Chapter 12

“No, you’re not. Outsiders do not lay a hand on a brother in this house. Now, I know you couldn’t have known that, so I’m not going to kick you out, but you need to back off,” Brad said to Derby. To the other guy he said, “Joel, I’m going to break both of your hands if you don’t apologize to both the lady and to my man Derby. And no bullshit. You know I can do it, and you know no one’s going to stop me. Rule #1 of parties here: you don’t touch chicks that aren’t asking for it. You know that. And she’s definitely not asking for it. She’s here with a guy, and you disrespected both of them. So apologize to both of them, and then go get another drink.

Joel did as he was told, and shook Derby’s hand. After that, Brad announced, “OK, show’s over, everyone. Drinks are on the house!”

“They were anyway,” someone yelled.

Brad laughed and said, “I know, but it sounds cool to say that. Come on everyone, let’s party!”

There was a lot of cheering, and then the incident seemed forgotten. By everyone but Anna, anyway.

“Derby,” she said, “can I talk to you where it’s not so noisy?”

“Sure. We can go outside. Let’s get refills on our way out.”

When they were away from the worst of the noise, Anna said, “Thank you. You didn’t have to do that.”

“Yes I did,” Derby said. “It makes me furious when someone is disrespectful to someone I like. That jerk had no right to do that to you. And besides, well, ... it’s just that, ... oh, forget it.”

“What is it Derby?” Anna asked.

“Nothing. I don’t want to talk about it. It’s just, ... well, ... it brought up a bad memory.”

“Tell me, Derby,” Anna said, taking his hand in her own. “I’m a good listener.”

Derby said nothing for a minute, leading Anna over to a back corner of the yard and inviting her to sit with him on the grass under a tree. He turned on his well-rehearsed act, staring off in to space, his face turned slightly away from her, until he was able to work up some tears in his eyes.

“When I was a senior in high school, I had a girlfriend. She and Todd had been my best friends for years. We knew everything about each other, and Megan and I fell in love. She was everything to me. Sometimes we went places as a threesome, sometimes we would double date with his girlfriend of the week, but mostly, it was Megan and me. We even applied to the same colleges. I was going to ask her to marry me.

“Then, they did the most disrespectful thing to me that anyone could do. The night of our high school graduation, I caught them in bed together. My best friend and the girl I loved! Can you imagine how I felt?” At that point, Derby turned to Anna and let her see his tears.

She sat there holding his hand. “Go on,” she said. “I told you I’m a good listener. Let it out.”

“I’m sorry, Anna,” he said with a convincing fake sob. He wiped away his tears. “It’s rude of me to talk about another girl to you. But you’re so nice. I just had to tell someone. And that bastard in there grabbing you, showing a beautiful girl like you a complete lack of respect, just pissed me off. And when he acted like he did with me, it just brought it all crashing back. Another guy was trying to do something with a girl I care for. I just saw red.”

Anna said, “That’s so sweet of you, Derby. It means a lot to me that you defended my honor, and it means a lot to me to hear you say that you care.” She hugged him, and he hugged her back. They held each other for a while.

Derby said, softly, “That’s the truth, you know. There’s something about you that does make me care a lot about you.”

Anna pulled back from their embrace and looked at Derby, searching for the tenderness she heard in his voice. Satisfied, she said, “I’m starting to care a lot about you, too.”

When Derby leaned in to kiss her, Anna let it happen. Then, she responded, kissing him back warmly, but tenderly, the way he had kissed her.

Derby assumed she was a virgin, and not very experienced with guys. This was a problem, but it could also work to his advantage. Since she seemed innocent, he would have to be careful to not move things along too quickly, but, at the same time, he might be able to use looks, lines, and gestures that might loosen her up. Some more punch couldn’t hurt, either.

They resumed hugging and talking, sipping their drinks. After a while, their cups were empty. Derby said, “Let’s go back in and get another drink.” He stood up, and pulled Anna to her feet.

“Oh, wow,” she said. “I think I’m starting to feel that punch.”

“Don’t worry, Anna, I took care of you before, didn’t I? Just relax and enjoy yourself. I’ll make sure you’re OK,” Derby said, putting his arm around her as they walked.

When he got to the bar, the bartender said, “Another draft, and another super punch for the little lady?”

Derby said, “A draft, yes. Could you make the punch half-and-half?”

“Half super and half unleaded?” the bartender asked.

“Half super and half racing fuel,” Derby answered.

The bartender smiled and filled their cups.

When Anna tasted her punch, she said, “Whoa! This stuff burns going down!”

Derby said, “They just made a new batch. The bartender said he may have gotten too much ginger ale in it, so it might have a little extra zip.”

“Yeah, it does. Whew! Well, do you want to dance?”

“Sure.”

They started dancing to the blaring hip-hop music. Anna was obviously getting a little “happy,” and on some of the numbers with more risque lyrics, she was doing more risque dance moves. Derby was pleased to see that she was loosening up. But he was starting to get impatient to loosen her up a whole lot more.