Chapter Seven
Matt
The magic of a new school year lingered in the air, and everyone who had left for the summer was excited to finally be back.
Welcome Week was one of my favorite times of the year.
With winter break or spring break, most people headed out of town. Welcome Week was the only time everyone was here at Cedar when we didn’t have any classes, just hockey.
Since school hadn’t started yet, everyone got to fuck around as much as they wanted. There were parties every day, and every bar in the area was packed all night long.
The freshmen in particular always went crazy. For most of them, this was the first week of their lives with freedom. No parents were around to tell them what to do, which in their minds, meant they got to be rowdy and reckless.
It was why I was currently filled with anxiety.
Jade moved into her new dorm room yesterday. I was doing my best not to act like an overprotective big brother, but knowing how brash she could be, it was hard not to keep checking in on her.
Me: How’s it going?
Jade: Perfectly fine, Matt. You don’t have to ask every five seconds
Me: Yeah, I do
Left on read.
An hour later, I texted again.
Me: You still haven’t shared your location with me
Jade: And I’m not gonna
Me: You need to
Jade: You don’t always need to know where I’m at
Me: I’m your brother. Send me your goddamn location
Jade: Why? So, you can know which guys I’m hooking up with?
Me: Not fucking funny.
Left on read again.
Me: Jade. I’m not messing around
Jade: Ur being annoying
Me: No, YOU are being annoying
Jade: Whatever.
Cursing under my breath, I tossed my phone aside. A minute later, it buzzed again.
Jade: I love you
With a sigh, I responded.
Me: I love you too
Still no location, though.
But Jesus, now I had to worry about her hooking up with a bunch of guys?
To my knowledge, Jade was a virgin, but even if that wasn’t the truth, I was going to keep telling myself that it was.
I’d always been a bit overprotective of my loved ones, specifically Jade, El, and even Lo too.
Growing up, it was so easy to keep an eye on Jade. I mean, we lived together. It wasn’t until I went off to college that my big brother duties became a bit harder.
But I had younger friends back home to do the job for me, and in our small town, nothing was going to happen to or involve Jade without me hearing about it.
Including boys.
Every fucker in that town knew he’d get his ass kicked if he stepped over the line.
Here though? At a huge university?
It was much harder to inflict a keep-your-hands-off-my-sister rule to the entire school.
At one point or another, I knew I’d have to cut back a bit and let her live her life, but I was struggling with that. Hopefully, she’d at least share her location with El.
It was a beautiful and sunny day, sitting at a perfect seventy-five degrees. By four o’clock, most of our team was already hammered.
El had taken one of my old Cedar U shirts and cut it just short enough to reveal a sliver of skin above her grey skirt.
Hair down and straightened with only a touch of makeup on, she showed off her natural beauty.
El was always stunning, and today was no exception, prancing around our yard with a drink in hand. It looked like the sun was shining a spotlight directly on her, making it hard not to stare at her.
On the other side of the house, there was a game of beer die going on.
On our side, El and Cody were playing against Jett and TJ in beer pong.
Teammates and random girls were scattered throughout the rest of the yard, and there were some sitting in the backyard around our bonfire pit, even though no fire was going.
Our giant speaker was blasting “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” on the porch, and glancing down the block, we certainly were not the only party happening right now.
I stood off to the side of the beer pong table, watching as El missed the last four of her turns.
“Yikes, El,” I teased. “In the beauty and brains department, you’re a ten. But you’re a negative two in beer pong.”
“Hey now,” her hands met her hips, “I was doing good earlier.”
“You made two,” Cody said beside her.
“You haven’t made that many more than me.”
“I’ve made six,” he corrected her.
She groaned. “I get it. I’m the worst beer pong partner.”
Arm extending, Cody tossed the ping pong ball, sending it straight into one of the two remaining cups on the opposite end of the table. “Hottest beer pong partner though.”
“Watch it,” I nearly growled.
Chuckling to himself, Cody tipped his head at me. “You know I’m just busting your balls, right?”
El joked, “So, you don’t think I’m hot?”
Over his shoulder, he assured her, “No, I do.”
Luckily for Cody, I was fully aware that this wasn’t him trying to flirt with her. I’d seen him flirt with a million girls before. He wasn’t flirting right now; he was just being an asshole.
I needed to get used to it. With El attending Cedar, it had never been easier for the guys to get under my skin. I trusted them all enough that they wouldn’t stab me in the back and actually go for her though.
Well, I trusted almost all of them.
Keith had still been getting on my nerves.
Once Cody ended the game for good and I got a kick out of watching TJ’s small breakdown, El stepped over to me.
“Hey,” her voice dropped low as she focused across the street. “Isn’t that Carly?”
Carly, my ex-girlfriend, stood on the outskirts of the party going on at the house across from ours. She was right next to her friend, Gracie, who unfortunately, I was just as acquainted with.
“Should I call her over?” Cody laughed.
“You better fucking not,” I warned.
Carly and I dated for a few months sophomore year. That relationship came to an abrupt end on Halloween night when I accidentally fucked Gracie instead.
In my defense, I was obliterated. Who the hell wasn’t?
It was fucking Halloween. Not to mention both girls were about the same height, with the same golden blonde hair, and they were wearing the same costume that night.
I’d mistaken Gracie for Carly, and none of my teammates had ever let me live it down.
In my opinion, Carly should’ve been more pissed at Gracie. After all, she was the one who fucked her best friend’s boyfriend, knowing that she was fucking her best friend’s boyfriend. I thought I’d been fucking my girlfriend, for Christ’s sake.
All I could hope was that they didn’t make their way over to our party. I may as well take this moment to go piss, I thought.
Excusing myself, I zoomed inside and went to the bathroom. Stepping out, I heard movement coming from the kitchen.
A smooth set of legs and grey skirt let me know it was El. She was bent over, the rest of her disappearing behind the refrigerator door.
A sinister smirk touched my lips at the sight of her bent over like that, and dirty fantasies looped through my head. Leaning against the doorframe, I licked my lips before speaking.
“Another one?”
With a gasp, El sprung up, seltzer in hand as the refrigerator door shut. “Matt,” she sighed. “You scared me.”
“Sorry,” I said, unapologetically.
Closing the gap between us, El stood right in front of me, cranking her neck back so she could look me in the eye. “For the record, it’s only my third.”
My eyes studied hers, noting the glossiness setting in, along with her lazy smirk. “Are you drunk already?” I grinned.
“No,” she denied. “Maybe a little buzzed.”
“Better slow down. You’re gonna be hammered by the time we get to the bar.”
Instantly, I was sucked into her orbit, completely in awe as she stared up at me with sparkling eyes, the same sparkling eyes that I’d seen her have a handful of times throughout our lives. And every time, I was convinced she wanted me to kiss her.
But I could never tell if it was all in my head or not.
“I’ll be alright,” she assured me.
Shaking my head, I joked, “Am I gonna have to carry you out of the bar later?”
“Oh please,” her eyes rolled. “No such thing has ever happened.”
“What about Kyle Landers’ graduation party?” I challenged.
“You did not carry me out because I was too drunk,” her brows furrowed, but I’d be damned if I missed the teasing smirk touching her lips. “I rolled my ankle and you helped me walk out.”
“That’s not how I remember it.”
Her features sharpened, brow lifting. “Well, your memory is off.”
She was probably right. My brain had probably twisted the truth to a more fantastical image than simply remembering the real events.
If anything, I had always been the one who tended to get drunker, specifically in our younger days before I knew my own limits. Now that I was of legal drinking age and more responsible, I hadn’t been blackout drunk in quite some time.
Minus our championship night, of course. But in my mind, that night didn’t count.
I didn’t fight her any further on it. Quite frankly, my thoughts got warped, worshipping El as she sipped on her seltzer. It was such a simple action, but the image would be branded into my mind for possibly ever. She was just so fucking pretty that everything she did was mesmerizing.
With a few innocent blinks, the corners of El’s mouth tipped back upwards. “What is it, Mattie?”
Breathing heavily out my nose, I shook my head. “You just look pretty.”
El’s mouth flipped to a full-fledged grin, and I’d do absolutely fucking anything to read her mind right now.
“Thanks,” she said.
I knew she was used to compliments. I mean, she was gorgeous— guys hit on her all the time.
But I wanted to know what my compliments meant to her.
Did her heart race a bit faster, the same way mine did when I said them?
Did she have to resist the urge to smile bigger, the same way I had to focus on keeping a straight face?
Over the years, I’d kept my compliments few and far between, regardless of wanting to give them to her a hundred times a day. I was very wary of ensuring I never overstepped our friendship boundaries, and it was easier to do so when she wasn’t in front of me almost every day.
I was kind of screwed now. It was going to be a lot harder to keep my thoughts and feelings to myself with her living so close.
“Should we go back outside?” El asked.
“Yeah,” I nodded. Turning sideways to allow her through, I said, “Ladies first.”
“Always a gentleman,” she acknowledged as I followed her out.