To Die For

Chapter One

 "I'm so nervous, Sammy," Alison said to her sister. Well, not really her sister - Alison's parents had died when she was eleven years old and as she was taken in by her godparents, the Welch family, she had moved in with and become a part of the family - so she behaved as if they had always been sisters.

"What're you so nervous about?" Samantha answered in her usual flippant tone. Sam and Alison couldn't have been more different - Alison was as quiet as a church mouse unless she knew you well while 

Samantha would talk a stranger's head off with no problem - but they couldn't have been any closer.

It had all been Sam's idea of course, this Saturday night foray. She'd been eighteen for months already while Alison had only just reached that milestone that very day. Sam had been dying to go to an eighteen and over club but wouldn't consider going without Alison and she'd finally achieved her goal, which had not been an easy task - Alison was decidedly unsociable and terrified at the thought of being in such a crowded place - and with boys there too! Another difference among the two girls was that Sam was also boy-crazy and one of the most popular girls at their modest high school. That's why Ali, as Sam referred to her, was now sitting down at H20, a popular club in Washington, D.C.

Alison shook her head. "I don't know how to act or what to say ... I don't even wear stuff like this," she tugged at the little black dress that they'd purchased earlier in the day. "I feel out of place," she told her sister, looking around nervously. Sam simply pulled her along until they reached the bar and ordered soft drinks. "Oh, this is such a big deal," Alison scoffed and mad a face. "This is stupid. This is boring!"

Sam ignored her protests, having heard them all week. "Wait until we start dancing!" She shook her butt a little, making Alison giggle.

Sam always made Alison laugh. They were like yin and yang but somehow it all worked out well. Same height, same coloring, a light toasty brown color, both very curvy and in great shape. Alison had a little something more going on in the backside area than Sam did but Sam made up for it in the chest area. Perfect for each other. Sam brought Alison's personality out more, making her participate in school activities like cheerleading and softball, while Ali calmed down Sam's sometimes manic activity. Conversation bounced back and forth between the two innocent girls who had no idea that two young men in the VIP area were studying them quite closely.

 *~*

 "Yo, dude, Justin hit his friend JC on the shoulder lightly. "Check out those two girls down by the bar ... over there," he pointed with his glass.

 JC took a quick look to see what and who his friend was talking about and shook his head. "Cute, but jailbait. We're looking for over twenty-one, not over eighteen, dude." He drank some of the champagne in his glass. "But that is a damn shame because those two are F-O-I-N-E."

Justin persisted, gesturing with his glass again. "But shit, eighteen is fucking legal, too. And it's not like we'd ever have a problem getting them into any club or anything, right? Dude, we fucking own this city."

And in a way, he was right. At the age of eighteen, Justin and JC had been introduced into a new business through Justin's older brother - the business of selling drugs. He'd started them out doing small-time stuff like selling weed, then slowly moved them to cocaine and heroin. Now at the ripe ages of twenty-six, the two men were very close to being millionaires and had amassed a little empire with Justin's brother and two other guys. The called themselves "The Firm", after the John Grisham book just because they liked the name. But they ran their business exactly as if it were a firm. Everything was done by the book - their Book - and everyone handled their side of the business smoothly. And business - which was now mainly crack -- was booming.

They weren't stupid about their business, either. They weren't too flashy with their money and kept up a guise of being employed at Justin's family's business. They built houses and did very well so their quiet elegance and nice clothes and cars seemed justifiable. It wasn't as if Justin needed to deal drugs. It was just easy to do so - and he liked the money he gained from it way too much to stop yet. Someday, though, he planned to stop. He just needed a reason.

All he needed was someone to spend all the money with. He didn't lack gorgeous girls coming after him, especially when they realized he had a shitload of dough. But someone who'd liked his money and his drugs had burned him badly once before. He was determined to find someone else soon. He wanted to be in love.

And he was pretty sure that he had just fallen in deep like.

Oh yeah, he was pretty sure something was going on. To move things along even more quickly, he sent a bottle of Cristal over to the girls, slipping the bartender and extra $100 to take care of the age problem. "Ask them if they'd like to join us in VIP while they drink," he told the very happy bartender.

And then again, he just watched.

~*~

"For you, ladies," the bartender presented the bottle to Sam and Alison with a flourish.

"To us? From who?" Sam looked up and down, around and around all over until she saw the two extraordinarily handsome White men raising their glasses of champagne to them. "Ooooohhhhh! Ali, look!" she pointed up to where Justin and JC stood in expensive suits, looking down at them.

Sam smiled up at them but when Alison got a gander of who had sent the champagne, all she could do was wave weakly. These were men, not boys, and she had no idea what to say or do around them. Alison was shy around boys at high school, so the thought of actually drinking Cristal, the drink all the stars sprayed around in their videos, with such good-looking men had her in a tizzy. Neither of them were bothered by the fact that the men were White, as over three-quarters of their school was and they'd been surrounded by interracial dating for years. Knowing Alison would freeze up, Sam took over by grabbing the bottle of champagne in one hand and Alison's arm in the other and headed straight for the stairs, ignoring Alison's protests all the while. And there were lots of those.

"Hello," JC greeted them with a twinkle in his blue eyes, taking the bottle from Sam.

"Hi, I'm Sam," she flirted back, always up for a challenge. This was way more exciting than she had expected the evening to be.

JC eyed her up and down, liking what he saw. He'd known instantly which girl his friend was interested in, so he took over with the friend - who wasn't too shabby herself with shoulder-length auburn hair and a rack that he couldn't take his eyes off of. He would have no trouble occupying himself with this one tonight, that was for sure.

Alison, on the other hand, felt completely abandoned and had no idea what to do next. This tall, White guy was staring at her with burning, deep, blue eyes and she had no idea why he was doing do so or what he wanted from her. If he expected flirting he could forget it, she thought. Maybe he wanted to get her drunk or something, she just didn't know. But she did know that Sam had been planning this evening for months so she absolutely couldn't turn and run away like she wanted to. So she gave him a tentative smile and straightened her back, shaking her hair from around her face. "Umm ... hi."

"Hi, I'm Justin," he said very slowly, his eyes still glued to hers. He found himself mesmerized by her, unable to stop gazing at her lovely face. He had the sense that would need to be careful with this one, that she would spook easily and the last thing he wanted was for her to walk away.

Oh, that was the very last thing he wanted.

And then she spoke again and he knew he was in love.

"Uh ... hi ... I'm Alison." She politely put out a hand for him to shake and he wanted to smile at how ‘textbook' she was behaving, like he was one of her parent's friends or something. He guessed she looked about eighteen or nineteen and he also guessed when he was about that age he'd thought twenty-six was old, too. But he didn't want to embarrass her so he shook her hand. She looked like she wanted to pass out when he took her hand in both of his. Fuck that, he thought, he really wanted to bring her hand to his lips but he was afraid she would pull away so he didn't make that move.

Yet.

This girl already so had him that he realized that he was fucking shaking. Girls do that shit for me, he thought, and pulled his hand away and shook his head to clear it. Grabbing the bottle from JC, he asked 

"Champagne?" He began to expertly open the bottle while Alison and Sam looked on, completely impressed. They'd never come anywhere near champagne before and this was Cristal, damn it. They both giggled a little at the pop of the cork.

As Justin poured the liquid into glasses, Alison began to say, "We've never drunk-" only to be quickly cut off by Sam who knew she was going to say alcohol, saying, "champagne before!" She then gave Alison an obvious kick while Justin and JC looked on, amused by the girls' naivete.

"Here you go ... what was your name again?" Justin handed glasses to first Sam and then Alison, having missed her saying it the first time. They smiled at one another briefly then returned their attention to their respective partners.

Justin observed Alison amusedly, who was waving her glass under her nose and sniffing it. She was wondering what real alcohol smelled liked. Justin, over the curious one, quirked an eyebrow at her.

"What are you doing?"

Embarrassed at being caught, Alison blushed and Justin was enchanted. He'd never met anyone so innocent before and he was loving it. She smiled guiltily at him, "I don't know ... seeing if champagne smells different."

He tilted his head, actually not knowing the answer. "Does it?"

She shrugged. "Not really." They laughed together.

"So why not taste it?" he gestured with his glass.

Alison looked at Sam who was giving her a ‘do not fuck this up for me' look as she sipped the liquid like she was used to having it everyday. Not wanting to piss her off, Alison finally lifted the glass to her lips and too the first sip of alcohol she'd ever drank. It went straight to her head.

"This is really good!" She exclaimed in surprise.

"I know, right?" Sam was already finished with her first glass and JC was busy pouring her another.

"Now I see why people drink all the time!" Alison tripped up and revealed her secret, feeling like an idiot.

Justin and JC laughed while Sam rolled her eyes at Alison. "Thanks for blowing our cover."

JC laughed more. "We already sort of picked up on it. You guys don't seem to be that experienced." Sam didn't like that at all.

"What, should we be lushes?" Her attitude was showing its' face and JC liked it.

"Aren't you feisty?" he asked, almost as intrigued as Justin was with Alison. They turned and began talking again; leaving Alison paralyzed with fear over talking to the young man. He was studying her so closely that it was like he was inspecting her. Taking another sip from the fabulous concoction in her glass, she studied him back, albeit underneath her thick lashes, and took in his features.

He was tall, she liked that. For some reason he made her feel safe, with his broad shoulders and extreme height. His head was shaved with a little part in it, making her do a double take to make sure that he wasn't really Black. He had a little goatee going on, like all the celebrities wore these days. In fact, he sort of looked like a celebrity to her, dressed from head to toe in a hideously expensive suit and wearing ... hold it. She started laughing full out now, not even trying to hide her giggles.

"What you laughing at, girl?" he said in the most Ebonically-enhanced voice she'd ever heard. He sounded blacker than most black people she knew did.

But the alcohol was giving her courage so she had no fear. Pointing at his feet, she laughed. "Your shoes. They're-"

"Sneakers?" he asked, lifting his pants leg up so she could get a better look.

She nodded, sipping on the champagne. "Everything else you have on is so ... I don't know ... put-together, and those are, like, a surprise. They're different, I like that."

"Well thank you very much," Justin said about his fashion statement. "It's the one thing I don't compromise on - I always wear sneakers. I have hundreds of them in my closets." 

Alison almost choked on her drink. "Hundreds?" she asked. Why on earth would anyone have so many sneakers? And why would they refuse to wear anything else, especially with evening wear? This guy was weird, she deduced, and without knowing it, took a step or two back from him. Justin noticed and tried to smooth things over.

"It's just a little quirk I have," he told her. "Everyone has some kind of quirk, don't they?"

Alison thought that over and supposed they did. But her mind was on other things right now. "May I have some more, please?" she asked, surprising herself that she had finished her glass so quickly. Justin was happy to oblige and suggested they sit down. Maneuvering around Sam and JC, who were involved in a conversation of their own, the two sat down at the small banquette that the guys had been standing in front of.

It was time to learn more about this girl, Justin decided. And while she was drinking, she'd be more apt to tell him things that maybe she normally wouldn't. He had the feeling that usually she would be close-mouthed about her life and he had no idea how close he was to the truth with that thought.

"So what do you do?" Justin inquired as he honored her request for more champagne.

Alison's eyes widened. "What do I do?" she repeated, not knowing how to answer the question without making herself and Sam look young. But there was no way around it. "I ... go to school."

He persisted. "Catholic U? American? Where?"

She shook her head and gave up the ghost. "I go to high school," she told him and waited for the inevitable rejection. But Justin wasn't surprised; he'd pretty much figured that out earlier. He'd just asked the college questions to make her feel better. He nodded slowly, taking a sip of liquid.

"Where?"

This was turning into an inquisition, Alison thought, but she answered his question anyway. "Wheaton High School. In Wheaton," she added stupidly.

He nodded again, glad she was telling him more. Now he knew where he could find her - if he needed to. "I've heard of it, know a few people who graduated from there. But it's been awhile for me," he subtly brought his age into the conversation.

"How ... how old are you?" Alison asked tentatively. "If I'm being too nosy, you don't have to tell me," she said ironically, when it was him who had been grilling her.

He shook his head. "You're not being too nosy. I'm twenty-six," he answered and her eyes widened.

"Oh," was all she said, eyes focused on the table while she inwardly freaked out. Twenty-six! She could barely talk to Chris in AP Biology and he was the same age as she was! She had the feeling that she and Sam were in over their heads.

"How old are you?" Justin asked, already knowing the answer. He wanted to show her that he didn't care about her age.

She brought he eyes back up to his, a little nervous. "I'm eighteen. Today's my birthday, as a matter of fact," she said, the liquor loosening her tongue even more. Inside she kept telling herself to shut up but for some reason things kept escaping from her mouth.

Raising an eyebrow, Justin smiled. "Happy birthday. We should have a special toast," he began looking around for the bartender but Alison hurriedly stopped him.

"No! Please ... nothing special. Drinking Cristal is special enough," she told him and he nodded, agreeing to her wishes as a plan began to develop in the back of his mind for later. "I'm really happy with just this," she slurred, and he could see that the small amount of champagne she had imbibed was already beginning to affect her. He wondered about how she was getting home.

"Did you drive here?" he asked, wondering how in the hell these two girls from a Maryland suburb were going to get home from DC.

She nodded. "I'm the designated driver," she told him, then frowned. "Or I guess I was. We have our parent's car. How are we going to get home?" she worried, looking at Sam who was on her fourth or fifth drink and totally unable to drive.

"I'll take care of that," Justin assured her. "You'll get home with no trouble. But you just got here ... why not relax and hang out, dance a little before you leave?" He didn't want her going anywhere just yet. He was barely getting to know her and he didn't think she realized that he was interested in her. Before the night was over he wanted her to at least have his cell number or something.

Alison thought it over carefully and checked her watch. It wasn't even midnight yet and they weren't under a curfew - their parents trusted the girls to come home at an appropriate time and in a respectable manner. She thought that maybe she should lay off the liquor so she wouldn't get into trouble.

"Okay," she said slowly. "But not too late."

"Do you have a curfew or something?" Justin asked, honestly not wanting her to get into trouble.

She shook her head. "No, our parents know we'll get home at a decent time. We're okay."

"Okay," Justin smiled at her and his sparkling eyes dazzled her. "So that means you can dance with me." He stood up and held out his hand to her, waiting for her to stand up and take it.

Dancing? If what people out on the floor were any indication, that meant grinding and touching and all sorts of other things that she wasn't sure she was ready to do. But somehow she didn't think that Justin would be all over her in some nasty way - laid back was definitely more his style.

But still ... the chemistry between the two of them was out of control and so was she, due to the Cristal. And somehow she had a feeling that a dance was not just a dance with him. He seemed like he wanted things from her, things she wasn't sure she had. He was so much older and self-assured, and he had zeroed in onher for some reason. In this case, a dance was not just a dance.

Did she dare?