Page 12 of The Star

I run to my room, slip my feet into some Nikes, grab my keys, and then jog back down the stairs and out the front door.

* * *

By midnight, I’ve consumed enough liquor to paralyze a smaller man, choosing to drown my anger instead of suffocating in it myself.

“You ready to go lay down, Car?” Cassidy whispers in my ear, her ass moving in a circular motion on my lap with the implication that I’ll be able to see straight long enough to fuck her.

I also hate that she calls meCar. I don’t know when the nickname started, but it hasn’t grown on me at all in the year and a half I’ve been dating her.

I squeeze her thigh with my left hand. “I should probably drink some water.”

I’m fucked up, but I’m not too fucked up to know that if I don’t balance out the liquor in my system, I’ll be hungover as shit tomorrow.

I pat her thigh with the same hand, then squeeze at her waist with my other, motioning for her to stand up. She complies, standing on her bare feet to stare at me. I press my mouth to hers, tugging her body flush against mine as I ravage her lips. The room starts to spin a little, so I pull away and open my eyes again. “I’ll be back.”

She blows me a kiss and falls back down on the couch, winking at me when she presses her tongue to the inside of her cheek a few times. I chuckle as I turn to head to the kitchen.

Cassidy is a good time. She’s the cheer captain, meaning we’re always paired up for football shit. One night we hooked up at a party and we’ve been together ever since – I saytogethervery loosely. We were dating seriously for a little while, but I never really felt things for her you’re supposed to feel in a relationship. But, she likes having the QB on her arm, and she’s wild in bed. As an added bonus, since we’re just together for show and quickies, she doesn’t mind when I hook up with other people, as long as she gets to keep me. She’s more my friend with benefits than anything at this point, but to the outside world, we’re the happy little football couple.

I find Hayden and Levi standing at the island when I enter the kitchen. Hayden is rolling a blunt, and Levi is pouring a shot. “What’s up, bitches?”

Levi turns to me with bloodshot eyes, a stupid grin pulling at his lips. “Carson, my boy.”

I snort, pulling open the fridge to grab a bottle of water. “You good?”

“He’s fine, just drunk.” Hayden answers for him, a smirk on his face. He holds the blunt to his mouth to lick it, nodding his head. “You want some of this?”

Before I can respond, Levi is smacking me on the back. “Carson, why didn’t you bring that hot sister of yours? I have something I need her to sit on.”

Hayden barks out a laugh, and I choke on the water I’m pouring into my mouth as laughter bubbles up my throat. I cough through it, my lips permanently curved in humor. “I don’t bring trash to the party, gentlemen.”

Hayden slips the blunt between his lips, lights it, and then blows smoke out in front of him. “Trash or not, we need to welcome her to Luxington the right way.” He flexes his hips to hump the air, then puffs on his blunt again.

I roll my eyes at him, my fist tightening on the bottle of water. My head is starting to clear from the alcohol a little, and irritation is slowly refilling my system like a toxin. “No way would I bring that chick to a party, and neither will you two idiots.”

Hayden claps his hands once, laughing through the hold his lips have on the blunt. “Look who’s trying to be the alpha, attempting to make rules and shit.”

Levi is swaying on his legs, like he’s standing on a boat. “Carson, why you so bothered by this?”

I down the rest of my water before I answer him, trying to choose my words as carefully as I can with the film of intoxication over me. “I’m not bothered. I just don’t like the bitch. She shouldn’t be here.”

Hayden passes me the blunt, but I wave him off and he stubs it out on the marble countertop. “Well, we could always play with her.”

My eyebrows go up. “Play with her?”

He shrugs. “Let her know she isn’t welcome here.”

Levi laughs a full belly laugh, pointing at Hayden but speaking to me. “You see that evil look in his eyes? Motherfucker wants to torture her.”

Meeting Hayden’s eyes, I try to read whatever his sick and twisted mind is coming up with, and he flexes his eyebrows once in question.

I grab another bottle of water and down it as I think about Logan, her perfect skin, silky black hair with white pieces framing her face, and deep golden-brown eyes that studied me when we met. Her tight ass and slim waist, taunting me from across the room when she walked upstairs. The cleavage that spilled from the top of her shirt.

I crush the empty bottle and throw it across the room, meeting Hayden’s gaze again. “Let’s do this.”

My friends grin like kids in a candy shop, so I mimic the expression, letting them know I’m looking forward to this just as much as they are.

I turn and leave the kitchen. Cassidy is in the middle of a conversation with some of the other girls, but my aching cock blurs the signal my brain is sending to my mouth, so I just grab her by the arm and pull her up off the couch.

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