Pushing Buttons

She made some sort of noise in response from upstairs.

I walked to the kitchen to get a drink. "Mom wants to know if I'm coming to Courtney's wedding. You wanna go with me? I think it's after rugby season so we'll just be missing school work. Nothing important, right? I mean, I know you never really liked the guy she's marrying but I figure a wedding is a wedding, and we're both old enough to drink legally now so it could be fun."

I had my water in hand now and was standing at the bottom of the stairs. No response from her, so I started walking up. "I figure we would leave the Friday night and you can visit the fam when we get back, then I pick you up at like noonish and we go to the wedding. Mom wants to do a picnic or something while they do the wedding party photos after, but she says you have to wear a nice dress and nothing too short. Her words, not mine. Then dinner, dance, blahblahblah and we have all Sunday to shake off the hangover and get back here."

I was outside her door. Not a word in response. I knocked. "'Lanna?"

I opened the door and walked in.

Alanna was perched on the edge of her bed, her one hand holding up a mirror and the other putting on lipstick. She was wearing a lacy black bra pushing up her tits into a heave of cleavage and a black thong and that was it. Her beautiful, golden tanned skin still had a few droplets here and there from her shower glistening in the light and her long blonde hair was dark and thick with moisture. Probably my favourite part of her though was the soft, wispy blonde hair that trailed along her body. She sometimes disparaged her silken down, saying she looked like a werewolf, but her previous girlfriends and I all swore it wasn't nearly as bad as she thought and not something to be ashamed of. It was just this soft blonde hair on her arms and the nape of her neck and shoulders, and on her belly trailing down to...

I swallowed the drool in my mouth quickly and sat on the bed next to her. "For real? You're still not dressed?" I asked. "We gotta go."

She finished applying the lipstick and smacked her lips lightly. "Yeah for real, I had to shower and I still need to do my hair."

"Can't you just, I dunno... Deal with it in the car?"

She gave me a look and I shrugged, laying back on the bed. From here I could admire her muscled back and the way her ass pressed up into a delicious cleavage of its own when she was sitting. She eyed me in the mirror for a moment, then went back to her makeup.

We had always been close, but this sort of thing had only started happening once we'd come to college. Forcing your best friend to leave your dorm room so you could change a shirt or pair of pants seemed dumb, and it had gotten to the point pretty quickly that we were in our underwear around each other comfortably. If by "comfortably" you don't take into account my constantly needing to hide a boner. Mixed blessings, we'll call it.

There wasn't much modesty between us anymore, living across the hall from each other in a house with no parents. As far as I was aware there hadn't been any fully nude episodes yet, but it was bound to happen at some point. I wasn't about to complain.

"Ok, what about the wedding?" I asked, wondering what it would be like to kiss her from her hairline down her spine.

"Mm, I dunno," she said. "I'm probably going to have school work to catch up on."

She stood up, giving me a fantastic view of her ass as she sauntered across the room, and commenced digging in her closet. "Yeah, but so much you can't go to a family wedding?"

She bent at the waist, her back slightly arched. I sat up and moved back on the bed to hide my hardon.

"Courtney isn't my family," she said into the closet, shuffling around and tossing a few items out of her way. All it would take is a little more spread and I would get a peek at her asshole around the thong string.

"Yeah but she's mine," I countered. "I went to your cousin Tarin's wedding with you."

"We were fourteen and my family didn't know I was gay yet," she said, standing and turning to me. Her tits bounced just a little in her bra. I love/hate my life.

"This one or this one?" she asked, holding up first a little black dress and then a light blue one that was longer but had a slit up the side.

"Like you have to ask," I said with a snort.

She grinned and tossed the black one back into the closet. Blue on her, especially a light blue like this, was my favourite and she knew it. She quickly stepped into the dress, shimmying it up her thighs and ass and slipping her arms into the shoulders. The front looked almost like a collared, sleeveless blouse with black buttons running from throat the waist before the skirt took over, small slits on either side as it fell just short of her knees. Alanna did up the buttons slowly as we talked, from the waist up to just above the center panel of her bra, leaving a staggering amount of cleavage showing.

"I'm not totally sure how I'm going to, like, seduce a guy or whatever," she said while she was buttoning. "Is it the same thing as seducing a girl?"

"How am I supposed to know that?"

"Well, what do you like?"

"I don't think I've ever been seduced, Alanna."

"Pfft, you probably just didn't realise it was happening. How about this, too much boob?" She cupped her tits and hoisted them up, looking to me for an opinion.

"Probably," I said.

"Perfect." She sat down next to me, grinning. She had her chest thrust out a bit and took my hand in both of hers. "I just want to do this right. So I can be sure if I'm gay or bi or whatever. Am I sexy to guys or are they only interested cause I make out with other girls?"

I blinked and then tilted my head forward as my eyes widened. "You're joking right?"

"No, I want to know."

"Alanna, you are fucking beautiful," I said. It wasn't the first time I had said it but it still took a lot for me to actually put it out there. The last time I had said it we were moving into the dorms on our first day of college and she had asked me if she looked like a university student or not. The time before was when I had picked her up for our prom, and the only time before that was riding the bus to our first day of high school. We had been sitting on the bus and she'd grabbed my hand and told me she was scared we weren't going to fit in. 'You're beautiful,' I had told her, 'Everyone is going to like you.'

She blushed and looked down like she had each time I had said it in the past, her finger stroking the back of my hand held in hers. "Really? Not just cause we're besties?"

I could have kissed her. I could have pulled her into me and given her a kiss right down to her bones and soul and she would have realized how beautiful she was. All of her mental body-issues would have disappeared and she would have had all the confidence in the world.

"Really," I said instead. "You look amazing."

"Thanks," she smiled sweetly. "Now you go change too. I need to do my hair still."

***********

I drove, she fiddled with her hair in the mirror. I don't know why she bothered, she always ended up messing it up within the first hour of a night out anyways. The victory party was partway across town in a slightly nicer neighbourhood than our student ghetto; I wasn't worried when we ended up parking a dozen houses down the street, but I did have to help Alanna walk down the sidewalk. She'd worn black, strappy heels that put her at the same height as me and made her muscular ass pop in the dress.

She held onto my arm lightly for balance until we got to the door of the house, at which point she was gone from my side, disappearing into the party full of rugby players and their friends. If Alanna is the social butterfly of our duo, I'm the courteous guest. Once I was inside the house I immediately went to the kitchen on our right, looking for Yvette or Kaley, the two women's rugby team players who lived in the house.

I found Yvette, a slim little thing that could run like the wind, along with Malena and Ricki in the kitchen. Malena and Ricki were my other two roommates, both pretty athletic sophomores who also played on the university soccer team in the spring. Alanna had taken them under her wing as freshmen on the team and I'd found myself living with them this past summer.

"Hey ladies," I said politely.

"Hey Austin," Malena and Ricki chimed as I moved past them.

"Yvette, thanks for hosting," I said, hugging her with one arm as she wrapped hers around my torso, squeezing me tightly for a second.

"No problem, Oz," she smiled. "Thanks for coming. Did you bring Alanna?"

"She's here somewhere," I said, motioning towards the other side of the house where the dining room and living room were, and where most of the party goers would be.

"Cool," she said, but before our conversation could continue Kaley came around the corner, visibly fretting. Kaley had electric pink and blue hair and wore feather earrings that made her look like some sort of crazy rave girl.

"Hey," she said to Yvette, then seemed to realize I was there, "Oh, hey Oz." Kaley was a taller girl than Yvette, but had a much less confrontational personality than her housemate, though she made up for it by being a goof. "There's some guys here that no one knows," she said to us both. "I think three of them, but I have no idea where they came from and I can't keep track of them all."

"Oz," Yvette asked me, "Could you-?"

Yep, the great and powerful Oz, always there to help. I'm not sure who started the whole Oz thing, I know it wasn't Alanna but for some reason all the girls on the rugby team called me it. I assumed for a while it was because Austin shortened would be Aussie, which shortens again to Oz, but that didn't seem to be it. None of them could tell me either, it had started with the class that graduated last year.

"Yeah, show me who it is."

"Thanks, bud," Yvette said, leaving me to follow Kaley through the house.

Kaley stopped in the doorway to the living room, which ran almost the length of the small house on the one side, and pointed down the room. "That guy, and that guy, but mostly that guy talking to Alanna." The first two were being pretty rowdy, almost shouting to each other as they bothered the girls trying to play beer pong. The last one, however, was looming over Alanna and blatantly staring down into her cleavage as he tried to hit on her, blocking her path away with his size. This was one tall motherfucker.

I walked over to that guy first. Alanna could take care of herself fine, but this guy was separated from his pals so it would be easier to get him moving. At least, that's the excuse I planned to give Alanna when she told me she didn't need saving.

"Hey buddy," I said, tapping on his shoulder.

The guy turned around, looked me right in the eye and said, "Fuck off."

"Time for you to leave, mate," I followed up.

"It's fine, Austin," Alanna said in a 'just walk away' sort of tone. "We're just talking."

"Oh, what are you, the jealous boyfriend?" Tall Guy said to me with disdain. "You probably have this little cocksucker wrapped right around your finger, don't you?"

"You. Out. Now." I pointed to the door.

"You wanna fight me, puke?" Tall Guy said, cracking his knuckles.

Alanna raised her eyebrows at me from around him, then gave me a teasing smirk, "I think he does."

Damn it, Alanna.

"Well why wait for outside?" Tall Guy said, and pulled back his fist.

I've learned, being a not very athletic or 'tough guy' person, that fighting is not my strong suit. The last time I got in a fight I lost. Miserably. So now I don't get into fights, even though Alanna can be a real douchebag magnet sometimes.

I flicked my hand and Tall Guy wheezed out his breath and collapsed. Perfect shot, even through the guy's jeans. I called it the 'dick flick,' since it wasn't really punching someone in the nuts so much as tapping them sharply with a flick of the wrist and tips of your fingernails. It stung like a bitch and could drop a guy from rage to whimper in the blink of an eye, just like it did now.

Alanna laughed, and so did the people at the party who had been watching. "Alright, buddy," I said, leaning over and pulling him up by the shirt collar, "Like I said, time to go. Our lovely hostesses want you out."

I started half-dragging the guy towards the front door as he wavered on his feet, but Friend 1 and Friend 2 were in my way. "What the fuck did you do to him?" One demanded.

"Get the fuck out of this house," I replied, my temper rising. Maybe I was going to get into a fight after all. Maybe, just maybe, I was ready for one. Alanna was starting to get on my nerves a bit tonight; she wanted to pick up some guy. Just "some guy"- to try and see if she wasn't a total lesbian. What the hell was that about?

"How about fuck you," Two said, stepping forward, then stopping and looking around. Six men's rugby team players were in the room, all either moving forward or getting to their feet from their spots on couches. That didn't count the girls. I was probably the single worst person Kaley and Yvette could have asked for help, except for maybe Josh who was standing near the front door looking nervous. I was just the first guy available at the time.

Story of my life.

I shoved Tall Guy into the other two, "Get the fuck out." The two guys backed down in the face of a room full of belligerence and pulled Tall Guy with them. Josh opened the door for them and shut it behind them before coming over to me.

"God damn," He said. "Look at Mr. Forceful here."

I stepped back and sat on the edge of a couch, feeling the drop in my adrenaline as a shake in my hands. "Holy fuck," I muttered.

"Holy fuck is right, butthead," Alanna said, giving me a shove on the shoulder. "What the fuck was that about? He was sort of cute."

Sort of cute? Fucking- fuck. "Yvette and Kaley asked me to get rid of them. Did you even get his name?"

Alanna had the decency to blush for just a moment before returning to her agitation, "Well, you could have at least been polite about it, Austin."

I held up a finger, wanting to make a point about how I had been acting polite at first, but the look on her face made me even more frustrated. "You know what," I said instead, "I need a drink." I got up to go back to the kitchen and leave Alanna to her socializing.

"No alcohol, you're the DD," Alanna said in a singsong voice behind me.

I grunted and waved over my shoulder. Soda. I wanted something syrupy and sweet, maybe that would cool me down.

The best I could find was some of the Coca-Cola people were using for mixing and chasing. Not exactly the sugar rush I was hoping for, but at least it had caffeine. What it didn't do was help with my mood; I didn't even get a thank you from Yvette and Kaley, who were too busy flirting with guys to give me more than a friendly smile if we crossed paths. Two of the rugby guys mentioned they had been ready to jump into a fight if those rando's had started something, which was a nice sentiment, but otherwise I was left mostly to my own frustration.

Alanna was getting pretty drunk. I sat on one of the long couches in the living room, squashed into the side by a couple who were making out next to me. The one thing I could rely on at one of these parties was that the rugby girls only bothered to put on one of their ipod playlists for the music. A quick unplug of theirs and a plug in of mine and I could 'DJ' the party and not talk to anyone.

I got the party moving a bit. People were dancing. I played fun music, switching between pop and retro. Uptempo Beyonce, young Britney Spears, the pop country tunes everyone but me seemed to know the words to. The room was getting pretty packed as more teammates showed up with their boyfriends and roommates. I threw on a dance number even though I was in the mood for metal.

I looked out at the guys and girls dancing together and took a deep breath. That's never me, I thought, annoyed with myself. Sure I danced sometimes, but it was always that group-dance where eventually people paired off and I was left dancing next to people, instead of with them. Alanna would always come back from her grinding with another girl, but it wouldn't last long before she was off again.

The next track I had queued up started, a little grittier than the dance number. A real classic, Pour some Sugar on Me. But not the original; I knew my audience. It was a rip from the live concert Def Leppard had done with Taylor Swift.

When they realized what it was, girls screamed and hips started grinding. I found myself staring at Alanna, who was dancing on the fringe of the room now. She was moving her hips sinuously, her athletic body bending this way and that as her eyes flashed, the blue all the brighter because of her matching dress. She was smiling at me, one eyebrow cocked. Her hips rotated as if reeling me in, her hands slipping up her sides and over her breasts before raising up into the air, extending her body.

I set down the iPod. I was going to dance with her, and not just a fun and somewhat silly dance to some upbeat pop song. I was going to walk right up to her, grab her by the hips and pull her into me until we were body-to-body, and then we were going to grind hard. Her hands were going to go around my neck and I would grab her ass and then she would pull me down into a kiss.

She turned away from me before I ever got up the nerve to stand from the couch. She reached out and tugged a rugby player, Steve, from where he had been standing talking to a couple buddies. Steve was immediately interested.

I looked down to the ipod, trying to forget. The song ended and I played Spice Girls. No one could grind to the Spice Girls.

Every female voice in the party screeched, and then began singing the words at each other. Guys were forgotten, except the few gay ones who screeched and sang along just as animatedly. Eventually Alanna and Kaley were up on a couch, shouting the words at the other girls dancing before them. They danced and had fun until the song was over, at which point I unplugged my ipod and replaced it with the original one, starting the playlist where it had stopped. I was done.

I wasn't even sure what song it was but everyone seemed to be having a good time. I had to groan, however, because Alanna and Kaley were holding on to the drapery bar above their heads and were twerking with their asses to the crowd. People cheered as Kaley's skirt slipped higher and higher until her ass was half-showing, bouncing up and down, back and forth. She had on pink panties to match her hair.

Alanna's dress was a bit longer but clung to her curves. I was just thankful she wasn't in danger of mooning everyone; in the moment she always had fun with the sexual attention but afterwards the guilt would set in. Of course, she wasn't in danger until Kaley stopped twerking, turned and lifted up the back half of Alanna's skirt and played the bongos on her ass. Everyone laughed and whooped. Alanna stood up, her skirt falling back down to cover her butt she was also grinning wildly and laughing.

Fuck. She was drunk, she was hot and now she was the center of attention. I loved her dearly, and that's why I knew she was going to do something stupid.

She was still holding on to the drapery bar and dancing. Kaley got off the couch and Alanna looked up at the bar. Fuck, fuck, fuck. Alanna was dancing a little more wildly, spinning on the couch and kicking a leg out like a stripper.

She hefted herself up nearly horizontal with the bar, and then there was a crack and the brace holding the bar to the wall broke and she fell.

I was there, though. I caught her heavily and held her for a moment in my arms while she recovered. The brace and bar were hanging unevenly above the couch, tottering back and forth.