When Poe gathered all her friends to accompany me to The Horny Bard, Callie was the one who pointed out that we were going to need help getting inside a bar since we were all underage. So it might be a good idea to involve her brothers plus her boyfriend — oh wait, husband; she’s married to this gorgeous-looking guy who somehow always manages to stay within her touching distance — who are all over twenty-one.
It was a difficult road, from what Poe tells me, to get them to agree, but they did. And I’m so thankful for it. That so many people came out to support me.
But anyway, I came to the bar and then I saw.
Him I mean, standing with a group ofhisfriends.
And then I froze.
For a moment or two.
AndthenI dove for the nearest brick pillar and hid.
Because what the fuck was I thinking? Whywasn’tI thinking actually?
Of course he’d be here.
He’s my boyfriend’s —ex-boyfriend’s — best friend.
He goes where Lucas goes. And vice-versa.
And if I had even a little bit of common sense, I would’ve paid attention to this fact and prepared myself. And then I wouldn’t have taken cover like a coward behind a pillar. Thank God my friends were there to build me back up and get me out of there. So I could face the situation head-on. Only I never could’ve imagined, not in a million years, that the situation would become this.
So the boyfriends and the brothers? Turns out, they knowhim.
Yeah.
Apparently, they’re all soccer buddies from high school. They used to play each other, one of Callie’s brothers — Ledger I think his name is — her husband andhim. Bardstown East and Bardstown West. So they know each other.
Again, if I’d paid even a little bit of attention to soccer back when I went to all those games, I probably would’ve known this little tidbit of information. But I didn’t and from the looks of it, they don’t just know each other, they’re all really good friends.
And they’re just so happy to see each other.
So happy to be catching up and mingling and talking like the long-lost friends that they are.
Laughingeven.
Him, laughing right in front of me when I’m going tofucking piecesright now.
I can’t compute that.
I can’t compute any of this, any of what’s happening. And I need to because time’s running out. I need to get my head on straight so I can do what I came here to do.
Talk to the boy I love.
Whose heart I broke, not once but twice, in one night.
He’s here too, sitting ten feet away from me and…
“He’s looking at you.”
The voice whispering in my ear sort of wakes me up and helps me focus.
Sitting on the couch, surrounded by my friends, I’ve been keeping my eyes glued to the glass of orange juice in my lap. Trying to look all cool and unaffected. Not like the desperate quivering mess of an ex-girlfriend that I am.
“What?” I whisper back.
“He,” Jupiter repeats slowly, her green eyes sparkling, “islooking. At you.”