Page 32 of Devilry

It doesn’t come off as patronizing, but it makes me feel small and inadequate all the same.

Aiden looks between Callie and I. “Why don’t we watch something while we wait for Eli to feel comfortable?”

“Why do you guys insist on making this a big deal?” Frustrated, I place my food down on the coffee table and grab the liquor. Unscrewing the cap, I fill the small glass up to the rim before clumsily raising it to my mouth and forcing the black liquid down my throat.

My whole face scrunches up as a potent licorice taste hits my tongue and burns all the way down to my stomach.

Keeping my eyes closed until the woozy feeling passes, I feel rather than see a glass being pressed into my hands. Looking down, I sigh in relief at the water, chugging it down without a second thought to who gave it to me.

Feeling settled, and finally rid of the afterburn, I fall back into the couch and take inventory of both Callie’s and Aiden’s expressions. I’m surprised and slightly impressed that they both have ridiculous and infectious smiles plastered across their faces.

Secretly glad to have broken through the awkwardness, I hold on to my courage and place their empty shot glasses in front of them and fill them up to the brim.

“Your turn,” I announce, feigning confidence.

They both toss them down without even thinking twice, and a wave of calm washes over me.

I can do this.

One shot turns into four as I continue shoveling food into my mouth, hoping not to succumb to the lightheadedness swirling around me. Chasing each shooter with water, I trick myself into thinking I may come out of this unscathed. Each question turns into a story about Callie and Aiden in high school, and I’m enjoying listening to their version of our formative years.

As we line up our sixth shot, Aiden shuffles a little closer, asking the one thing I was hoping to avoid. “When are you going to tell me which team you bat for?”

Counting down from ten, I try to muddle through the fog blanketing my thoughts. I remind myself nobody here cares.

Just be you.

Callie gets up off the floor and sets herself on the arm of the chair beside me. “Don’t worry, Eli,” she coos while stroking my hair. “Aiden isn’t the best at being subtle, but in case you didn’t know, he’s interested in you.”

The desire written all over Aiden’s face as his whiskey colored eyes flick between the both of us floods me with equal amounts of eagerness and shame. He’s more than interested, and not surprisingly, he’s interested in more than just me.

“What do you say,” Callie whispers into my ear. “You gonna put him out of his misery?”

“How about another shot?” Aiden suggests. “Something to tip us all over the edge.”

I know where this is heading, and as I shakily take down another shot, I have to decide if I care.

I could kiss him.

I think I want to kiss him.

Just like every other mistake teenagers make, I could pretend it’s the peer pressure and the drunkenness fueling my decisions and not the aching desperation to be touched.

Unexpectedly, Callie walks around me, placing herself between Aiden and me. It’s a tight fit, but it works. Like a well-practiced dance, Aiden and Callie move toward one another. Their heads tilt in opposite directions, as they softly press their lips together. Slow and seductive, their mouths begin to move against one another. Licking. Tasting. Sucking

Curiosity has me shifting on the chair, twisting enough to get a full view of them making out. My gaze moves from Callie and stays on Aiden. My dick twitches at the thought of feeling a man’s mouth on me, to have his tongue plunge into my mouth, to have his large hands cup my face.

And not just any man. I get harder at the thought of Cole kissing me like that. Touching me. Wanting me.

I don’t realize I’ve leaned closer till they pull apart and both face me. We’re all closer than I intended, but I’m the only one that seems to be taken aback by it.

Aiden searches my face for indecision, but mustn’t find anything worth stopping over, because without hesitation his lips are now on mine and he’s kissing me.

Thoughts of Cole have my mouth moving on autopilot. Kissing Aiden back, letting him finally have the prize he’s been wanting, and I hate myself for it. I should be stopping him. Stopping us. But instead, I shamelessly use him to fulfill a forbidden fantasy.

It’s not until hands that aren’t Aiden’s start tracing circles on my back that I freeze. Sobering up immediately, I know I can’t take this any further. Not with him, not with Callie, and most definitely not with them together.

I peel my mouth off of Aiden’s and hastily move myself off the couch. “I shouldn’t have done that,” I blurt out.

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