Page 77 of Blitz'd

I put her number in my phone and give her a wide smile as I send her a quick text. “We can do lunch sometime and talk more if you want?”

She nods eagerly. “We can just hang, for real. I only have like three friends.” She shakes her head. “I wish I hadn’t let Megan’s bullshit get in the way of us at least talking. But fuck her. We’re friends now.”

I bark a laugh and give her a hug. I sink into it, absorbing the care she’s giving me. I didn’t think I needed comforting from the shit with Kerian, but it seems I do.

Becca feels it, rubbing my back gently. “You okay?”

I shake my head, but don’t elaborate. “But I’ll be fine.” We separate and Becca steps towards the door. “I’ll text you soon.”

“You better,” she says with a laugh in her voice. “Now let me go get drunk and pretend I didn’t have such a deep conversation at a frat party.”

Such a weird thing to make a friend over, not knowing if you like men or women. “Only at a party,” I murmur to myself, leaning on the balcony, my chin on the backs of my hands.

While I’m glad I helped Becca figure shit out, I still don’t know what the fuck to do about Kerian. I pull my phone out, pissed that I don’t have a message from him. I have a message from an unknown number but I delete it almost immediately.

Those spam messages have gotten out of hand.

My eyes land on two guys in the yard, flirting as they push and shove at each other. Their attraction is palpable. Hell, I can feel it all the way up here. It makes me think of Kerian, how he pushed me against the wall outside Nirvana the first night I wanted him to take me home. Even though we got physical with each other, the lust was explosive between us.

“Get out of my head,” I mutter, tapping my temple with my fingers roughly. It does nothing to dislodge an image of Kerian that floats behind my closed lids, of him lying in my bed, his face peaceful and relaxed. I don’t want to hold onto that memory. I want all the memories of him trashed and burned so I don’t feel like shit for almost falling in love with someone who could never feel the same way for me. I’m such a fucking fool.

I’m about to leave the balcony to find more to drink, to get drunk off my ass so I can forget about Kerian Slade, when my neck prickles and my heart races with awareness. Only one person makes me feel this way. One person who I canfeelwithout laying my eyes on him.

Fuck me.

“You going home with her tonight?” Kerian asks in a voice I don’t recognize. I can’t figure out the emotion behind it.

But I don’t turn around to ask if he’s okay. He made it clear that he doesn’t care about me, so I’ll harden my heart to him. “I might. What’s it to you?”

“Why, Zander?”

“You don’t get to ask me questions,” I say to him, not giving him more attention than I would give to a stranger. “You don’t get to come here, to a party you said you didn’t want to come to, and demand answers to questions you have no right to ask. This ain’t a part of you getting your dick sucked.”

A faint growl leaves his throat, and it sends a shiver over my body. I suppress it, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of knowing that I can’t just turn my feelings off like he can.

“Zander, listen?—”

“Don’t have to listen to shit. I want you to leave. Leave and let me enjoy the party with my friends. Friends who don’t want me around for having a tight hole.” My words catch—fucking alcohol—but I keep talking, my words gaining strength. “You don’t want to be with me? Fine. You don’t want me to call you babe?Fine. But don’t show up and ask me fucking questions when you didn’t even have the decency to text me back.”

“My phone is broken.”

I scoff a laugh. “Likely fuckin’ excuse. If you came to tell me the same shit you told me over the phone, don’t fuckin bother. I’m over it. I’m overyou.”

“Zander—”

“Don’t fucking ‘Zander’me!” I whisper-shout over my shoulder, not wanting to bring attention to me and Kerian having a fight. “Why are you even here?” I ask, finally turning around so I can see his face as I unleash all my pent-up anger. He’s probably wearing a scowl since I had my back to him for so long. Or that cocky grin he pastes on so he can disregard my angry words and throw them back at me ten times harder. Maybe he has?—

When I finally look at Kerian, my words die on my tongue. His bottom lip is split and he has a massive bruise on his left cheek, a dark and angry contusion that looks like it hurts at the slightest touch.

Swallowing hard, I take a step closer to him, my fingers hovering near his face, but not touching him. “What thefuck? Whodidthis to you?”

ChapterTwenty-Four

KERIAN

My hand jerks upbefore Zander has a chance to touch my bruised face, my busted lip. I’d been trying to keep him from seeing it, hoping that the shadow of the balcony we were on would give me the cover I needed.

And then I’d come out because I saw him give that girl his number, and some part of me knew that I’d kill everyone in the fucking house before I let him leave with anyone who wasn’t me tonight.

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