“Don’t be an ass, Shade,” Tilly says with a bored sigh. I can’t help but stare when she drops her head back and shakes out the hair beneath her hat. The way the honey-blonde curls swing back and forth is distracting, and I’m already too drunk to tell myself to look away from her this time. “I’ll answer both of her questions, and then we can move on to something else before you drink yourself stupid like Rowe.”
I ignore the poke. We both know she likes giving me shit more than she does the rest of the group. I think she just appreciates that I can handle it better. It’s an ability we share. We’re so fucking similar it’s disconcerting.
“Here. Drink until you can’t hear her answer,” Shade grunts at Ash.
He twists the cap back onto the bottle and then tosses it over the fire. It plops into Ash’s lap, and my closest friend takes it with a gruff noise of thanks. Lacey watches him open it and take a sip, her annoyance painfully obvious.
He’s not sober enough to pay attention to her tight jaw or clasped hands. I notice, because watching is what I do best.It gives me an excuse not to have to talk much. I leave that responsibility to Shade.
“I’m not listening,” Ash slurs, one hand smooshing his ear.
Lacey shakes her head at his idiocy and watches Tilly. I do the same, unable to help myself. It’s easier now that I’m drunk, at least. She pissed me off today, though I’ve kept that to myself. While that fuckface Ezra may no longer be in the picture, I still caught her typing out a text to him earlier. The thread of messages that were sent today only made my bitter annoyance worse.
It shouldn’t have surprised her when I took her phone and slipped it into my pocket before she got to send the last one. Texting that guy isn’t going to fix whatever she wants it to now that she’s dumped his ass. If she had just listened to me in the beginning, she wouldn’t have gotten with him at all. I told her he was a douche, but did she listen? No. If anything, my disapproval made her that much more determined to get with him.
It’s like she gets off on finding and stretching every slight crack in my armour until she can wiggle inside them.
“If I could be any flower,” she starts, tapping her bare knee, “I’d be a Venus flytrap.”
Shade shakes his head, curving his spine when he leans over his knees. “That’s not a flower.”
“Says who? You?”
“It has flowers on it,” Ash puts in.
Lacey takes the bottle of vodka from him and puts the lid on. “I thought you weren’t listening.”
“Anyway, that’s right. It has flowers, so in my mind, itisa flower,” Tilly says, pushing forward. “And I lost my virginity when I was seventeen.”
Ash’s groan comes at the same time Shade cheers, lifting his red cup into the summer air. My nose twitches, and I press myshoulders into the back of my chair, fighting a wave of something hot and prickly taking root in my gut.
“Who was it?”
I wait for whoever spoke to clarify, but when I notice four sets of eyes on me, I squeeze my empty cup until it’s folded in my palm.Right. The blabbermouth is me.
This shit has to stop. I’ve been asking too much and caring more than I need to these last few months. I’m slipping down a road I didn’t realize I’d taken.
Tilly’s glossy lips quirk at the corner, lifting just enough to expose her intrigue. I glare at that smirk and drop my crumbled cup.
“How about let’s not ask my sister any more about her sex life,” Ash suggests.
Lacey nods in agreement and climbs to her feet. She stumbles slightly but recovers with a hand on Ash’s shoulder. “I need to go to the bathroom anyway. You coming, Tilly?”
“Yep.”
Tilly can handle her liquor like a man double my size. Her boots meet the ground with a soft thud, and then she’s walking with grace to our friend. If it weren’t for the splotchy pink on her cheeks and the patch of skin exposed from her low-cut shirt, nobody would be able to tell she’s had more to drink than any one of us guys.
I jab my tongue into my bottom lip and twist away, pretending to examine the trees behind me. We took the only campsite that doesn’t have any others flanking it, so it’s just us out here. The closest fire is a long ways away, only partially in view from here.
Shimmer Lake Campground is the safest place I’ve ever been. And I know my two best friends agree because not one of us tries to stop the girls from leaving on their own. We trust this placeand the people in it. Ash and Tilly’s parents make damn sure nobody stays here who shouldn’t.
“You sure you don’t want to try and convince Lacey to curl up in your tent tonight instead of Tilly’s?” Shade asks Ash, chuckling to himself.
I straighten in my chair and tap the arm, wishing I hadn’t destroyed my cup. Ash seems to read my mind and tosses the closed bottle of vodka at me. I catch it in one hand and wince at the sharp pain that follows the movement of my shoulder. It’s still sore from getting my ass handed to me the other night.
The bronc was mean and took his shit temper out on me when I fell. His back legs clipped my shoulder when I failed to move fast enough. I was lucky to get away with only an aching bruise.
I unscrew the lid and soothe the pain with the liquor. It burns the entire way down, then sloshes into my stomach, making me feel uneasy.
