He slings his arm around my shoulder. “How great is it to go to a party and not worry about seeing Dave’s ugly fat face.”
I shiver, recalling the first time I met Dave at a party, when he wouldn’t take no for an answer. I’m definitely glad he’s not here.
“You look like you’re having fun,” Annalisa tells him, dodging the splash of beer from his cup when he turns to face her.
“Yeah, but you guys don’t. Why are you all such Debbie Downers over here?”
Annalisa glares at him but doesn’t answer, and I shrug off his arm since it’s starting to get kind of heavy.
“We’re not Debbie Downers.” I defend us, secretly glad that maybe old Mason is back, and that the regular tension present whenever Mason and I are around each other is finally starting to lessen.
“You so are! Come on, k-bear! You used to be fun! But then you get in a secret fight with Aiden that no one will talk about and you become a downer. Let’s go get in on the beer pong action in the kitchen!”
Before I can even process what he said, he’s pulling me along with him and I have no choice but to comply. As we’re walking to the kitchen, we pass the living room, where I easily spot Aiden. He’s with Julian talking to some of Erin’s friends, and my heart squeezes with longing and hurt.
Almost as if he senses me, he turns his head and his intense gray eyes narrow in on me, and it’s suddenly like the world has converted into slow motion. His eyes are unreadable as they study my face, but then lock on my hand in Mason’s as he leads me past the room. His eyes stay locked there until we pass the living room, and suddenly the world speeds up again to regular time, and I feel like I can release the breath I didn’t know I was holding.
“Hey, Trey!” Mason calls to some guy in the kitchen. “Me and my girl wanna take you up on that beer pong challenge!”
I do a double take. My girl? He better mean “my girl” in the way I call Annalisa my girl, and not in the way Aiden calls me his girl.
Or I guess called me. Past tense.
We end up losing beer pong, badly. Apparently, drunk Mason has zero aim, and I’m useless once I feel Aiden burning a hole in the back of my head after he comes into the room. He’s making me nervous. All I can think about is him. He’s in the corner talking to some guys, but I feel his eyes on me, his face as stoic and unreadable as the day I met him.
I can’t take this anymore. I can’t bear the thought of him treating me like he did when he first met me, even if I deserve it.
I’m walking through the crowd of people to go talk to him when I see him put his phone to his ear, and a flash of annoyance and anger crosses his face before it’s neutral again. He leaves the room, still talking on the phone, and I stop trying to get to him, feeling my whole body deflate.
I don’t think he even noticed me.
“Hey, k-bear! Where ya goin’?” Mason steps in front of me, blocking my last remaining glimpse of Aiden. “I just challenged Trey and his girlfriend to a rematch!”
“I’m not really feeling it right now, Mason. But I’m sure Chase would love to take my spot.”
I need to know where Aiden went. It’s killing me to not know how he’s doing. I know I have no right and I should probably leave it before I make things worse, but feelings don’t just go away because your brain tells them to.
I try to step around Mason but he takes a step to block my path. “You’re not still thinkin’ ’bout Aiden, are you?” he asks with a frown. “’Cause he’s not thinkin’ about you.”
I blink at him, taken off guard. “What?”
“Listen, k-bear. I don’t know what happened
between the two of you, but you know Aiden. Once he’s done with a girl, he’s done. Remember Kaitlyn?”
Mason is standing there completely harmless, but he might as well have just stabbed me in the chest, twisted the knife, pulled it out, and then stabbed me again.
“What Aiden and I have is different than anything he might’ve had with Kaitlyn,” I say, knowing in my heart that it’s true, even if Mason’s words planted a tiny seed of doubt in my mind.
“Maybe,” he says, “but I’m pretty sure he was flirting with a bunch of girls earlier, and if not tonight, then it’s only a matter of time till he does.”
That’s good. He’s moving on. Once I leave it’ll be like I was never here. That’s a good thing. It’s a good thing. Maybe if I keep saying it over and over I’ll actually start believing it instead of feeling like turning into a sobbing mess.
Even drunk, Mason notices my I’m trying really hard not to cry right now face, because he says, “Oh, but don’t worry, k-bear. You’ll always be my number one.”
“That’s very reassuring, Mason. Thank you,” I say just to be polite, but it comes out flat and deflated.
Mason is either too drunk to notice or doesn’t care, because he beams his perfectly straight, white teeth at me. “Anytime! Now how ’bout that beer pong rematch?”