Page 11 of Take What You Want

It’s more like he seems he could be a potential option to help me take care of something that I don’t want to carry with me to college.

“You need to talk to him by the end of the night,” Grace states, throwing back the last of her drink. “I’m not letting you leave until you do. You told me you don’t want to go to college a virgin, and I’m making it my mission alongside you to get you deflowered.”

I slap a hand over her mouth. “Will you keep it down?” My cheeks are flaming as she nearly shouted the end of her little speech. Thank god the music is pumping through here or else…

“What’s this about deflowering?” A heavy arm comes around my shoulder, along with a familiar scent of sea breeze that I know all too well.

“We’re trying to find Jane a guy,” Grace says proudly, not catching the daggers I’m currently shooting her way.

“Are we now?” Nikolai smiles, looking down at me. His mouth tilts up in that lazy, effortless way of his and I catch myself staring at his lips for longer than socially acceptable for friends. I tear my eyes away and meet his gaze, but that’s just as distracting. Those damn baby blue eyes of his scan my face with such easy confidence that it makes me want to match it with my own.

“No, we’re not,” I state, slouching underneath his weight. Judging by the flushed state of his cheeks and slight swaying, he’s well on his way to getting drunk.

“You on the prowl tonight, LJ?” Nikolai teases, and I scoff, shrugging off his arm.

“I leave that to you and your sidekick,” I retort. “Where is Reid by the way?”

Nikolai shrugs, taking a sip of his vodka. A drop clings to his lips and he licks it away. He never drinks the liquor at these things. Always brings his own vodka from his mother’s stash that she brings back every time she flies back to Moscow to visit her family.

“I saw him go upstairs with Cassidy a little bit ago,” Grace says.

I cringe while Nikolai chuckles softly.

“Of course he did,” I say.

Grace’s eyes light up as she grabs my shoulder in a surprisingly strong grip. “Hey, maybe that’s who you should have help you out!” She says it like it’s the most brilliant idea ever.

“Reid? Are you serious?” I deadpan.

“Why not?”

“Cause he’s Reid? Nikolai, help me out here.”

Nikolai takes a long sip and grimaces as the liquor works down his throat. “He’s a little tied up tonight.”

“It doesn't have to be tonight.” Grace sighs, exasperated with the two of us.

“Not any night,” I state, crossing my arms.

I could never consider Reid like that.

He sleeps with anything in a skirt or tight pair of jeans. No girl has ever managed to lock him down, and out of all of the guys, he’s the only one who’s never been hung up on a girl. He’s practically a locked vault when it comes to expressing any emotions. Especially with girls. A lot of them see him as a challenge, but all end with the same result of a single night with him and him moving onto the next.

I couldn’t consider it…could I?

I don’t want a relationship. Not with graduating in five months and heading off to Boston in the fall. I just don’t want to go to college with zero experience under my belt. I’ve only ever kissed one boy before and that was sophomore year.

I want college to be different for me. I’m going tomake itdifferent for me.

Sure, Walker and I have a no-dating-friends rule, but the thought of anything past a hook-up with Reid is purely laughable. He and I get along fairly well because we’re both blunt and see through the fakeness that seems to have grown like a cloud around the guys as they’ve gotten more attention.

But like the rest of the guys, I can’t actually picture him ever being interested in me like that.

“You’re considering it, aren’t you?” Grace jabs my shoulder, and I shrug her off.

“I am not,” I say, muffling my weak lie in the dregs of my cup.

Mischief cloaks her features. I need to get myself out of this situation right now. And I find the perfect out in the crowded dance floor.

---