CHAPTER 8 #2
Their backs were towards Tessa so she couldn’t see their faces, but by the look of it they were playing on the same team.
Tessa could tell by Tristan’s body language and the way he was speaking to the guy next to him that he was drunk.
Not black out drunk but not simply tipsy, either.
She felt her body flush red with rage as she watched Veronica daintily throw the ping pong ball and land it perfectly into one of the remaining cups on the opposite side of the table.
“Hell yeah!” Tristan slurred. “Nice.”
Veronica giggled annoyingly and wrapped one of her nauseating French manicured hands around Tristan’s bicep. Tristan was either too drunk to notice or didn’t care that she was touching him like that, and frankly, neither option made Tessa feel good.
She felt her throat start to swell from emotion and felt hot tears stinging the corners of her blue eyes.
Before she could see another second of what was unfolding before her, she turned and ran, opting for the back door of the house, not wanting to have to trudge her way through the horrendous group of drunk idiots near the front of the house again.
She burst through the back door, swiping her tears away as soon as they dropped from her eyes, and unexpectedly crashed into a very hard body, causing her to stumble backwards and fall straight on her butt.
“Shit, Tessa, you okay?”
She looked up through blurry eyes to see Jake Gardner standing above her, holding his hand out for her to take.
She hadn’t seen him in about two weeks. They used to be lab partners, but he had to switch classes due to his baseball schedule, and a vivid memory of Tristan being irritated and jealous that Jake even knew who Tessa was came to her mind.
A small twinge of mischievous and satisfactory revenge bubbled in her chest, and she quickly put her hand in his, and let him pull her up to stand.
“You okay?” Jake asked again.
“I’m fine,” she said curtly, brushing off the grass sticking to her jeans.
“You’re fine?” He asked with an amused smile, “You’ve obviously been crying and you were running away like there was a fire chasing you. What’s going on?”
“Nothing important, okay?” She said, not able to hide her annoyance. She was trying not to cry, and him asking her multiple times if she was alright was not making that any easier.
“Is it Kelly?”
Her head shot up and her blue eyes searched his, silently questioning if he knew something she didn’t.
“I tried to tell you he was an asshole.”
Tessa tore her eyes away from him and shook her head, focusing her attention on her phone. “I just need to get out of here.” She tried to focus on getting another Uber, but his hand touched hers and stilled her fingers.
“I can take you home,” he said casually.
“It’s fine, I don’t want to inconvenience you.”
“What? You’re not inconveniencing me,” he said with a chuckle, his voice calm and light. “You’re clearly upset and want to leave. I am beyond annoyed with everyone at this party and want to leave. It’s a win-win. Let me drive you home. It’s not a big deal.”
She sighed and put her phone in her back pocket, her thoughts swirling a mile a minute in her head. Tristan would blow a fucking gasket if he knew Tessa was alone with Jake, but he also was currently playing beer pong with his ex-girlfriend and not answering her phone calls.
She swallowed down the anger rising again in her throat and gave Jake a forced smile.
“You know what, yes, you can give me a ride home.”
“Great,” he said with a surprised smile.
They both turned together and began walking away from the house and towards the busy street where Jake’s car was parked until they both heard heavy footsteps followed by the unmistakable sound of Tristan’s very aggravated voice.
“What the fuck is this?”
Tessa turned around and immediately scowled at Tristan, causing him to take a small step backwards, not having ever seen that look on her face before, especially aimed at him.
“What the fuck is what?” Tessa sneered.
Tristan straightened his back and regained his composure quickly, his eyes darting to Jake who was standing slightly behind Tessa with his arms crossed in a defiant manner.
“What are you doing here with him? Thought you said you were studying.”
“I was, but I missed you and wanted to come see you. I tried calling but you didn’t pick up and-”
“Why. Are you here. With him.” Tristan pointed an accusatory finger at Jake and took a step towards them.
“Are you not fucking listening to me?!” Tessa asked, throwing her hands into the air. “I came here to see you only to find you all buddy buddy with your ex.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I saw you with Veronica, you were playing beer pong with her.”
“I was not playing beer pong with her, I was playing with my friends and she butted in and said she was on my team. I didn’t feel like fighting with anybody and barely even acknowledged her.”
“She was literally touching you, Tristan.”
“What? No she wasn’t,” Tristan squinted at Tessa through confused eyes, not understanding where she would get the idea that Tristan wanted any part of Veronica.
“I literally saw it with my eyes!” Tessa yelled.
“Hey,” Jake said butting into the conversation, “Tessa let me just get you home.” He reached out a hand and lightly grabbed Tessa’s elbow, which caused Tristan to see red and he stepped forward, swiping Jake’s hand away from her.
“Don’t fucking touch my girlfriend, asshole, I’ll take her home myself.”
“You can’t drive, idiot,” Jake retorted back.
“Oh my God you guys, shut up. This is so stupid.”
“This is stupid?” Tristan said with a sarcastic laugh. “But you yelling at me for playing beer pong is not?”
“No, you do not get to do this to me, Tristan,” Tessa said, her voice elevating, heat rising in her chest from anger and annoyance, “You don’t get to be all macho and jealous and possessive but if I do it, I’m crazy. Fuck that and fuck you.”
“I didn’t say you were crazy baby!” Tristan ran his large hand down his face and took a deep breath, trying to calm himself and his thoughts.
The last thing he wanted to do was yell at her or fight her at all.
But he was confused and very drunk and very pissed off seeing Tessa about to leave the party with Jake.
“I’m sorry, alright? I just wanted to celebrate with my teammates, but I can see that it’s upsetting you so let’s go home and we can just talk about it. ”
“I don’t want to go home with you right now,” she said calmly and wrapping her arms tighter around herself. “I think you need to sober up and cool off, and I think I need to just gather my thoughts.”
“Fuck, baby, come on Tess. Don’t leave with him.”
“He’s just gonna give me a quick ride, okay? You know my house is right down the block.”
“Tessa, if you leave here with him, I don’t know if I can forget about it.”
“Relax Kelly. I’m just doing a good deed. Don’t take out your own fuckup on your girlfriend.”
Tristan stared at Jake, his fists clenching and jaw ticking. He had never wanted to punch someone in the fucking face more than this moment, but then looked over at Tessa, and his heart softened.
He didn’t want to lose her. Although he didn’t really understand why she was acting like this, he also knew that he was drunk and might see things different in the morning once the hangover set in.
The absolute last thing he wanted to do was lose her.
He made a split-second decision to back off and pick his battles.
If he let her cool off and take her to breakfast in the morning like he’d promised, and they had a calm discussion about this whole situation, then maybe they could handle their first fight like adults and move on from it quickly.
Tristan took a deep breath and eyed Jake up and down.
Jake’s 5’10 frame being absolutely no match for Tristan who was practically a whole building taller than him and much broader.
Tristan took a few steps towards Jake and sized him up, making sure Jake felt the intimidating strength of his body in front of him.
“If you so much as lay a fucking finger on her, you’ll be begging me for mercy, do you understand, Gardner?”
Tessa looked between the two men standing before her, her heart thumping wildly in her chest, her stomach clenching and swirling from butterflies by how Tristan was displaying his authority and protectiveness over Tessa right in front of her.
She loved every second of it but couldn’t let him see that. She was stubborn to a fault.
“Whatever Kelly, I’m just taking her home.” Jake took a step back, rolling his eyes at Tristan, but Tristan could see a small hint of anxiety in his eyes, and he backed away satisfied.
“Text me as soon as you get home safely, Tessa. I fucking mean it.”
“I will,” she said flatly, scowling at him, but still understanding and appreciating his need to know she’s safe.
Tristan sighed, aggravated and defeated, watching his girlfriend walk away upset.
He turned and looked back at the party, not understanding how any of this happened.
One minute he was drinking with his teammates during a harmless game of beer pong, the next his girlfriend, whom he was madly in love with but had not told her yet, was screaming at him and leaving the party with another guy.
“Fuck!” He screamed, kicking an empty beer can across the grass. He sauntered back into the house and gathered his friends, announcing it was time to go home, where he would sleep of his drunkenness and undoubtedly wake up hungover and regretful, but determined to fix whatever he had fucked up.