Page 51 of Don't Let Go

A crash came toward the back of the room. Everyone stopped and then burst into laughter. One of the drunks playing beer pong fell through the French door, shattering it. How he managed to do that, I’d never know.

“Damn.”

Rory half laughed as she shook her head. “The beer tastes like shit, but it gets the job done.”

“I never understood why people liked to blackout.”

She shrugged. “Me either.” Rory took a step closer. “Want to go upstairs?”

I opened my mouth but couldn’t speak.

Does she want what I think she wants?

Her cheeks turned pink as she giggled. It sounded sweet and made me want to kiss her that much more. How warm would those cheeks be if I kissed them? How sweet would her lips taste?

“Not for anything like that. I want to sit down without the risk of someone spilling something on me and be able to talk without being interrupted.” I followed her gaze to Paolo. He was talking with two guys and a girl with long brown hair wearing a low-cuttop. She wasn’t afraid to brush herself against Paolo. He didn’t seem to mind.

I finished my beer and crushed the can in my hand. “Lead the way.”

She moved for the stairs and didn’t say another word until we were locked in a bedroom down the hall. There were dinosaurs on the wallpaper. Some little boy’s room was our hideaway from this party.

I picked up a T-Rex toy and examined it. There was some museum’s name stamped on the bottom of its foot. “What did you want to talk about?”

She threw herself on the twin bed and exhaled, falling back against the pillows. “I don’t care. I just don’t want Paolo to find me.”

“Yeah, that tool knows how to run his mouth.”

She made a noise, though I couldn’t determine if it was a morbid laugh or a sound of disgust.

I took a seat next to her. Her long hair fanned out across the sheet. When she flipped her hair to one side, some of it landed on my lap. I took a small amount, running it between my fingers. Her hair was so soft.

She threaded her fingers together and rested them on her stomach. “Being on a team now will help you with college, right?”

I rubbed my hands together to keep myself from touching her. “Yeah. What about you? You thinking of college?”

She reached up to tug on her silver loop earring. “I’d like to go to school to be a nurse. I’ve seen enough pain and death and would like to save people for once.”

“That’s a good career choice.” I was never more aware of where my hands were than before this moment. I wanted to swipe her hair to the side and kiss her more than I wanted to keepbreathing. “I bet your mom is proud of you for wanting to help people.”

Her face was hard to read. She chewed on her bottom lip and kept her eyes glued to the ceiling. I looked up and found nothing but shadows.

“What’s up there?”

She blinked, keeping her eyes closed longer than needed. “Just thinking is all.”

“Guess I’ll be seeing you at games now, despite you not liking being in band.”

She rolled over, taking her hair away from me. “Yeah.”

I brushed invisible lint off my jeans. “Why are you in the band, anyway? You don’t seem like the type.” Maybe she’d finally answer one of my burning questions.

Rory shrugged. “My mamma wanted me to be involved in something, and my friend loved the idea. We weren’t skinny or perky enough to be cheerleaders. Not athletic enough to join any sport. Not smart enough to be in the chess club or any of the other nerd clubs. She loved her flute, and my papà taught me how to play the trombone, so we joined the band.”

I popped both my thumbs and dared to ask another question. “What happened to her?”

She looked over at the toy dinosaurs and frowned. “We went to this party. A hot guy flirted with her and took her to a bedroom. Nine months later, she had a baby boy and was forced to drop out by her parents. They have her in some GED program to help with time management or something like that.” She laid down on the pillows again. “And now I don’t have a friend in band anymore. I stay because I don’t know what else to do, plus she asked me to. So here I am. Still doing crap for others and not myself.”

“Why can’t you stop?” I placed both my hands on either side of me. My left hand brushed Rory’s leg. Her reaction was to lay her legs across my lap.

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