Hate To Love You

Casey held up her water bottle that was not filled with water. “Yeah. We went straight to booze.”

Sarah was struggling to her feet. She tried to stand up, but toppled back to the floor so she crawled into the room. Scurrying right past us, her eyes were glazed, and I didn’t think she remembered we were even there. She went right to the couch, pulled herself up, and hugged one of the pillows to her chest.

She was snoring in two seconds.

Casey belched, slapping her chest. “Sorry. That was disgusting.” She wavered in the doorway, looking back out. We could hear voices still out there, guys and girls, but I didn’t want to look myself.

Kristina asked me, “Have you talked to Shay today?”

I shook my head. I slept here the night before and then had classes all day. I knew he did, too, but I was expecting a phone call or a surprise visit any minute.

Casey looked back in. “Let’s go there. The guys are always up for grilling.”

Kristina added, “And drinking.”

The two shared a grin because it was true. Since they were no longer playing or training, the house had become a booze fest. It was more common to walk through the place and see the guys drinking than to find them not. That didn’t mean they got drunk. They built up a tolerance, but I know at least a few would get a good buzz by the end of the night. Since the Phoebe fiasco, which was last weekend, I’d only been at Shay’s place and heard someone intoxicated twice. Okay, so maybe it was more.

I still wasn’t that nervous. They were decent guys. They might’ve been rougher around the edges if Shay and Linde weren’t there, but I didn’t think anything would happen to me or my friends.

“Call ’em up, Kenz.” Casey nodded at me. “I’d rather spend the evening with the guys than here with some girls.”

And as if on cue, two of our neighbors appeared in the doorway.

Casey was still standing there so they couldn’t knock on the door, but they were laughing. Their red cheeks told me they’d participated in the drinking game. They both had coffee mugs in hand.

“What are you guys doing tonight?” one asked. I thought her name was Melissa. Again, Kristina would know.

Her friend tucked some of her hair behind her ears. “We were thinking of ordering a pizza, maybe watch some of The Last Kingdom. Uhtred is fucking hot.”

Casey’s eyes got big.

She’d been turned on to the Netflix series, and had been raving about the Dane for the last three days.

“Oh, my gosh!” Her eyes suddenly got smaller, and her shoulders slumped a bit. “We can’t. We’re going to the Football House tonight.”

“Well.” Kristina held her hand out. “No. We don’t know. We haven’t called yet.”

All four of them looked at me.

I reached for my phone. “And that’s my hint.”

I sent a text to Shay, and when he didn’t respond right away, I texted Linde, too.

Linde: Guys are always up for grilling and drinking. Need a ride over?

Me: Can you drive?

Linde: I can right now. Might not be able to in an hour. I don’t have classes in the morning.

I still hadn’t gotten a reply from Shay so I typed out another text.

Me: Is Shay there? You know where he is?

Linde: I thought the library?

I frowned.

Me: The library?

Linde: He said he was going there, then to your place. I figured you guys had plans.

Not that I knew, but only sent back.

Me: We can drive over. We’ll take Casey’s car. If she sleeps there, she’ll want to drive it back in the morning.

Linde: Will do. I’ll let the guys know. We’ll have the grill going when you get here.

Instead of sending another text to Shay, I called him, but his voicemail came on right away. There was no ring.

“What’s the plan, Stan?” Casey was leaning against the doorway, keeping herself upright.

On second thought, I asked Kristina, “I told Linde you would drive over in Casey’s car. Should I text him back to come and get you guys?”

Kristina’s forehead wrinkled as her eyebrows pinched together. “You’re not going?”

“You think you can drive?” I skipped over the question.

She chewed on her lip. I was asking if she wanted to drink when she was there. I knew Casey always wanted her car available, but sometimes it was a hassle if they drank there and still wanted to sleep in their own beds. If they couldn’t find someone sober to drive them, they would take an Uber, and Casey would have to get another ride back to pick up her car. It was all in Kristina’s hands, because Casey might’ve been sounding normal, but she wasn’t. She had a better tolerance level than Sarah, but she was still buzzed where rational thinking wasn’t a given.

Kristina sighed. “Between all of us, and you, we can always get her car back in the morning if we leave it there.”

Which meant Kristina didn’t want to sleep there. Casey never cared. She’d been curling up in Linde’s bed the last week.

I nodded. “That’s the plan, then.”

“You’re not coming with us?”

I shook my head. “Linde said Shay was at the library, so I’m going to go and scope it out. See if he’s there.”

“You want us to go with you? We can just swing by the library. If he isn’t there, come with us to the house.”

Casey was nodding. She kept going, not stopping.

“If you don’t stop, you’re going to get sick.”

She stopped, laughing. “I feel a little dizzy. You’re right.”

I asked Kristina, “Can you handle her?”

She stared at Casey a moment before turning to Sarah, who was still snoring. She looked at the other two girls next. “What are you two going to do?”

Their eyes got big and Melissa cleared her throat. “Um. I mean . . . can we come with or . . .” Her eyes jetted to me, and her cheeks pinked a little more. I got it. I did. The Football House was infamous not only for who lived there but also for their parties.

I shrugged. “I doubt they would care.”

Both girls were my neighbors. It wasn’t a bad idea to get to know them, which was something I had to keep reminding myself.

Kristina’s hand came over my arm, as if she understood my hesitancy. She patted me in comfort and said to the girls, “If you’re ready to go like that, let’s leave in ten minutes.”

The girls took off. They didn’t need to be told twice.

“Ten minutes?” Casey lifted some of her hair so she could inspect it. “I need more than ten minutes to get myself together.”

“You now have nine minutes.”

“Shit.” Casey sped out of the room, grabbing her makeup container and shower caddy to the bathroom.

“You sure you’re okay?”

It had been almost a full week since Phoebe tried to attack me. Almost a week where I had to force myself to stay in my own dorm room because I didn’t want another person to take that away from me.

I dipped my head in a firm nod. “I’m good.”

“I’m here if you need to talk. You know that, right?”

My smile was genuine. “I do. Thank you.”