THINGS WERE BEGINNING TO get rowdy downstairs as I rifled through my side of the closet, trying to figure out what I was going to wear. I needed to make Colton notice me, but I also didn’t want to look out of place.
When we’d returned from lunch, Finn had informed us that he’d invited everyone over for a kegger tonight. By the sounds of it, “everyone” was a lot of fucking people, and I was more than a little nervous. I had no clue what to wear to a college party. Dean and I didn’t go to those things, at least not to any that sounded like whatever was taking place beneath me.
As I was stripping out of my purple dress for the third time, Colt’s message alert sounded.
Colton: Where are you? Get down here!
Me: I don’t know what to wear.
Colton: Something baggy. Really fucking baggy.
Rolling my eyes, I slipped the plum dress back over my head. It was short, ending mid-thigh, with a scandalously low V-neck, held up by thin spaghetti straps. What I loved most about the new girls was that they were always perky with or without a bra. Colton’s message was exactly the push I needed to forgo the strapless booby trap that I’d just be adjusting all night anyway. He’d notice all right...Hopefully, I wouldn’t piss him off too much.
I slipped my feet into a pair of strappy silver gladiator sandals then sprayed a little perfume on my neck before inhaling a few deep breaths and heading down to join the party.
My heart raced as I gripped the banister tightly in my sweaty hand, feeling a little disoriented as I descended the twisty stairs. The music was so loud that I couldn’t hear my own thoughts above the bass pounding in my head. During the few hours I’d spent getting ready, the living room had been transformed into a dance floor, complete with strobe lights and a fog machine. There was a DJ set up in the corner and a handful of girls on the dance floor, grinding all over one another. The furniture had been pushed up against the far wall where there were already couples getting hot and heavy with their tongues down each other’s throats and hands pawing away beneath their clothes.
“There you are,” Blex said, intercepting me at the bottom of the steps. Instant relief. The guy was a saint.
“Hey, you.” I beamed, taking his hand as he led me to the kitchen. “You guys work fast.”
“Yeah,” he agreed, smiling back at me over his shoulder while filling a Solo cup from one of the kegs that were now taking up the space where the kitchen table sat just a few hours earlier. As he handed me the cup, Blex’s eyes gave me a once-over. He sucked in a deep breath, scrubbing his jaw in his hand. “Very nice, Miss Alexis.” He nodded with an appreciative smile. “Fowls is going to shit when he sees you.”
I gave him an exaggerated wink. “That’s the plan.”
“Brace yourself,” Blex warned, placing a warm hand on my lower back as Colton strode over with yet another blond bimbo on his arm. So, apparently, blondes and blowjobs were his thing.
I fought hard to keep my emotions from showing on my face as I smiled at my best friend and his latest Hoover. “Hey, Colt!”
His eyes were scathing as they scanned my body. Colt cleared his throat, opening his mouth to say something before quickly clamping it shut. From the corner of my eye, I saw Blex shaking his head slightly.
“You look nice,” I said, running a hand down the front of his white button down. I swallowed the saliva pooling in my mouth. He didn’t just look nice. He looked...delicious. Colt had traded his signature mesh shorts for khaki cargos and his Jordans for Sperrys. His white shirt was cuffed at the elbows, and his hair was a fluff of wild, tousled curls. I fought the urge to lick his jaw—the desire to feel the day-old scruff growing on his face against my tongue. He looked like summer. Momentarily, I was taken back to weeks spent at the beach. Memories of the two of us lounging in the sand for days on end flooded my head. Catching starfish and hermit crabs and storing them in buckets as temporary pets for the duration of our stay.
The rough sound of Blex clearing his throat brought me back to reality, making me realize I’d been standing there with my hand on Colton’s chest far longer than anyone would deem appropriate. His heart was thundering against my fingers, matching the erratic rhythm of my own. “Sorry,” I whispered, snatching my hand away.
“You’re fine...It’s fine, Allie,” he rasped, clearing a ball of emotion from his throat. The way he looked at me at times—the way he was looking at me right in that very moment—had me questioning how it could even be possible that he didn’t feel what I felt. But if he felt this too, why the games? Why the girls?
“I’m Lyla,” the blonde on Colton’s arm announced, extending her hand in my direction, breaking the trance I’d obviously needed help getting out of. If she’d noticed that I’d been fawning over her—whatever Colt was to her—she didn’t let it show.
The kind smile on her face and the softness of her voice had my stomach churning with guilt. “Nice to meet you, Lyla.” I reached back, shaking her hand. “I’m Alex.”
Recognition dawned on her face, and she burst out laughing.
Colton’s head hung, his hand lifting to pinch the bridge of his nose, and I swear I heard the word “shit” groaned in his voice despite the music and conversations taking place all around us.
I looked over to Blex, who shrugged his shoulders. Apparently, he wasn’t in on the joke either.
“What’s so funny?” I asked, feeling less guilty and more annoyed.
“It was you.” She shook her head with a resigned smile. “I was the one with Colton...”
“Umm, okay.” Did she think she was special or something? From what I could tell, Colt was with a lot of girls.
Colt looked up at me beneath his thick dark lashes, nibbling on his bottom lip.
“I was about to suck his dick when he got your call and sent my ass packin’.” She elbowed Colton. “It was her, right?”
He mouthed the words, “I’m sorry,” as he bobbed his head slowly.
“Dayum, girl. Is your pussy made of gold or something? I must say, I’ve never had a man snatch his dick out of my hand and shove it back in his pants like that.”
Heat filled my cheeks...my neck...I felt it radiating in my ears. “We’re not...Colt and I aren’t like that. We’re just friends.” I felt like I would faint on the spot, but Blex’s hand reached out for mine, steadying me.
Lyla eyed me suspiciously. “You sure, honey?”
I raised the cup in my hand to my lips, downing its contents. “Yup...Best friends. Right, Colt?”
For a moment, he had this blank stare, and I didn’t know how to read it. “The best,” he finally agreed with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.
“Dance with me?” Blex asked, presenting me with a fresh beer. I hadn’t even noticed when he’d left my side to grab it. He was like my guardian angel sent to look out for me. I was so grateful for his presence.