“But it could be important. It’s, like, the tenth notification.”
“It’s not important. I should have just put the damn thing on silent.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to go out? It seems like your friends miss you.”
I grabbed my phone off the night table and unlocked it.
Tripp had sent me multiple messages that grew harder to understand with each subsequent one, and I also had several Insta DMs from Gen asking about meeting up at the party.
I pulled my arm from around Jules and shot off a couple of messages, telling both Gen and Tripp that I wasn’t coming and to have a good night.
“There, they should leave me alone now.” I tossed my phone back onto the table and turned onto my side so I was facing Jules.
“You could go out if you wanted.” He shuffled down on the bed so he was mirroring me, our heads on the same pillow as we looked at each other.
“I don’t want to. I’d much rather spend time with you than go to another party.”
“I feel like I’m keeping you from your friends.”
“That’s anxious Jules talking. You’ve known me for almost six years now. Have I ever done something I didn’t want to do?”
“No. You’re a stubborn bastard when you want to be.” He smirked. “Literally only the threat of punishment or Riley’s puppy dog eyes can make you change your mind once you’ve decided on something.”
“Exactly. And you’ve neither threatened punishment nor given me the puppy dog eyes. So relax, kitten. I’m exactly where I want to be.”
He flushed pink. “I mean, I’m pretty sure I’ve been giving you puppy eyes for weeks now.”
I dropped a kiss on his nose. He giggled, and the sound went straight to my dick.
“You have. But you didn’t need to for this. Seriously, Jules. I’d rather be here watching movies with you than at some party dealing with drunk people.”
“Even when you’re the drunk person?”
“Even then.”
He shifted a little closer to me and slipped his hand into mine, lacing our fingers together.
“I didn’t party because I love it. I did it because it was a way to escape,” I said softly.
“Escape?”
“Yeah.” I sighed. God, I was a giant loser for admitting this. “Getting drunk helped me forget about all the shit that was weighing me down. I didn’t have to think about how my dad pretends like I don’t exist while being the perfect father to his new kids. About how my mother wants nothing to do with me and never has. How all my friends have no idea who I actually am. It helped me forget about school and how everyone thinks I’m some slacker who doesn’t care about his grades when I’ve been struggling for years just to be average.”
“Ash.” Jules squeezed my hand and shifted closer to me.
“Getting drunk made all that go away. It made things simple, easy. It was all about the here and now. What could I do in that moment to be happy, or at least trick myself into thinking I was.”
“I had no idea.”
“It’s not something I’m proud of.” I stared between us. Jules was playing with my fingers, running the tips of his free ones over my knuckles as he cradled my hand with his other. It was soothing and helped quiet some of the noise in my head.
“I was so wrong about you.” He met my gaze, his eyes serious. “I thought the worst about you. I thought all those things. That you were a slacker and a party animal and a manwhore. I hate that I hurt you all those years.”
“I hurt you too. Way more than you ever hurt me.”
“I guess we can agree that we were both terrible.”
“We were. But a lot of that wasn’t our fault. I mean, what did our parents think would happen? They broke up our families, completely uprooted our lives, and expected two fifteen-year-olds who’d never even met to act like brothers because that would be convenient for them. Then they threw in a surprise sister and got mad when we weren’t instantly excited. It was a lot to handle, a lot of change, especially since it all happened in, like, a month.”