“Great choice, Vienna,” he replies and fills a cup then hands it to her, winking. I don’t find anything appealing about it, but Vi eats it up. “What about you, Josie? Feeling adventurous, or do you want to play it safe?”
“I’ll get fucked up either way, so there’s no playing it safe.”
“Yeah, you’re right, but hey, one isn’t questionable and the other is.” He chuckles and shrugs.
“I guess red.”
He stares, impressed, and pours my drink into a cup. As he hands it to me, he says, “Danny should be outside.”
I stare, perplexed. “Why does that matter to me?”
He shrugs again but smirks. “Just thought you’d want to know.”
“I don’t,” I deadpan, but I can’t help the way my stomach flips at the sound of his name.
Gray doesn’t say anything else as a few other girls approach the table. We move out of the way and somehow end up back in the living room. We stand in the corner but not for long before “Safaera” by Bad Bunny plays loudly from a speaker.
“Danny’s probably DJing,” Pen yells over the loud music. “We’re about to get a variety of music, thank God. Listen, I’m all for the new stuff, but a little mix never hurt anyone. We have to go dance! Do you dance, Josie?”
I shake my head. I know how, I just don’t. “No, but please go. I’m good right now.”
“Come on, please?” Vi grabs my arms and attempts to draw me close to the people grinding and shaking ass, but I stay rooted in my spot.
“Maybe the next one.” It’s not going to happen, but I know they’ll persist. It’s my first party in a while, and everything already feels a little too much. I shouldn’t but I feel a little anxious. My heart is racing and I feel out of body. “Go. I promise I’ll be here.”
It takes them a moment to go, but when I give them both a gentle shove, they promise to be back and make their way through the crowd until they blend in.
I take a small sip of drink, in hopes it’ll ease the way my heart swiftly palpitates. I grimace, squeezing my eyes tight as the strong, burning liquid settles in my stomach. “Fuck.” I shudder.
“Let me guess. You got the red.”
I don’t have to turn to know who’s speaking to me. My grimace deepens and I shudder again, but this time it has nothing to do with the drink.
I ignore him, hoping he’ll go away, but unfortunately, like a pestering mosquito, he annoyingly invades my space until he’s in front of me.
Bryson lazily grins, taking another step closer as I take another back. “I thought I was seeing things, that there was no way. But I’d recognize those tits anywhere.” He brazenly drops his gaze to my chest. It stalls there before he idly lifts it back up to me.
Why did I ever date him? Right, because I hate myself.
“Bryson, fuck off.”
“Don’t be like that. I was just messing around, but you look really hot. I’d almost forgotten how…” He drunkenly chuckles, gaze dipping to my chest again. “That color is doing you wonders. It’s a nice change from all the dark colors. You know people were calling you Wednesday,” he innocently says but I don’t miss the taunt that undertones it.
My chest constricts again and a bead of sweat rolls down my spine. I take another sip and fight the shudder. “By people, do you mean you?”
“Not me, I was always defending you, Josie, but you made it so hard. It doesn’t hurt to fucking smile once in a while or do things with your boyfriend.” That’s a dig at me for not always having sex whenever he asked for it.
I swallow but the glass seems to have returned, making it hard to do so. “Ex.”
“We were good for each other, Josie. We could’ve made things work. We still can.”
“Were you good for me when you fucked that girl multiple times? Or told your friends I liked to get passed around because your ego couldn’t handle that I broke up with you?” The hurt doesn’t reside anymore, only disgust. Someone thought it’d be great to send me a video of Bryson fucking some girl.
He rolls his eyes, huffing out harshly. “For fuck’s sake, I fucked up and I was drunk when I said and did that. Why do you always have to bring that up? I made a mistake. I told you I was sorry. She didn’t mean anything. I swear I was thinking of you the entire time. What more do you want me to do for you to believe I’m really sorry?”
Right, because that’s every girl’s dream, to hear their boyfriend’s thinking of them while their dick is in someone else.
And he never apologized, but he likes to believe he did.
