Page 58 of Never Enough

Hours later, I’m walking into a party I don’t want to attend, keeping secrets from Daphne, and pretending I’m someone I’m not.

Chapter twenty-one

Alex

The party throbs with a heartbeat of bodies making the air thick with sweat and stale beer. I navigate the crowd, Victoria on one side, Celeste clinging to the other. The adrenaline from the game still buzzes through me, but the forced backslaps and hollow “great game” feel like dead weight.

“Alex! You crushed it out there!” someone yells over the music. I force a smile and nod. That’s all they want.

During the game, I noticed Daphne cringe every time I was tackled. It would have been funny if I could have consoled her each time, but her worry made me feel weak.

I feel Celeste’s fingers creep up my arm before she thrusts a red Solo cup at me with her other hand. Her smile’s too wide, her eyes too bright. “To celebrate,” she says.

I take the cup. It’s just beer, but it tastes like bitter obligation. She leans in closer, suffocating me with her perfume. I step back, but she follows as if we were bound together. Thank God Daphne’s not here to see my ex all over me.

“Space, Celeste,” I mutter.

She pouts, then sings, “Sorry.” Clearly not sorry at all.

This was a mistake. I shouldn’t have lied to Daphne. Needing to get away from my ex, I scan the room to search for an escape.

There. I spot my sister. She’ll save me.

That is until I notice Eden’s with her, trailing behind like a shadow. Eden is Daphne’s best friend. If Eden sees me with Celeste…

No. That can’t happen.

“Alex!” Victoria waves, oblivious to my panic. I duck behind a guy easily twice my size, hoping that Vic didn’t see where I went. Stupid, I know, but I’m desperate.

“Where are you going?” Celeste whines, but I ignore her to focus on staying out of sight. “Hello? Alex? What are you doing?”

Ugh. She’ll give me away.

“Let’s move,” I say when the coast is clear, pulling Celeste into the next room. She giggles, probably thinking it’s a game. It isn’t. It’s survival.

The bedroom door clicks shut behind me, muffling the bass behind the wood. My chest tightens.

Need to breathe, need to think. I sink onto the edge of someone’s unmade bed, the sheets a tangle of shadows in the dim light.

“Alex?” Celeste’s voice is close. Too close. I turn, and she’s right there. Her breasts touch my chest. “We’re alone,” she whispers.

I don’t want this. Never again. “Celeste, what are you—”

“Shh.” She’s peeling off her shirt, slow and deliberate. The fabric flutters to the floor, leaving her standing in just that bikini top. The one she knows I used to like.Used tobeing the key wording.

I refuse to look below her neck.

“Knock it off,” I say, my voice flat. But she’s not listening, or she doesn’t care. Probably both.

“Remember us, Alex?” Her eyes shimmer with unshed tears. “We were so fucking good together.”

I stiffen. We were something, sure. “That was then. It’s different now.”

She sniffs and then wipes at an eye. “I miss when you were my friend. When we could just be.” Her lips tremble, and the first tear breaks free. Now, I feel utterly guilty because she’s right. There was a time when we were good together.

“Hey, no crying,” I mutter, the reflex to comfort too ingrained to ignore. “It’s complicated, okay?”

“Complicated?” She sobs while taking a seat on the bed. “You act like I’m going to break you if I get too close.”

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