Every muscle in my body locks up tight just hearing his name. I haven’t been this close to him since the morning after the night he found his way into my bedroom. Yeah, I’ve seen him around school and in classes, but he’s mostly kept his head down. I can only assume that’s got something to do with his new living accommodation. I can’t forget about the fact that in only hours, he’s going to be moving into my house.
His eyes find mine and a shudder runs down my spine. How the hell are we going to survive each other living under the same roof?
“Yeah well, I couldn’t let you fuckers party without me as well. Who’s got the good stuff?” Prying his eyes away from mine, he glances around the room.
I spin on the spot, reaching for another shot and downing it instantly. I don’t even feel the burn like I did with the previous two.
My head spins but I welcome the distraction. The sensible thing to do right now would be to call an Uber and leave, but something tells me to stay. Some fucked up part of me wants to experience this party and all it has to offer. I tell myself that’s got nothing to do with the guy who’s just entered, but I’m not so sure that’s true. I’m desperate to know why he bailed on tonight’s game but is seemingly okay to turn up here ready to drink.
A shiver runs down my spine seconds before his scent fills my nose. I suck in a deep breath and hold it, not knowing what’s about to happen.
“Why the fuck are you wasting this stuff on the likes of her?” Disdain drips from his words, making Amalie’s mouth drop open and the muscle in Jake’s neck pulsate.
“Play nice,” Jake barks. “Hopefully this will chill you the fuck out.” He hands Mason a shot.
He lifts it in the air as if he’s going to make some big speech, but when he doesn’t say anything, I stupidly look over my shoulder. His eyes find mine and they hold for a second too long, his dark ones becoming almost black as something unpleasant crackles between us.
Every dread I had about what we’ve got to come once he moves in quadruples in those few seconds before he drags his eyes away and downs his shot. The muscles in his neck ripple as he swallows, and I hate myself for not being able to look away.
“I need more than that.”
Jake sets about fulfilling Mason’s request to get steaming drunk as the song booming from the speakers in the other room changes.
“Come on, let’s dance.” Amalie grabs my hand and drags me away to where we can see a makeshift dance floor.
“Did someone say dance?” Zayn calls. I look back to see him bouncing toward us like an overexcited puppy, but the heated stare coming from behind him that burns into me soon catches my attention.
I knew coming here was a bad idea. It’s a real shame that I’m already too drunk to really care or do anything about it.
Amalie drags me in front of her, and, with our hands locked together, we start moving to the music. Zayn comes up behind me, places his hands on my hips and joins in. I should push him away. I should be thinking about Noah, but in that moment, all I think about and feel is the beat of the music pounding through me and the way my body moves.
One song blurs into another. Zayn continues to grind behind me, and eventually I feel Amalie move away from me. When I drag my eyes open I understand why when Jake pulls her back into him and they move smoothly together.
My heart aches as I stare at them so in sync, so connected, so in love. Whereas I’m here dancing with a guy I barely like and no idea where my actual boyfriend is.
The thought is sobering at best, and after detaching myself from Zayn, I head back to where the alcohol was. The tequila bottle is laying empty on the counter, so I’m forced to take a beer when someone offers it to me.
“Careful who you take drinks from. You don’t know who’s been here before.” I look up to find a junior with a smirk on his face. “Oh, that’s right. Shane’s not here.”
“Shane didn’t do that,” I seethe. “He’s not like that.”
“Facts speak for themselves though, don’t you think.”
“Fuck you.”
The guy’s eyes widen slightly but he doesn’t respond, instead grabbing two cups of his own and stalking from the kitchen.
With two cups in hand, I lean against the wall and watch the bodies dancing and gyrating against each other. Some of the scantily clad girls from outside seem to have appeared and are hanging off most of the football team, hoping to get lucky. Seeing all the bare skin makes me realize that the cheer team are nowhere to be seen. I can’t believe they’d miss one of Ethan’s parties.
Someone walking through one of the many doors that leads to the garden catches my eyes.
“Noah?” I ask, even though he’s too far away and the music’s too loud for him to hear me. My brows draw together as he sways his way toward me, looking three sheets to the wind already. So much for him not coming, it seems he’s been partying for quite some time.
He doesn’t say anything as he steps up to me. Instead he wraps his hand around the back of my neck and pulls my lips to his. He’s forceful in a way I’ve never experienced before, but I put it down to the alcohol and allow myself to melt into him.
His other hand grips my hip as his tongue delves into my mouth. The taste of strong alcohol explodes on my taste buds, and that’s saying something because I’ve had enough now to make the world spin around me.
I must have somehow managed to get the cups I was holding onto the table beside me, because the next thing I know, I’m back on the dance floor moving against Noah. My body follows orders but for some reason my brain screams that I shouldn’t be doing this.
Why isn’t it as fun as when I was dancing with Zayn?
I look up to find Noah’s kind eyes in the hope it’ll settle whatever is going on in my head, but I don’t make it that far. Instead my gaze falls on Chelsea and her team’s grand entrance. I stifle a giggle because she can only be so grand while hobbling along on two crutches. The image of Jake pushing her from the stage at Homecoming fills my mind, and my previous laugh falls from my lips. It really was a fall from grace for our queen bitch.
Flanking her sides is Tasha and Shelly followed by the rest of the team. Everyone but Chelsea is only dressed in their bikinis, and water droplets from the pool glisten under the spotlights.
There’s a lull in the noise level as they enter, exactly as Chelsea would want it, and almost every set of eyes turn their way. Breasts get pushed out and hair is flipped over shoulders. It’s really quite a sight to behold, and it only makes me glad I never pursued wanting to be a member of the team. When I was seven or eight, I thought it would be a great idea, especially because it would keep me close to Mason, but it wasn’t long before I discovered that I wasn’t the kind of girl that belonged on the squad. I don’t care all that much about my appearance and I certainly have no intention of sleeping my way around the entire class, evidenced by my intact virginity. I wonder briefly if that’s what Noah’s intensity tonight is about. Is he hoping that I’ll get drunk tonight and give it up? Well, if that’s the case, he can think again. I’ve got too many questions running around my head about him to do that. Until I can get Mason’s warning from repeating in my mind that most definitely isn’t happening. I don’t care how blue his balls are.
I follow the squad’s progress as they make their way through the room. A couple drop off to find their boyfriends or the guys they’re dating, but Chelsea seems to have a destination in mind because she doesn’t stop hopping until she reaches it.
Oh fuck.
Mason.
He’s standing at the edge of the room watching everyone, much like I was a few moments ago, but the crowd hid him from me.
Chelsea somehow manages to maneuver herself so she’s pressed right up against him while Shelly takes his other side. It leaves Tasha standing somewhat awkwardly in front of the trio. She hovers for a few seconds in her skimpy red bikini before looking over her shoulder and directly behind me. Noah noticeably tenses as their eyes meet. Mine narrow at her but at no point does she look
at me before she flicks her hair over her shoulder and saunters off.
I should say something. I should accuse him after letting him off so easily at his birthday, and with the alcohol fueling my thoughts I’m just about to—that is until Chelsea frees one of her hands and threads it into Mason’s hair. His body stills for a beat like he’s not really all that happy about her attention. He glances up and our eyes collide. I shouldn’t be watching this car crash, and that one look he gives me really shouldn’t hit like a baseball bat to the chest, but I’m powerless to pull my eyes away as an evil smirk appears on his lips before he lowers his head and gives Chelsea exactly what she wants.
My stomach turns over, threatening to expel the alcohol sloshing around in it as even from here I watch his tongue slide in her mouth.
Suddenly I’m fourteen again and I’m watching my best friend, the boy who gave me my first kiss, flaunting how much he hates me in public. Anger bubbles within me, my veins turning red as lava fills them, and I spin in Noah’s arms.
Concern twists his features. He watched every moment of what happened just like I did, but also unlike me, he’s not questioning any of it. It’s because he’s covering something up, a voice screams in my head, but at this moment, I ignore her.
Reaching up on my tiptoes, I find his lips and kiss him as eagerly as I was just subjected to watch Chelsea kiss Mason.
My heart pounds, my temperature increases, but it’s got nothing to do with Noah and everything to do with him and what he may or not be doing behind me.
I’m still kissing Noah when I drag my eyes open, and to my shock I find his wide and staring over my shoulder.
Is he watching us?
Breaking away, I drag some much needed air into my lungs. I wait what I think is a suitable amount of time, but in reality, I’m drunk as fuck and it could be immediately that I look over my shoulder to find what, or who, has his interest.
There’s no one there.
I scan the room, but I can’t see Mason, Chelsea, Shelly or Tasha anywhere.
Noah’s phone vibrates in his pocket between us. I look back to him as he pulls it out. His eyes are swimming with desire, but there’s also something else in their depths that I’m too far gone to decipher.
“It’s one of the guys wanting to know where I am. I’ll be back. Get us a drink, yeah?”
Then as quick as he appeared, he’s gone, disappeared into the crowd, leaving me standing alone with my chest heaving and my head spinning with confusion and anger.
What the hell just happened?
Not wanting to stand like a loner, I walk toward the drinks and grab myself another beer—not that I need it. My previous drinks are swirling around my stomach and making my head spin pretty bad. I’ve been drunk before, but I don’t remember my surroundings moving quite this much.
I drink the beer faster than I intended as I try to find someone I actually like, but I come up short. The only person I spot that I know and would possibly talk to is Ethan, but he’s otherwise engaged with the three—yes three—girls he’s dancing with and molesting. They’re lapping up his attention as they practically strip him naked on the couch.
He must realize he’s got another’s attention because he looks up and finds me staring.
“Always room for another, Cam-Cam.” He opens his arms wide as if trying to prove his point, but all it achieves is making my feet move faster.
With my need for the toilet starting to get the better of me, I go in search of a bathroom. I find a huge line for the one in this floor, but knowing just how big this house is I know there’s more.
I just about manage to put one foot in front of the other to climb the stairs, and with the help of the gold handrail I eventually stumble into the second floor hallway.
“Jesus,” I mutter as I stare down the long hall that’s lined with doors.
There are a few people up here, most kissing and stumbling toward what they’re hoping are empty bedrooms.
Ignoring them, I set out on my quest. Avoiding any doors that are shut, fearing what I might find behind them, I go for the open ones. I get an eyeful when I poke my head into a couple that I was not expecting, and even the ginormous family bathroom has a couple going at it on the tiled floor, but eventually, right at the end I find an empty bedroom with what looks like an en suite.
Breathing a sigh of relief, I stumble into the room, managing to catch my toe on the corner of the bed and face planting the floor.
“Ow,” I complain, trying to grab my toe to inspect the damage but not managing to find it.
Giving up, I crawl to the door at the other end of the room.
My fingers don’t want to follow instruction and it takes me about a year to pop the button on my jeans and shimmy them down my legs. But eventually I manage to do my business. I have no idea how long I sit there for, but when a noise sounds in the bedroom I just came through, I can’t be sure I didn’t fall asleep a little bit.
I manage to get my jeans up without making friends with the floor and step from the room when the two people that crashed inside become clear.
“Mason?”
14
Mason
I know the second I walk into Ethan’s back garden that this is a bad idea. The cheer team are slutting it up in the pool—well, all but Chelsea, who’s sulking with a drink on a lounger seeing as she can’t get her cast wet.
They all shout for me to join them as well as questions about where I was tonight. Ignoring them in favor of drinking everything about my life away, I go in search of the alcohol. I know Ethan’s house well, and if something doesn’t get placed in my hand the second I walk into the kitchen then I’ll go and find my own. His dad might think his office is secure, but the three of us know differently.
She’s the only person I see when I walk into that kitchen, and damn her because the second I look into her eyes and see just how drunk she is, my need to get obliterated is overtaken by my stupid need to protect her. It’s been four years. At what point can I actually stop caring?
I take the shot that Jake hands me, but after we watch both Amalie and Camila leave the room, I refuse any more. Jake doesn’t question it. He knows I like to stay sober in case my brothers need me.
The whole night is a waste of fucking time, but it only gets worse when I stumble across Camila with her fucking boyfriend. Their hips grind together in time with the music like I’m sure they’ve done a million times before. My fingers twitch to rip her away from him for ever getting to touch her like that. They’ve been together for years now, I’m sure he’s well acquainted with her body. My lips curl in disgust that someone else has been able to explore what should have been mine.
Because my life isn’t already bad enough, I stay exactly where I am, leaning against the wall watching them. It’s fucking torture but no less than I deserve.
The second the noise level dips and the sea of people in front of me part, I know I’m in trouble. Chelsea’s eyes lock onto mine, and like a lion stalking her prey, she hops over to me.
Something burns down my spine as she gets closer, and a glance over her shoulder confirms that I’ve managed to get Camila’s attention.
Happy to flaunt your cheating boyfriend in my face? I can do better.
Chelsea’s a slut, almost all the cheer squad are, but she’s one I’ve only had a few ‘moments’ with seeing as prior to Amalie’s appearance, she only had eyes for Jake. Since he’s now quite obviously taken, she seems to have set her sights on me. I, however, have no intention of receiving anything from her aside from the odd blow job if she really insists because damn, she’s fucking good at them. Must be all the practice she’s had.
I’m not proud of my actions, but with Camila’s stare burning into me, I slam my lips down on Chelsea’s. I regret it the second her sickly sweet perfume fills my nose and her fake ass nails dig into my skin.
It’s worth it for all of a second when I see the mortified look on Camila’s face. But that second is soon over because she firmly plant
s her lips on that motherfucker’s, and I’m forced to watch him kiss her while he stares longingly across the room at Tasha.
Anger has my body trembling. My need to go and rip him from her and rearrange his face again is strong. But she chose not to believe me the last time, so why should I waste the energy in trying to show her what he really is?
Instead, I rip myself away from both Chelsea and Shelly, who’s now joining in and rubbing my cock through my jeans, and storm from the room. I leave Chelsea sulking behind me but Shelly must decide it’s her turn for a bit of one on one time because she follows me.
I need a drink, but the last thing I want is to not be aware of what I’m doing right now. I’ve made plenty of bad decisions in my life, but I don’t want tonight to be one of them.
I walk around the house hoping to find Jake and Amalie while Shelly follows me like a lost fucking puppy. It’s sad, really fucking sad, but I allow her to trail me thinking that I might be able to make use of her.
The moment I see Camila attempting to climb the stairs, I realize that she could be about to come in very handy.
“You wanna head upstairs?” Shelly’s eyes light up like I’ve just offered her my lottery win, but I don’t feel bad about using her weakness. I’m probably saving her from one of the assholes down here who’ll really use her if she gives them half the chance.
Taking her hand, I pull her up the stairs, making sure I stop to find an empty room, but I know the one I want. Ethan’s is right at the end of the hall and everyone knows it’s off limits. Everyone aside from the person I’ve just seen disappear inside.
“Mase, we can’t, that’s Eth—” Case in point about his room being off limits.
“I’m his best friend. The rules don’t apply, baby.” My stomach turns with saying those words to her, and to make my point, I tilt her head up and kiss her as I back her into the room. She soon sags against me, willing to give me everything I want.
I worry about Chelsea and her squad of hussies. They’re going to get themselves into some serious trouble one day if they continue being so free and easy.
PAINE: ROSEWOOD HIGH #2 Page 10