“Sounds good. Have fun with her. Don’t get too serious just yet. You just got out of a fire, right? Ride this one easy.”
I nod in agreement. Everything in me knows what he’s saying is true. “I hear you, but what I feel for her surpasses anything I’ve ever felt before. She’s different. I can’t really explain it.”
“You don’t have to. My girlfriend is my life.” He winces. “And believe me, I know how that sounds, but it’s true. For so long I slept with anything that moved because I didn’t want to dethrone my sister as the one I venerated. Our parents are gone, and I really wanted to focus on taking care of her. I thought having someone serious in my life would change that, but it didn’t. It only made it better.”
His beer arrives, and he tips it to me before taking a sip. “If you need anything, you know where to find me.” He nods to the back. “Bring your girlfriend around. Can’t wait to meet her.”
“Thanks, man.” I slap him five again before he ducks into the crowd.
A trio of dancing girls up near the stage catch my eye, three brunettes with their mouths open with laughter, and the one in the middle makes my heart detonate on impact.
Ava glances my way before doing a double take and waving wildly. Before I can stop her, she’s lost in the crowd trying to make her way over.
I shouldn’t have come. She was having a good time, and here I’m practically stalking her.
“Grant,” a deep voice thunders from behind, and I turn to find Lawson and Rush, each with a bottle in hand.
“Didn’t think you’d show up.” Rush butts his shoulder into mine, sending me staggering on one foot. I made it a point to clear the air right after I almost beat the shit out of him that night. Rush and I can’t afford to let anyone or anything get between us. Sometimes, it feels as if we’re all we have.
“The girls are insane tonight.” Lawson says it like it’s a good thing.
“Not bad for a mandatory event.” I crane my neck into the crowd. I can feel Ava coming—feel her presence as she hacks through bodies to make her way over. No matter where Ava is on campus, my body seems to recalibrate its compass toward her. I’ve traded north for Ava. My compass is always set in her direction.
Lawson leans in. “More like mandatory to get laid. That’s about the sum total of tonight’s event. See the blonde wearing nothing but a T-shirt?” He tips his bottle toward a crowd of girls, the blonde in question is laughing so hard she’s wiping tears from her eyes. Her skin is dyed orange. Her hair is bleached so white it glows like a flame. Ordinarily I’d correct Lawson and fill him in on the fact she’s wearing a dress, but in this case I think he hit the nail on the head.
Rush howls at the group. “Dude, she is fucking hot.”
“She’s coming home with me.” Lawson lays it out like a fact. “You can have her buddy to the left, the redhead. They’re inseparable. A threesome was discussed, but I haven’t quite hit your league.” He knocks his elbow into me. “Which one do you want? I’ll make it happen.”
The thought makes me laugh. “I don’t need you to make it happen.”
Rush glances over, his eyes slightly stoned from who knows what. “So, are you with that chick or what? You and Ava the real deal?”
“Yup.” I didn’t even hesitate. There. I’ve made us official twice in one evening. It must be true. Something in me warms at the idea of making it official with Ava. We’re together. I want us to be. I hate to sound like a textbook sap, but I want to be with her, be around her every hour of every day. It feels like a limb is missing when she’s not with me—like a vital organ has just been ripped out of my body, and I’m slowly bleeding out without her.
“Real deal?” Lawson looks affronted. “She’s got you by the balls so hard you don’t even know it. There’s no way I’m getting pussy-whipped this soon in the game. Too many girls to plow through before that ever happens.”
By the game, I’m assuming he means college and not the night.
“Spoken like a true gentleman.”
Ava pops up right on cue. Her hair is blown out from dancing. Her little black dress is tight and short in all the right places. That huge grin of hers sets my heart thumping like I just ran a marathon, and here I haven’t moved an inch.
“And you are quite the gentlemen.” She grins openly at the two of us.
I take a step toward her, and she holds up her hands, glancing around as if expecting the Gestapo.
She glances past my shoulder and frowns. “My brother and his friends are crawling all over this place tonight.”
“Great.” I glance over in the event he’s headed this way. “I want to meet him.”
“Ha! You wish. I like your face just the way it is.” She pulls me in for a brief embrace before pushing me right back toward Lawson and Rush. “So, is it true? You chose a Beta event over shark-infested waters?”
I hitch my thumbs at Lawson and Rush. “Don’t fool yourself. These are shark-infested waters. And I’m pretty sure if I meet your brother, it wouldn’t equal my face getting pounded in. He cares about you, that’s all. He just wants to make sure you’re not with some punk.” That’s all I would want—for Steph to be safe. Ironic since it was her girlfriends I should have looked out for.
“Punk?” Rush gives my head a shove with his oversized mitt. “I guess that disqualifies you.”
“Get out of here.” I knock my knee into his, and he takes an inadvertent bow. “Come on.” I try to pull Ava deep into the crowd, but she makes an abrupt U-turn and leads us toward the exit.
