“You’re crazy. I’ve been in love with you for like my whole life, I’m not going anywhere.”
She always told me she loved me. It had never bothered me before, but now, it somehow did. You see, Edith was the first person to tell me that they loved me, and even if I didn’t reciprocate her feelings, it was nice to know that at least one human being did.
Jet, my main man, just handed me a cold ice beer, smirking. “I love you, too, Grey,” he said it in a mocking way.
Idiot. I grinned. He was my wingman for a damn reason. “Nice to know, man. Fucking nice to know.” I took a lengthy sip, halfway through the bottle as the party was just getting started.
So far, I’d spent the entire night, watching until her bedroom lights were turned off, letting me know that she already left for her date with Gavin. That was three hours ago.
When I walked in on her talking to someone, I didn’t realize who she was talking to until she said those words to Liam. It was right then that I realized that she actually did have a heart, and that she was capable of loving someone. Which was truly surprising.
So after that interesting encounter we had earlier, I was on the edge about her date with Gavin. I knew they’d be back here afterwards, that was why my eyes kept directing back to the new flood of newcomers just in case it was them who came in. I might have vowed that I would no longer interact with her, but I could still watch her from afar.
Old habits die hard, and it was one habit that was too hard to break.
The party was thumping an hour later. The backyard, inside the house and pool were jammed pack with people from our school, El Camino Real, and from other neighboring schools, Calabasas and Sherman Oaks.
One beer down and a few more dozen to go.
Keeping still in one place wasn’t all that fun, so I bounced about in places. From my pool house who had people playing poker, to the main house where the DJ was situated, people playing volleyball in the pool or with the bunch of people who had lit a small fire pit that was close to the garden. Circulating not only forced me to be a social host, but it also made me scout about to see if Gavin and Liv arrived without my knowledge.
With alcohol in my system, one could only imagine where my thoughts led me to…Gavin with his hands all over her...
Then, out of the blue, the idea of them getting it hot and heavy upstairs in her bedroom stopped me short. I stood directly just right below it and, when I glanced upwards, the room remained dark, just as she left it. However, my mind was telling me to go check it out anyway.
I gripped my forehead with irritation because I clearly was losing my shit. Second, why even bother? Third, why was I still walking towards the main house? I was angry with myself for even caring what went on, but for the life of me, I just couldn’t fathom why I cared so much in the first place. Olivia Taylor was a bitch. Case in point. But—and there was always abutwhere she was concerned… always—the answer after the word but was still hanging in the air. Even after a decade later.
I was weaving my way in the living room when I saw them dancing—no, more like grinding against each other. That stopped me dead, hot and cold, in my tracks.So the date had gone well.Too wellfrom where I was watching.
Was I surprised that it did? Not really, but seeing them like this, intimate, made me want to lash out somehow. When Olivia kept biting her lip each time Gavin whispered into her ear, my throat started to constrict and I could barely breathe. She laughed freely as her hair bounced about, looking more enchanting by the second.
Her little suggestive smiles and Gavin’s look of satisfaction were all I could see. The people around me became irrelevant. It became like a house of mirrors in a circus on Halloween night.
Bunching my hand, I forced myself to move out of the main house and seek fresh air. My nostrils barely flared to breathe in the air when Tiffany pulled me out of my funk and started yapping about playing a game of chicken. Basically, a woman gets on top of the guy’s shoulders and fights another team, two versus two.
Normally, I participated in these games when I was pissed drunk, but tonight, even though I was sober, I agreed to play. Anything to get me out of this torture in my head because it was starting to give me a headache and, for the life of me, Olivia’s little shy, flirty smiles were all I could think of.
Since I was already donning my board shorts, I only had to take off my shirt before I jumped into the pool with the rest of the gang. Edith was on the side of the pool, sitting and glaring as her foot played with the water. She was jealous that I was going to be paired with Tiffany, but those two knew the rules, so I barely gave her a nod before Tiffany hopped on my back and hugged the breath out of me.
“Can you double check if I tied my bikini-top well? I don’t want my goods falling out of place.” She was biting my earlobe before she handed me her glass of Adios MF drink.
Holding the glowy blue drink in my hand, I lifted her long strawberry blonde hair just to check if they were all secured. “Looks good to me.” I grinned before I took the rest of her drink.
Tiffany.
The pool fight.
Have fun.
I chanted those words in my head, hoping that the flashes of the sultry way the woman inside the house looked earlier would be erased from my memory.
I let out a burring sound after I felt the needle-like burn of the loaded alcohol in my system.
Tiffany plunged her mouth into mine, kissing me with no disregard, tongue whipping, moaning and the lot as she latched her skimpy-clad body onto mine. Tiff loved PDA, so I was used to her touchy outburst of energy.
“You’re my champion, Grey,” she murmured, glassy-eyed with stars in her eyes.
Moments such as this one, I was always rendered speechless. Angry and heated emotions I could spar with, but sticky sweet inferno, I ran away from. I supposed I could thank Edith for saving my ass on this one, because she jumped into the pool and swam towards us, breaking us apart.