Badboy Romance

by Lisa Simmons

  It wasn’t, and I tried not to feel so bummed when I read the text from Chloe, saying they were downstairs by the games.

  “They’re downstairs, wanna go find them?” I shouted at Emily. She nodded, her eyes still looking around the room casually.

  “Yeah, sure,” she said, grabbing my arm and pulling me to look for the stairs.

  There were so many people crammed into the house, it was difficult to even move, much less find the stairs. After twenty minutes of pushing, shoving, and more cursing from Emily, we had finally made our way to the stairs and were heading to the basement. There were nearly as many people downstairs as there were upstairs, the variety of drinking games set up attracting a large crowd. Two rounds of beer pong were going on, as well as a table for tippy cup and another for a rousing game of quarters. Emily nudged my shoulder again, pointing into a dark area where people were playing some other game I couldn’t decipher.

  “They’re over there,” she said, nodding in that direction. I nodded back, indicating her to lead us to where she claimed she could see them because a pillar supporting the ceiling blocked my vision. She pulled on my arm, and soon I was able to see Chloe in the crowd as we approached her. Lauren, too, soon came into my vision, but the next thing I saw made my blood run cold.

  His back was to me, but it was unmistakably him. I couldn’t see the expression on his face but I could see Lauren’s hands, one of them wrapped around the nape of his neck and the other on his hip while she leaned up to his ear, her lips moving as she spoke entirely too close. The ice in my veins instantly turned to fire as I seethed on the spot, the vision of seeing her all over him making me furious and jealous and devastated all at the same time.

  “Oh shit,” Emily mumbled as she took in the situation as well. I didn’t know what to do as I walked stiffly forward. I was pleased to see Reece’s arms firmly by his side, and upon closer inspection I noticed he was leaning away from Lauren’s grasp, clearly not interested, but that didn’t stop me from feeling angry. Would it really have been so hard for him to push her off? Or did he not care because I hadn’t been here to see it?

  “Lauren!” Emily shouted loudly, announcing our presence.

  Her eyes darted to us over his shoulder, a self-satisfied grin spreading across her lips as her eyes darted toward Reece as if to say ‘look who I’m talking to.’ I rolled my eyes, not bothering to hide it from her if she were to notice. Reece finally turned around, his eyes widening drastically when he saw me standing there behind him, a fiery glare burning into him. My lips were set in a hard line and I could feel my nostrils flaring as I tried to control my anger. A guilty look spread across his face as he realized what it looked like, and he opened his mouth to speak before Lauren cut him off.

  “You guys know Reece, right?” she said, her arm brushing his back as she ‘introduced’ him to us. I resisted the urge to laugh in her face.

  “Yeah, I know Reece,” I said shortly. Emily cleared her throat awkwardly, unsure of how to process this situation.

  “Hey Abigail,” Reece said, his eyes still side as he stared at me. I could practically feel him silently begging for forgiveness even though he obviously hadn’t felt the need to stop Lauren from hitting on him until he had gotten caught. “Reece,” I snapped. It was impossible for me to keep the venom out of my voice, and it was missed by nobody. Chloe shot us all a confused look before speaking.

  “Um, I’m gonna go talk to someone over there...” she said vaguely before hurrying away, the obviously tense situation giving her the sense to leave before it got even uglier.

  “She’s usually so talkative,” Lauren said to Reece, a ridiculous smile on her face as she leaned into him and attempted to draw him in. I resisted the urge to slap her. Why had I thought it was a good idea to keep her in the dark about our situation? If I had any sense I would have said something ages ago to avoid this exact dilemma. Reece shot her a blank look but didn’t say anything before returning his gaze to me. Lauren’s hand never left his back as she leaned against him, her attempts to seduce him making me feel dizzy. I couldn’t even move as my gaze stayed locked on Reece’s. It was clear he didn’t know what to say to her either as it became more and more obvious that she didn’t know about us. I was surprised when a flash of irritation flashed across his face as he stared at me. My heart dropped in my chest when he turned to her, his head ducking toward her as he finally replied.

  “Oh, was it something I did?” he said with a smirk on his face, his eyes starting that captivating charm act he had surely used a hundred times before. It was so weird to be on the outside of it now as he easily put her under his spell. What the fuck?

  “I don’t know, are you gonna cause trouble, Reece?” she said back, biting her lip as she looked up at him. Lust was practically dripping off her and I had never felt more confused. He continued to smirk at her when Emily interrupted.

  “Lauren. I need to pee, come with me,” she demanded, clearly willing to say anything to break them up for me since I seemed incapable of moving.

  “What? No, take Abigail,” she said, barely bothering to tear her gaze away from Reece.

  “No, I really need you to come with me,” Emily insisted, reaching forward to grab her arm and pull her away from Reece. She shot Emily an irritated and confused look before turning to smile at Reece.

  “You better be here when I get back,” she said to him. He nodded at her as Emily dragged her away. I would have to remember to thank Emily profusely later after I kicked Lauren’s ass.

  “What the fuck, Reece?” I demanded as soon as they were gone. The rage I was feeling masked the hurt I knew would come later.

  “What?” he dared to ask, his gaze surprisingly cold.

  “What do you mean, ‘what’? What the fuck was that?” I asked, my eyebrows raising as I stared at him incredulously.

  “That was your friend?” he asked, dodging my question.

  “Yeah, but that doesn’t matter, what the hell was that?” I demanded again, confused and angry and hurt as to why he was suddenly being such a jerk.

  “If that was your friend, shouldn’t she know not to come on to me?” he spit back.

  I blinked, realizing why he was mad but not sure he was justified. “You’re mad because I didn’t tell her about you?”

  He crossed his arms over his chest and cocked his head to the side and stared at me, confirming what I’d guessed.

  “Are you serious? That’s why you’re mad?” I thought he was being a bit of a hypocrite because I was almost positive his friends didn’t know about me.

  “Too ashamed of me or what?” he said lowly, his glare burning through me as my jaw fell open.

  “What? No, I just haven’t gotten around to telling her yet,” I argued. I couldn’t believe he thought that me not telling her about him justified him to hit on her right in front of me. “Sure, baby,” he said, throwing the usual term of affection in my face.

  “Are you seriously gonna do this? Throw this away because I haven’t told all my friends about our non-relationship yet?” I asked incredulously. I couldn’t believe he was being so stupid right now. He didn’t answer my question, however, because we were interrupted by the source of our argument returning and winding her arm lazily around his waist. Bile rose in the back of my throat when he threw his arm around her shoulder, his gaze never wavering from mine. Shock, anger, and hurt held me to my spot, my body feeling like it was about to collapse into the floor. I had never felt so many conflicting at once, and I felt like I was about to shatter into a thousand pieces as I watched his hand trail across her arm; the hand that should be on my skin, along with the rest of him. He was supposed to be touching me that way, not my friend while I stood pathetically by and watched. What the fuck had happened?

  "So don't blame it on me, girl, 'cause you wanted to have fun."

  Chapter 25

  Fury seared through my veins as I watched his head duck to her ear, his perfect lips whispering things I c
ouldn't hear. Never in my life had I felt a more devastating combination of irate anger and crushing pain all at once. My mind seemed to be crawling with poison that leeched into my every cell as I tried to comprehend how exactly I had wound up in this situation.

  It was supposed to be me he held and whispered things to. It was supposed to be me he smiled at and was unable to tear his gaze from. It was supposed to be me that he ended up with at the end of the night. It was supposed to be me that he claimed to feel something for, that he wanted to try with, yet his every action provided evidence to the contrary.

  My mind felt like it was about to implode as I tried to come up with any possible explanation for his actions. The only one he had hinted at was that he was upset that I hadn't told my friends about him, but if that was his only reason, he was way out of line. That was much too small of an offense to constitute him hitting on my friend right in front of me. There was absolutely nothing I had done to deserve such a retaliation from him. Worse, he was being a hypocrite, because I was nearly positive he hadn't told a single person about me.

  It took everything in me not to punch him across his beautiful jaw and tackle Lauren for good measure. The betrayal I felt from him was more devastating than I remembered Jack's feeling, which was saying a lot. I had barely started this thing with Reece, but I was already more hurt by him than I had been of my boyfriend of three years. How I had managed so far not to burst into tears and run away was beyond me, because all I felt like doing was curl into a ball in the corner.

  It felt like bits of my heart were breaking off as I watched his hand fall to her hip, his long fingers curling across the curve of it. Despite my greatest efforts, there was nothing I could do to tear my gaze from them even though it was making my physically ill to watch. I couldn't handle the way his eyes focused on her when she spoke and the way she trailed her hand down the tattoo covered skin of his arm. Pain bubbled viciously in my stomach and I could feel my throat tightening as the tears I'd somehow managed to hold off threatened to spill over.

  I hadn't realized I was physically shaking until a hand landed on my arm, the gentle grip tightening to try and get my attention. The searing agony I was feeling was too strong to respond to the touch, the masochist in me drinking in every single detail that was chipping away at my sanity.

  I could feel everything we had worked so hard to build up crumbling by the passing second, the shattered remnants of it crashing to the floor at my feet while he couldn't even be bothered to look at me. What was left of my heart slipped from my chest, joining the shredded remains of our relationship that hadn't had the chance to start on the floor.

  "Abigail, come on, please come with me," Emily begged in my ear, tugging at my arm as she tried to break me from my trance. I was frozen in place, mesmerized and haunted by the way he touched her and the way she leaned into him, the space between them shrinking by the second.

  "Please Abigail," Emily repeated, her touch on my arm growing more urgent as she desperately tried to tear me away from the torture in front of my eyes. Her face moved into my line of vision, concern and anger spelled out in her expression as I blinked, my eyes trying to focus on the new sight.

  "Let's get out of here," she said, placing her hands on my shoulders and steering me away from Reece and Lauren. My feet followed numbly, acting of their own accord because my mind was too far gone to control anything. I felt cold inside, like all the heat had been stolen from my body and had been left scorched into the floor where I had stood. Emily didn't say anything until she had pulled me through the basement, up the stairs, and out the back door of the party. She continued to pull me along until she had pulled us to a little cluster of trees that was deserted and quiet enough to hear the ragged breathing ripping from my chest.

  "That fucking asshole," Emily seethed once we'd stopped. She turned to face me and put her hands on my shoulders again. "I'm so sorry, Abigail, I don't even know what just happened."

  My lungs burned as I tried to suck in a solid breath, the air feeling foreign in my body as I tried to force it to function properly. Harsh gasps of air sucked between my teeth, unsuccessfully reaching my lungs without catching in my throat. The searing heat in my throat spread through my body until I felt the sting of tears spilling over my cheeks.

  "Why would he do that?" I choked, the furious grip of tears making my voice crack as a sob heaved from my chest.

  I had finally broken. There was no way I could stifle the sobs that rang out through the night, not that I cared in the slightest. Salty tears stung pathways down my cheeks and my chest rose and fell chaotically as my body rejected the emotion coursing through me. It was like what little faith I had started to build back up in men and relationships had shattered, the sharp edges stabbing through whatever parts of me it could reach.

  Emily ran her hands up and down my arms, attempting to sooth me as I fell apart in front of her. Of course something had happened only days after I had finally let myself give in to the way I was feeling for him. He had warned me, after all. Hadn't his exact words been that he'd fuck it up sooner or later? The lack of faith he had in himself had been a self-fulfilling prophecy, screwing it up at the slightest provocation from me because he thought he would.

  "I don't know, hun, I'm so sorry. He's obviously just an asshole if he's gonna pull that shit," she said, trying to soothe me despite not fully understanding what was going on. Not that I did, either.

  "You tried, Abigail. Maybe it's just one of those things you can't fix," she continued. My hands rose to wipe angrily at the tears on my cheeks, the waves of conflicting emotions rolling through me so quickly it was hard to adapt. Pain, anger, hatred, jealousy, fury, hurt, betrayal, and more pain flashed through me so quickly I felt like I was going to throw up.

  Once, I could forgive. Twice, I could forgive. But three times, with one of my friends, I couldn't; I especially couldn't because I knew for a fact he'd done it to spite me for the smallest of offenses. It may have started out as unwanted, but as soon as he'd realized she had no idea about us, he had turned it into something malicious. I choked another sob out before wiping my tears again. I refused to be the victim again; I had done nothing wrong, and I didn't deserve this.

  "You're right," I told Emily, my voice shaky from the sudden burst of crying. "He's a fucking prick and he's not getting away with this."

  Emily looked taken aback by my sudden mood change, the pitiful crying subsiding as a burning anger flooded through me. My tears stopped falling as I took a deep breath, determined to get my emotions under control.

  "What are you gonna do?" she asked, her eyes wide with what could only be pride.

  "I don't know, but I need to do something," I said, running my hand through my hair. "Do I look like I've been crying?"

  "Um, yeah, but here..." she said, grimacing before stepping forward and rubbing her fingers under my eyes, wiping away the make up that had surely smeared onto my skin. "Okay that's better. Now you just look pissed."

  "I am," I said, a furious determination the only thing that kept me from falling apart again. She nodded curtly at me.

  "Give him hell, Abigail," she said fiercely. I nodded and turned on the spot, marching straight back into the party to do what, I didn't know. Something. Anything for him to know he hadn't broken me, even though he had.

  I received more than a few startled looks as I stormed through the party, people parting for me easily as I shoved my way through anyone in my way. The anger radiating off me made it much easier to get to the stairs, and I reached them in a fraction of the time it had taken the first time. I didn't know if Emily was following me or not, but there was nothing that could slow me down.

  I reached the bottom of the stairs and it felt like a searing hot knife stabbed through my chest as I laid eyes on them. I shook my hands at my sides to keep myself orientated, determined not to cry in front of him. Again, people parted for me as I stalked through the party, my pace quick and furious as I approached. They were facing
each other, his hands once again at his sides as she stood on her tiptoes to try and reach his ear.

  Funny now that I was gone he seemed to have become bored with his game, proving once again he'd only done it to hurt me.

  Neither of them saw me until I was less than a foot away, my mind still undecided what I was going to but my body taking control. I surprised myself when my hands roughly grabbed his arm, jerking him forward to face me. Before I could stop myself, my hands were clamped around his face, pulling roughly so he ducked his head to my level before I crashed my lips into his. The kiss was hard, unfeeling, and cold as I held his lips to mine for a few seconds, his chest pushing against mine.

  He looked shocked when I pulled back, the look on his face one of pure bewilderment as he tried to understand why I'd just done that. The tiny flash of hope I saw cross his face quickly flickered out as I opened my mouth and spoke.

  "We're done, Reece."

  With that, I turned on the spot, my hands dropping from his face in a split second as I fled from him. My gait was smooth and fast as I made my way through the crowd, and I stopped myself from looking back and seeing his reaction. In the back of my mind, I heard someone shout an obnoxious 'oooooh' as I ran up the stairs, determined to put as much space between Reece and I as possible.

  I hadn't even been aware I was going to do that until his lips were on mine, the motivation behind it confusing as I stalked out of the party and down the sidewalk. As much as I wished I could have seen his reaction, and Lauren's, for that matter, I was proud of myself for not looking back. Surely it would have broken me all over again.

  I had made it nearly two blocks, my body numb and my mind absolutely shredding itself as I moved automatically. How had a night that was supposed to go so well ended up so terribly? How had Reece and I gone from a promising start to crashing and burning in one night? There was no way he could defend his actions, because I knew there was nothing I had done to deserve that. It was clear to me now that he was just as much of an asshole as he claimed to be, despite successfully convincing me previously that there was something more to him.