Chapter Two
Will
The girl in front of me is hot. Like celebrity level hot. She bats her eyelashes up at me and rests her hand on my forearm. Hell yeah, I’m definitely getting laid tonight. Or at least I would be if I could actually focus on the hot girl in front of me, but my thoughts keep drifting towards Kennedy.
I glance around the room for any signs of her. Nothing. If I knew she left and went home, I'd be able to relax and fully enjoy the rest of tonight with this girl who’s currently giving me fuck me eyes.
I promised my sister, Miranda, I’d keep an eye on her. Miranda and Kennedy have been best friends since the three of us were babies, and Kennedy and I have been friends, well since we were babies too.
Our moms have been best friends since before we were born.
I don’t think I’d ever admit this to Kennedy since I know I’m not her best friend, but she is definitely mine.
Being twins with Miranda while also friends with her best friend is a little bit of a mindfuck as I always feel on the fringes when it comes to them.
I know I have Adrian and Liam, but it's not really the same. Miranda and I are close, and again I don’t think I’d admit this out loud, but I think we would be a lot less close if it wasn’t for Kennedy.
Which is why I can’t relax. I haven’t seen her in at least an hour, not since she walked into the main room like she was walking into her own funeral.
My inability to find Kennedy sends a prickle of worry down my back. I should probably find her and make sure she’s okay.
I try not to sound like a huge douche when I interrupt the girl in front of me and ask, “Do you want another drink? I’m gonna go get us more drinks.
” I don’t wait for her response before I walk away in search of either Kennedy or Miranda.
Miranda will know where she is if I can’t find her.
I spot Miranda with her roommate and make my way over to them.
“Did Kennedy leave?” I lean down and yell into Miranda’s ear.
“No, she’s with Adrian.”
For some reason this bothers me.
Adrian’s the team captain and my roommate and one of my best friends.
He’s generally a great guy, I know that.
I know he wouldn't pressure her or anything. But I also know that Adrian’s a bit of a man-whore, some might dare to even call him a fuck boy.
He exclusively does casual, typically one night stands, and he’s told me on multiple occasions that he thinks she’s hot.
“Okay, so I shouldn’t worry about her?” I say.
“No, she’s a big girl. Plus, she needs a win tonight.
” Miranda says, a little defensive of her friend.
Miranda has a look in her eye, the one she gets when one of her schemes is finally coming to fruition.
I don’t like it. I can’t explain it, but the idea of Kennedy and Adrian together doesn’t feel right to me.
I’m more than a little worried the whole thing is a bad idea. But more than that, I’d really, really prefer if I didn’t have to pick sides when it blows up. Because at the end of the day, I'm going to side with Kennedy.
“Okay then. Well, if you see her can you tell her I’m looking for her?”
Miranda gives me a sly smile and nods over the rim of her drink.
I push my hand through my hair, feeling like Miranda is looking at me under a microscope, not enjoying the expression flashing over her face as she sips her drink.
“Okay then?” I say and leave, scanning the room one last time for Kennedy before heading into the kitchen to get the girl I left and the drink I promised her.
I think I can still recover tonight with her, I just need to figure out a way to get her name again.
Once I know her name, we’ll kiss a little, I’ll suggest we go back to my room, and then, we hook up–easy.
In the kitchen, instead of beers, I find Adrian talking to some girl who's sitting on the counter. He’s standing between her legs, face close like hers like they’re about to start making out. But this girl is definitely not Kennedy. What the fuck?
I move from room to room until I find her on the tiny back patio, sitting on the concrete smoking a joint with some girl I've never seen before.
I watch her plump lips wrap around the end of the joint as she inhales. When she passes the joint back to the girl, there's a ring of dark pink staining the paper the same exact shade as her lipstick.
I take a seat next to her, my back leaning against the brick exterior of the building.
I hold my hand out to the girl I don't know and take the joint, bringing to my lips and inhaling deep.
I cough and pass the joint to Kennedy, watching her as she closes her eyes and takes a deep inhale.
Her red, nearly brown hair hangs down her back in loose waves.
Her lashes fan our over the tops of her cheeks.
She tilts her head back, letting out a cloud of smoke into the air above our heads. She passes the joint to the other girl.
I'm still coughing from my earlier hit, an embarrassing amount. I shake my head no when the other girl tries to pass it to me again. I don’t smoke very often because of the drug testing that happens on the hockey team, I know I have baby lungs.
After a few more rounds of Kennedy and the other girl passing the joint back and forth, I attempt to take another small hit, but start coughing before I take a full inhale.
“You good, old man?” Kennedy says next to me.
“Yeah, I’m good, are you?”
“Yeah. I’m fine,” she shrugs, then takes another hit of the joint and passes it.
“I just don’t know how to talk to people anymore.
It's kind of like that cliche nightmare you hear about where you’re at school and everyone’s laughing at you.
So you look down and you’re naked. But everyone has seen me naked, or at least most of the guys in there have, and I feel like everyone’s laughing at me.
Like they’re looking at each other behind my back and sharing some inside joke. ”
The other girl smoking with us says, “That’s fucked.”
Kenny replies, “I know, right?”
I feel horrible. I get why being at my party is stressful now, why she’s avoided every party I’ve invited her to in the last year.
I didn’t think about how it doesn’t matter that it happened a while ago, every single hockey player on the team has still seen her leaked pictures, myself included. “You want me to take you home?”
“Are you good to drive?”
“Yeah, I’m good.” She side-eyes me. “I swear.”
She narrows her eyes at me, then holds up a pinky between our bodies. I hook mine around hers a little surprised at how cold her hands are.
I stand up first, wiping my hands on my pants from the concrete floor, then hold both of my palms out in front of her. Her icicle fingers grip mine and I pull, Kennedy hopping to her feet with a little flourish at the end.
I drop her hands and she walks in front of me, saying, “Alright, get me outta here.”