CHAPTER11
It’sa bit awkward for us to return to his place with the others around. It’s almost a party when you factor in how many other people are there, and I feel out of place, like I shouldn’t be here. It also doesn’t that I’m clearly the youngest one here.
Rob just nods to his friends, waves to everyone, and heads to his room. I just follow him, more or less trying to ignore the others, even his friends, because I can't right now.
Once we’re in his room, Rob doesn’t bother to shut the door. “I’ll be back,” he says, and he leaves me there, but when he comes back, he has a six-pack, and now, he shuts the door.
I immediately reach for one. I don’t chug it, but I do finish it pretty quickly and reach for a second.
I’ve down half of it before I work up the courage to say, “I wish you would say something. I poured… I wouldn’t say I poured my heart out to you, but I was speaking from the heart, and I definitely exposed myself. Emotionally. Not physically…”
Fuck. I’m rambling, and I probably sound like an idiot. Because of the alcohol? It can’t affect a person that quickly, right? Or maybe I just always sound like an idiot.
“I’m glad you told me about your parents.”
I wait for him to go on, but he doesn’t. He just sits on the edge of his bed.
I’m standing yet, not about to sit on his bed, but I do want to sit, so I opt to turn around his desk chair and sit there. Once I finish the second beer, I reach for another one. Rob hasn’t made any attempt to drink, and if he thinks I’m drinking too much, he doesn’t say so out loud.
The more I drink, the easier it becomes to talk to Rob, but we aren’t talking about anything too important. Just talking and laughing. Nothing that will make a difference in either of our lives.
My gaze shifts over to Rob’s wall, and I get up and walk over to inspect the pictures. Most of the pics are of Rob and his friends, especially the three Grim Reapers.
Seeing Ace and Gabe makes me feel terrible all over again, but a thought comes to my mind, a thought that I don't like at all.
I whirl around and stagger a bit. “Rob, please, tell me the truth.”
“About what?”
"Did you put up your friends to try to get me to cheat on you? Like a test or something?"
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“The whole kiss thing. I didn’t mean for that, but maybe Ace had to get drunk to go through with it because he doesn’t feel anything for me, but you want to see how I would react. It was just a test, a stupid test! And then with Gabe—”
“What about Gabe?”
“He gave me a massage, and I told him not to touch my ass or boobs, but he might’ve tried for my boobs, just side boobs, but I stopped him. Did I pass your stupid test?”
“There was no test,” Rob says, his eyes narrowing. “I can’t believe you would think that I would put you up to that. What kind of a guy do you think I am? Clearly you think I’m paranoid, maybe delusional.”
“I don’t think you’re delusional,” I protest.
“So you do think I’m paranoid.”
I hesitate. “If you are, you don’t need to be.”
He rubs his chin. “Gabe did tell me about the massage.”
"Okay…" My head is swimming. Did he already tell me this? I can't remember. Maybe he's feeling the alcohol he's had.
"He gave me way more details than I would've liked," he adds.
I frown. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“About how he liked touching you more than he should’ve.”
“Oh.”