“Wow—what a fumble. Don’t you get hit on at least once a day?” Kayla asks, leaning on the table for more of the gossip.
“Well, you know what they say—a guy who gets a ten gets cocky thinking they’re the shit. Then they lose ’em and find out they were—in fact—not the shit.” Laughter goes around the table and Fe shoots me a smile.
“Wait! Bear—that means you’re single.” Josh says with a grin so wide I think he might try to jump over here and swallow me.
“Guess so.” I answer.
“Go on a—” he stops speaking very abruptly, smile dimming slightly.
“A what?” It looks like he’s dissociating—staring at the wall next to me.
“Uh… self-discovery journey! Don’t go jumping into another relationship.” He leans back in his chair, still staring at the same spot.
“Right… Thanks.” I say awkwardly—turning to look at the wall behind me. Nothing interesting. Only a smiling Aaron who is sitting on my left.
“Well hell.” Darian says. “Everyone else witness that murder?” Several agreements go around the table. Murder? I’m losing traction in this hangout session fast. I lean over to Aaron.
“Aaron—what are they talking about? I think I missed something?”
The whole table bursts into loud, obnoxious laughter that makes me jump in my seat. I have to look like a terrified little cat when I turn to look at Aaron. He gives me a soft grin—all sweet green eyes and silky black curls—and rubs my cheek with his thumb.
“They’re dumb. Ignore them.” Okay—they’re definitely laughing at me. My eyes narrow on him.
“No.” His smile drops and a brow raises, head tilted just slightly. “I mean—okay.” My pulse is so rapid right now I’m convinced anyone can look at my throat and see the thumping. Aaron’s grin comes back to his full lips, and because I worship him the way sunflowers follow the sun—I smile right back.
“Oh! There’s a party tomorrow night in one of the sorority houses. Wanna go? Not Halloween-related.” Darian asks everyone—sweet brown eyes bouncing from person to person.
“Sure.” I shrug.
“Yeah, alright.” Josh says. Mostly everyone agrees—aside from Felix and Kayla who have preplanned things to do.
“Word. I’ll send the address to the group chat. Now—should we order some drinks and pretend to study for a while?”
As everyone stands to go and order Aaron grabs my hand—pulling me back into my chair.
“Oof—hey. What’s up?” I ask him—startled. Aaron reaches and starts to play with my button where it dangles, never taking his eyes off mine.
“Greek-life parties are a lot crazier than regular parties.” He starts. “I want you to have fun and be yourself obviously—butpleasemake sure you can see one of us at all times—got it?” There’s a bit of force in thatgot itthat makes the room a bit hotter.
“Yeah. Got it.” The right side of his lips tilts up.
“Aw, good boy.” I flush straight down to my fucking toes. I open my mouth to bitch at him because that’s insanely inappropriate for the setting—but I have nothing to say—not really. So, I shut it right back. “What do you want todrink?”
I give Aaron my order and he walks away, leaving me alone at the table. I’m fine guarding our belongings. If I stand now—my running shorts won’t hide what Aaron does to me.
???
Two hours later we’re all outside of Brews saying our goodbyes. Felix wants us to go back to Aaron’s to watch the new superhero movie he’s excited about, and I never turn down a chance to be around him, so I agree.
“Let me use the bathroom then we’ll go.” Aaron heads back into the café and we take a seat on one of the benches.
“Are you sad?” I turn to look at Fe as he tries to read my eyes. “About Drew—I mean.” I take a moment to truly think about it. Am I upset about Drew?
I’m upset I’ve been left again. That I hurt somebody—found out I’m not as good of a person as I once thought. I’m disappointed that he didn’t think I was worthy anymore. I’m sad it didn’t work out, because he really was a nice guy in a hard situation. So yeah—I’d say I’m sad.
“Yeah—I am.” Felix nods.
“Do you think you’ll get back together?” This makes me chuckle a bit.
