“You know how much I hate that he hurt you,” Ev says, and I do. Out of all of us, she has the biggest heart. She has the most love to give and is more open-minded. Where she understands certain things, Sylvia lacks the patience to be understanding at all.
“I know, and I’m telling both of you, I’m fine.”
Sylvia ignores my comment and guzzles more than a sip of wine. “You know it’s only a matter of time before he tries to jump back in the saddle. Has he approached you since he’s been back yet?”
“No.”
This is the first I’m seeing him since we ended things—minus the few times in the beginning of the summer when he tried texting me and I stalked his social media posts to see what he was up to.
That was before the summer changed me.
“Maybe the two of you can mend things,” Ev encourages.
Sylvia balks at the idea. “Why in the hell would she want to do that?”
Thank God the boys are too wrapped up in their conversation to hear us. It doesn’t hurt that there’s a makeshift game of beer pong going on over by the coffee table or that a group of sorority girls brought a bluetooth speaker and are blasting a bunch of old 90’s hits like they’re at a high school slumber party rather than a college shindig.
“So things aren’t tense? We all hang out, Sylvia. I doubt she wants bad blood hanging over their heads. Am I right?”
I see both of their points, but the fact is, I don’t want to be with Webber anymore. I don’t want to be friends with himeither. Not this soon. Time needs to heal what happened, and I don’t want it to affect the dynamics of the group.
Based on this conversation alone, it seems like it already has.
“I think it’ll be a while until I can consider him a friend again, but I’m not going to be mad if he comes to outings or I see him on campus. It’ll be impossible to avoid each other when we attend the same college and share the same friends.”
Everleigh nods in understanding. “Well, no matter what you want, I hope you’re happier now.”
Where Webber is concerned? Yes.
In other areas of my life? Not so much.
But they don’t need to know that.
Ev tilts her head, looking over at the guys. Sylvia flips to the next page in her magazine. I sip my beer. A guy comes over, drawing Sylvia’s attention away. They exchange a few pleasantries before he walks away with a sly grin. She watches him disappear into the hall bathroom. The one Colson should’ve used.
I could hug Everleigh when she starts up a conversation on another subject. “Now…what do we think of Sebastian’s cousin?”
Now there’s a topic that interests me.
We turn our attention to him, but he has his back turned to us.
“I don’t know how I feel about him yet,” Sylvia offers, scrunching her nose in the process. I’m not entirely surprised since her attention hasn’t strayed from her magazine once.
Well, aside from watching that guy meander away.
“He’s kind of cute,” Ev comments, and I’d have to agree with her there. “He has this whole mysterious vibe to him.”
He does, and the more I notice it, the more I’m intrigued by it. The more I’m intrigued, the more I’m curious if he’s going to ignore me for the rest of the night. If we’ll pretend that he didn’t traipse into the bathroom and get an eyeful.
“Don’t see it. His shirt looks one wash away from the fabric giving away, and he’s too tall for my taste,” Sylvia says, locking her lips on the cabernet rim. “Give me brawn any day of the week, and I’m instantly wet.”
Everleigh muffles her laugh and knocks her elbow into my arm. “Is that a tattoo on his forearm?”
I scan his body and try to be inconspicuous as I lean over the table to get a better look. He’s at the other end of the room so it’s hard to make out exactly what it is, but yep. That’s exactly what that is. Black ink covers the section between his wrist and elbow, and now that I’m looking closer, his forearms are a girl’s wet dream.
Webber always hated needles too much to go forth with getting a tattoo, but for a brief second, I allow myself to consider just how attracted I am to the art etched into Colson’s skin.
It’s different but in a good way.
