The Reunion Pt. 01c - Adam & Ashley

"This is pretty sweet!" Chris commented.

"Yeah this is actually a lot nicer than I was thinking it'd be." Ashley mentioned.

"Yeah, yeah, it all looks lovely, but the real question is how's the beer. What's everyone want? I'll get first round." Issac offered.

They all perused the large board hanging over the bar listing their beer selections and gave Issac their order.

Issac headed off with Ben and Chris to help carry everything back.

As the night progressed the guys each took turns buying rounds for the group. Ashley sipped her beer slowly, not wanting to get too drunk as she'd learned her lesson long ago that a night of fun wasn't worth the agony of the following day. Her and Adam stood at the end of the table not adding much to the group conversation other than a few comments here and there while taking in the bar around them.

"This is cool, but I'd much rather go home and play trivia." Adam mentioned offhandedly.

"You and me both. Think we could make do on one of our phones?" Ashley replied.

"I dunno, might be tough to see what we need to. I wonder if there's a trivia app that's any good these days. I tried some awhile back and they were all kind of garbage."

"Well, what else do we have to do besides test a bunch of them out?"

As the two perused their phones for trivia apps, their attention to the group conversation drifted in and out until Chris cleared his throat at the opposite end of the table drawing Adam's gaze.

"Actually, in the spirit of changing things up and breaking old habits," Chris started, "Adam, would you like to maybe start us off by breaking an old habit and showing the group how its done?"

Adam's eyes widened, staring directly at Chris, silently begging him to let it drop as Chris smiled back deviously. Adam's stomach churned, his palms suddenly went clammy, and he felt a slight tremble in his fingertips.

The group looked between Chris and Adam, trying to figure out what was going on.

"I'm intrigued by how terrified Adam looks right now. Whatever it is, I'm 100% in." Ben laughed.

"It's nothing. Chris is just being an asshole, that's all." Adam said, chuckling nervously and trying to brush the exchange off as not worth pursuing.

"Oh no no no, not getting out of this one buddy. This needs to be done for your own good. I know it's awkward but just bite the bullet and do the thing."

Ashley looked up at Adam's terrified face, "What's he talking about? Whisper it in my ear and I'll be the judge of whether he's being an asshole or not. If he is, then everyone will let it go."

Chris burst out laughing uproariously at the offer, "Oh that's a PHENOMENAL idea. Ok, Adam, tell her and she can be the judge."

"Not happening. You can all drop it. It's not happening."

"Fine, then Chris tell us what it was." Ben suggested.

Chris shrugged, "I'm sorry buddy, I really am, I gave you every opportunity. I told Ada-"

"Don't you dare!" Adam interrupted, "FINE, FUCKING FINE!"

Adam turned to face Ashley, his face bright red, his forehead now glistening in his anxiety. He leaned in to Ashley's ear where no one else would be able to hear.

"Chris wanted me to ask you out. That's all."

A giant smile spread across Ashley's face as Adam pulled back, "So, was that a question or a statement? Felt like more of a statement to me." Ashley teased.

Adam's face was burning hot with embarrassment, "Ugh, you're all going to be the death of me. Mostly you." he said pointing at a giddy Chris who was doing a little victory dance at the other end of the table. He leaned back in to Ashley's ear, "Ok fine, in true question form, would you like to have dinner with me sometime, just the two of us?"

Ashley pulled back, a look of disgust on her face, "You son of a bitch, it's taken you 13 goddamn years and when you finally do it it's because CHRIS made you?! No! The answer is absolutely not! How da-...I'm kidding, of course. I've only been waiting since sophomore year you idiot." Her smile had returned, beaming at Adam whose body didn't know how to handle the range of emotions he'd experienced in the last 15 seconds. He began to sweat even more than he already had been, his face had twisted itself into knots as he felt hopeless for having asked too late, apologetic for making Ashley of all people mad, then euphoric as she turned everything back around and accepted. His heart pounded in his ears, he could barely think as he stared down into Ashley's smiling face.

"Woah, woah, woah....did he just?" Kayla pointed from Adam to Ashley.

Ashley, still smiling and staring up at Adam slowly nodded.

A high pitched squeal of delight erupted from Emma and Kayla as they bounced up and down with excitement.

"It's about time!" Emma commented.

"Hey Adam, quick question that will become relevant as the night goes on, how do you feel about Indiana Jones?" Kayla asked.

Ashley's head whipped around at Kayla, "You hush! You don't have to answer that, she's being obnoxious."

"Why? Indiana Jones is a classic, who doesn't like Indiana Jones?" Adam responded, confused by the exchange, and still trying to shake himself out of his disoriented state.

Kayla laughed uncontrollably, "Ok, good, then you're going to be just fine!"

"I'm so confused." Adam said looking around the table for any explanation at all.

"Don't worry about it babe," Ashley said, raising up on her toes and kissing his cheek with a smile. Ashley quickly dropped back down, rocking on her heels, her cheeks flushing slightly. Everyone else had just assumed she was slightly embarrassed about the display of affection, but Ashley's body tingled ever so slightly as the motion of raising on her toes had caused her to tighten her glute muscles, squeezing the plug tighter and pulling it further into her tight hole. The quick motion had been as sudden and arousing as anything else she'd experienced throughout the night. She made a quick mental note to do that more, and slowly rocked herself back and forth from rolling up on her toes to back on her heels, enjoying the new sensation of squeezing the plug in place.

"Ok, ok, I'm getting a celebratory round!" Emma said, "What's everyone want?"

For the next hour Adam said next to nothing. Even when Ashley asked him questions he would give one word answers. Everything had suddenly changed. He felt like he had to be careful not to screw anything up, he had to be calculating in his responses so as to not offend her. When she was his friend he had never thought about his offhand comments, but now, they suddenly mattered far more in his mind. Before he just had to make her laugh occasionally, now he had to worry about making her laugh, not making her cry, making her happy when she was sad, it was a weight he hadn't prepared himself for.

"Hey...you ok? You're quiet. Like...really quiet. Even with me." Ashley commented.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm fine. How are you?" Adam awkwardly replied.

"Adam...take a deep breath." Ashley said, taking his hand in hers and giving it a light squeeze, "You're freaking out about nothing. There is literally no pressure at all, if things don't work out they don't work out and we go back to exactly what we were before; and honestly, we can stay as exactly that for right now if you want, then slowly work our way into this. We don't need to jump into the deep end all at once."

Adam let out a deep sigh, "Sorry, I just...I'm bad at this. I don't know what to say or do in these situations."

"You don't need to say or do anything different. I've liked you just the way you have been all these years. Just keep being the same and we'll be fine! Besides, I'm terrible at this stuff too so don't worry, it's not like I'm setting a high bar over here."

"You seem to know what you're doing right now though."

"Well yeah, that's cuz it's you. I know you better than almost anyone. I can tell when you're having that internal war where half of you wants to die and the other half is trying to get up the courage to just say whatever you'd normally say."

Adam put his arm around Ashley's shoulders and pulled her in close to his side, "Thanks. I can't promise that won't happen every now and then, or absolutely constantly, but I'm glad you at least know what's happening when it does." He felt far more at ease knowing she understood his internal turmoil.

"Of course. Now if you're going to be this quiet the rest of the night I'm going to need you to drink a lot more booze because I'm not letting you just stand here and give me one word nonsense answers all night."

"Fair."

Ashley eyed him, trying to determine if his one word response was a joke or not, "If that was a joke, I don't appreciate it. Drink up chuckles." she said as a smile spread across her face.

Adam laughed, "Well, at least I enjoyed it."

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By the time they all filed out of the bar to pile back into the same SUV that had brought them, they were all fairly intoxicated, and getting more bold by the moment with their sexual innuendos and somewhat mock propositions.

"Ok, here's my one rule for the ride home," Chris said, looking at Ashley and Adam who he shared the back seat with, "If you two are going to fuck back here, I want consent that I can take pictures. It's the least you can do if I'm gonna have an ass in my face."

"As long as you only film my good side, left ass cheek is more photogenic than the right." Adam replied jokingly.

"Hey Ash, would you guys like me to...ya know....take a few laps around the block when we get home?" Kayla called back.

"Wait, we haven't even gone on an actual date to find out if this is even going to work, let alone jumping straight into bed!" Adam commented.

"Dude, shut up! Don't be stupid." Issac said in a loud whisper, acting as if only Adam could hear him.

"Sooooo?" Kayla inquired again, looking at Ashley with a raised eyebrow.

"You can come hang out at my place for the night if you want. My parents are out of town anyway. You can take my bed and I'll take the couch so they can have all night." Issac offered before Ashley could interject.

A series of whoops went through the car.

"Alright, alright, everyone shut the fuck up, I didn't mean it like that!" Issac rebutted.

"Soooo...just for the record, if I stay at your place, there's no chance you sleep in the same bed as me?" Kayla inquired, looking at Issac, daring him to guess the answer she actually wanted.

Issac looked at her through squinted eyes, "Nooooo....No chance." He said playing it safe and trying to gauge whether his response had been the correct one.

"Oooo, wrong choice." Ashley whispered to Adam in the back seat, "Although, she may actually break Issac in two if she got to have her way with him."

"Seriously? I wouldn't have guessed she was in to Issac." Adam whispered back.

"Oh god yeah. I've guessed it for a while actually. Every time she looks at him she's licking or biting her lip. If you really look for it you'd see it."

Kayla let out an overly exaggerated sigh, turning back to Issac, "FIIIIIINE. I'll stay at your house then."

"Well shit, everyone's getting laid tonight but me!" Chris complained from the back seat.

"What're you talking about? I'm not getting laid, I just passed on the opportunity apparently." Grant responded.

"And I think you're forgetting about me an-" Ben started before being cut off by Emma holding a finger to his lips and giving him a slight smirk that wasn't lost on the rest of the car.

"NO SHIT!" Kayla exclaimed, "Emma! Get you some!"

The car whooped and hollered as Emma pulled Ben in for a passionate kiss, her hands in his hair, his hands pulling her into him.

"Now THAT I didn't see coming." Ashley commented, leaning in to Adam.

"Really? Cuz that's one I've thought was going to happen since high school. They always seemed to be dancing around it but neither one ever got close enough to the other for it to actually happen." Adam replied.

When the ruckus had finally died down, Chris called from the back seat, "Hey Grant...since, ya know...we're the only two left all by our lonesome, you wanna come play little spoon to my big spoon on Adam's couch?"

"Damn you! How'd you know I love being little spoon?" Grant answered.

"I don't know, 10 plus years of experience I suppose?" Chris called back.

Grant laughed, "As much as I would love to feel that scruffy 5 o'clock shadow tickling my neck, I think I'm gonna have to pass and retreat to my den of sorrow all alone. Unless you wanna come over and show all these idiots how late night is really done, pop a pizza in the oven and get some game time in like the old days? Still got the old N64 system hooked up."

Chris twitched heavily in the back seat, "Good god, you know how to talk my kind of dirty sir. You keep talkin like that and I'll have a 6 person tent pitched back here. I'm in."

-----------------------------------------

After dropping off Ben, Emma, Kayla, and Issac the driver drove the few minutes to the apartment and dropped Ashley and Adam off before heading toward Grant's place.

Adam stood in the parking lot, unsure of the appropriate move for the situation, "So, I'm just gonna head back to my place?"

"This is the second time tonight you've sounded like you're asking a question but your words say it's a statement. Do you WANT to go home, or do you wanna come up and play some trivia and hang out for a while?" Ashley asked.

"The latter. Definitely the latter." Adam replied quickly.

"Smart man. Lets go name the world!"

As the two of them climbed the stairs toward the apartment, Ashley's phone chimed. She pulled it out and quickly tapped a reply back, "Maybe Kayla won't get laid after all." she said nonchalantly.

"Oh yeah? What happened?"

"Kayla's been texting me since they got dropped off. Issac thinks she's going to regret it in the morning and she's only doing it because she's drunk. Which, ya know, good on him for looking out for her and all, but I think he'd be the one regretting that decision tomorrow." Her phone chimed again. She glanced at Kayla's response then tossed her phone back in her purse as she started to dig for her keys to the apartment.

"I mean, she was pretty drunk." Adam commented as Ashley opened the door.

"Yeah, but she made the decision to fuck him before we ever went out. She polled Emma and I when we were getting ready to see what we thought. Changed her outfit and everything after deciding she wanted to, so really the only thing she could claim tomorrow is temporary insanity if she regrets it, which, to be fair, wouldn't be an enormous stretch for Kayla at times."

Adam laughed, "True. She can be...special, we'll say."

The two crashed on the couch side by side. Adam slipped his shoes off and propped his feet up on the coffee table.

"Wanna throw a movie on while we do some quizzes?" Ashley asked.

"Sure. Ooo, did you see, your favorite movie is on Netflix now?"

"What!? My DVD got scratched like a year and a half ago and I haven't seen it since. Put it on!"

As Adam flipped the TV on and scrolled through the titles on the screen, Ashley picked her laptop up off the coffee table and lay her head back in Adam's lap with the computer on her stomach. It felt nice to be able to snuggle in with him. She'd always wanted to when they were sitting so close playing around on the computer before, but she was always concerned about crossing a line; now, she felt like it was an easy first step.

Ashley's phone chimed again. She glanced at it and tapped out a message.

"Now Issac is texting me to confirm she wasn't drunk when she decided. I'm not her mother for god sake."

"If Issac texts every girl he sleeps with mom before he fucks them, that's a whole new issue we need to discuss." Adam observed.

Ashley laughed as she replied to yet another message, "Ok, I think we're finally in the clear. Let's do this thing!"

Adam brought up the screen for Good Will Hunting and started the movie.

"Yessss...so good." Ashley cheered as the beginning music began to play, "Ok, countries of the world again?"

"Sure, sounds good."

The two methodically worked their way through the countries for the second time that evening, remembering some that they had forgotten previously and forgetting others that they had remembered earlier. In the process, the act of doing something as familiar as playing a game with Ashley helped relax Adam. Soon he was absently stroking her hair, letting the long wavy brunette strands glide between his fingers before tucking it back into place behind her ear.

As Ashley moved the cursor to point out a country she was struggling to guess, Adam reached over her and pointed at something on the screen. As he pulled his hand back, Ashley took the opportunity to grasp it in her own and pull it to her chest where she held it across her body, gently resting at the top of her breasts which were exposed by the scooping neck of her shirt. It was all innocent enough, but to the two of them, it felt very bold.

Adam's fingers lightly played on Ashley's smooth skin, tracing the edges of her own hand beneath his. As he grew more daring, he traced ever closer to the edge of her top and down into valley of her cleavage.

Ashley's mind raced. She stared at the TV as if she was watching the movie but in her head she desperately wanted Adam to keep going. She didn't know what to do to cause him to continue, so instead, she acted as if she hadn't noticed his fingers causing goosebumps all over her body as they roamed across her breasts.

In reality, Adam hadn't realised how far down on Ashley's chest his fingers had roamed. He hadn't looked away from the TV in quite some time and assumed he was still closer to her neck than actually on her firm alluring breasts. That is, until he felt his fingers reach the valley between them and suddenly realized just how low his hand had wandered.

He cleared his throat awkwardly, "Oh, uh...sorry, didn't mean to roam so far...just kind of...happened."

Ashley stared up into Adam's eyes from his lap realizing he was about to stop and probably wouldn't dare roam that far again; at least not tonight.

"It's ok. I was enjoying it actually."

"Oh....ok. Well then..." Adam went back to watching the movie and returned his hand to her chest, continuing to trace patterns across her skin, only he resumed far higher than he had previously drifted.

In an effort to speed things along and show Adam just how alright she was with what he was doing, Ashley placed her hand on top of Adam's and guided it lower. She gently pushed his hand under the edge of her shirt, beneath her bra, until she felt his fingers glide over her hardening nipple. Through it all she watched his face as he stared at the TV.

As his fingers felt her hardened nub, Adam looked down into Ashley's eyes, "See. I told you I was enjoying it."

"Oh...uhh..ok...as long as you're ok with it. Just tell me when to stop and I will." Adam replied, his eyes darting from hers to where his hand cupped her firm breast, his fingers flicking over and around her small dark nipple as his mouth went dry, his mind turning against him as he worried how he might screw this up.

Ashley bit her lower lip seductively, "Oh babe...I'm never going to tell you to stop, I can tell you that right now. In fact, I'm more concerned that I'm going to scare YOU away." As she said it Ashley realized how forward she was suddenly being. She felt her stomach turn and her body tense slightly. If she blew this she'd never forgive herself, but if it worked, she'd be dreaming about it over and over again.

"Not gonna happen. There's nothing you could do other than maybe admit that you get off on murder that would cause me to leave." Adam said, adding a nervous chuckle.

"Mmmm," Ashley cooed as Adam switched breasts and quickly brought her other nipple to attention, "God I hope that's true, otherwise I need to go to the bathroom and take care of something, but I'm enjoying it a little too much at this point to try to hide it from you."