NOAH #2
I sighed and looked to the other side of the crowded area.
Some sort of commotion was taking place over there around the black-haired, tattooed, broody guy who looked ever so slightly amused.
The blond girl and the jock Matt had been pointing at were starting to debate something loudly while, between them, the black-haired boy crossed his arms over his chest and nodded at everything.
But the debate grew heated quickly and the black-haired hottie was starting to seem surprised.
He was, without a doubt, the best looking, most confident specimen of a college fuckboy I had ever seen.
The dangling earrings, the pouty lips, the bored expression.
If you took everyone at this party’s best features and combined them all together, it would make him.
His dark, slanting eyes and the tattoos rising along his neck made me short of breath.
The hot guy was raising his hands when the two blonds looked at him for answers.
The girl grabbed his upper arm and yanked him towards her, but the guy was also doing the same thing, almost spilling the drink the hottie was holding in the process.
As I watched, Matt came closer to me. “See? That guy’s gay.
You could have struck up a conversation with him and seen where it went. ”
“And do you see that he’s into the other guy?” I asked.
“That’s Sawyer.” Matt said, his tone holding no surprise. “What the hell is happening over there anyway?”
Sawyer, apparently, was everything I was not.
Even as he was being torn apart by two blonds, he seemed as confident as if there was nothing the other two wanted but him.
And by the look of it, there wasn’t. They were pulling him back and forth, hotly telling each other to back off. “You know him?” I asked Matt.
“Yeah, he was asking how to get in touch with you,” Matt said casually as if brushing it off while focusing on the brewing fight over there.
My heart tripped and I took a moment to sort through my thoughts. This hot as hell guy wanted to get in touch with me? He knew of me? But, as my brain sped up, I remembered the only reason anyone ever wanted to get in touch with me. I deadpanned at Matt. “To tutor him?”
“Obviously. You don’t go seducing twins and acing courses. And Sawyer’s the type who loves to seduce.” Matt was all distant, frowning at the commotion. “Don’t worry. I told him you were booked.”
He could say that again. I was booked for the rest of the year and had more than a few students vowing to need my help next year, too, sending me preliminary times and dates together with boxes of chocolate.
Of course a guy like Sawyer needed my help. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t notice me even if he tripped over me. I’d been shoved into my locker by guys like him my entire life. It didn’t make me crave them any less, but it did adjust my expectations.
“An athlete?” I asked. He sort of looked like a baseball player. Maybe. I didn’t know much about baseball.
“Hockey,” Matt said. “He’s the Titans’ goalie.”
“A keeper,” I mused, looking at the two people he’d charmed fighting over him.
“I was here first,” the girl was shouting.
“Yeah, but maybe we should let him choose,” the guy insisted.
“He already chose. Didn’t you, Sawyer?” the girl pressed.
“Don’t involve me.” Sawyer was shaking his hands and head, careful not to spill his nearly full plastic cup of whatever he was drinking. “I’ll go either way.”
I snort-laughed because I’d expected him to say he didn’t want anything to do with the fight. But the fucker was fanning the flames and loving every moment of it.
The crowd dispersed slightly and I found myself pushing closer to the three squabbling lovebirds, Matt on my heels. And just as I tried to seem less like I was staring, the fight went nuclear.
“He’s been making eye contact with me all night,” the big guy was saying. I wouldn’t have minded making eye contact with him all night, too, if I were in Sawyer’s shoes. But he seemed equally enthralled with the girl, too.
“And we’ve been chatting all night, asshole,” the girl was saying. “You’re ruining everything, Zach. And if you’re so desperate to get a piece of him, then wait your goddamn turn.”
“I’m not taking your sloppy seconds, Sis,” the guy snarled.
And as it got heated, Sawyer lifted his cute, straight eyebrows and turned around as if to sneak out of the way.
I couldn’t see his face now that his back was turned to me.
But just as he was fully facing away from me, the girl grabbed his wrist, and the guy, Zach, grabbed his shoulder.
They insisted something into his ear from each side and Sawyer jerked back, his arm suddenly free of the girl’s hold.
It shot up, together with the plastic cup he was holding, and slammed against his shoulder.
Newton’s First Law played out in real time as the contents of Sawyer’s cup were in motion and remained in motion even when the cup stopped abruptly.
The liquid — vodka with orange juice, I soon discovered — crossed the distance between us in an instant and splashed all over my face, glasses, shirt, and bowtie, soaking my hair and making me gape.
“Fuck,” Sawyer said, spinning around from the two siblings who stopped fighting the moment there was collateral damage.
I blinked twice, dripping with booze and smelling like orange juice. “Um…”
Sawyer moved his gaze from me to my companion. “Matt? Is this…?” As his gaze returned to me, it grew ten times more horrified as he recognized me. “Oh, no. Oh, shit.”
I licked my lips. “I think I’ll head back now.” Using my sleeve, I wiped some of the vodka-juice off my face to no point or purpose and cut through the crowd toward the door.
“Noah, wait,” Sawyer said, but I was already so embarrassed that my cheeks couldn’t get any redder.
As the shame mixed with the terrifying fear of being in the spotlight — as I very much was — I barely knew what I was doing.
I raced out of the frat house, telling myself that I had known all along that a party was a terrible idea.