Page 20 of Rebel Romeo

“Well, I guess that’s a good thing,” Dave said, pointing across the room to where Nate and Katherine walked in through the front door.

A frown pulled at my lips. They were with a bigger group of people from our Method 101 class, but I had tunnel vision, only seeing Nate’s arm, draped around her shoulders, possessively.

I turned away from the sight of them, the plastic cup nearly cracking as my grip on it tightened.

This was a bad idea coming to this party. What was I thinking? That I’d fucking babysit her? Stalk her on this date like a goddamn psycho?

Then again, why the fuck did she bring Nate here? To my game? Surely she knew what she was doing, teasing me like that.

I threw back the rest of my beer, finishing it in a few gulps, then thrust my hand out toward the keg for a refill.

It was going to be a long night.

Four beers later, I was just on the other side of tipsy.

But I still couldn’t tear my eyes away from the way Kate and Nate kept snuggling up together. Kate and Nate. Even their fucking names were perfect for each other.

My eyes narrowed in on the way their elbows kept brushing. How he found little ways to touch her, his hand at the small of her back and her shoulder and her hip.

And what was worse, she let him.

She leaned into that touch.

Smiled up at him, blinking those frosty blue eyes.

I’d taken up residency on the couch halfway across the room from where they were playing in an epic beer pong tournament. And they were winning.

Katherine had only had one sip of beer so far in the three games they’d won. Nate was a fucking pro…

Way to pick ‘em, Kate. You found yourself a guy who was so good at drinking he was undefeated in the shittiest frat house game ever made.

I felt the couch dip beside me, but didn’t look up. It wasn’t until I felt the trail of a long fingernail on the side of my arm that I glanced to my left.

“Addison,” I grunted in way of a hello.

“How long are you going to pine for a freshman who doesn’t want you?”

I snorted. An ironic statement coming from a girl who kept hitting on me despite the fact that I clearly wasn’t interested.

But even several beers in, I wasn’t a big enough dick to say that to her.

A squeal cut through the ambient noise of the party, echoing over the blasting music. Nate and Katherine had won another round of beer pong and were celebrating. She put her hands in the air for him to high five… only instead of clapping his hands to hers, he scooped her into a hug and twirled her around in victory.

An ugly heat unfurled in my stomach at the sight of them. Nate’s booming laugh crawled into my chest, shredding my insides.

Addison’s hand curled into mine and before I knew what was happening, she had pulled me to my feet, guiding me across the room, only pausing once to grab the bottle of tequila. She tipped back and took a swig right from the bottle before handing it to me to do the same.

Fuck it. I didn’t want to remember tonight, anyway.

I took a healthy chug from the bottle, not noticing where Addison was dragging me to until my toe hit the leg of a table.

A ping pong table to be exact.

“Next game is ours,” Addison said, then held up the tequila bottle. “Care to make it a little more interesting?”

“Addison, no—” I started to object, but was promptly cut off by Kate.

“How so?” she asked.

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