Page 48 of Collide
I pry away her fingers. “Just need to check on my friend. Give me a minute.” The friend who is currently taking off her jacket. Half of the basketball team is watching her like she’s putting on a fucking show, and I bite down so hard I feel the tension in my head.
Summer’s giggle hits me as Kayce lowers his head to whisper in her ear. Without much forethought, I walk right up to them and pull her away.
She stumbles, startled by my sudden appearance. “What are you doing?”
“It’s time to go.”
Confusion riddles her features when she yanks her arm from my grasp. “You can leave. I’ll get another ride home.”
“Hell no, you don’t know any of these guys. You’re coming with me.”
“She knows me. I could give her a ride,” offers Kayce.
“Stay out of it.”
Summer looks at me in shock and drags me away from the pool table. “Dude. You’re being the worst wingman right now.”
I’m so irritated I can’t respond. Everything is fucked. She smells so good, her skin is glowing, and those eyes. Don’t get me started on her eyes that have their own gravitational pull.
“Look, you don’t have to stick by me. That pretty girl over there looks like she really wants to see what’s under all this.” She gestures to my body. “And I want to see what’s under all that.” She points her thumb in Kayce’s direction.
He’s already talking to someone else and somehow that annoys me too. Why would another girl interest him when Summer is right here? It’s like being given the sun and deciding a light bulb will do.
“You don’t know that guy. Trust me, he’s not the one you want to hookup with.”
“I do trust you, that’s why I’m here. He checks all the boxes. He even offered to teach me how to play pool.”
I snort. I’m pretty sure every guy in this bar would volunteer for a view of that ass bent over the pool table.
The soft look in her eyes dampens my irritation. “You really want to stay?” I ask.
Say no. Say no. Say no.
“Yes,” she says before she touches my shoulder. “But you should, too.”
“You’re seriously going to hookup with him?” My voice sounds fragile, almost insecure.
She laughs. “Do you even know me? I was kidding. I told you I have to like a guy before we hookup.”
“And how long does it take for you to like someone?”
She thinks for a minute. “How long have I known you?”
“Two months,” I say.
“There’s your answer,” she says and walks back to Kayce.
I’m left blinking in her absence, unsure of what to make of that. Summer has never said she likes me.
This is uncharted territory.
15 | SUMMER
THIS IS NOT a date. Nothing about my outfit or the extra time I spent on my hair means anything. It’s two friends—kind of—hanging out in an attempt to learn the ropes of college fun.God, when did I become so lame?
When I left the dorm, Amara and Cassie were adamantly referring to Aiden as my date. Something about me not going out for months and saying my vagina is probably shriveling up as we speak. Rude. My vagina is completely fine, I just don’t have time to focus on her, though fixing that situation might be exactly what I need.
Now that we’re here, I’ve learned that my tongue gets loose when I drink. I say things that I would otherwise keep safely locked up in a fire-resistant safe, and there was proof of that when I told Aiden Ilikehim. Logically, my only option after that is to walk back to Kayce Howard in this athlete-infested bar while Aiden’s eyes focus like a sniper on my back.
