Come As You Are Ch. 04

"What was it like not having a date?"

She shrugged while taking the first sip of her third Scotch. Her head wasn't swimming just yet, but her inhibitions were sticking a toe in the water. "It would have been nice to have one, but I had just as a great time flying solo. Hell, the only difference between having a date and not having one is that I'm not going to be getting someone's dick wet tonight."

"I knew you had a mouth on you, but damn."

"Not getting anyone's dick wet that way either." Sadie proceeded to break. "Fuck," she swore when nothing was sunk. "What about you? Did you have fun tonight?"

"I did. Got to see this amazing house firsthand, drank, watched my best friends have a good time, danced, and now just chilling, hanging out, and shooting pool. And even though I got punched in the stomach, seeing Danny get humiliated did put one hell of a smile on my face once the pain went away. I did get to hang out with Kim while we set up. It was like sucking on the world's sweetest sugar cube." He groaned as his shot careened off the rail and tapped one of Sadie's balls.

"Brenda was thinking about asking you to prom before Colette asked her," Sadie said while lining up her next shot. "I think you would have had fun with us - maybe not with Michelle, but Gio would have balanced it out."

The 5 ball easily fell into the side pocket. When she stood up, Garrett was looking at her. "Brenda was going to ask me?" he inquired softly.

The door to the game room suddenly rattled in its frame. "HEY," a loud drunken voice yelled. "OPEN UP IN THERE!" Sadie and Garrett glanced at each other as they recognized Danny's voice. Garrett's grip tightened around the pool cue as he continued to pound on the door. "COME ON, OPEN UP! I GOTTA GET IN THERE!"

Sadie motioned for Garrett to be quiet. He stood in place, body tense, as she quickly walked towards the door. "What do you want, Danny?" she called out.

"Sadie? Sadie, open the door! I gotta use the can!"

"The bathroom's the other door! The one across the hall!"

"Oh! Thanks!"

"Jesus," Sadie muttered as she heard footsteps and the sound of a door slamming. "I thought he'd be passed out by now."

"A guy his size, his alcohol tolerance is probably through the roof." Garrett picked up his glass of Scotch and downed the whole thing in one swallow. "So much for the velvet rope. God damn it." He slammed the empty glass down on the table. The impact caused the Scotch inside the nearby bottle to splash back and forth, "I'd give anything to get through the rest of this fucking night without having to deal with him..."

"Hey! Don't let him ruin your vibe." Sadie walked over to Garrett. "You said you were having fun tonight, so keep having fun." She poked him in the chest. "That's an order. Now watch me sink the rest of these balls and absolutely demolish you." Sadie proceeded to do just that, pocketing all the remaining solids and the 8 ball in succession. "That's four to three. Bedford takes the series."

"I don't recall agreeing that this was best of seven, but I'll let you have this one."

"Oh, you'll LET me have it?" Sadie raised one eyebrow as she put a hand on her hip. "Do you want to make it interesting, then?"

"What, Truth or Dare or strip pool? You don't strike me as someone who does cliches."

"How about just Truth then?" As she pulled the balls out of the pockets, she said, "Sink a ball, ask a question. We've gone to school together for twelve years and this is the most we've talked outside of class." She looked him up and down, once again taking in his arms. "You seem like you'd be fun to get to know."

"One condition." Garrett reached onto the table to roll the 12 and 15 balls towards him. "Let's switch it up to 9-ball. One question per ball properly sunk. I'll rack, you break."

Sadie sipped at her Scotch. She resisted the urge to down her drink like Garrett had, preferring the slow, pleasant burn in her throat and stomach. Garrett didn't need the 9-ball rack as he quickly set the glass balls into a perfect diamond shape. "Here you go," he said, rolling the cue ball towards Sadie.

It took her a second to set the ball on the dot, but her stroke was smooth as she sank the 2 ball off the break. "Would you have said yes if Brenda had asked you to the prom?" she asked, picking up the conversation from where Danny had interrupted it.

"Probably not."

"Why not?"

"Sink a shot first."

"Oh, come on."

"Just following the rules."

She easily put the 1 ball in the side pocket. "Why not?"

"One, I wouldn't have known anyone besides Gio. Two, even with Gio there, for some reason Michelle and I have never really gotten along. I don't hate her, and I don't THINK she hates me, but the two of us never clicked. And three, taking Danny Eastman's ex-girlfriend to the prom? He REALLY would not have been cool with it. Right now I want to wrap up the school year and never see him again for the rest of my life."

"If she had asked you should have said yes. The way you two were dancing with each other earlier... fuck!" Sadie's shot didn't clip the 3 ball like she intended, instead missing completely and bouncing off the far rail. "We playing ball-in-hand?"

"Sure." Garrett placed the cue ball at his discretion and sank the 3 ball without any difficulty. "Um... shit. I can't think of anything to ask you."

"Then you pass and it's my shot."

"Huh? Wait!"

"Nope!" Sadie walked next to Garrett and grabbed the cue ball from the table. "You don't ask a question, you forfeit your turn." She bumped Garrett with her hip as he stepped away and watched the 4 ball drop into the side pocket. "You and Vienna. Ever hook up?"

"Oh my God, no!"

"Why not..." Sadie turned back to the table and quickly pocketed the 5 ball. "Why not?"

"Vienna's my best friend," Garrett said as he poured himself a small amount of Scotch. "I've known her since kindergarten. We've seen each other naked more times than I can count and nothing ever stirred below the belt. She's told me I have a nice dick in the same tone of voice she tells me how good a piece of pizza is. I love her to death, but it is purely platonic."

She missed the 6 ball which was immediately sunk by Garrett. "How come you came to prom by yourself?" he asked.

"I couldn't find a date," she said while refilling her Scotch. "All the guys were taken except for you and Ian Rocker. I'm not a pothead like Ian and Colette said you were bartending tonight. There was no way I was going to miss my fucking senior prom because of our school's girl-to-guy ratio. As soon as Colette asked Brenda to be her date, I asked myself to be my own date. And it's worked out pretty well."

"Well, I'm glad you came. I'm having fun hanging out with you." Garrett proceeded to miss his next shot. The 8 ball just clipped the edge of the pocket before ricocheting back into the center of the table. "Aw, fuck me."

Letting his comment go, Sadie didn't even have to adjust the cue ball to sink the 8 ball. "Would you have said yes if I had asked you to go to prom with me?"

"Probably not. Not because of you," he quickly added, "but I felt more comfortable helping Vienna setup tonight than I would have going to prom as Gio's third wheel. Does that make sense?"

"No." Garrett blinked at Sadie's firm reply. "You wouldn't have gone to prom with Gio. You would have gone with me. I know it's hard to tell us apart because we look so much alike, but my point stands."

"And my answer stands. You're not a young woman. You're a force of nature. I'd be too intimidated by you to be your prom date."

"You're hanging in there so far." A sly grin crossed her face as she eyed the pool table. "Let's take it up a notch. How do you feel about the winner of this game getting to dare the other person to do something? It'll make winning a little more special." The look up and down his body was much more blatant this time. "If you've got the balls for it, of course."

"Sure." Garrett leaned against the round table as Sadie sank the 9 ball to win the game. "Although I think you only suggested it because you were about to win."

"Maybe. Easy one though. Dare you to finish your Scotch."

He slowly tipped the glass until the Scotch touched his lips before upending in and taking the rest in one swallow. "Oh boy," Garrett proclaimed with a shake of his head. "I'm definitely a little fucked up right now. I'm going to apologize in advance if I end up getting drunk and stupid." As Sadie reached to rack the pool balls for another game, he put her hand out to stop her. "If we're changing the parameters of the game, let's change the parameters of the game." He motioned with his chin. "Pick an arcade game."

A loud laugh escaped Sadie before she could stop herself. "Are you sure, Scarecrow? I'm the best fucking gamer in this town, and I'll put myself up against anybody in the state of Colorado. At least with pool, you'll have a chance. Remember what I said earlier. I don't play to tie. I play to win."

"You said I was hanging in there. Maybe I just want the full Sadie Bedford experience."

"You couldn't handle me to my fullest." She studied the various machines even though she knew what game she was going to pick. "I'm going to at least give you a fighting chance," she told him. "I know they've got a Street Fighter II machine at Pike's. You ever play it?"

"I've dropped a few quarters into that game," he said while putting the pool equipment away.

"Then here's what we'll do." Sadie walked over to the machine, followed closely by Garrett. "Truth or Dare, the winner gets to pick. How's that sound?"

Garrett nodded. "Sounds good...wait. Super Street Fighter II Turbo? Is this still Street Fighter?"

"Oh yeah. Street Fighter II was followed by Street Fighter II: Champion Edition where you could play Balrog, Vega, Sagat, and Bison. Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting came next. All the characters were faster and had new special moves. Then came Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers. That added T. Hawk, Cammy aka Big Booty Bitch, Fei Long, and Dee Jay. Super Street Fighter II Turbo. was the last one in 1994. It had Akuma as a special character. That's the version they use for official tournaments." Sadie reached out and tapped the screen on the cabinet. "This bad boy right here."

Silence was the answer. Sadie turned her head to see Garrett standing next to her looking perplexed. "When I say I'm a gamer girl," she smirked, "I MEAN I'm a gamer girl. This is not just all tits and ass," Grabbing her boobs for emphasis, she managed not to laugh when Garrett blushed at the brazen display. "This is over six years of hardcore gaming knowledge, right here," she stated with another shake of her cleavage.

"I believe you! I believe you." He clapped his hands together and rubbed them vigorously. "Let's play."

The match wasn't even close. Sadie's green-skinned Amazonian bounced across the screen, cornering Garrett's masked pretty boy and tearing him apart. Less than a minute later Sadie was beaming as Garrett looked at the screen in shock. "Holy shit," he quietly proclaimed. "You wiped the fucking floor with me."

"Told ya." The second round went the same way, as Sadie destroyed his character without taking a single hit in return. She answered his look of awe with a coy smile. "Dare you to get you and me another glass of water."

"That's not how Truth or Dare works. You ask me 'truth or dare' and I get to pick my poison."

"You never played under Sadie's House Rules." Sadie set up for another game as Garrett grabbed two glasses of water from behind the bar. Their next match was much closer. Sadie took the first round convincingly but Garret managed to get lucky in the second round and land several hard hits to mop her up. Sadie focused and easily cleaned Garrett's clock in the third round, barely letting him touch her character.

"Oh my God," Garrett said. "That wasn't even funny."

Sadie bumped him with her elbow. "Kind of funny. Truth. How many women have you slept with?"

Garrett blinked in surprise at Sadie's question. "You don't think I'm a virgin?"

"Based on what I saw from you on the dance floor earlier, I've got an informed hunch that you're not. So, how many?"

After taking a drink of water, Garrett held up a pair of fingers. "Two. See, this is why I'm not a fan of Truth or Dare. It ALWAYS turns into 'Truth or Slightly Sexual Suggestion.'" He looked towards the screen, where his character, beaten and bloodied, was being taunted by Sadie's character. "Another round, let's go."

The third match could have gone either way however Sadie still had half her health left when Garrett turned away from the "GAME OVER" screen. "Mother..." He looked at Sadie with the expression of someone both annoyed and impressed. "You got lucky."

"Leaving that comment aside, Truth. The two girls you slept with - do they go to this high school?"

"One of them does. And even if you call Truth again, I'm not going to tell you. I was specifically asked not to say anything by the other girl. They have a legit reason to keep it a secret, and I do my best to keep my promises."

"There's a mystery there, and I want to know more, but I respect a person's promises. Alright, I'm up three nothing right now. We can switch games if you want,"

"No, I want to keep going." Garrett held up both hands. "I had you on the ropes a few times. I can take you."

"You wish."

There was nothing flirty or forward in Sadie's boast, just a straight statement of fact - a fact she backed up by straight-up massacring Garrett for the fourth time. In her opponent's defense, Garrett wasn't getting upset with Sadie like most boys did when she kicked their asses. Instead, he just let out a quiet sigh of frustration. "I asked for that one," he said, nodding to himself.

"We can change games." Her offer was sincere but the next words were out of her mouth before she could help herself. "Are you any good at Pong?"

"Ouch." Garrett lightly tapped his chest over his heart. "That one hurt. Alright, let's switch games."

"One sec. I have to figure out what I'm going to Dare you to do."

"At this rate if I keep losing..."

"When you keep losing."

"You do play to win."

As Sadie studied him across a close distance, the booze helped wipe away the past twelve years of how she had always seen him. The quiet and shy introvert had turned into an actual physical specimen during senior year. Not only that, but despite several comments and his initial resistance to dancing, there was an aura of self-confidence that she had never once experienced with him. It was a slight aura, but an aura nonetheless.

"Dare," she teased. "Show me your underwear."

Later in the evening when Sadie was holding on to the headboard, riding Garrett for all she was worth, she would remember the slow, confident nod which planted the initial seed which would lead to that particular moment. He slipped a hand into his dress pants, pulling up the band of a pair of black boxers while pulling down his pants slightly to give her a better look. "See? Black boxers."

"You call that a view? Come on, more!"

"You said to show you my underwear. You said nothing about taking my pants off." Garrett gave Sadie a smirk of his own as he fixed his pants and belt. "OK, I get to pick the next game." After taking a moment to look around the room, Garrett gestured to the pinball machine in the corner. "How about a game of pinball? High scores wins."

"Nope," she said with finality. "As much as playing with balls appeals to me, you gotta pick a head-to-head game. Beating a machine is easy. Beating me is the challenge."

"And you're all about the challenge, aren't you?"

"I've never met a guy who can keep up with me." Sadie tauntingly cocked her hip to one side. "Get on my level and maybe I'll make it worth your while."

Garrett returned Sadie's verbal volley with a wry grin. He studied the collection of arcade games before eventually pointing to the Fast and the Furious machine. Two faux-leather seats sat side-by-side in front of a pair of steering wheels and high-definition displays. "That one. We'll race head-to-head."

"Get ready to eat my dust, Garrett. I've kicked enough ass at Mario Kart that even Michelle refuses to race me anymore." After sitting down and adjusting her seat, Sadie ran her hands along the steering wheel, getting used to its feel while Garrett set up the machine for two-player mode. The determination on his face had no frustration or anger that Sadie could pick up on. His expression was one of intense focus. It was the look of someone who wanted to win, not one of someone who wanted to beat his opponent.

"I'm warning you right now," Garrett told her as he picked his car, "get ready for a Dare."

"Get ready for one yourself, Mr. 0-for-4."

Sadie gripped the steering wheel as the pre-race countdown began. As soon as the on-screen model dropped the white handkerchief Sadie hit the gas. Her car rocketed off the starting line only to be immediately overtaken by Garrett's car. He raced ahead of her, quickly putting distance between them as he expertly took the first turn, whereas Sadie barely missed hitting the wall. From the corner of her eye, Sadie noticed Garrett manually switching gears as the street straightened out, accelerating at a smoother pace than she could. It allowed him to easily maintain his lead and comfortably take first place.

Sadie slumped back in her seat. "Wow," she uttered. "I got smoked." When she looked over at Garrett, a smug grin sat on his face. "You fucking hustled me, didn't you?"

He gave a playful shrug in response. "You kicked my ass four games straight. I decided to stop messing around." He leaned forward and patted the dashboard. "Pike's got one of these a few months ago. It's the single-player model, but everything else is the same." He nodded towards her dress. "Turnabout is fair play, right? Dare. Let me see YOUR underwear."

"What?"

"You saw mine. Let me see yours."

"You planned this, didn't you?" Externally, Sadie stared at Garrett with a look of annoyance and frustration on her face. Internally, she was also annoyed and frustrated but impressed as well. "You suckered me in and let the game turn sexual before starting to actually play."

"Not at first, I swear. But when you took it up a notch, I had to fire back. How's that 'C' grade in self-confidence looking now?"

If that's how he wanted to play it, Sadie would respond in kind. She stood up and faced Garrett before slowly bending over. The nature of her dress prevented the appearance of cleavage but Sadie still did her best to stretch and show off her curves as she slowly hiked up the sides of the purple dress. She shimmied and shook a little, feeling Garrett's eyes drawn to her chest as she drew up the hem of her skirt. She stared at him the entire time, refusing to give him the satisfaction, as her fingers found the edges of her black panties. With care and grace, Sadie teasingly slid the fabric down her legs.

A small thrill ran through her as Garrett's eyes got wide upon seeing her underwear appear just below her knees. Sadie could have stopped there and satisfied the terms of the dare but found herself taking her panties off. She pooled them around her high heels before stepping out of them.

After pulling her skirt back down to ensure Garrett didn't get a show, she drew herself up straight and twirled her panties on the end of her fingers for a few seconds. Garrett watched the fabric spin through the air, his eyes still wide and his lips sliding together in disbelief. "You should see the look on your face," she remarked. "It's like you've never seen a girl's underwear before."

"I... wow. Holy shit." Garrett finally shook his head, snapping himself out of whatever fugue he had put himself into. "Wow... wow."