Brody
“Him?”
That was the first thing someone said to me as I walked up to the guys in the lobby of the hotel. I was relieved to have found them after having to take a different flight. I thought I might miss them or get lost on the way or turn up somehow at the wrong hotel.
On the bingo card of anxieties I was carrying around with me, I had somehow forgotten to hold a space for ‘someone hates me because they know who I used to be’.
“Hi,” I said, hesitant and nervous now. The flight after a long day of work had taken it out of me. I’d been hoping we could get in, find our rooms, have dinner, and then get some sleep – even though I also kind of figured that this bachelor party trip might start with a late night.
“Hey, Brody!” Keaton exclaimed cheerfully, stepping forward immediately to pull me into an embrace. I was glad he was one of the grooms that this weekend was all about. If it was anyone else, the awkwardness might have been too much to get over.
With Keaton around, though, it was pretty hard to be miserable – or to fight. Any time anyone in our group had fought over the past few years, all it took was for Keaton to walk into the room and ask what was going on. After that, we knew we were going to make up.
The others started to follow his lead, welcoming me as the last person to arrive. Olly and Ace shook my hand, Cade gave me a brief and perfunctory hug, and Aiden clapped me on the shoulder for a bro-high five. Taeho just nodded at me, but I knew his deal – he was kind of a germaphobe, so I wasn’t getting a shake or a hug from him. There were three or four guys on Olly’s side of things that I didn’t know, all of whom either nodded quietly at me or reached out for a quick and awkward handshake.
That just left Xavi, who was still staring at me with a wrinkled nose like I was something that had been walked in on someone’s shoe.
“Why is he here?” Xavi asked, folding his arms over his chest. For a short guy, he definitely gave off way more of an aggressive vibe than he should have been confident in.
I sighed. This wasn’t going to be a great trip like I had hoped for, was it?
It wasn’t like I didn’t deserve it. I knew that.
“Don’t be a dick, Xavi,” someone muttered. I looked up to see Ace nudging him with his elbow and felt a flush of gratitude. I didn’t even know Ace that well, either – but the fact he was standing up for me made me feel lighter. “You’ll ruin the mood.”
Oh. So, he was standing up for the mood, not exactly for me.
Well… I’d take it.
“Let’s get set up,” Keaton said, clapping his hands. I was pretty sure his best man – which was Xavi, I’d heard – was supposed to be the one setting up the bachelor party. Or at least Olly’s best man, Caleb, who apparently couldn’t even make it out here thanks to his pro football commitments. But Keaton, in typical Keaton style, had taken over organizing everything – and I think I wasn’t the only one who was a bit relieved. “We’ll head to our rooms and get settled in, then meet in the restaurant for our first meal together in about half an hour. I’ve reserved a table, so don’t be late, okay?”
There were general nods and murmurs of agreement for everyone. “We’ve got the room keys already,” Olly said, finally speaking up for the first time since I’d arrived. “We can walk up together.”
We began to move as a convoy, all of us wheeling small suitcases or hefting large totes and gym bags. We blocked up half the lobby and then the whole of the hallway, but I doubted the hotel staff minded – we’d booked out six rooms all on the same floor, twelve seats in the restaurant, and we were almost guaranteed to clear out the mini bars and add plenty of extra charges to our bills.
This bachelor party was a cash cow, and the hotel manager must have known it from the way he cheerfully nodded and smiled as he waved us in the right direction with a short bow.
“Why is he even here?” I heard Xavi hissing, and the uncomfortable itch at the back of my neck made me certain he was talking about me. I shifted slightly, suddenly feeling way too hot in my leather jacket. I was walking behind them, and maybe Xavi didn’t even know I could hear him – or maybe he just didn’t care.
“You’re so annoying,” Ace huffed. “What do you care?”
“Because the guy is an asshole,” Xavi snapped back.
I kept my eyes on my feet so I wouldn’t trip over a lump in the carpet or stumble right into someone else’s bag, desperately pretending I couldn’t hear. I couldn’t dare look up to meet anyone’s eyes. I was doing a good job of faking it, but it would all fall apart if I had to look someone in the face.
Truth was, I knew I was an asshole. Or, I used to be. I was doing much better now, but that didn’t count for anything when someone knew my past.
I was willing to bet that everyone here knew who I really was: that I’d cheated on Cade endlessly when we were together, then showed up to pose for the news cameras when he’d been caught in an avalanche – six months after we’d broken up.
His feelings hadn’t been on my mind at all. I’d seen a chance to get my five minutes of fame and taken it.
And now I was famous all over the internet as the star in “Asshole cheating ex gets knocked OUT by dreamy football hunk”, a clip someone had recorded from the live news channel and promptly uploaded to every sharing site in existence.
I’d had my five minutes, alright – and I’d been paying for it ever since.
“He’s not…” Ace started, and when he didn’t say the rest of the sentence and deny I was an asshole, my heart dropped even further. “Look, things are different now. You weren’t at college with us the last couple of years. You missed it.”
“How could that possibly make a difference?” Xavi asked. “What he did to Cade was –”
