I wonder where you are
I wonder if you
Think about me
Once upon a time
In your wildest dreams

- The Moody Blues

The night was cold and pushing on into the early hours of morning. Where the fuck was Nick anyway? Standing in the shadow of the doorway of the now closed Highlife made Gail nervous. Joey, her boss had offered to stay with her until her ride got here, but Joey's idea of keeping her company always ended up with her backed into a corner trying to escape his amorous advances after they had each had a couple of shots on the house. Maybe she had watched too many slasher movies lately, or maybe it was just being the daughter of cops, but a girl alone in the doorway of a closed roadhouse bar in the middle the night, in the middle of nowhere, was the way stories that didn't end well always started. It had been a long shift, and she was bone tired.

"Come on Nick! Hurry up and get here!" she thought as she pulled her leather jacket tighter around herself and pushed her newly black cherry bangs from her eyes. She shifted impatiently from foot to foot trying to calm herself, to push back her growing annoyance and anxiety that was making her restless. It's not like Nick didn't know when the bar closed!

Her mother hated her new hair color almost as much as she hated the new cut that went with it, but not nearly as much as she hated Gail's job or Nick, her boyfriend. Gail smiled bleakly at the thought. Nick was a great guy, really he was. He was friendly, and considerate, and he even had a good steady job doing construction. She met him when she had been a waitress at the diner by the lake two years ago. It was the summer after her grandfather died, and she was living like she didn't care about anything. He should have been just one of the guys she picked up and had random drunken hate sex with, but he had been kind to her, and then kept showing up and insisting that she go out with him. She had finally relented just to get him to stop. They turned out to be an addictively explosive combination, and now here they were two years later. Maybe it was her edgy, self-destructive side that attracted him, but he did seem to always get her to do things that got her into trouble.

Last week when she had come home with her naturally dirty reddish blonde hair nearly shaved up the back, spiky on top with the only long piece remaining cut into bangs that swept to the right and fell across her face, her mother had had a fit of epic proportions! She had to admit she had died it a dark, dark purple-red, almost black, in part to break away from her mother's little TPD debutant image of her. And her mother blamed Nick, of course, even though it was her own idea. He had been with her, and when it was done, he had commented on how sexy she looked. It didn't take long until they were getting all hot and heavy in the driver's seat of Nick's truck because he couldn't seem to keep his hands off of her. They finally managed to make it as far as outside the tiny one room apartment Nick had over the garage of Gail's neighbor's house, fumbling with each other's clothes, giddy, laughing softly into each other's mouths. It wasn't until Gail was walking backwards up the rickety wooden stairs that led up the side of the building, pulling Nick along with her by the collar of his open shirt that he said it.

"Shit Gail!" He mumbled, pressing his lips into her neck, "Your hair is so fucking sexy like that! It's almost like having a new girlfriend!"

Well that stung! Almost enough to stop Gail in her tracks.

"What the fuck Nick!" She had demanded, annoyed and kind of hurt.

"What? It is!" He said cluelessly, and just kept going.

Headlights swept the empty parking lot as Nick's beat up red pickup pulled into view. Finally! As the passenger door opened she was greeted by Nick singing off key at the top of his lungs along with Brad Paisley's Alcohol. Great. She really hated country music! But the warmth and safety of his truck beckoned. He made a grab for her as she slid inside, pulling her flush against him. She sighed. It was going to be one of those nights when Nick just wouldn't take no for an answer. She could taste the beer on his breath already, and feel the cold 20oz can held between his legs.

"Christ Nick! Are you ok to drive?" She pulled back from his embrace to question him with a scowl.

"Yes mother!" He laughed at her. "Come on Gail, lighten up! It's only beer."

"Cuz you know I could…" She pushed on.

He interrupted her by throwing the truck into drive and executing a perfect Hollywood spinout as she groped for her seatbelt.

"Besides," He added with a cocky grin, "I want to be getting back as fast as possible."

"Back…?" She asked, arching her eyebrows at him, and changing the radio station to classic rock.

"Come on Gail!" He insisted, taking a swig of his beer, "I told you that the guys were having a little bonfire down at the point. Where's the fun party girl I know and love?"

Gail sighed. She was hoping to go back to Nick's, get something to eat, and maybe play some video games before going to bed, but she could tell that Nick wasn't going to let her get out of this no matter how tired she was.

"Ok. Fine." She grumbled, "But do we have to stay all night? I'm really beat."

Nick just smirked at her. "I know you're only saying that now. Once we get there, you know you'll have a good time!"

She groaned and closed her eyes. "Fine. But don't leave me and disappear for hours, like you did the last time! I nearly had to throw that imbecile Tony into the lake to get him away from me."

Nick looked over and scoffed at her. "You'll be fine!"

The ride down to the lake was wild and short with Nick breaking every traffic law on the books and laughing as she complained. The tires of his truck literally squealing to a halt as they pulled into the parking lot, sending up a giant cloud of dust in their wake.

"Jesus Nick, you are such an asshole!" His friend, Ben, greeted him, slapping him on the back and handing him another beer as they got out.

Nick punched Ben on the arm, and they strode off together, leaving Gail to trail behind them. There was a group of about twenty guys from Nick's crew and their girlfriends standing around a fire and more huddled around coolers and a picnic table in the shadows. She might as well go ahead and grab herself a beer. She could tell they were going to be there for quite a while.

Walking over to stand by the fire, cold beer in hand, Gail looked around to find Nick, but he was nowhere in sight. The guy next to her that she vaguely knew as Timmy was trying to talk to her, but he was either too drunk, too stoned, or just plain too stupid to hold her attention. What a douche bag. As he tried to explain the plot of The Real World, she let her eyes drift across the fire to a girl she'd never seen before. She was sitting in a camp chair by herself, holding an open bottle of tequila in her lap. Gail couldn't help but notice how pretty she was with long brown hair and tanned legs that poked out from under her long Indian skirt. As if she could feel Gail's eyes upon her, she looked up, catching Gail's eye, wrinkling her nose decidedly at Timmy before rolling her eyes and smirking. Gail grinned back at her, intrigued. She lifted the bottle and motioned to Gail with a cock of her head, causing an unexpected little jolt in Gail's solar plexus. What the fuck was that about? The girl smiled again and motioned to Gail with the tequila.

"Uh, gee Timmy," Gail interrupted, "I have to go see what my friend needs…"

"Oh. Uh… well, uh, maybe I should come with you, you know just incase you need any help…" Timmy answered

"No. Really Timmy. It's a girl thing. You wouldn't understand." She said dryly, turning to go without waiting for his answer, if there was one.

By the time Gail made her way around to the other side of the fire, the girl had tucked her legs up to her chest and was leaning back in her chair blowing into the open mouth of the tequila bottle, making it hoot and whistle. She looked up at Gail with sparkling hazel eyes and did it again before handing it to her. Gail laughed and took a generous swig.

"Thanks!" She said, "I needed that!"

"No problem. Have you ever noticed the guys at these things get more and more stupid and gross as the night goes on?" The girl said leaning back in her chair to get a better look at Gail.

Gail had just raised the bottle back to her lips. She choked, sputtered and started to laugh. Was this girl a mind reader?

"I'm Amy, by the way." The girl said. Reaching into the pocket of her denim jacket she pulled out a red bandanna. "Are you ok?" she handed it to Gail in exchange for the tequila.

"Yeah… thanks! It's just that you said exactly what I was thinking." Gail laughed sheepishly, using the cloth to wipe the spilled liquid from her face and from her jacket. "I'm Gail."

"Well Gail, " Amy said looking her up and down, "Why don't you pull up a stump and we can ignore these idiots together." She waved at the woodpile behind them.

"Don't mind if I do." Gail smirked.

They had been passing the tequila bottle back and forth, huddled conspiratorially, heads together, laughing at the idiots and fools at this party when Nick bounded up to the fire and stuck his head between them.

"Hey Gail!" he said kissing her on the cheek, "Who's your new friend?"

"Oh hey Nick, this is Amy." Gail said feeling slightly annoyed and frustrated at his interruption of their conversation.

"Hi Amy!" He put his arms drunkenly around them both and leaned over to kiss Amy on the cheek too.

Gail felt herself flush as a spark of something like anger lit in her belly. How dare he come over here and poach her new friend! Even if he was her boyfriend.

"Hi Nick!" Amy smiled and handed him the bottle.

Nick took a deep pull on the bottle and handed it back, leaning over to kiss Amy full on the lips this time. Gail felt the bottom drop out of her stomach as she watched Amy's eyes open wide with surprise and then close as they deepened the kiss. As they pulled apart Amy smiled at him and then turned to her arching her eyebrows suggestively.

"We can't have you feeling neglected, now can we..." Amy said in a low sexy voice.

Gail found herself frozen in place, her heart beating wildly against her ribs. All time seemed to slow to a crawl as Amy reached over to stroke the side of Gail's face and leaned in. Amy's soft warm lips seemed to melt into her own. What was she doing?! Her body reacted and her mind slipped into neutral as Amy's tongue demanded entrance into her mouth, she could barely contain a whimper. Amy pulled away and looked at her with such naked lust it turned her inside out. It was electric. God she was drunk!

"Fuck!" Nick breathed out, jolting her back to reality, to this party, to the fact that he had just been watching her make out with another girl. She felt hot all over and realized she was shaking.

"Want to get outta here?" Nick asked looking from one to the other of them.

"Ok with me if it's ok with Gail." Amy said with a smile, gracefully rising to her feet.

Gail found she couldn't speak around the lump in her throat, so she just nodded as she lurched to her feet, unsteady with the insistent buzz of want growing in her pelvis and butterflies in her chest.

"Hey, you ok?" Amy turned holding on to Gail's arm to steady her.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine. Let's go." Gail managed to rasp, before turning away to stride purposefully toward Nick's truck.

"Whoa! Hey Gail! Wait up!" Nick called out as he jogged after her.

He finally caught her right before she got into the passenger side. Gripping both of her arms he tried to look into her eyes, but she was looking down.

"Hey." He said quietly, "You know Gail, it's alright if you don't want to do this. I just thought it would be hot. But I know you. I know how you don't like to share me with anyone…"

No, Gail thought as the realization hit her like a ton of bricks, it isn't you I don't want to share tonight. She sighed and looked up into his worried brown eyes.

"No, no, it's ok." She smiled

"Ok. Cool." Nick said tentatively, afraid to set Gail off into a bad mood and ruin everything.

"No, it's ok." Gail felt her heart rate speed up unreasonably at the thought. "She's nice."

"Hey!" Amy said walking up to them slowly. "Are we good?"

"Yeah." Gail smiled at her.

"Great! Then would you mind riding with me so I don't get lost?" She smiled warmly back at Gail.

Thank God it's dark out! Damn this pale skin! Gail thought as she felt herself respond, the blood running up into her ears, making them burn.

"Sure." Gail shrugged, trying to act casual.

The ride back to Nick's was quiet for which Gail was grateful. It gave her the time and space to try to collect herself. Amy had flipped on the radio to a blues station and was quietly humming along with a tiny smile on her face. When she reached over to place her hand lightly on Gail's thigh, Gail felt the energy radiating out from that spot, making her whole body tingle. She swore she could see it crackling between them like sparks in the air.

Although she would never admit it to anyone, Gail had always wondered what it would be like to be with another girl. In her deepest, darkest fantasies, the ones that got her over when sex seemed to be an exercise in frustration, the one when she closed her eyes and willed herself inch by inch toward the edge, were about changing places with the guy she was with. It was weird, because the girl in her head was always some beautiful girl she had seen, secretly watched really, making out with some guy, and wished she was making out with her instead. She knew that was creepy. What the hell was wrong with her?!

Pulling into Nick's driveway behind his truck Gail could feel the tension rising from her center. Amy put her car in park and turned to smile at her.

"Hey." She said softly.

"Hey." Gail found herself smiling back.

Oh my God, her lips! Even in the dark, now that she knew what they felt like, Gail couldn't stop looking at her fucking lips!

Amy was just leaning in to kiss her again when there was a knock on her window.

"Hey!" Nick interrupted, bouncing up and down impatiently on the balls of his feet, "Hey, don't start the party without me!"

Gail sighed and opened her door. Amy groaned and seemed annoyed. As he pulled Gail from the car her head swam and the world rocked gently. Shit. How much did she have to drink tonight anyway?

They were all standing together in a huddle at the bottom of Nick's stairs now, Gail tucked under Nick's right arm and Amy tucked under his left. Nick was kissing Amy as Amy's free hand groped for the front of Gail's shirt and held fast. Her head started spinning as they turned their attention to her. Amy was attacking her neck with hot, wet open-mouthed kisses while she could feel Nick behind her, holding her up, pulling her to him, hot and hard. She leaned back into him for support, kissing him hungrily as Amy began unbuttoning her shirt to give her mouth more access to Gail's skin. She had one hand gripping Nick's neck, and the other tangled in Amy's long hair. It was totally overwhelming. Her knees gave way as Amy palmed her breasts and moaned into her cleavage. She could feel Nick's entire body, an insistent pulsing need pushing into her back. Amy stood up to kiss her lips, she picked Gail's left leg up and wrapped it around her waist in the process. Nick pulled Amy's hips in tighter, which sandwiched Gail tightly in between them, as his hands worked franticly to get under Amy's skirt. Her hand glided up under Gail's leg to brush her fingers against the embarrassingly dampening seam of Gail's jeans.

"Oh my God!" Gail breathed out, unable to fully catch her breath.

Amy broke away with a grin. She danced backwards and reached into the open window of her car to grab the tequila bottle. Laughing she took a brief swig and passed the bottle on to Gail who drank deeply.

"Shit Gail! Save some for me!" Nick laughed too, pulling it from her hands.

"Fuck! I'm sooo fucking drunk!" Gail muttered, as she lurched forward to lean against the side of Nick's truck. She rolled over several times until she came to rest with a hiccup on her back on the hood. "Soooo fuuucking druuuunk…" she closed her eyes.

"Oh no! Oh no… Gail? Gail?... Come on Gail! Don't do this to me!" Nick pleaded with her, shaking her gently.

Gail opened her eyes, but she couldn't seem to focus them. "Meow?" she asked and then giggled at Nick, her eyes sliding shut again.

"Shit!" Nick pouted. "Ok…well…" He turned to Amy, handing her his keys, "I can't just leave her here like this. Why don't you go on up and make yourself at home and I'll be back in a few minutes."

"Wait. Where are you going?" Amy asked looking at Nick's keys in her hand, and then looking at him.

"I'm going to take Gail home. She only lives a few houses away." He said smiling at her.

"Maybe I should go too…" Amy replied looking concerned, and handing his keys back to him.

"You don't have to go." He said softly.

"Yeah, ya' know, I think I do." She answered.

"Will I see you around?" He asked hopefully.

"I doubt it." She replied, "I start classes at the University of Chicago next week."

Just then Gail hiccupped, shifted and mumbled something incoherent and threatened to slide off of his truck.

"This was fun anyway!" Amy smiled as she got into her car.

"Great. Just great." Nick grumbled as he picked Gail's limp body up off the hood of his truck and watched Amy drive away.

The sun shone obnoxiously brightly through Gail's eyelids as her throbbing head and churning stomach brought her back to consciousness. Oh no! She pried herself out of bed and sprinted for the bathroom down the hall. Thirty minutes later, she swore she had just gotten rid of everything she had ever eaten, and the top of her aching head as well. Why, oh why, did she ever drink tequila? She prayed that her parents were out of the house as she took stock of her ashen completion, and blood-shot eyes in the mirror.

Snippets of last night's party started forming in her head like sudden flashes of disconnected color, and sound, and light. She had been talking to some pretty girl at the fire. They were laughing and drinking tequila. Nick was suddenly there. She was driving somewhere in the girl's car. She found herself making out with this chick. No! Wait! What? That can't be right. She had no idea how, or when, or why she ended up back in her own room instead of at Nick's place. Where was he anyway?

The house was mercifully quiet and empty as Gail poked her head out of the bathroom and crept as quietly as possible back to her room. Just because her mother's presence wasn't evident, didn't mean she wasn't lurking here somewhere. Running into her right now was the last thing she needed! The time on her phone read eleven forty six. It chimed at her as she picked it up. The incoming text from Nick almost made her drop it again as her heart beat faster. She felt tears spring to her eyes as she read it again.

"Hey sexy lady! Wanna run away to Vegas and get married tonight?"