Bounced: Blue Collar Bad Boys, #1

Chapter One

Sarah

THIS IS THE WORST IDEA I’ve ever had. Times one million. Maybe times a million more than that.

Christa and I are following a completely bald three-hundred-pound bouncer named Jim through the back door of Billy’s Suds. It’s a service entrance, and from what I’ve gathered, Christa has offered a service in exchange for letting us drink as if we were twenty-one.

When she told me she could get us in, she didn’t mention anything about this part of it. She comes here all the time, she said. She always gets in, she said. Never a problem...well, you get the idea. I didn’t ask how or why they always let her in. It seems to me, if there were this kind of exchange, it ought to have been worth mentioning. Like, I can get us in because I give the bald guy named Jim a beej every Tuesday night.

Billy’s Suds is a roadhouse just outside of city limits. It smells like smoke and urine, to be honest. And the floor is sticky as we walk down the dark paneled hallway into a room marked Office. I don’t want to know what the sticky substance is. Billy’s Suds is the kind of place where it’s better not to ask. I will probably throw my shoes away when I get home.

My stomach acid is rolling to a boil, and I’m trying to act cool but doubt that it’s working. I mean, come on. This is not me. Not my life. Not even what I’d willingly watch on TV. I go to bed at ten and get up at six. I eat five servings of fruits and vegetables every day. I don’t smoke. I don’t drink. I turn my college assignments in early.

I do not follow strange men through back doors of illicit bars. I have never given a beej before, and I’m hoping to keep that record going at least this one more night.

Jim opens the door and ladies-firsts-us into the room, closing the door behind him. It smells like more smoke, but less urine in here. That’s all I can say for it. I hadn’t expected a backstage tour of the roadhouse, and under other circumstances, I might have been more intrigued since the reason I was here tonight was curiosity.

Normally, I’m a good girl. I follow the rules. Rules made by other people and rules I make for myself. Like, I might even say rule-following is my superpower. I’m studying actuarial science because I think it’s fun. That’s how risk averse I am.

But I’ve been feeling sort of...restless...lately. I thought maybe if I did something just a little crazy, a little less