Page 78 of Obsessed with my Temptation

I had a lot to think about.

Chapter 25

Scott

“Look alive, Princeling!” Eliot nudged me with his shoulder. “We’re out for a night and you look like someone shit on your pajamas.”

I rolled my eyes at his mention of my pajamas. He seemed to have something against them. “I just don’t feel like putting a nice face on, is all.”

Antony leaned in on my other side. “Hey, it’s okay if you’re not feeling it after all. If you want to leave, say the word and we’re out.”

“It’s fine.”

My friends were trying to cheer me up, but it didn’t really work. They definitely knew that the wound was deep, because if I couldn’t even pretend to be ‘the perfect Prince’, it meant I really wasn’t okay.

And I wasn’t.

Last Saturday night with Travis had shattered something inside me. I’d gone there to tell him I loved him, and I should have prepared myself for his possible rejection, but getting it even before telling him…

It felt horrible.

I hadn’t been able to say the words. I hadn’t been able to fight for what we had, and instead I had shut myself into my little predictable box to lick my wounds and cry in private.

I hadn’t seen him since. We both had exams and with his competition this week, I hadn’t even caught sight of him once. I would have been relieved, if I hadn’t missed him so much. By Thursday we were done, but I still hadn’t talked to Travis. My friends had been tired of seeing me moping and restless the whole week. I’d told them a very abridged version of our interaction—minus the emotional sex—and they’d tried to comfort me as much as they could.

Which hadn’t been much.

So Eliot perked up on Thursday and suggested we go out. Out of the three of us, he was the one that liked to party the most, so I’d expected Antony, the most disciplined and straight-laced of us, to reject the idea, but he hadn’t. So Eliot suggested we go to a frat, where they often had something going.

They said being around happy people—all students done with their midterms and assignments—might raise my spirits. Maybe being social again might help.

Too bad it didn’t.

In any case, here we were. Because at least it was better than overthinking everything to death.

Some people came to say hi to me, but I was pretty sure my unusually stern expression put them off, so we were mostly left alone. It gave me time to notice things, such as the way Antony kept looking around as if he was either afraid to see someone or hoping he would, which was odd. Not only because he wasn’t as discreet as he thought he was being, but because…well, he didn’t date. At all. He said he wouldn’t date at all during college and he hadn’t.

I let it go because I didn’t have the brain space to overthink other people’s business tonight, and with a mumbled excuse, I left to get some air.

People were dancing, drinking from red cups, and laughing. Others were playing pool and darts. It was the same house I’d gone to with Mark that one night months ago, where things with Travis had taken a turn. Tonight the party atmosphere was strong, though, which made it easier to go about unnoticed and be left alone.

My thoughts obviously went to Travis. Almost a week had gone by and I was more confused than ever. The way he’d kissed me, fucked me, the way he’d talked to me…It hadn’t felt like someone who didn’t care about me. I felt my own feelings reflected back to me. The way his voice broke with emotion as he spoke still haunted me at night. It made me revisit our conversation again and again.

If Travis did care about me—why would he break up with me?

Was I brave enough to find out? To do whatever it took to make it work?

I was deep in thought, watching people dance from a lonely corner, when the last person I wanted to see found me.

“Hey. I haven’t seen you around in a while,” Mark said with a grin. His eyes were kind of hooded. If it was from smoking pot or because he was trying to be seductive, I didn’t know.

I just knew that I wanted to turn him around and make him forget he’d ever seen me in the first place.

Magic powers, where are you when I need you?

“I haven’t been around much.”

Mark came next to me, leaning on a wall with his shoulder. “You left kind of suddenly the last time I saw you.”

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