Page 15 of Learning Curve

The tallest one of the drooling suitors is still an inch or two shorter than I am, so my back crowding makes him change the way he’s looking at her entirely. The determined scowl on my face may be another reason his hot-girl hope bubble has been popped, but Julia, thankfully, doesn’t seem to notice any of it.

She hands me the first beer and takes another. “Thanks,” I remark, relegating myself to the idea of just holding the cup until I can find somewhere to put it down.

Julia lets me turn her away from the two of them—which I finish out with a wink over my shoulder—and guide her back out into the living room through the crowd. She turns to smile at me gratefully when we’re not being absolutely choked by bodies anymore, and I actually return it. Just like Ace, she’s got an undeniable magnetism.

Ace comes bounding over, and I step aside to allow him the space to flail. Julia laughs, and against my will, I do too. He’s just that kind of guy.

“Oh, man,” he pouts. “You got beer without me?”

“Here,” I offer, holding my cup out. “You can have mine.”

Ace wraps an arm around my neck and pulls me toward him. “Aw, schnookums! You’re the best.” I shove him away jovially, and he laughs.

“You want me to go get you another one, Finn?” Julia offers.

I shake my head. “I’m good.”

Neither she nor Ace pushes the issue, and I allow myself to like them both a little more, despite my better judgment. It’s not that I don’t want the full college experience or that I don’t want to make any friends at all. I just have a bigger, conflicting goal while I’m here, and if Ace’s parents are friends with Ty Winslow, chances are good that Julia’s are too. And I’m not so sure they’ll like me after I eventually follow through with my plan to turn his world upside down.

Sure, it’s a half-baked plan at this point, but once I open the can of we-have-the-same-dad worms, there’s no way Julia and Ace will still want to be friends with me.

Because friends don’t hurt friends, and everything inside me wants to hurt Ty Winslow. I want to see the look on his smug, my-life-has-been-a-cakewalk face when he finds out we both have the same deadbeat dad. I want to see him feel an inkling of what it’s like to have our shitty father actually stay in your life and the kind of destruction that causes.

My phone buzzes in my pocket twice in two short bursts, and I pull it out to read the text. It’s from one of my younger brothers.

Travis: At tne Grto, Cver for me?

The Grotto is a really sketchy, unofficial club where underage kids in our town hang out because they don’t ID, and they can drink and screw around without the cops showing up. I find it creepy as fuck, since it’s in the catacombs where old New Yorkers are buried.

Drinking may not be my thing, but Travis and Jack—my younger twin brothers—can’t seem to get enough. Before I left for college, I was normally their DD, their protector, and their get-out-of-jail-free card. Frankly, keeping the two of them out of trouble has been a full-time job ever since they hit puberty.

Me: I’m at Dickson, Trav. You’re going to have to find someone else to cover for you while you’re at the Grotto. And for the love of everything, DO NOT DRIVE DRUNK.

Travis: Akl good. I wont drve.

“Fuck.”

“What’s wrong?” Ace asks, surprising me. His goofball act is absent from his face. Julia turns to us, attentive too.

“Nothing.” I shake my head and shove my phone back into my jeans. “Just one of my younger brothers getting into trouble like usual.”

He and Julia both let out huge exhales and nod simultaneously. My eyebrows draw together, but Julia rushes to explain. “We both have crazy younger siblings too. Though, my sister Evie is Taco Bell mild sauce compared to Ace’s brother, Gunnar.”

“Dude.” Ace runs a hand through his dark hair. “My baby bro is off his rocker.”

“More so than you and your dad?” I question with a knowing smirk. Ace doesn’t get defensive at all, instead nodding with wide eyes while Julia laughs herself sick.

“Tell him about Gunnar’s fourteenth birthday, Ace!”

“That crazy fucker paid off the window cleaning guys of our building to take him up to the 69th floor so he could stand outside our living room windows in his underwear with the words Birthday Boy painted on his chest.”

“And if that isn’t already crazy enough,” Julia chimes in, and the most adorable snort leaves her nose. “He timed it perfectly when Ace’s parents were throwing him a surprise party. Everyone was standing in the living room, waiting to yell ‘Surprise!’ but Gunnar was behind everyone through the windows.”

“Julia’s mom about had a stroke when Gunnar started pounding on the glass instead of coming through the door,” Ace states, smiling over at her.

“And your mom literally grabbed a butcher knife from the kitchen and threatened to cut his balls off if he didn’t get his feet back to pavement!”

“And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.” Ace laughs.

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