Without waiting for a response from me she began recapping the events of the night before. “Last night, we went to Jess’ house where we met her roommates Meg and Ash. You and Ash eye-fucked each other up until the point we got to the party, which is where you and I discussed you not getting involved with him. You then met and made out with Dylan, a hottie that seemed like a pretty nice guy, that was clearly into you and only you. Meanwhile there was Ash, who had not just one, but two whore bags that hung all over him and suck faced with him all night. Everything seemed to be going great up until the point you and Ash decided to make the jam session a contest on whose song choice lyrics could piss the other off more.”
I raised my eyebrows at her last comment and she looked over at me in the passenger seat and laughed, “Yeah, I picked up on it pretty quickly. I thought “You’re So Vain” was a nice touch, totally unexpected but completely appropriate.
“Anyways, so we left the party, you and Dylan seemed to part on good terms, and you and Ash didn’t say another word to one another. Right after we got back to the house, you, me, and Jess got ready for bed and went to sleep,” she continued. “Now this is where it gets a little sketchy for me because the next thing I remember is waking up at 11:00 this morning in an empty bed. Jess was in the shower getting ready for work and you were nowhere to be found. I checked in the living room, thinking maybe you had gotten uncomfortable with all of us in the bed, and moved to the couch… but noooo. I looked in the kitchen, the bathroom, even Meg’s room, but you weren’t in any of those places. I knew you couldn’t have gone far since your purse and phone were on the kitchen counter, but after about 30 minutes I started doubting my she-went-for-a-walk theory. Before I went into complete freak out mode, Jess convinced me to let her peek into Ash’s room just to make sure you weren’t in there, which of course, I knew you wouldn’t be…
“So you can imagine my surprise when she told me that you were cozily sleeping, wrapped in Ash’s arms.” She pulled her car into the parking space at our place but neither of us moved. “What the fuck, Sam? The one thing I had told myself last night was that I wasn’t going to let you sleep with anyone. I know that you feel inexperienced compared to everyone else, I know that you feel like you need to hurry up and do everything, but there are other virgins in college. I didn’t want it to happen your first night out… not like that… not with someone like him!” She was yelling at me at this point while pounding her fists on the steering wheel.
“Evie, wait,” I cut her off mid-rant. “I didn’t have sex with Ash.”
“You didn’t?” she asked, confusion covering her face.
“Uh. No. Give me a little credit, My God, E. I mean, I do have a little self-respect.” I said. I tried to lighten the conversation, “I may be a little desperate and over-eager but I’m at least going to require a good dinner before I spread my legs for someone and I would prefer that he hadn’t been with someone else in the previous 24 hours, neither of which Ash fulfilled.”
Evie’s shoulders dropped as she exhaled a huge sigh. “Oh, thank God. Do you have any idea of the guilt I’ve been living with for the past few hours? Thinking that I had failed in my best friend responsibilities? I mean I went to the point of getting in bed with you at 3:00 in the morning, thinking we were all going to sleep… only to find you in the bed of some self-proclaimed man-whore the next day!” her voice escalated again. “If you didn’t fuck him, what did you do? What happened exactly?”
“Can we please go to our room to finish this conversation?” I asked, hoping a break from talking and the fresh air would calm her down a bit. She nodded and we grabbed our bags and headed upstairs.
As soon as the door closed, Evie turned to me and grabbed me in a tight hug. “I’m sorry I was upset with you. I’m sorry I assumed that you would do that. I know you are upset right now, so tell me what happened. Tell me everything and we will work through this.”
This was why I loved Evie. She was the best thing in my life, and I knew that she would always give me advice that was in my best interest. She was my life-cheerleader. Evie had saved my sanity on more than one occasion and I couldn’t live without her. So I told her everything.
“Everything you said earlier was right,” I began, as we moved to the couch. “When I first met Ash at the house last night, I had this crazy reaction to him, like the kind of thing we read about - my body got overheated, I had goose bumps all over, my stomach clenched, you know. It was weird, almost indescribable, but as soon as I heard Jess say what a ladies’ man he is and then the smooth talking he did when he introduced himself to me… well, I thought I was just being silly, just overreacting like an idiot to the first hot guy I met, one that obviously excels at charming females into bed. So when I met Dylan, I did like him… I mean, I do like him. He is great - all the things you said, I really enjoyed talking with him, we got along great, he was respectful, and yes, he isn’t hard on the eyes.” I stopped to pull up a vision of Dylan in my head and swoon momentarily. “I didn’t think about Ash at all when I was hanging out with Dylan, until we came inside and Ash starts that shit with the songs. It was like he was singing the words to me, trying to make me uncomfortable… to piss me off. And obviously, it worked, which is why I played what I did, as you picked up on.
“I was still irritated with him when we got back to the house, I had no intentions of even talking to him again. But I couldn’t sleep, so I got up to get a drink, and he came into the kitchen for a drink too, and he asked me why you called me Sam.”
“What? Why?” Evie asked.