Chapter 35 #2
For just a second, I close my eyes and take a deep breath as if that will make him magically disappear.
But when I turn around, Olli is still there, standing just a few feet away, swaying lightly on the spot, his glassy eyes fixated on us.
He’s holding a half-empty bottle of something amber, his knuckles white from how firmly he’s gripping the neck.
“Olli,” I say as I look around, almost expecting one of my other roommates to stumble out of the crowd. “What the hell are you doing here?”
Olli is the last person who should be at a Kappa Nu party. He already caused a fight with some of their frat brothers last fall, effectively getting him and Nicko banned from any of their events. Why the hell he thought showing up here was a good idea is beyond me.
But he barely seems to notice me, his gaze going right through me as if I were made of glass.
“Sebastian fucking Davenport,” he purrs as he staggers closer, the hand with the bottle raised to point at Seb, “back to his old shenanigans. Breaking hearts left and right again, huh?”
Next to me, Seb has gone very still. He’s watching Olli like a deer is observing its hunter, afraid to make even one wrong move. I frown as I look back and forth between them, feeling like I’m missing out on a piece of crucial information.
“Hey, man.” I finally turn to Olli again, hands raised as I approach him. “Look, maybe you should call it a night. I can get you an Uber.”
“Don’t.” Although he’s slurring, Olli’s voice is cold when he snaps at me, his focus solely on Seb. “This isn’t about you, Micah.”
Behind Seb’s back, the girls exchange uncertain glances, the blonde taking a step back.
“You’re drunk, Oliver. Go home.” Seb’s voice is barely a whisper, a soft tremble vibrating in it. I’m reading the words off his lips rather than hearing them.
“Oh, I’m drunk?” Olli’s laugh is like a knife, slicing through the stifling air around us.
The sound is enough to make the hairs on my arm stand on end, loaded with so many unsaid emotions that I feel dizzy.
“Well, how many shots did you need before you had the guts to chat them up? Before you could bear letting them touch you?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Bull. Shit,” Olli spits, punctuating each syllable with a stab of his finger into the air. The liquid in the bottle sloshes around, some of it spilling over the rim, running down his hand.
“You need to stop talking and leave. Now.” Seb’s voice rises above the music, steadier, colder. His posture has shifted; he’s squaring his shoulders, lifting his chin. The vulnerability I glimpsed moments ago is gone.
“Funny.” Olli laughs again, hollow and bitter. “The last time we met, you begged me to stay.”
I don’t even have time to process the words because Seb moves too fast, darting past me and going toe to toe with Olli, his chest bumping against my roommate’s, who is stumbling backward.
“Shut your goddamn mouth, asshole!”
The music seems to stutter—or maybe that’s just my heartbeat. Around us, people have finally noticed the argument, the crowd parting to make room. Some of the Kappa Nu brothers are looking over from their makeshift bar.
“Guys, this is not the place.” I try to intervene, but neither of them is paying me any attention. Instead, Olli grins up at Seb, brown eyes shining with recklessness as he places his hand on Seb’s chest.
“Asshole, huh? That’s a new one. What happened to ‘baby’? What happened to ‘I love your mouth around my—’”
Every muscle in my body freezes while I try to process this. My pulse is pounding in my ears as I watch them, mouth slightly ajar.
I met someone. Seb’s words are replaying in my mind as the pieces finally click into place.
Someone you like? Or someone your mother likes?
I had asked and immediately assumed the latter, while the answer had been right in front of my eyes: Seb canceling on the guys and me without explanation.
Olli and Seb rescuing kittens together. Seb saying he’d have an eye on them and Olli while we were gone.
Seb…and Olli.
“Shut up.” Seb’s voice pulls me out of my head, carefully controlled rage simmering right under the surface.
No, not rage, I realize—fear. Seb’s absolutely fucking terrified in the face of his biggest nightmare.
This is what it’s all about—the girls, the threesomes, the lies—and Olli is laying it bare for everyone to see.
“Or what? What will you do, Bas? Will you shut me up personally?”
“Oliver,” I call out, willing him to stop, just fucking stop, but I’m basically nonexistent to him, even when I try to step between them. There’s only Seb in his world right now, and he’s not done with him yet.
“Will you put your hands on me?” he taunts, oblivious to the tick in Seb’s jaw, the anger flashing in his eyes. “Do you remember that I like it rough and ha—”
Seb moves too fast for me to react—fear snaps into rage, causing him to lash out like a trapped animal. One moment, he stands there with his fists clenched at his sides; the next, he has Olli by the collar of his shirt, pulling him so close that their foreheads touch.
For one ridiculous second, I think they’ll kiss.
Then Seb shoves Olli backward, sending him flying into the sand. The bottle of booze lands a few feet away, the dark liquid seeping away. Even with the music thumping, the beach seems eerily quiet for a second.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.
Fuck off, take your perverted fantasies with you, and stay far away from me!
” Seb's voice booms over our heads as Olli slowly sits up.
Sand clings to his hands and clothes, but when I try to help him, he slaps my hand away like I personally delivered the shove.
“I’m fine,” he snaps, and on a physical level, I believe that.
But his cheeks are burning when he’s finally back on his feet.
Around us, the party collectively exhales.
Conversations resume, laughter cutting through them, loud and high-pitched.
People drift away as if nothing happened.
A few sorority sisters glance in our direction, one of them calling out “yikes” as they pass us on their way to the bar.
A crowd of Seb’s frat brothers swallows him, hollering and thumping his shoulders like he just secured a big win.
“You need to leave.” Three of them have turned our way. I remember their faces from parties and hallways, but I can’t place any names on them right now. “Davenport doesn’t want you here. We don’t want you here. Didn’t we make that clear?”
Seb doesn’t even like you, I think as I take them in. He doesn’t like any of you. You have no idea what he wants.
“I’m already on my way,” Olli grits out through his teeth, pushing my hovering hands away for a second time.
“We’ll walk you out,” one of them insists, with a sneer that makes me narrow my eyes.
“I’ll do it,” I intervene quickly, then turn to Olli. “Let me call you an Uber.”
Olli shoots me an irritated look, his hands moving frantically, patting his pockets until he produces his cell phone. “Micah,” he huffs. “Fuck off.”
I gape at him, but he’s already unlocking his screen, swiping away at it.
“Go lick your bro’s wounds. I’m sure you’ll have to fuck a lot of girls tonight in order to save his reputation.”
“What the fuck, Olli?” I hiss, but he’s already marching toward the tree line. I look after him until he leaves the bonfire’s reach, darkness swallowing his retreating figure.
Then I search for my best friend.
I call Seb three times until I finally find him leaning against the side of his Audi in the parking lot. He’s playing with a lighter, flicking it on again and again, but letting the small flame die out before it reaches the tip of the cigarette dangling from his lips.
When I step closer, I can see his chest heaving, his fingers trembling. His composure has cracked open completely, hurt oozing out of him like sticky blood from a fresh wound.
“Seb,” I say quietly, unsure if he’s purposefully ignoring me or fully wrapped up in his own world.
“Don’t.” He doesn’t even lift his gaze, voice hoarse as he speaks.
I grant him a minute, maybe two, before I try again.
“Seb—”
“I said don’t, Micah,” he snaps at me, and this time he does look up, brown eyes wide and glassy and devastated. “Whatever you’re about to say—I just don’t want to hear it right now.”
“Well, too fucking bad, because you’re going to hear a lot now,” I huff as I lean beside him, arms crossed over my chest. “How long?” I demand, my gaze following his into the distance, away from the beach.
Beside me, Seb’s body tenses. The lighter flashes two more times, then he takes the cigarette from his lips and drops it to the ground. His boot grinds out the non-existent flame. “A year, maybe,” he whispers so quietly that I think I misheard.
“A year?!”
“Glad you’re totally composed and chill about it.”
“Seb,” I hiss when he snarks at me, facing him after all. He draws his shoulders up to his ears, the fingers of his right hand absent-mindedly scratching his taped-up wrist. “That was even before I moved into the Nook.”
“I’m aware.”
“How did you meet then?”
Seb presses his lips into a thin line. “I can meet people without reporting it to you, you know?”