Page 43 of His Pretty Little Lies
Who am I kidding? I’m not watching anyone. I’m watchingforsomeone.
Chapter Twenty-One
JAX
Idon’t bother with finding a spot to park at the end of the line of cars. I pass them all, stopping when I’m directly in front of the house.
“Can’t park—” The man stops speaking when his eyes lock with mine as I round the front of my vehicle, ignoring him. “I’ll keep an eye on it.” I give him a chin nod. Damon fights a smirk. Right now, I'm not finding anything smirk-worthy.
I know Kinsley is okay. Damon reached out and had her checked on when she got to the party. He found out she's had a few drinks and had some kind of altercation with two girls. One that Blair stepped in on. In all the time I have known Kinsley, I’m unaware of any altercations she’s ever had with anyone, and I’m aware of almost everything when it comes to her.
I'm still pissed about Blair turning off my girl's phone, but it goes to show it's more about being on Team Girl than anything. As always, the party is in full swing when we arrive. I let all emotion drop from my face.
Dead face, as my Uncle Ronan calls it. People tend not to try to start conversations with you when you wear it. It makes their hackles rise, even if they don’t fully understand why. They avoid you.
That might be the case a lot of the time, but drunk people don't often read a room, let alone a person. That’s not going to bode too well for me, considering my main goal is to get to my girl without any interruptions.
Damon knocks the side of his fisted hand against a few people from school as we pass. I'm sure he's connected with whomever he had give the details on Kinsley.
I've fully started to understand my dad's crazy ass when it comes to my mom. I know Kinsley is safe, but I need to see that shit with my own eyes. I’ll feel unsettled until I do.
"Go this way." My brother motions toward the stairs. "It's faster than going outside and down." I nod, heading in that direction, entering directly into a giant game room where they have a bar set up, and people are playing beer pong and a range of other games. Giant glass doors have been pushed open to lead out to the back and pool area.
The random-ass thought of seeing my girl in a bathing suit flicks through my mind. Bet I could get her outside at our pool this weekend. Hopefully, I won't have to carve any of my brothers' eyes out. They'll stay clear, but Kinsley might cut mine out tonight.
I have only been to a few of these parties over the years, and that was when I knew Kinsley was going. Sure, I’m a fucking psycho for stalking her to that degree, but I don’t give a shit. She often kept to the edges of the party with her phone tightly in her hand.
My guess is she thought it would be strange if she had her notebook out and was scribbling things down in the middle of a party. She was only there to observe and scoop out stories or get information on a new one.
"Oh my God, you're here!" A blond girl rushes towards me. Her eyes are wide, showing off her blown-out pupils.
She's high as fuck and acting like we know each other. I have never seen this chick in my life, but she has a very generic appearance, in my opinion. One girl bleeds into another, but all are forgettable. To me, at least.
"You’ve mistaken me for someone else," I tell her, stepping to the side to pass right by her.
When she tries to reach out and put her hands on my chest, I take a step back while smacking one of her arms. The dumbass falls dramatically to the ground. I didn't touch her that hard, so either she's just high and drunk or she's putting on a show.
I don't give a fuck either way. I step right over her ass. The taller blonde with her just stares before rushing past me, I guess to help her friend, but not before hearing her say I assaulted her.
It’s fucking ridiculous. The weird squeaky girl was coming at me, so I didn’t bother to even respond. My focus is on one thing and one thing only. There’s no time for their immature nonsense. I have my own crazy, obsessive nonsense to handle.
I’m not a fan of random-ass people touching me. My eyes search the crowd, and it only takes me half a second to lock in on my girl. Her back is to me, but she’s still wearing my shirt. I can’t fucking help but smile. Kinsley knows she belongs to me even if she’s pissed off.
I swear she must feel my eyes on her because she starts to turn, her gaze locking with mine. For a brief moment, her mouth starts to turn up into a smile, then it quickly drops away. Instead, it forms a straight line as she whips her attention back around as if I’m not here at all.
Blair, however, is facing Kinsley and talking to her. She notices me, but her expression doesn’t change. I'm sure she's not shocked to see me here. In the few days since I stopped pretending to the world Kinsley wasn't mine, I have made it real clear now what she is to me, out in the open for all to know.
“Bunny.” I place my hand on her hip behind her. My girl jabs an elbow at me. I fake a grunt. If she wants to take her anger out on me, all right. I’ll take that shit. Don’t think there is anything I wouldn’t take that she gave me.
"Ope." She spins around. "Did I really hurt you?" Concern shows on her face, but it melts quickly. "Or are you lying again?" She sounds pissed, but I don't miss the hurt there either.
“We don’t lie to each other,” I remind her.
“Oh, whatever.” Her nose does that adorable scrunch that helped seal the nickname I’d given her long ago in my head.
“Hey.” I lean down closer. “I didn’t lie.”
“You, ah—” She licks her lips, her eyes flicking to mine. I can tell she’s tipsy, maybe drunk. But I can also tell she’s thinking about me kissing her, too. “Well, you just, like, stepped around it. You made the words fit so it wasn't a ‘lie.’” Kinsley does air quotes with her fingers. “You were coming to this party and left that right out.”
