Chapter 7
LOIS
“Just shoot me now and bury my body under the Royal Albert Hall.”
I groan, dropping my cheek to Molly’s bare shoulder as we walk over the gravel driveway toward’s Sean’s house.
She chuckles heartily, letting her arm drape around my shoulder.
“I know you love Toby Bennet,”
“ Tony Bennet,”
I say rolling my eyes.
“Whatever,”
she flaps a hand and continues, “but I think we’ll keep you alive for now. Anyway I can’t fucking wait to see how tonight plays out. Nick’s going to be drooling like a mongrel when he sees that outfit.”
The outfit in question was chosen by Queen Crawford herself, she insisted that I needed to change up my wardrobe and that my party dress selection is becoming too ‘predictable’.
So she dressed me up like her own personal barbie doll and I'm now scantily clad in a black, corset backed, satin dress that barely covers my ass.
The bodice is fitted tightly, painted to the curve of my small waist and flows out at the hips, the satin ruffling into a perfect wave of midnight black.
My prideful smirk can hardly contain itself.
“I’m not sure about drooling, but I hope he at least spares me a glance tonight, you know, instead of forgetting that I exist.”
I haven’t spoken to Nick since he came to my dorm almost a week ago with his tail between his legs.
My throat almost closed in on itself when he apologised for flirting with me at The Good Mixer the night before.
I didn’t know the man even had it in him to apologise, even less to go out of his way to come and do it in person.
Maybe he’s not the dick people make him out to be.
“Come on, let’s get inside, I'm dying for a drink.”
Molly says, hauling me into the house by the hand. The first person I spot is my brother who somehow looks different, older or something even though it’s only been like a week since I saw him last. The dad effect must be a real thing.
I approach him from behind, smacking two hands against his back and making him jump. He spins around to face me, palm planted against his chest in mock terror, a sneaky grin tugging at his dimpled cheeks.
“Hi bro, how’s fatherhood treating you?”
I yell, because the music is obnoxiously loud as usual.
He ruffles my freshly styled hair and I almost slap the grin off his face.
“It’s fucking great actually, the girl currently shits and eats on repeat but the cuddles are out of this world.”
“You know you shouldn’t talk about Callie like that.”
His eyes ping pong with panic.
“No, I was talking about Lily.”
It’s my turn to switch on the evil grin.
“I know, I was messing with you, you big doof.”
“Ha-ha.”
His dead pan voice only makes me laugh, before he jabs a light fist into my ribs.
“Your dress is too short.”
“Since when do you give a shit what I wear?”
I fist a hip now, firing hazel coloured daggers at the orbs that are identical to mine.
He shrugs nonchalantly.
“I don’t particularly care, it was just an observation.”
“Ok, well here’s another observation. You’re a prick.”
I pop a shoulder, dimples pulled in and cheeky smile in place before I saunter off across the living room to locate some alcohol.
The kitchen resembles an off license as usual, the counter top lined with an array of different beverages.
I’m drawn to the colourful ones of course, opting for a pink, raspberry flavoured gin and pairing it with a tall glass of lemonade.
My eyes scan the room for someone, anyone that I know and can tolerate chatting to for the next hour whilst I get as drunk as possible.
I’m distracting myself of course, forcing myself not to look around the room for Nick.
When I eventually spot Molly perched on a bar stool on the other side of the room though, a magnet latches onto me.
I feel a pair of heavy eyes lock onto my body.
I can literally feel him watching me walk.
The path of his intense gaze tracking up from my click-clacking heeled feet, over the meandering shape of my ass and all the way up to my face.
I won’t look at him though, I'm not going to chase him tonight.
Matter of fact, I’d rather avoid him all together for fear of rejection. I’m a coward, I know but I'm too scared to give a shit.
I hop up onto the stool next to Molly and she clinks her glass with mine.
“So, have you spoken to him yet?”
“Not a chance, I told you already I'm not going to approach him, if he wants to talk to me then he can come over here. But you and I both know that he won’t, because he’s all talk and no action.”
I sigh, pretending not to care when I tip the pink fizz to my lips and ignore the feeling of his eyes on me again.
“He’s looking at you right now.”
Molly laughs, dipping her face to my ear and whisper-yelling, “I know you think he’s an asshole and he can be when he wants to be, but I think he’s genuine about this Lo.”
She sits back up and shrugs, “If he says he likes you or whatever then you should believe him.”
She makes it sound so easy, so simple but it’s not and she of all people should know that.
I take a couple of huge gulps, feeling the numbing fizz travel down my throat until my glass is suddenly empty. When I look back at Molly her deep blue eyes are bright and sparkling, amused by the nervous downing of my drink.
“Very ladylike,”
she muses, pursing her lips to smother the grin.
“Ladies don’t sip, they gulp.”
I state matter-of-factly, glancing over my shoulder for a millisecond and instantly locking eyes with the guy who’s moved into my brain and made himself at home there.
He’s not smiling, not wearing that megawatt grin like he usually is.
No, instead he’s just watching me, knees parted, elbows resting on each thigh as he takes intermittent sips of his frosted beer.
Jesus, those deep brown eyes feel like they’re looking directly into my soul.
I turn back around quick, only to be met with a pondering expression from Molly. She glances back at Nick, then at me, then at Nick again.
I pinch her thigh with my fingers.
“Can you stop looking at him, you’re making me feel uneasy.”
“Just thinking…”
she contemplates, ocean eyes thinner and more serious than usual.
“I think I have an idea.”
“About wh—?”
Before I can even finish my question Molly hops down off her bar stool and claps her hands to draw the attention of almost everyone in the room. To be honest she wouldn’t have even needed to clap. She could gain the attention of any room without even needing to clear her throat, she’s just one of those people. There’s someone else exactly like that in this room and he stands up the moment Molly announces herself.
“Let’s play truth or dare, who’s down?”
She says gleefully, clasping her hands together again.
“Come on, make a circle in the living room.”
“Molly!”
I hiss, tugging at the back of her dress but she wafts me away like a pesky fly buzzing around her. So, I do all I can do and follow her to the living room.
She plonks herself down on the couch next to Kyle, who’s arm snakes around her middle and pulls her close. I get a tight, uncomfortable feeling in my chest watching them, the kind that makes you inhale deeply just to make sure you still can. I drag my eyes off them and sit down on the carpet by Molly’s feet. Sean sits behind me on the sofa, nudging his big tree trunk of a leg into my side, earning himself a pinch.
“Ow, you little shit.”
He curses and I shoot evils back up at him, my stomach increasingly sloshing as I wait for Nick to sit somewhere. He’s looking at the space next to me, eyeing the gap between my body and Sean’s leg, analysing if he can squeeze his gargantuan frame into it.
Eventually he settles on a spot on the raggedy old carpet opposite me, probably so he can continue to stare at me like he’s doing right now. I hold his gaze for a breath, a breath I'm not sure how to let go of again when he looks at me like that. He’s pinning me in place like I'm the only person in the entire room, but Molly’s voice breaks our stare after only a few seconds.
“No, sorry this is hockey team only.”
She says to a freshmen football player who tries to sit in our newly formed circle.
His eyes scan the circle, landing back on Molly with a ‘are you fucking kidding me’ scowl.
“You’re not a fucking hockey player.”
Molly tries to stand, the fire bellowing out of her ears, but Kyle pins her to the couch with one huge bicep across her middle.
“No smart ass, but my boyfriend is, so why don’t you just shut your mo—”
She says, trying to stand again, stormy blue eyes flashing with lightning. The football player should be running for his life right now and he doesn’t seem to realise it.
“Steady on tiger.”
Kyle grips her waist tightly and smacks a kiss to her cheek, which seems to put out the burning fire in her eyes.
She breathes a deep sigh, the red seeping out of her high cheekbones as the football player trundles off with a muttered curse.
“Anyway, who wants to start.”
Her eyes glow with delight as she scans the circle, landing on Nick with a sass in her expression that makes me feel nauseous.
“Nicky, how about you?”
Oh Jesus, this must be that idea she was talking about.
Poor Nick has no idea what’s about to happen and neither do I, but at least I don’t have every fucker from the Redwood hockey team watching me right now, especially my brother.
Sean’s obnoxiously large calf keeps nudging into my shoulder and I consider sinking my teeth into him like I used to as a naughty child.
But instead I stare up at him with daggers in my eyes and he grins back at me like a toddler who’s just been caught in the biscuit tin.
Nick sits up straighter, the air of confidence exuding from him as always.
“Hit me with it Crawford, I'm ready.”
He cracks his knuckles and my stomach flips for him, the poor fucker is going to get eaten alive in one way or another.
Molly’s evil smirk spreads across her face, but she quickly covers it with an innocent, angelic one.
“Ok Nicky, truth or dare?”
Say truth, please say truth, don’t fall into her tra—
“Dare.”
Oh for fucks sake.
Molly gleams back at him before placing an index finger to her chin, eyes wandering like she’s thinking up a dare.
She isn’t though, she’s had this entire thing planned since the moment she clapped her hands together and got the whole room’s attention.
“I dare you…”
she smiles and it’s sickly sweet.
“To kiss the girl you find the most attractive.”
Oh, sweet Jesus.
I don’t want to look at Nick, but I can’t look away no matter how hard I try to blink, my throat is dry, tight and uncomfortable.
Nick clears his throat and glances around the circle.
“Erm…”
“Problem?”
Molly asks in that sugary voice again.
Nick quickly shakes his head.
“No, no, of course not. I’m just erm…looking.”
His eyes fall onto me as soon as the word leaves his lips and I squirm under his questioning gaze. What the fuck is he thinking looking at me like that in front of—
“Hey!”
Sean’s deep voice booms through the living room, dominating the air.
“Don’t even fucking think about it.”
Nick’s face cracks into a shit eating grin, like it always does when he’s pissed someone off, it’s like he lives for it.
But when the smile fades, he looks back at me for a split second and I can feel the uncertainty burning into my chest.
He doesn’t know what to do, he doesn’t want to kiss someone else but he knows he can’t kiss me.
Maybe those words that fell off his tongue so easily the other day really were true.
Maybe he really does like me and this isn’t a game.
Maybe Molly was right and I should trust him, believe what he says.
Suddenly Nick stands, a palm planted flat against his ridged stomach.
“I feel a bit sick, I better just,”
he points towards the downstairs bathroom and then steps across Jamie Macdonald to escape the circle of torture that we’ve seamlessly created.
Nick doesn’t rejoin the party for the rest of the night and I can’t focus on getting drunk when all I can do is constantly check every corner of the room for him.
When the clock reaches midnight I finally give up, fuck knows where he’s gone but he’s obviously not coming back downstairs tonight.
I saw him creep up there after his fake vomiting session in the downstairs bathroom during the most awkward game of truth or dare in the history of Redwood University.
I need to go home soon anyway, I have training at 8am tomorrow and I can’t be fucked to face an extra cranky Ellen when I show up late and very obviously hungover.
That would only give her another reason to punish me for existing.
I tip the final remnants of my drink down the plughole, watching the pink liquid swirl around the chrome kitchen sink until it disappears with a glug.
I dump my glass on the side, vowing to clear up any mess I made tomorrow morning.
Kyle is staying at the dorm with Molly tonight so they said I can have his room.
Sean had planned to drive back to Callie’s dad’s house tonight to be with her, but apparently she went to bed early and told him not to come back and wake her and Lily.
So I was told his bed was no longer available, but luckily Molly and Kyle are more generous than my own big brother and they said I can stay in there tonight.
I hate going back to the dorm when I’ve been drinking and will only go when either Sean or Molly drag me there by my hair.
I much prefer to just crash wherever I find myself.
I click-clack up the stairs, my ankles achey and sweaty from the hot, thick air in this house.
I abandon them half way up and drop them into a pile when I reach the top, padding barefoot towards the bathroom.
My bladder is pulsating with alcohol, begging me to empty it before it empties itself onto the hallway carpet.
I push at the white wooden door but it's locked.
Fuck, I don’t think I can hold it long enough to go back downstairs.
I look at Sean's bedroom door, it’s closed so he’s obviously in there.
I would go in and use his bathroom but I know from prior traumatic experience that he likes to sleep naked… urgh .
Nick’s bedroom door is right next to the bathroom and it’s ajar, I peak through the gap in the wood and don’t see him in there.
The bed is perfectly made and the open window creates a wafting of icy air that circulates and blows his bedroom door open wider, allowing me an entire view of the room.
It’s definitely empty and the bathroom door is open too.
It’s calling out to me, convincing me to just sneak in and use the toilet quickly before I burst a water pipe onto the floor.
I dip inside, scanning the room again just to make sure Nick isn’t in there before sprinting into the ensuite and letting my body relax with the relief of a drunken piss.
I stand up, breathing out properly for the first time in half an hour and wiggling the black satin back down over my ass.
I wash my hands and try not to snoop at Nick’s bathroom, the entire place smells of him.
He has that woodsy, spicy aftershave smell going on, like a forest that’s been sprinkled with paprika on a hot summer’s afternoon.
When I push open the bathroom door, a large frame blocks the exit to Nick’s bedroom.
My gaze slowly trails up from his feet, up his thick thighs and over the ridges of his perfectly taut stomach before I come to rest on his bright chocolate eyes.
I gulp hard.
He’s standing right in front of me with a look in his eye that instantly sends a wave of anticipation through my bloodstream.
He’s practically naked too, aside from a pair of much too tight boxers that display his cock like a beacon.
Oh fuck, this isn’t going to end well.