“Probably to piss off Ari I’m guessing. They had some kind of fight at dinner and Ari won’t tell me what they argued about.”

Ellie stared at them for a good a minute. She turned back to me and smiled but it didn’t touch her eyes. I reached for her hand and brought it up to my mouth and kissed the back of her hand.

“Don’t worry Ellie sweetheart.” I gave her a wink and slowly let her hand go.

“I’m not worried. I’m sure Jefferson knows what he is doing. I just hope he didn’t invite this girl to make Ari jealous. They were both in piss poor moods when they came back in from outside. Ari just told me Jefferson was being a dickwad. That seems to be her favorite word to describe him the last few days!” Ellie said with a small laugh.

I looked back out to the dance floor to see Ari dancing pretty close to Josh. I took a peek at Jeff and he was trying to pay attention to what ever Rebecca was saying to him but he kept looking out on the dance floor at Ari. He looked worried and he should have been. Josh has probably slept with every girl at this party except for Ellie and her friends. The way he was looking at Ari though…I know what that fucker was thinking.

“Gunner can I use the bathroom in your bedroom? Jefferson said y’all keep your rooms off limits and your bathroom. There was a pretty long line waiting for the bathroom when we walked in.”

“Of course you can sweetheart. Just be sure to lock the bedroom door when you go inside.”

“Will you wait right here until I get back?” Ellie asked as a blush crept up her cheeks.

“I’ll be right here.” I said as I leaned down and kissed her forehead.

Ellie stopped to talk to Jeff for a quick second. I saw Rachael and Crysti staring her up and down.

Bitches.

Jeff walked over to me and slapped me on the back. “So you think my baby sister is having fun at her first college party?”

I looked at Jeff who was clearly getting himself drunk. “Jeff man what’s going on with you tonight….you never get wasted like this. You’re leaving me totally responsible for watching your sister and her friends.”

“It looks like Jeff’s little sister’s friends are taking pretty good care of themselves.” Rebecca said with a laugh. Crysti and some other girl who I’d never seen before started to laugh as they looked out to where everyone was dancing.

Just then Ari started to walk over to where we were standing. She was out of breath from dancing. I reached into the cooler I was standing by and handed her another beer.

“Whew! I have not danced like that in forever! Where is Ellie? She needs to get her ass out there and dance with us.” Ari said as she took a sip of beer.

She looked over at Jeff and then noticed Rebecca hanging onto him. This was not going to turn out good. Ari’s eyes traveled up and down Rebecca and landed at where she had her hand on Jeff’s waist.

“Who is your friend dickwad?” Ari asked Jeff.

“Rebecca, this is Ellie’s best friend….. Squirt. Squirt this is Rebecca…..a friend of mine.” Jeff stressed the word friend and I saw Ari’s whole body just stiffen up. What the fuck was he doing?

“Hello Jeff’s friend Rebecca. The name is Ari, nice to meet you.” Ari said as she reached for Rebecca’s hand to shake it. Rebecca, being the bitch she was, just looked at Ari’s hand and laughed.

Jeff just stood there with a grin on his face. Why in the hell was he letting Rebecca be so rude to Ari, this was not like him at all.

He leaned closer in to Ari like he was going to say something only to her.

“Better be careful dancing like that out there squirt. You’re playing with the big boys now. You might just lose your V card if you keep dancing like that honey.”

HOLY FUCK! OH shit……..he did not just say that!

Jeff practically shouted it to Ari. Rebecca and Crysti started to laugh. I just stood there stunned. This was not Jeff. He would never purposely hurt anyone.

I looked at Ari. She just stood there staring at Jeff, the tears where slowly starting to build in her eyes. She looked over at the two bitches who were laughing still.

“Rebecca, knock it the fuck off or you can take your friends and leave.” I said as I walked in between Ari and Jeff. She looked like she was ready to knock the shit out of him. He just stood there smiling at her. After what felt like forever I saw Ari’s shoulders square off and she stood up tall.

“Fuck you Jeff! It’s not the first time I’ve played with the big boys and it certainly won’t be the last.” Ari turned and walked over to Jack. It looked like she was asking him to play a song.

I turned and just stared at Jeff. “Rebecca, will you and your friends give us a few minutes please?”

“Sure, I’ll be inside baby.” Rebecca reached up and kissed Jeff on the cheek. He briefly closed his eyes like he couldn’t stand the contact.

“Jeff, what the fuck is your problem? Why the hell would you embarrass Ari like that?” I pushed my hands through my hair….what the hell was he thinking? “Holy fuck dude that was a really douche bag move.”

Jeff just took a swig of his beer and shrugged his shoulders.

Next thing I knew, “I’m a Slave for You” by Britney Spear’s started playing.

Oh fuck….. this can’t be good. Just then Ellie walked back up and had a confused look on her face.

“What the hell?” Ellie said just as Jeff looked out to the dance floor. His jaw dropped. I didn’t want to turn around but I did.

Dammit……I shouldn’t have……

Ari was dancing with Josh. I mean she was dancing closely with Josh. There was some major grinding going on. I had never seen a girl move like how she was moving. There must have been at least a group of ten people standing around whooping and hollering. I saw her look over towards Jeff and the look on her face was sending a clear message.

“Gunner, do you know why Ari is dancing like she’s staring in the next dirty dancing movie?” Ellie asked over the music. Fuck….what was I suppose to say. She was going to be pissed at Jeff.

I looked at Jeff to see if he was going to say anything. Nope. He couldn’t pull his eyes away from where Ari was dancing. We just stood there…watching Ari. Amanda and Heather joined in on the dancing. Josh looked like he had died and gone to fucking heaven. Even I was getting turned on just watching Ari dance with Josh.

A slower song started to play, “Fall Into Me” by Brantly Gilbert. I shook my head at Jeff and looked down at Ellie.

“I love this song……will you dance with me Ellie?” I asked as I took my hand and ran it down the side of her face.

Ellie looked over at Jeff; clearly she knew something had happened, and then she looked over at me and smiled.

“Or course I’ll dance with you.”

I scanned the dance floor and saw Ari was dancing with Josh. I thought I saw her quickly wipe a tear away from her face but I wasn’t sure. Shit….Jeff fucked up big time.

I took Ellie in my arms and held her close. I took a deep breath in and breathed in her smell. She would forever smell like daisies to me. She molded perfectly into my body. She was tense when we first started to dance but I could feel her relax more and more as the song went on.

I looked up to see Rebecca and Jeff dancing………and kissing. Jeff didn’t even have his eyes closed. It was almost like he was on auto pilot.

Stupid drunk bastard.

I was going to fucking kill him tomorrow. I kept Ellie turned away. I didn’t need her leaving me now to go bitch out her brother. I closed my eyes and pictured Ellie and I all alone just the two of us dancing.

The song ended and Ellie looked up at me with the most precious look on her face.

“Gunner…..you have a beautiful voice.” She said as she stared into my eyes.

I could lose myself in those beautiful blue eyes. If I had not known better I would think my knees were about to give out from under me. Wait……what did she just say? I had a beautiful voice? Was I singing?