Another one bites the du.., p.1
Another One Bites the Dust, page 1
Another One Bites the Dust
80s Baby Series Two
A Multi-Author Collaboration
By Elsie James
Copyright © 2022 by Elsie James
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. Portions of this book are works of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author's imagination, and any resemblances to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, are entirely coincidental.
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Table of Contents
Chapter One: Kelley
Chapter Two: Corey
Chapter Three: Kelley
Chapter Four: Kelley
Chapter Five: Corey
Chapter Six: Kelley
Epilogue: Kelley
Chapter One: Kelley
I take a deep breath and glance in the mirror. Even though I’ve got a half can of Aqua-net in my hair, the crimps I put in it are starting to fall flat. Disappointing. It’s Friday night at Skateland and I’m ready for the same bullshit that I always pull.
Maria, my co-worker and one of my faves, brings the infamous jar into the break room. It’s clear and filled with the usual little colorful scraps of paper. It’s weird to think that people have written their names down on the tiny slips in hopes of winning a skate with me. I stare at it with the same conflict of excitement and dread that I do every night.
“You ready?” Maria bites back a smile. It’s easy for her, she doesn’t have to skate with anyone.
“Somehow this gets to be less fun every week,” I tell her, with a sigh. “I’m thinking that I need to start doing something else to up the interest.”
“In you?” Maria pops her gum. “Hon, you are the top thing in this place. The Angel Skater of the Eighties. You really think that you need to up your game to get attention? Because I totally disagree.”
“Not to get attention,” I correct her, with a roll of my eyes. “To make it more fun, for me. Every week I pull out one of these chuckle fucks names, and then… what? We skate together, they fall in love and I go home alone. I spend the weekend watching movies with my dad. How is that fair?”
“So what you’re saying is that you want to bring an actual boyfriend to the couple skating? You know, you could have just said that instead of being all melodramatic.” She presses the back of one hand to her forehead with a laugh. “Oh, I’m Kelley, the most sought-after girl in Pine Grove. I collect broken hearts because everyone falls head over heels for me. I just don’t know what to do with myself. What a problem.”
I lean across the rickety break table to swat her on the shoulder. “Stop it, you’re only saying that because you’ve already got your perfect guy. So you have plenty of room to judge away.”
The diamond ring is glinting on Maria’s finger. She holds it out to admire it in the neon lights. “Yeah, alright, I’ll give you that one. Zach is my perfect guy. But the thing is, my standards are realistic. I let people get close enough to find out whether they are my perfect guy. That’s where it starts.” She glances back up at me, his mouth pulled to one side. “Alright, Kelley. There aren’t any guys good enough for you in Pine Grove. If I'm gonna help you find someone you like and keep you from becoming a spinster, I need more information. What handsome movie star do you have your eye on? Tom Cruise? No, Rob Lowe? Oh, I know! What about Alec Baldwin?”
I shake my head. “Ugh, that’s the problem.” I pick up the jar, tucking it against my chest with one arm, and stand up, rocking a little on my neon pink skates. “I don’t have my eye on anyone. Missing you know who still, but I won’t start down that road. I’m just… I don’t know. Getting a little bored with a new flavor each week.”
Maria gets up too, moving to open the door for me. “Well do me a favor, and get bored with it after today, okay? I don’t want to tell Paulie that you dropped out at the last moment when we’ve been hyping you up all day.”
Paulie owns the skating rink. He’s a real tight ass, and kind of a creep if I’m being honest. He’s the one who decided they would use me as a little advertisement prop. I went along with it because it was fun at first and an ego boost. Not to mention the raise he gave me.
All the guys do love me. It isn’t arrogance, it’s just the truth. But it’s been almost a solid year of this shtick and I’ve just about had it. I’m nineteen and it’s getting old. Skating with a new dude each week has only made me realize how much I was missing having a guy to go hit up the diner with. Not just any guy either. I’ve been in love before and the bar is high. I’d like someone who makes my heart skip a beat, not just the other way around.
“You’re going to have to take me for a milkshake to make up for it,” I tell Maria as I skate past her.
The whole rink is made of hardwood floor, except for an ugly and horribly dirty patch of carpet right at the entrance, by the cash register. It makes my whole grand debut that much easier. I take a deep breath as the music cuts off. I glide into the front of the rank, Maria by my side.
Paulie raises his eyebrows at me, then takes a deep breath. “Ladies and gentlemen, the moment you’ve all been waiting for. I hope all of you got your names into the jar because it’s time. One lucky guy can get ready to fall in love with the skating partner of his dreams.” His announcement crackles through the static-filled loudspeaker.
I roll to the speaker, jar in hand, smile plastered on my hot pink lips. Here we go again. My fingers curl around a slip of bright blue paper and I hold it up between two fingers. I make a show out of it before unfolding it. But when my eyes scan the name, my breath hitches, catching in my throat. My heart pounds in my chest and I can’t speak.
Someone is messing with me, this can’t be real.
“Come on now Kelley, don’t tease them. Who is it?” Paulie smiles into the microphone but I can hear the tension in his voice. The way it booms and turns up at the end almost feels like a threat and it snaps me back to the present.
“Sorry,” I clear my throat. “It’s… Corey Fielding.” I think I might fall over.
The silence seems to stretch on as I wait with bated breath, my heart thumping against my rib cage, barely able to keep upright.
It’s a joke. A mean, horrible joke. He isn’t here. He can’t be.
There’s a round of cheering as the crowd parts. I can hardly breathe as my eyes frantically scan the crowd. Then, all of a sudden, he’s there. Corey. A total hunk of a guy and the only man who's ever broken my heart is back and he’s right in front of me.
Chapter Two: Corey
This is my first week back in Pine Grove and I still can’t believe I’m here. A bunch of the guys from high school have encouraged me to come out tonight. In the words of my best friend Joe, I needed to do something other than moping around in my bedroom. And sure, maybe I’ve been dragging ass a little bit lately, but that’s just because I’m feeling a little lost with my life. I never expected to be back here.
I’m shocked to see Kelley here, but nothing is more shocking than the sound of my name on her lips. I told myself that I’d leave her be. I’ve already wrecked her life once, and I won’t do it again.
“Corey?” Kelley says my name again, and it makes my heart rate tick up. She looks up at me, her eyes wide with disbelief.
I hold up my hands. “My buddies must have dropped my name in, not me. I had no idea and I wouldn’t have—”
“Okay, let’s have the happy couple take the floor.” A man’s voice barks through the speaker.
Kelley takes a deep inhale through her nose and puts her hand in mine. “Oh come on now Corey, after all the things we’ve done together, you can’t skate with me? Don’t get embarrassed on me now just because you aren’t a good skater. I can show you some killer moves.”
I rub the back of my head. “I can’t do moves.”
I know she’s just doing her job when she looks up at me, batting her eyelashes. She’s not a fan of mine anymore and I don’t blame her.
Kelley shakes her head and raises her voice an octave higher than usual. “Well sure you can, you’re Corey Fielding. Pine Grove’s own superstar, good at everything. Everyone can shake a little if they’ve got the right teacher. And I’m plenty good at teaching.”
“I have a bad knee now.” My words are heavy and sour. I know that I must be making a face. I hate saying it out loud. “So I can’t do any of that fancy stuff. I’m giving you an out here, I know you don’t want to skate with me.”
“Time is ticking.” The speaker booms and when I turn to shoot the man a look, he scowls right back at me.
Kelley changes tactics fast, offering me her hand. “We’ll just do some easy laps then, see how you’re feeling. Don’t make my night harder, you owe me that at the very least.”
“Okay.”
“Don’t worry, I’ve got you.” Kelley’s words are almost whispered and the thing is, I know she’s telling the truth. She’s got me. She has always been steadfast in her commitment to being there for me. Even when I didn’t deserve it, or maybe, especially when I didn’t deserve it.
The press of her palm against mine makes heat crackle through me. She’s got her nails painted lime green and her makeup matches. There’s a permanent smile plastered on her face and I’m so happy to be here. Not on the skating rink, but with her. My
Thankfully, as we skate our laps with all eyes on us, she keeps it light. Instead of rehashing our complicated past, Kelley tells me about living at home with her father. She tells me about how she’s saving up to buy the house across the street from him. She’s taking it easy on me, and I don’t deserve that from her.
When I left town with my football scholarship, I thought I had made it to the big time. Until I got a bad injury during one of my games. Tore my ACL tendon. I did what I had to do, the surgery, and it healed up well enough with the therapy.
My college team says I can come back out and finish up the season, but we all know it’s going to be a case of me being a benchwarmer and nothing else. It’s a show of good sportsmanship and an attempt to make sure that I don’t sue them for something. I’m not interested.
The only thing I care about is the fact that my newly bum knee means I don’t have a chance in Hell of going pro. And that had been it for me, right? It had been my big chance at making something out of myself and I gave Kelley up in pursuit of it all.
I didn’t want to, but she’s two years younger than me. When I left, she was still in high school and those life-changing scholarships don’t wait. I knew I broke her heart and I hated myself for that. When I saw the devastation on her face, I made a promise to myself that I wouldn’t pop in and out of her life at my convenience. That giving her up meant forever and I’d have to live with the consequences no matter where life took me.
But as it turns out, the only place life took me, was right back here. Right back to her arms and I know without a doubt that I never should have left. Now the only future I have is working at my mother’s flower shop back here in Pine Grove and someone else will end up with Kelley. The thought makes me more than a little bitter. There’s also the fact that my knee is already hurting like a bitch.
“I just can’t imagine not living close to him,” she tells me, with this pretty smile resting on her lips. Everyone in here is probably fooled, but I know her better than that. I can see everything she isn’t saying. “He’s been such a huge part of my life, I don’t want to skip town and leave him here on his own.”
“Yeah, that’s the good thing about being back home, seeing everyone again. Being out of state for college was a Hell of a lot harder than everyone says. I thought I might just give in those first few weeks.” I feel the eyes of what seems like the entire town on me.
“But then you would have had to come back here to me and this town you were so desperate to get away from.” She lets go of my hand and does a little spin that makes the crowd go wild. When she comes back, I take her hand in mine.
“That wasn’t the case. You know that.”
“Do I? Because I could never do it,” she says, seriously. “Move out of state, I mean. People are the only thing that matter to me.”
“Can we talk after this? I mean when you’re not working and having to do this show.”
She hesitates and every muscle in her body goes rigid. My heart pounds in my chest. I need her to say yes.
“I have to lock up this place tonight. You can stick around.”
“Okay.” It isn’t an enthusiastic yes, but it’s enough.
I made a promise that I wouldn’t pop in and out of her life, and I won’t. I should’ve never been out in the first place. If getting injured and giving up football is the price I had to pay to get me back in Kelley’s world, then it was worth it. I want in from now on. Now I just have to convince her that I’m here to stay.
Chapter Three: Kelley
Corey spends the night making eyes at me and I kick myself for letting them draw me in. But he’s the one person I’ve never been able to resist. When he catches me taking a break in the snack bar, he pulls up the chair across from me.
At first, I think about continuing to play nice. But I throw the idea out just as quickly as it arrives. “You know what I don’t get about you? I know why you left, but why did you stay gone?”
“I told myself I wanted to do this with as little damage as possible. I couldn’t imagine popping in and out. Getting your hopes up only to let you down—”
“Getting my hopes up?” The words erupt out of me. “Listen, you don’t need to worry about getting my hopes up. Did you think that maybe, just maybe you should have treated me like a full-grown woman who can choose what she will and won’t deal with instead of like some delicate flower?”
He leans back in his chair and I see the muscles in his throat clench. “I uh, I did not actually. I know you aren’t some breakable—”
“That was the worst part. I get it. You went to college and I was never going to. All I wanted was to stay here and get married… to you.” Tears well behind my eyes but I refuse to let them drop.
“I’m sorry Kelley, I love you. I always have. I know I don’t deserve a second chance but I’m asking you for one anyway.” He pauses, but I don’t respond, not yet.
I can’t think over the sound of my heart pounding in my chest.
He reaches across the table and puts his hand on mine. There is electricity in his touch and I don’t mind the shock. “Can I start by taking you on a date?”
“I need to think about it.” As the words come out of my mouth, I already know it’s a yes. Yes, I‘ve missed him. Yes, I want to spend every minute in his arms. Yes, I trust him even though I don’t have a great reason to.
“Okay, take your time. I’m going to wait for as long as it takes. But before that, I’m going to be here all night. And if you let me, I’ll walk you to your car.”
“That would be nice.”
“Kelley, to the rink.” Paulie’s voice over the loudspeaker startles me to my feet and my eyes dart to the clock.
“Shoot, it’s time for me to put on a show.” I tug the laces of my skates as tight as I can.
“I can’t wait to watch.”
And watch he does. Every time I whip around the rink for the rest of the night, I find Corey in the crowd. He’s always watching me. His mouth turns up with pride and a warm feeling washes over me.
By the time the night winds down, I’m drunk on Corey all over again.
Chapter Four: Kelley
Ushering teenagers out of Skateland is no small feat. But once everyone is finally out of the place and we’ve locked up, things between Corey and me escalate fast. It’s the kind of fast where it’s all blurred together.
I throw myself at him, pulled like a magnet. My lips crash onto his. I remember his touch, the way the stubble on his strong jawline brushes against my skin. His hands tangle in my hair. I’ve missed him. I’ve missed the way he knows how to rock my body and every touch from him feels like magic. Heat curls in my belly.
“I don’t usually go all in like this when it comes to my Friday night skate partners. They get me to hang off their arm for a while, and then they leave and I lock up alone.”
“Tonight you won’t be alone,” Corey growls.
Ten minutes later, Corey ends up sitting at the table in the break room and I’m down on my knees between his legs. His firm length is in my hand and I’m dragging my tongue over the shaft.
I curl my lips around his slippery tip, bobbing forward a bit. I take him into my mouth in shallow little motions. Corey throws an arm over his face, leaning back with a groan. His other grabs at my mass of wild teased up hair.
I love what I do to him. The way he leans back, powerless. The way he can only moan my name. I breathe in sharply through my nose before taking him in deeper. His length bumps against the back of my throat before I breathe out and in again and take him in that last little bit.
“You’ve gotta stop, I’m gonna lose it.” He pants and I like it.
Corey’s hand goes iron tight around my shoulder. I pull back and gasp. Then I take another hoarse breath and take him in again. This time I pull him in all the way until I’m gagging on his cock. He uses my hair to guide me down onto him exactly where he needs me. I take him in over and over until there’s seed spilling down my throat in a hot sort of wash.
