meet you. What brings you to Karen's party?"
"Oh I work with her. I actually don't know her very well, we mostly talk about work things and I think I'm mostly a filler guest."
Michael laughed. "I've known her a while, and I still feel like a filler guest."
"I haven't even seen her since I got here."
"I think she's out on the porch schmoozing the rich people."
Hellie considered. "That's probably smart."
"But it's more fun in here," Michael said.
Hellie ran a hand through her hair, pushing some rebellious strands back behind her shoulder again. As she did, she heard something drop on the kitchen floor.
"Oh! My earring." Hellie looked down as Michael crouched to pick the hoop back up.
"Here," he said. "Let me get that." He carefully slid the hoop back into Hellie's ear and snapped it closed.
"Thanks," she murmured, her lips close to his cheek. His hand brushed her earlobe and neck.
"You're soft," he said.
She smiled a little. "Thank you."
In the midst of their hummus argument, the two guys had gone quiet. They now closed the fridge and walked out of the kitchen, closing the door behind them in what Hellie guessed was some sort of "bro-code" gesture.
"Listen, Hellie," he said. "I don't want to be a perv, but a guy in there...Jim? He said you have nice tits."
Hellie giggled again and brought a hand to her forehead. "Oh god." She remembered the impromptu staffroom truth-or-dare session with Jim and Kevin after closing together one night. "I flashed him once when I was...well, I wasn't drunk—"
"Do you want me to kick his ass for telling me?"
"No not at all! But I have to ask how my um, tits came up in conversation?"
Michael grinned. "I asked him who the cute girl with the book was. He said you were smart and had great tits."
Hellie nodded to him. "See for yourself." Beer and boredom will make you brave. Hellie pulled down the low top of her tank to reveal her breasts. They were round and pink-tipped, nipples standing at attention.
Michael's jaw dropped. "Oh." He blinked. "Damn." He swallowed and looked up at her. "Have you seen Karen's house before, Hellie?"
Hellie shook her head.
"Allow me to give you a tour." Michael took her hand and led her around a corner and up a back stairway. "Bathroom," he said, gesturing to a room on their left. "Karen's room," he gestured to a closed door behind which muffled and vaguely sexual noises could be heard.
"And," he said, opening the next door, "the master bedroom."
A large bed with a thick, golden bedspread and a crown of fluffy pillows lay before them. Hellie saw it the weak, gray light of dusk that came through the windows, and knew the bed must look very different in the sun. Like the bed of a monarch.
