"Hey, handsome, could I get you another round? On the house."
I looked up at the bartender who had spoken. She was cute, this one, a hippy of sorts, with dark dreadlocks and striking blue eyes. She was smiling at me, dimpled cheeks dramatic under the pale light of the barroom. I glanced at the name tag near her perky breasts—Alyssa.
"What do you think, gentlemen?" I asked, turning to the boys flanking me on either side. "Could we use another round?"
"Only as long as it was coming from you, baby," Jake said, his lip curling as he winked at her. Aaron grinned on my other side, a red tint rising to his cheeks.
"Thanks," he said. The bartender smiled shyly and filled up three more frosty beer mugs, nibbling seductively on her lips before ambling away.
"To the start of our senior year," Aaron said, raising his glass in a toast. "And to us, for being three dumb guys who are now well on their way to becoming useful members of society."
"May the women flow, and the homework come easy," I added with a grin, and my friends laughed.
"Cheers," Jake and Aaron said, clinking their mugs with my own. We each took a long drink and slammed the cups back onto the counter. I turned around on the barstool to scope out the local talent—AKA girls. Over the music, some of the new first-year students were on the dance floor, grinding and swaying to the beat. They're hot, many of them. They'd be a nice, easy fuck. I imagined plump lips wrapping themselves around my cock, begging for me. They giggled and whispered, bodies pressed together in an erotic dance. Next to me, Jake adjusted himself with a low whistle.
"Fuck, man. I'll miss these college girls—easiest fucks I've ever had."
"Good ones, too," Aaron added. Jake and I looked at him and laughed. It took Aaron the longest of the three of us to lose his virginity. We still give him shit for it.
I swiveled back on my stool, facing the array of bottles behind the busy bartender. On either side of me, my best friends enjoyed their drinks. I'd known them practically my whole life, and throughout our grade school careers, we'd always had each other's backs. Aaron, pummeled on the playground in third grade, was a dork. A weirdo. He'd always been one of those artsy geeks. But he was friendly, like a brother, so I'd given his bully a face-full of fist and broke his nose. I accomplished two things that day—I de-throned the school's bully and gained a competent left-hand man. He may have been quiet and a bit of a pussy, but he was good to have around.
My right-hand man came a year later. Jake was another lifetime friend and was a natural fit for our "crew." He was somewhat of a brute, yet loyal to a fault and a bit of a hothead. The three of us were unstoppable and ruled the school with an iron fist from elementary to twelfth grade.
I took another sip of beer, savoring those memories.
The bell on the door rang, and I swiveled back around to see who had entered the bar. Three girls came in, bundled up tight against the cold. The first was a petite, pink-haired hottie with ears full of piercings. She was stumbling a bit, drunk already, it seems. Behind her was a tall, slender, sweet-looking girl whose eyes were cast to the floor. She looked like she didn't want to be there.
"Hey," Jake said suddenly, elbowing me in the ribs. He was looking in the same direction I was, and I knew we saw the same thing at once. The third woman through the door catches both of our attention. She was beautiful; it was the first thing I noticed. Rose-colored hair flowed over her shoulders, and a white hat was pulled down over her ears. Her cheeks were tinted crimson, her nose dotted with freckles. She was gorgeous and confident. She looked familiar somehow as she threw her head back and laughed at something the tall girl said, and I couldn't place it for a moment. I feel like I've seen her before, known her, even…
"Fuck me sideways," Aaron said suddenly from the other side of Jake and me. "Isn't that Renee Fucking Lyon?"
All three of us froze, eyes on Renee as she followed the other two deeper into the bar and shrugged off her jacket, securing it over the back of a chair. She took her hat off and dropped it onto the seat before sitting with her two friends. She was smiling, perfectly white teeth lined in a beautiful row. Her silky hair shimmered under the lights of the bar.
"I never thought I'd see her again," said Jake, frowning in their direction. "She didn't even look the same. When was the last time we saw her, anyway? Sophomore year of high school?"
"Yeah," muttered Aaron. "Her parents pulled her out and transferred schools after—" he hesitated, but no one spoke. "After that night."
All the three of us could do for a moment was stare silently in her direction as memories flooded our minds. It felt like it had been so long since we last saw Renee Lyon, yet it had only been a few years. Apparently, a few years could change everything.
"Excuse me," Jake said to the bartender. "Could we get a round of drinks for the table in the corner?"
I shot a glance at Jake, my stomach tightening with apprehension. "What the fuck are you doing?"
"Beating you to the punch."
The bartender glanced up briefly, a sour expression crossing her face. Jealousy was plain as day, but it was gone before I could call her out on it.
"Sure," she said to Jake. "No problem."
A wary expression crossed Aaron's face from the other side of me. "Shit. You don't think she'll throw it at us?"
Jake shrugged and snorted. "She might."
"I don't know," I said, watching the server load her trays with beer mugs. "I guess we'll find out if fireworks are about to fly, but we have front-row seats either way."