“Wine cellar. He’s waiting for us,” Xavier replies.
That’s what this is about? Finn hitting up his friends to raid his dad’s wine cellar in the middle of the night?
Why am I even surprised?
“Staircase is down the hall,” Xavier instructs, and the footsteps gradually fade. I hear the door leading to the basement opening and shutting in the distance.
Then nothing.
That was a close one.
Lexie is back on the couch in an instant, prepared to doze off, but I can’t seem to do the same. I must stare at the ceiling for over five minutes before making the terrible decision of following them.
I eye Lexie, who’s snoring already, then lift off the couch. The floor is ice-cold to my bare feet as I tiptoe toward the staircase they just went down.
This is a bad idea.
A very bad idea.
But I still find myself at the basement door, my hand hovering near the knob. My breath trapped in my throat, I slowly open the door, careful not to make a sound. I’ve only been in the basement once, but I remember how creaky the stairs are.
My heart races faster with every step I take down the staircase, a gust of fresh air engulfing my body as soon as my feet touch the ground.
It’s frisky down there, and the crop top and leggings I fell asleep in aren’t doing much to warm me up. Turn around. You shouldn’t be here, a voice in my head warns, but I pay it no mind, sneaking to the wine cellar.
The door is open an inch, but it’s more than enough for me to hear the conversation on the other side.
I catch the boys sitting on the floor of the wine cellar through the small gap. They’re downing wine, laughing, passing a joint around. Freezing my tits off, I take cover in the corner behind the door to listen.
“Stop hogging the joint, Richards.”
“You fucked Lou Bennett on my bed, Fletcher. I’ll hog the joint if I want to,” Finn retorts.
Only then am I able to identify the guy that came in with Xavier. His name is Axel Fletcher. He’s a basketball player, an absolute pig with the ladies, and an overall crappy person. I saw him and some girl going at it on Finn’s bed the night of the party.
That was Louise?
Sheslept with Axel in Finn’s bed?
Just a few days after Finn turned her down?
Harsh.
“He’s got you there, man.” Xavier laughs.
“For fuck’s sake, it’s not like you were dating the girl,” Axel argues. The irony of Finn having slept with his best friend’s girl himself isn’t lost on me. To think Xavier has no clue. Poor guy doesn’t even have an inkling of what happened while he was away.
“I don’t give a shit who you did it with, asshat. It’s the where that’s the problem.” Finn makes it clear he couldn’t care less about Lou.
Lou, who looked at me like I’d taken a dump in her bed the morning I told her my name. I still don’t know why it triggered her so much.
“Look at it this way, your stupid-ass dog ambushed us when we came in. Call it even?” Axel snorts.
A long moment of silence ensues.
“Call my dog stupid one more time, Fletcher,” Finn warns.
“Dude, relax, I was kidding.” Axel blows out a nervous laugh. “It’s just a fucking dog. Jesus.”