“I love you so fucking much, Ryder Cutton.”
I know I must appear a mess right now. My skin is itchy with dried sweat. My face is blotchy from crying. My hair is a tangled web of blond and pink that has escaped the ponytail I had it in. But Ryder is looking at me with nothing but love and desire in his eyes.
“I love you, Elizabeth Fairchild.” He kisses me sweetly. “And you’re going to be in so much trouble later tonight.”
“Why?”
“I found your notes.”
Ryder
“How the hell did I let you rope me into coming here again?” I ask Elizabeth.
As soon as I got to her apartment after my last class, she rushed me back out the door saying we were meeting up with Fallon. I was not happy. I had been looking forward to doing all those naughty things she wrote me in the notes she left around the apartment this morning.
We have to park down the road from Fallon’s frat because most of the fraternities are having parties tonight. The different styles of music blast out from every frat house and meld together in a raucous melody that reminds me of fingernails down a chalkboard. We’ve only walked a block down frat row and I’ve already been stopped by six people I know. Elizabeth doesn’t seem to mind, especially when I introduce her as my girlfriend. She looks so fucking sexy tonight in her tight black jeans and red blouse that hangs off one shoulder. She left her hair down and my fingers twitch with wanting to glide them through her soft, messy waves.
“There’s my boy!” I hear from a lawn across the way. Fallon is hanging out with a group of people sitting on a sofa that has been placed in the middle of the yard.
He walks over and grabs Elizabeth, lifting her up and spinning her around. “And here’s my kitten!”
“Put me down, Fallon!” she tells him, but she’s laughing. I’m so confused right now.
“What’s up, Ry?” he says to me.
“Not much, man.”
“Come on,” he tells us, then yells at the group hanging around the sofa, “John! Heading in.”
John answers by lifting his red cup high. Fallon always knew how to throw a party in high school. This is the first one of his I have come to while at CU. It wouldn’t surprise me to see a bonfire out back, even though it’s against campus fire code. As Fallon takes us up the porch stairs and into the house, several girls try to get his attention, but he ignores every single one. His attention has been on Elizabeth who has been chatting to him the entire time. She’s smiling. I hear Fallon tell her something that sounds like burnt marshmallows, and she throws her head back laughing. My confusion at their sudden camaraderie turns into wondering what the hell does burnt marshmallows mean?
I remember Elizabeth hated Fallon’s parties in high school, so I’m worried that she’s going to feel uncomfortable here tonight. I bend down to her ear, “Babe. You good?”
She turns her head and kisses my cheek. “This is my first party,” she says excitedly. I guess that’s my answer. I kiss her temple and move her in front of me to take her hips in my hands as we follow Fallon to the back of the house. She leans back into me and I can feel her ass sway to the music as we walk.
“Preference?” Fallon asks us when we get to where the alcohol is.
“Shots?” Elizabeth queries.
“Fuck, yeah! Ry, you want a Three Wise Men?” he shouts over the music.
“Water,” I tell him. If Elizabeth is doing shots, I need to stay sober. He passes me a bottle and makes two shots, one for himself and one for Elizabeth.
“Clowns,” Fallon tells her. “The color orange,” she says. They clink glasses and tip back their shots.
I bend down to her ear again so she can hear me over the music. “What the hell are you and Fallon talking about?”
She takes the beer bottle he hands to her. “Our worst fears.”
Fallon motions for us to follow him outside. The back yard is decked out in patio lights strung from tree to tree and across the large deck. The lot for the frat house is giant. There’s a swimming pool to one side of the back deck and a single tennis court to the other side. Someone throws a football from across the yard to the swimming pool and cheers erupt when a guy catches it before diving under the water.
Fallon approaches three girls and two guys sitting on one of the deck couches. They’re passing a joint around. One of the girls, a redhead, smiles when she sees him.
Fallon snaps his fingers at the five of them. “Get the fuck off my couch.”
The guys scramble up and walk off, but the girls linger behind after getting up. The redhead stumbles forward and whispers something in Fallon’s ear. “Later,” he tells her and swats her ass. One of her friends, a blond, has been staring at me. Her eyes widen and she tries to whisper something to the third girl, but it comes out louder than I think she intended.
“That’s Ryder Cutton! He’s so fucking hot.”
