Brian felt like shit.
He kept finding any excuse he could to get away from people at the party; he went to the bathroom, went to get a fresh beer, anything to not get stuck in a conversation where he would have to explain his bad mood. At one point, he even decided to just leave and started walking back to his car, but he only got to the base of the driveway before he turned around, head down and hands in his pockets, and went back into the house.
He couldn't stop replaying the scene with Meg in his head. What had he done wrong? What could he have said, or done, differently? Was... was it just him? It was the only conclusion he kept coming back to: Meg just wasn't into him.
After all these years of pining, of nervously trying to drop hints, of words dying on his lips when they were on their own, he finally knew the truth. He and Meg would never be together. It hurt, a lot. She had been the only girl to capture his interest in, well... ever.
Meg was the whole package: smart, athletic, social, kind, and sexy as hell. Straight blonde hair, gorgeous bright blue eyes, a face made for smiling, perfect curves from chest to waist, and long legs that were like pieces of art when she was running or in leggings at school.
But she didn't flaunt how attractive she was, which only whetted Brian's desire. She didn't flirt obscenely, didn't show off her larger-than-average breasts. In fact, it almost seemed like she tried to hide them.
She... Brian's eyes fell on her as she walked back down the stairs. She didn't look unsteady at all, which was surprising since Brian had last her puking her guts out.
But that wasn't all that was different. Her long floral skirt and modest blouse were gone, replaced by a gauzy white dress that showed off the remarkable bust he had just been fantastizing about, emphasized her flat expanse of toned abdomen, and ended well above her knees.
Brian's mouth literally fell open, and judging from the hush that came over the room, his wasn't the only one. He scrambled to his feet, his eyes never leaving her, locked on the angelic image. He felt the front of his jeans tighten.
Her eyes roamed the room until they found his, and she smiled. A wide, genuine smile. Almost immediately, he felt his bad mood evaporate. He found himself smiling back, and forced himself to blink a few times.
'How ridiculous,' he thought to himself. After sitting there beating himself up for the past hour, Meg gives him one smile and he suddenly feels okay again? Brian was suddenly embarrassed and broke the gaze, looking away.
"DAMN, GIRL," Sophie broke the silence in the room as she stood up (off of the lap of Nate, one of Brian's friends from their high school basketball team, he noticed) and hustled over to Meg, adjusting her top as she went.
Everybody laughed and the sound of conversation gradually returned to the room. In a panic, Brian ran into the garage to grab a beer. He drained that one and cracked another, thinking things over.
It wasn't just Meg's outfit that had struck him so strongly; it was as much her demeanor. She had been practically glowing, confident and happy and ravishingly beautiful. He couldn't imagine what Anna and Amelia had said to her, but clearly it had worked wonders. And that smile... fuck, it made him think that maybe, just maybe, he still had a chance.
NO, he told himself firmly. She had made her thoughts
very clear: not interested. He would respect that, even if it was hard, even if it was... impossible. Ugh.
He shook his head and slowly walked back into the house.
----------
Meg returned to the party feeling gloriously lightheaded. Everything seemed to have soft, rosy glow to it and she couldn't stop smiling.
Her younger twin sisters, Anna and Amelia, pranced down the stairs right behind her, giggling and clearly very proud of themselves. Meg couldn't blame them, really; they had just succeeded in seducing their older sister, who happened to have been a virgin and would have sworn as recently as that morning that she would be waiting until she was married to have sex, and had never once thought of her little sisters in a remotely sexual manner.
Meg sighed. Even just a brief memory of the past hour was getting her horny. Why were they going downstairs again? Couldn't they just stay in her bed and...
Her eyes landed on Brian.
He was on the other side of the room, standing with a can of beer casually dangling from one hand while he talked to another guy from their high school basketball team (Jake, she thought his name was).
Just like earlier that day, it was as if Brian immediately felt Meg's eyes on him. He turned to meet her gaze, and his eyes widened comically. She thrust her chest out a little bit, not that it needed extra emphasis. The ridiculously thin dress Amelia had pulled out of the back of her closet for Meg to wear was only a hair shy of lingerie. It wasn't transparent but it clung to her bust closely enough to make it abundantly clear she didn't bother with a bra, and was short enough she would have to be careful not to bend over... unless Brian was standing behind her.
Speaking of Brian, he clearly didn't miss her gesture, as his eyes had left hers and were running over her body. Under his gaze, Meg felt a heat that was now becoming familiar rising again in her, centered between her legs.
She heard Sophie shout something, but her brain was not processing things correctly and she couldn't parse what the exact words were. Whatever it was, it broke Brian's trance. He tore his eyes off of Meg's breasts and practically sprinted out to the garage as Sophie came over to Meg. Meg's reverie ended as Brian disappeared, and she focused in on her best friend.
"What the hell, Meg! You look so cute!" Sophie squealed.
"Cute? Come on, Soph, give us some credit." Anna pouted, "This is far beyond cute, Meg here is SEXY!"
"Shhh!" Meg said, trying to put a hand over her sister's mouth. "Not so loud!"
"What? What did I say?" Anna giggled, pushing Meg's hand away. "Only the truth."
"And it looked like a certain someone agrees." Amelia added, aiming her eyes pointedly at the door to the garage that Brian had just exited through.
Sophie caught on quick, unfortunately. "This is for... OH! This is for HIM." She took a step back and winked. "I'll stay out of your way, then. I... have some things I need to get back to, anyway." One of the straps of her top fell off her left shoulder. She didn't bother to fix it. "Good luck, seductress."