Page 33 of Out of Bounds

The frat guy blinked at me. "What?"

My voice dropped an octave. "Did she ask you to slap her ass?"

"Cross. Ryan." The frat guy laughed incredulously, leaning back to glance at his friends, wondering what the hell I wasdoing. "I love the Romans, man. We’ve got the posters upstairs. We go to every game. You’re among friends."

"Did she ask you?"

"You’re at my party." He took his place in front of me. "It’s not a big deal. You need to calm down."

"I’m going to ask you one more time."

"Don’t threaten me."

"Did she ask you—?"

The frat guy shoved my hand off. "You’re at my fucking party, asshole."

His smug smile wavered when I cut the distance between us. It left entirely the second my fist connected with his jaw.

13

Kassie

The Marrs Manwhore Video

It took two and a half minutes for Ryan’s teammates to pull him off the frat boy after my fake boyfriend dragged him outside. Two and a half minutes of Ryan whooping that guy’s ass and everybody egging on the fight. A madhouse of a party.

In the end, Ryan was pushed off towards a lawn chair while his teammates assessed damages.

"How you feeling, buddy?" I asked, offering a plastic baggie of ice to the champion of the evening.

It wasn’t the smartest question I could’ve asked but—to be frank—I wasn’t sober.

"Like a million bucks," Ryan grunted, eyes closed.

"You sure?"

"Yes."

"You know, I bartend—Ibartended. Past tense. And that wasn’t the first time some guy grabbed my ass."

Once he opened his eyes to see it, I passed over the ice pack and inspected him myself. He could act tough all he wanted, but I had to press my lips together to stop grimacing when I saw those fresh purple splotches under and around his eye.Oof.

He held up the ice pack that I'd dug from the frat's kitchen. "Is it bad?"

Considering the situation, it wasn’tthatbad.

Some of the frat guys were consolidating efforts to figure out who had to bring the loser to emergency care. Blood dripped out of the frat boy’s mouth, and he alternated between swearing at anybody who walked close and mumbling about lawsuits.

"It could be worse. You could be him." I waved at the other guy.

Ryan snorted. "Ready to go?"

"Yep. Ready to go."

With a nod towards the street, Zariah came stumbling up next to me. I had to grab her elbow to avoid her splattering on the pavement.

"Ryan?" I paused. "Um—how’re you going to explain this to Cleo?"

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