She felt her throat start to swell from emotion and felt hot tears stinging the corners of her blue eyes. Before she could see another second of what was unfolding before her, she turned and ran, opting for the back door of the house, not wanting to have to trudge her way through the horrendous group of drunk idiots near the front of the house again.
She burst through the back door, swiping her tears away as soon as they dropped from her eyes, and unexpectedly crashed into a very hard body, causing her to stumble backwards and fall straight on her butt.
“Shit, Tessa, you okay?”
She looked up through blurry eyes to see Jake Gardner standing above her, holding his hand out for her to take. She hadn’t seen him in about two weeks. They used to be lab partners, but he had to switch classes due to his baseball schedule, and a vivid memory of Tristan being irritated and jealous that Jake even knew who Tessa was came to her mind. A small twinge of mischievous and satisfactory revenge bubbled in her chest, and she quickly put her hand in his, and let him pull her up to stand.
“You okay?” Jake asked again.
“I’m fine,” she said curtly, brushing off the grass sticking to her jeans.
“You’re fine?” He asked with an amused smile, “You’ve obviously been crying and you were running away like there was a fire chasing you. What’s going on?”
“Nothing important, okay?” She said, not able to hide her annoyance. She was trying not to cry, and him asking her multiple times if she was alright was not making that any easier.
“Is it Kelly?”
Her head shot up and her blue eyes searched his, silently questioning if he knew something she didn’t.
“I tried to tell you he was an asshole.”
Tessa tore her eyes away from him and shook her head, focusing her attention on her phone. “I just need to get out of here.” She tried to focus on getting another Uber, but his hand touched hers and stilled her fingers.
“I can take you home,” he said casually.
“It’s fine, I don’t want to inconvenience you.”
“What? You’re not inconveniencing me,” he said with a chuckle, his voice calm and light.“You’re clearly upset and want to leave. I am beyond annoyed with everyone at this party and want to leave. It’s a win-win. Let me drive you home. It’s not a big deal.”
She sighed and put her phone in her back pocket, her thoughts swirling a mile a minute in her head. Tristan would blow a fucking gasket if he knew Tessa was alone with Jake, but he also was currently playing beer pong with his ex-girlfriend and not answering her phone calls.
She swallowed down the anger rising again in her throat and gave Jake a forced smile.
“You know what, yes, you can give me a ride home.”
“Great,” he said with a surprised smile.
They both turned together and began walking away from the house and towards the busy street where Jake’s car was parked until they both heard heavy footsteps followed by the unmistakable sound of Tristan’s very aggravated voice.
“What the fuck is this?”
Tessa turned around and immediately scowled at Tristan, causing him to take a small step backwards, not having ever seen that look on her face before, especially aimed at him.
“What the fuck iswhat?” Tessa sneered.
Tristan straightened his back and regained his composure quickly, his eyes darting to Jake who was standing slightly behind Tessa with his arms crossed in a defiant manner.
“What are you doing here with him? Thought you said you were studying.”
“I was, but I missed you and wanted to come see you. I tried calling but you didn’t pick up and-”
“Why. Are you here. With him.” Tristan pointed an accusatory finger at Jake and took a step towards them.
“Are you not fucking listening to me?!” Tessa asked, throwing her hands into the air. “I came here to see you only to find you all buddy buddy with your ex.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I saw you with Veronica, you were playing beer pong with her.”
