Chapter Eighteen
Rowan
It isn't until we've parked and are walking into the house that I realize that was the first time I drove with someone else in the car.
Maybe I am finally starting to feel like my old self.
I didn't even think about it. I was too focused on the fact that she agreed to go out with me.
Then the conversation in the car distracted me even more.
I should be freaking ecstatic that I did something I haven't been able to do for months but all I can focus on is what she said in the car about my hot friends.
My chest tightens unnaturally, and a shot of envy spreads through my limbs.
I want her to be talking about me, not my friends and that thought alone is enough to have me swallowing my tongue.
For the first time tonight I feel like I’m in over my head. Playing a game I don’t know the rules to. Which is why as soon as we enter the house, already packed to the gills, music blaring through speakers set up in the living room, I head straight for the keg set up in the corner.
If I have any chance of removing the image of her cozied up next to Nash, or Beau or Aiden I need some liquid eraser. I reach for a red solo cup that are stacked haphazardly next to the keg and fill it to the brim. Then I grab another and do the same.
When I turn around to hand it to her I find her eyes darting around the room rapidly.
Like she can’t focus on one thing for too long, there’s too much to take in.
Too many already drunk college students dancing on the makeshift dance floor that was formed by pushing the couches to the back wall and are now dotted with kids making out.
Or the riveting beer pong game that’s in full swing by the back doors.
“Wow. Is it always like this?” she asks, astonished.
“Like what?” I’m genuinely confused by her question.
“Like, like.” Her hands flutter in front of her with pure excitement before she says, “This.”
I chuckle because I still don’t quite understand what she’s asking but I try to look at the scene in front of us the way that she would.
As someone who’s never experienced a college party, let alone drank out of a keg or played beer pong.
With bright, untainted eyes. And I guess I can see what the appeal is.
Everyone is so damn happy, carefree. No one’s stressing over tests, or their parents and getting caught. There’s an exciting buzz in the air, and it’s contagious if you let it be.
I’ve lost sight of why I used to enjoy these parties so much. It wasn’t about the drinking or the good-natured games. No, it was about this feeling of camaraderie.
“Yo! Look who finally showed up!” Beau waltzes over with a knowing smirk on his face as he throws his arm around Millie.
I ignore how their proximity to each other makes my heart pound in a certain kind of way or how it picks up speed when Millie looks up and over to Beau with a beautiful smile on her face.
I try to shake the ugly feeling off as I throw an easy smile of my own on. “Looks to me like we are right on time.” I nod my head over to the beer pong table where they are gearing up for another round.
Beau laughs good-naturedly, “Millie you want to play?”
She laughs as her eyes cut to mine, “I don’t know how.”
Before I can respond Beau is pulling her towards the table, his arm still wrapped around her.
I shove down the urge to rip his hand off her and punch him in the face.
That kind of reaction isn’t going to help me prove to the prying eyes around us that we’re just friends.
So instead I divert my gaze and start for the beer pong table. “It’s easy, we’ll show you.”
“It’s really a lot of fun and once you get the hang of it, not too hard,” Beau adds.
I see Beau reach into his pocket and pull out his phone, no doubt alerting the rest of the group that we’re here. And sure enough, one by one they all start showing up.
Lily heads straight for Millie, a shy but welcoming smile on her face.
“It’s so good to see you again, Millie.” Lily awkwardly holds up her arms like she wants to hug Millie but isn’t sure if it’s okay, and instead of Millie rejecting her affection she leans forward and gracefully pulls Lily into a hug.
It looks like the two of them have been friends for years, not just having met each other days ago.
The sight replaces that ugly feeling from earlier with something much warmer, and much more dangerous. A sense of right, of longing for this to be our normal. My friends greeting her like she’s always been a part of the friend group.
“You are so fucked.” Luka all but chuckles at my side.
My eyes narrow as I turn away from the scene in front of me.
Lily, Stella, Tessa and Lennon have surrounded Millie, followed by a chorus of giggles.
Millie’s smile is wide and happy which eases some of the tension I feel in my chest. I know she was nervous about coming and fitting in, but I have no doubt that she will.
I give them a minute to talk, while ignoring Luka, before I go over and gently put my hand on her arm. “Mind if I steal her?” I ask to the group.
Lily’s answering smile is small but bright. “Of course. Need to make sure she’s ready for this.” She leans in towards Millie and loudly whispers, “These things get rather intense.” She winks before turning to make her way to Luka.
“What does she mean intense?” Millie asks as we make our way over to our side of the table which is already set up for the next round.
“We’re hockey players, Daredevil. We hate to lose.”
“But don’t you play each other?” she asks with the cutest little tilt of her eyebrow.
“Exactly. It’s all-out war over here.”
She giggles, “It’s beer pong. How serious can it get?”
“You’re about to find out. Now, there aren’t very many rules, but I need you to listen very carefully because this one is very important.
” I make sure to find her eyes when I say the next part and I can see the laughter dancing in her pretty irises.
“Do not. I repeat DO NOT let your elbows pass the edge of the table when you shoot the ball.”
“My elbows?” There that eyebrow goes again.
I nod my head, my face still set in a no-nonsense grimace. “Your elbows can’t go past the edge of the table, or your shot is disqualified.”
“Anything else?” Now her eyebrows are twitching in barely contained amusement.
“The rest we’ll teach you as we go.”
“That seems a little risky to me.”
Her response earns a smirk. “The risk is worth the reward.”
Now it’s her turn to smirk. “What kind of reward?”
“Bragging rights, of course.” I find myself leaning towards her, drawn to the pretty girl with big honey brown eyes and wild curls. Like a moth to a flame.
“That’s all?” she teases.
“What else would there be?” I whisper because I have leaned in so far we’re practically touching noses.
“I thought maybe—”
Someone obnoxiously clears their throat, and Millie jumps from the noise. She instinctively takes a step back, effectively putting space between the two of us. I look over to find the culprit and find none other than Luka with his eyebrows raised expectantly.
I mouth, what? Confused as to why the hell he’s looking at me like that.
His eyes widen and he shakes his head before mumbling, “Already done lost and you have no idea.” Then he chuckles softly before putting his arm around Lily and pulling her into his chest.
“What?” I say, louder.
“Nothing, brother. Just here to enjoy the show.” He nods towards the beer pong table but I have a feeling that’s not at all what he’s referring to.
“You aren’t going to play?” I ask my best friend.
“No, I’m sitting this round out. I have a feeling watching is going to be a lot more fun.” There he goes being cryptic as shit again.
I shrug it off and say, “We need two people to play against.” I pull Millie over to my favorite side, on the left towards the back door.
Hockey players are a superstitious bunch and I’m no different.
This side used to be my lucky side before the accident and everything changed.
I’m hoping tonight’s the night I find that luck again.
I see Lennon rub her hands together out of the corner of my eye before she grabs Aiden and practically drags him to the other side of the table with her.
“What the hell? Who said I wanted to play?” Aiden grumbles, looking at Lennon’s hand that is still wrapped tightly around his bicep.
She doesn’t seem fazed in the slightest. “I did,” she sasses.
“Does it not matter that I don’t want to play?” Aiden asks, flabbergasted.
“No," she says, shaking her head before she continues. “You remember how good we played together last week.” She says it more as a statement, than a question.
“What does that have to do with tonight?”
Lennon’s eyes practically cross, before she turns towards Aiden, her hands on her hips in a don’t fuck with me kind of way. “Hmm, everything?” You can hear the unspoken duh at the end of that sentence.
Aiden’s incredulous face says it all. That Lennon O’Malley is crazy as hell.
And also hilarious because there is no way I’m letting her and Aiden beat me, even with a partner that doesn’t know diddly squat about beer pong.
I could beat them with one hand tied behind my back and my eyes closed, that’s how confident I am that tonight is the night I get my mojo back.
And it might have a little something to do with the curly haired bombshell standing next to me.
“And I get no say in this?” Aiden grumbles.
“You should take it as a compliment, really. I am very picky about my beer pong partners.” Lennon answers so nonchalantly I’m having a hard damn time keeping my chuckle in.
“Has anyone ever told you that you’re kind of scary?”
“Is that a rhetorical question?”
Aiden’s eyebrows shoot up his forehead, comically. He has no idea what to do with this woman and I’m loving every minute of their awkward interaction. “No, I’m genuinely asking if you know how scary you are.”