They giggled. “Or what.”
When I finally looked over at their unanimous answer, I found myself staring at triplets. Fucking triplets. Brown-haired, doe-eyed beauties with massive tits and beautiful hips. One of them wore nothing but a bikini. Another one wore a long shirt and knee high socks with her boots. The last one was clad in glasses with her hair pulled back. Definitely nailing the librarian sort of look.
“Want a drink, ladies?” I asked.
The one in the bikini stepped up. “Actually, I want to challenge you!”
The crowd roared and all the guys shoved their way to the front. My eyebrows rose as she giggled, but her giggle wasn’t quite like Rae’s. It was harsher, with a snort at the end. Not light and airy and carefree, like Rae’s. Still, I ushered her up to the front and gave her the benefit of the doubt. I knew girls that could drink. No use in denying her a shot to drink me under the table.
Which I knew would never happen.
She smiled before taking her first shot. Then another. She chugged back a beer before wiping her spindly little lips. Then she handed me a beer and picked one up for herself before nodding her head. Silently counting down from five.
And when she hit one…
“Go!” she exclaimed.
The bottle hit my lips and I tilted my head back. And as I drowned my sorrows in cheap-ass college-town beer, Rae’s words spun through my head. I didn’t want anyone else but her. I didn’t want another girl in my life. But she’d obviously been thinking about life after me.
That was painfully clear from her words.
I mean, she’d said it. Just like that. She’d taken care of herself and protected herself before me, and she’d do it after I was gone. Those were her words. She saw a life after me, and I didn’t see a life after her. I saw a future with her. But nothing else. I didn’t see my life without Rae in it. Without her love, and her support, and her beauty, and her intelligence, and her help, and her body.
I hadn’t once considered the idea of being with anyone but her.
But she had apparently considered it.
You didn’t give her enough romance.
I slammed the beer bottle down and found the girl staring at me.
“Took you long enough, handsome.”
You didn’t give her enough space when she needed it.
She handed me a shot and I threw it back.
“Looks like he enjoys his tequila!”
Maybe your cock isn’t good enough anymore.
She placed a snack in my hand and I threw it back.
“Ready for round two?”
Maybe she just doesn’t love you anymore because you're a pathetic loser with no future and no college degree and no aspirations like she has.
I hiccupped as I reached for another drink. Any drink. Whatever drink someone had for me.
“Five, four, three, two, one!”
Just drink until you don’t care anymore. It’ll happen. It always did before.
And as I tipped the disgusting wine cooler up to my lips, the voice in my head finally got drowned out. I stumbled backward, my hand catching me against the bar as I opened my throat. I let it slide down, mingling with the chips and the cheese and the crackers. Trying to find anything else to focus on.
Like the churning force inside my stomach reach to protest my actions.
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