Page 6 of 4-Ever Theirs (4-Ever 1)

Chapter Three

Reed sat at the bar, rattling the remnants of the ice cubes in his glass. Shitty whiskey seared a few layers of cells from the inside of his esophagus. It couldn’t touch the chill in his chest from their near miss with Andi.

He’d seen the look in Cooper’s eyes as he’d emerged from their bathroom earlier.

They’d made it this long without fucking up. Making a mistake now, with a single week left until graduation, would be unforgiveable. But damn how he’d wanted to do the wrong thing for once in his life.

Andi wasn’t theirs. No matter how much they’d wished she could have been over the past four years. Soon she wouldn’t even be their roommate. Their constant torture. Their daily reminder that there might never be a more perfect woman for them to share. One who happened to be completely off-limits too.

Fuck.

Simon had been right. They needed to get laid tonight. Badly.

With finals and work study they hadn’t had time to blow off steam lately. So they’d agreed to treat themselves to a reward of sorts. A night out at Flesh, the one place in town where their reputation was an asset instead of a hindrance.

Already they’d been approached by no less than a half-dozen women eager to try out their legendary brand of passion. Unfortunately, none of them seemed to appeal to the guys. Hell, he didn’t give a shit who they picked. They would never be the one woman he wanted, so he always went for whatever piqued Cooper and Simon’s interest for a night.

A couple of nicely stacked women in sparkly g-strings hopped onto the bar to give them a better view of their offering. The only thing he could think of was finding glitter clinging to his dick in the shower later. It would piss him off that he’d settled for someone so vastly different than Andi.

Again.

Reed swallowed. It was getting harder to do this.

What would happen when he couldn’t stick with Cooper and Simon anymore?

Would they go on without him?

Would their bond be broken?

He wasn’t sure he could stand to lose them too.

Prepared to get his head in the game and perform like they expected him to, he cracked his knuckles.

“Oh, great. Are you in a shitty mood?” someone familiar asked as he crashed onto the stool beside him. “Because I don’t need any more drama tonight.”

Reed smiled despite himself. “Hey, Peter, what’s up?”

The guy grunted, ordered a couple of doubles then dropped his head in his hands as if trying to keep his brains between his ears while he waited for the alcohol to start flowing. Reed could relate.

Cooper leaned in from Reed’s other side. He couldn’t resist teasing the guy. “Can’t find anyone to play with or what?”

“Sort of, I guess. But worse.” He shrugged as Simon got up and walked over to stand behind Reed and Peter for the whole story. “I was supposed to be meeting this chick my sister set me up with. Kind of a pity date thing. Probably for the best we didn’t meet up. It would have been a guaranteed lay, but boring as hell, I’m sure. Still, Veronica is going to be pissed. She really likes this girl and wanted me to kind of look out for her, you know? Nobody can hold a grudge like my sister, and I need to borrow her truck to move out next week. That’s probably not gonna happen now.”

“Well, did you check with Micah at the door? Or is she a complete no-show?” Reed wondered. “Can’t be held against you if she chickened out.”

“That’s just it.” He scrunched his eyes closed for a moment then slammed the first drink the bartender set in front of him. “She’s here somewhere. Micah let her in with her goddamned date.”

“I don’t get it,” Simon interrupted. “I thought that was supposed to be you?”

“Here’s the part Veronica’s going to have my balls over.” He downed the second shot then cleared his throat. “I was at a friend’s earlier today. We were smoking weed. I was high and bragged to some other dude who was hanging out about coming over here tonight to meet her…”

Reed groaned. What an idiot! “And he scooped her out from under you.”

Peter hung his head. “Yeah, I think so. I passed around the picture and note from my sister. They know everything I do about her. Ah, well. Hopefully they’re having a helluva time and my sister will never figure out it wasn’t actually me who boned her. The only thing that’s kinda bugging me—”

“What?” Reed’s eyes narrowed. If it wasn’t that some young girl was getting fucked by a stranger who was lying to her, what would trip his faulty conscience?

“Well, the guy we were toking with…” He grimaced then looked over at Reed with dread in his eyes. “I think he sells Mind Erasers sometimes.”

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