“Oh.” I shake my head, desperate for distance. I can’t tell him the real reason I need to get away, so I wave him off. “That’s all right. I’ll find him on my own. It’s not a big deal.”
His mouth flattens into a thin line. “No one said it was. But I’m still coming with you.” He places his hand against the small of my back and nudges me forward. “Let’s go.”
His touch sends a little zip of electricity scuttling across my spine. It’s the strangest sensation.
Reed isn’t going to take no for an answer, so I don’t bother to argue. It’s easier to give in. As soon as I find Tyler, Reed and I can part ways. I wince as those uncharacteristic thoughts circle through my head. I can’t believe I’m thinking like this, but there’s a weird tension throwing off our vibe tonight.
For the next fifteen minutes, Reed and I search the first floor of the rambling Alpha Delta Phi house. People are packed into every nook and cranny making this impromptu game of hide-and-seek more challenging. They’re playing pool in the library, flip cup in the kitchen, and beer pong in the dining room.
When we don’t find Tyler inside the house, we check the backyard where the party has spilled out. People are sitting around a bonfire in lawn chairs drinking and laughing. By the skunky scent permeating the air, my guess is that more than cigarettes are being smoked. Pockets of students are scattered throughout the yard, but still, there’s no sign of Tyler.
My lips purse with annoyance.
If he changed plans at the last minute, the least he could have done was give me a heads up so I don’t waste my time. This isn’t the first time Tyler has flaked on me. Normally, it doesn’t bother me. I’ve made it perfectly clear that we’re not attached at the hip.
If I’m being honest, my irritation with Ty has more to do with the strange emotions Reed has stirred up tonight. Whatever is going on between us, I don’t like it. And the way Reed’s hand is pressed against the small of my back, it’s as if his palm is burning a hole through the fabric of my dress. I’m intensely aware of it—and him—like never before. It leaves me feeling skittish and unsure of myself.
Reed’s warm breath feathers across my neck, sending an avalanche of shivers cascading through my body.
“We’ve searched everywhere else, might as well look upstairs,” he rumbles near my ear. “But I’m telling you this, if he’s not there, we’re forgetting about him. Tyler can fuck himself for all I care.”
“Ummm…”
Normally, that’s exactly what I would do. Like hell I’m going to sit around and wait for a guy. But right now, finding Tyler feels imperative.
“If your boyfriend can’t be bothered to show up when he says he will, then maybe he shouldn’t be your boyfriend.”
My tongue darts out to smudge my lips.
When I fail to respond, he continues impatiently. “Come on, then we’re done wasting our time.” Reed prods my back and I throw a glance over my shoulder. My breath gets clogged in my throat as our eyes lock and hold.
Tyler.
I need to stay focused on the guy I’m dating.
I yank my gaze from Reed’s and stare straight ahead, allowing him to direct me inside the house again. Silently, we retrace our steps through the first floor but still, there’s no sign of Ty. When Brinley and I had walked over earlier, we passed several parties along the way. My guess is that he stopped off at one of them.
It takes effort to push our way to the front of the house where there’s a curved staircase that leads to the second floor. People stop Reed along the way, touching his shoulder, fist bumping him, but he remains undeterred.
Partygoers hang out in small clumps along the stretch of hallway making it nearly impossible to pass through. We peek our heads inside all of the open bedrooms, searching for Tyler, but he remains elusive. The last two doors at the far end of the hall are closed. Once we reach them, Reed twists the handle of the first door. Since it’s not locked, it springs open easily. He hits the light switch on the wall and the room is bathed in brightness.
I release a pent-up breath when we find the space empty. Reed closes the door again and jerks his head toward the last room. By this point, I no longer care about locating Ty. He’s obviously not at the Alpha Delta Phi house. And I don’t feel like wasting any more time. I’m going to head downstairs and find Brinley.
Eventually Tyler will turn up.
Or not.
Tonight was supposed to be about spending time with Brin, not playing a game of Where’s Waldo with Ty.
Before I can tell Reed not to bother, he grabs the handle and turns it. Like the previous one, the door springs open easily. He flips the light switch on the wall and I blink as my eyes adjust to the illumination of the room.
And just like that, the floor drops out from beneath my feet.
Tyler is lying on the middle of the queen-sized bed with a girl hunched over his crotch. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what’s going on. If there were any doubts, the loud slurping sounds would be a dead giveaway.
Not to mention the rhythmic head bobbing.
Ty doesn’t immediately notice that he has an audience. His eyes are squeezed shut and his fingers are buried in her long mane of dirty blond hair.
I gasp and slap a hand over my mouth.
The sound sends him jack-knifing into a sitting position as his eyes fly open. Our gazes collide as he swears under his breath and shoves the girl off his dick, quickly tucking his erection back into his cargo shorts.
The blonde who had been sucking him off twists around and studies us with wide, unfocused eyes. Even though she’s topless, she seems strangely unconcerned by her lack of clothing or the people who have gathered in the hallway behind us and are now craning their necks to see what’s going on.
Averting my gaze seems like the polite thing to do, except I can’t stop staring. She’s like a horrific traffic accident I’m unable to look away from.
“Hey,” she slurs, narrowing her eyes. “You’re Reed Philips!” She licks her swollen lips and grins. Red lipstick is smeared around her mouth giving her a clownish appearance. “Want a blowie?”
A snarl erupts from Reed’s chest before he explodes. “Motherfucker!”
And then all hell breaks loose. I squeak as Reed lunges toward the bed. Tyler’s eyes widen as he rolls from the mattress and lands unsteadily on his feet. He throws his hands up as if that’s going to stop the freight train barreling down the tracks at him.
“Hey man,” he shrieks, “it’s not what it looks like!”
A gurgle of laughter bubbles up in my throat.
Well, that’s good. Because it kind of looks like he was getting his dick sucked by a chick who is not his girlfriend.
Before I can yell for Reed to stop, he grabs Tyler by the shirtfront, pulls back his arm, and slams his fist into my boyfriend’s eye.
Make that ex-boyfriend.
I wince as Tyler grunts. “Fuck, man! Take it easy! It was just a blowjob.”
Reed’s face turns a deep shade of purple as his temper skyrockets. If Tyler had any brains whatsoever, he would keep his trap shut. It’s only been a minute and already his eye is puffing up. He’ll have one hell of a shiner in the morning. Not that he doesn’t deserve it, but violence makes me queasy.
Ty licks his lips as his eyes dart from me to an irate Reed and then to the people gawking in the hallway. “I didn’t mean for it to happen. It was—”
Please don’t say it was an accident! Like this girl tripped and fell on your penis.
With her mouth.
“It was an accident,” he finishes lamely.
Now that the shock of the situation has worn off, I bite out, “That’s bullshit, Ty.” I wave my hand toward the half-naked girl perched on the bed. Oh my God, why doesn’t she get dressed? “This was not an accident. This was intentional.”
Unable to look at her for another moment in her sad state, I grab her wrinkled shirt from the bed and yank it over her head before helping her shove her arms through the holes. She may
not have a bra on, but at least her boobs aren’t hanging out for everyone to ogle. Maybe I shouldn’t give a damn, but she’s obviously too drunk to realize that people are gawking as they snap photos she’ll regret in the morning.
“We’re through, Ty,” I mutter.
How did this night go from being one that was full of possibilities to total shit? I rub my temples wanting to get out of here.
“Aw, come on, babe,” he whines. “It was just a blowjob.” He glares at the blonde. “And not a very good one either.”
“That’s not what you said a couple of minutes ago,” drunk girl pipes up.
Tyler presses his lips together and ignores her.
I shake my head. “Sorry, no.”
“Em, please—”
“No!” I snap, disgusted with him for thinking that I’d let his cheating slide. “We’re over!”
He throws his arms wide as his eyes darken with frustration. “What the hell do you expect me to do when you won’t put out?” His mouth twists into an ugly slash as he snarls, “I should have known better than to date a virgin. It’s too much fucking work!”
The room goes silent.
Maybe it’s the party that has gone silent.
The only sound I’m aware of is the thumping of my heartbeat as it fills my ears. A strangled noise emanates from deep in my throat before erupting from my lips.
Reed freezes before turning in a slow arc to gape at me as if I’ve grown a horn on my head.
Or a hymen in my nether region.
Heat floods my cheeks. I silently pray the floor will open up beneath my feet and swallow me whole. I can’t take the humiliation of all these people staring at me like I’m an oddity.
Anyone who’s still a virgin at twenty-one years of age has to be a weirdo, right? I mean, there must be something seriously wrong with them. A condition or deformity they’re trying to keep under wraps.
What other explanation could there be?
“Em?” Reed whispers hoarsely, breaking the hush that has fallen over the crowd.
I open my mouth to deny the allegation but nothing comes out. It’s as if I’m being choked from the inside out. Instead of holding my head up high and proudly owning my virginity, I spin around and push my way through the mass of bodies that have gathered in the room and hallway, fleeing the scene of the crime.
As soon as I do, voices explode around me.
Laughter follows.
Even after I slam through the front door, it continues to ring in my ears.
Chapter Five
Reed
There is no way Emerson’s a virgin.
It’s just not possible.
The girl is a senior in college and completely gorgeous. She’s had a number of boyfriends since high school. Maybe she didn’t lose her virginity at sixteen like I did, but she lost it somewhere along the way.
Right?
Em and I have been best friends for seven years. Wouldn’t I know if she was a virgin? Wouldn’t she have confided something like that in me?
But she never said a damn word.
It’s not like the two of us sit around swapping sex stories. Actually, sex is the one subject we don’t discuss. The last thing I want to hear about are how other guys are screwing her and I sure as hell don’t want to regale her with my own sexcapades.
I focus on the space she had just been occupying before shaking my head to clear it. Then I swear under my breath and throw another punch at Tyler. A satisfying amount of blood spurts from his nose and drips onto his pink polo shirt.
He’s a fucking douche canoe for embarrassing Emerson like this.
Instead of sticking around and kicking Tyler’s ass, I decide to find Em and make sure she’s all right. Tyler sure as hell isn’t going to do it. He’s too busy whining about his nose. He doesn’t give a fuck about her. Probably never did. He was looking for one thing and I’m glad he didn’t get it from her.
Damn, but I’m tempted to hit him again.
One last time for the road.
“Fuck, dude,” Tyler complains, sounding nasally as he holds his nose with both hands. It doesn’t stop the blood from dripping. “That was totally unnecessary.”
“The hell it was!” I growl. “I’d be happy to inflict more damage but you’re not worth it.”
I shake out my hand and glare at the gathered crowd as it spills into the room. People are snapping photos with their cell phones. By the morning, they’ll be plastered all over Instagram and Snapchat.
I’m glad Em took off and isn’t around to see this.
“So, about that blowie,” the drunk blonde slurs, still sitting on the bed.
Ignoring her, I take a menacing step toward Tyler and stab a finger at his chest. He stiffens but doesn’t back away.
“Stay the hell away from Emerson. She doesn’t want anything to do with you.”
He sneers through the blood dripping down his face. “This is exactly what you wanted, isn’t it, Philips? How long have you been waiting to get in her pants? Guess you’ve got your opportunity now, don’t you?”
I shove him back a step. “Fuck off.”
“Whatever.”
I give him one final push before walking out of the room and maneuvering my way through the narrow hallway and down the staircase. Word that a fight has broken out has spread through the party like wildfire. Everyone is moving en masse like a herd of cattle to the second floor to get a firsthand look.
Once I reach the landing of the staircase, I pause and search the crowd for Emerson’s dark head. Panic fills me when I don’t find her. I should have taken off right away instead of letting my temper get the best of me.
“Goddamn it!” I drag a hand through my hair and head for the front door. If I know Em—and I do—she’ll want to put as much distance between herself and this party as possible. I certainly can’t blame her for that. I just wish she wouldn’t have left without me. She shouldn’t be walking around alone at eleven o’clock on a Friday night. Southern is a fairly safe campus, but incidents happen.
As soon as I hit the sidewalk, I scan the street and huff out a breath when I see her familiar figure striding in the direction of her apartment building.
Thank fuck!
It takes less than a minute for me to catch up to her. Even in the darkness, her face is heated and her lips are set in a grim line. There aren’t any tears in sight which is a relief. If there’s one thing I can’t stand, its female tears. They make me feel as helpless as a newborn baby. I’m rendered useless in the face of them, never quite sure how to make the situation better.
With her black heels dangling from one hand, she ignores me as I pull alongside her and slow my pace. Now that I’ve found her, my mind goes blank. What the hell am I supposed to say?
An awkward silence falls over us and I clear my throat wanting to banish it. “How many times have I told you not to walk around alone at night?” I pause before adding, “It’s dangerous.”
Emerson snorts but doesn’t stop. If anything, she hastens her pace as if trying to shake me loose which isn’t going to happen. Em is almost a foot shorter than I am and doesn’t have nearly as long of a stride. I could walk circles around her in my sleep and we both know it.
The sound of her breathing fills my ears until it’s all I’m cognizant of.
I wrack my brain for a way to ease into the whole virgin conversation, but my mind remains empty. We’re best friends. Em and I can talk about almost anything. This shouldn’t be difficult. And yet, I’m reeling.
It may not be any of my business, but I have to know.
“Is it true?” I pause as her breath hitches. It’s just a small sound, but in the quietness that has settled around us, it feels deafening. “Is what Tyler said true?”
Chapter Six
Emerson
I wince and jerk my shoulders in response.
The one person I didn’t want to find out I was a virgin, has now—thanks to Tyler’s big mouth—discovered my secret. Kill me now and put me
out of my misery before this gets any worse. I’d rather yank my own teeth out than have this conversation with Reed.
Maybe if I refuse to answer, he’ll get the hint and drop the topic.
Reed’s voice softens and even though I stare straight ahead, his gaze burns a hole through me. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Seriously?
What was I supposed to say? Hey, you’re never going to believe this but… Or…you know how people get together and put the P to the V? Well…
Give me a break.
I stop short and swing around to face him. My hands are balled tightly at my sides. There’s no reason for me to be angry with Reed, but I’m inexplicably pissed off at him.
Is it too much to ask that he leave me alone to lick my wounds in private?
Haven’t I suffered enough humiliation for one night without having to explain myself?
To Reed, no less, who has probably worked his way through half the girls at Southern.
It’s just a little too much to deal with at the moment.
And to think, I could have stayed home and binge watched something on Netflix. Instead, I allowed Brinley to cajole me into attending one of the biggest parties of the year.
Reed’s footsteps falter as I glare at him. We’re far enough away from Greek Street, where the majority of fraternity and sorority houses are lined, that the sounds of revelry can barely be heard in the distance. Even in the darkness, his eyes pierce mine, searching for answers I’d rather not give.
“What do you want me to say?” I mutter.
“The truth.”
I groan and glance away. “Why does it matter?”
The state of my virginity has nothing to do with Reed. It’s none of his business. Just like his sex life is none of mine.
Does he really think I’m oblivious to the gossip that surrounds him?
Of course I’m not.
Do I run back and ask uncomfortable questions?
Hell no. It would be great if he could give me the same consideration I give him.
Instead of backing off, Reed snags my fingers with his own. His hand is so much larger that it swallows mine up. “It just does.”
Just Friends Page 3