“You don’t remember anything after tossing me into the hot tub?” he asked.
My eyes closed as the dread of learning what happened next ripped my emotions to shreds. Whatever it was had to be bad if he was being this cryptic about it. I shook my head in shame. “Whatever I did, I’ll make it up to you. I’ll stop drinking, man. If I hurt you—”
Asher shook his head and patted my shoulder. “No, no, no, nothing like that happened. Don’t worry, Big Boy.”
I didn’t believe him. Something had to have happened. I didn’t wake up from a night of partying with the sense that I needed to fix something, unless something bad had happened the night before. “Dude, just tell me. I need to know so I can fix it.”
He shook his head again and shushed me. “Nah, you didn’t hit me or anything, dude. We’re good. The only thing you did was kiss me because Emily and Cynthia said they’d kiss if we did.”
Huh?Well, that was an unexpected response. Is that why Iwas freaking out?
“I kissed you?” I asked.
Asher nodded, and the corner of his mouth curled into the shitty smirk I’d come to expect from that sassy little menace. “That’s it? Nothing like a fight happened? I didn’t hurt you?” I asked again.
“Not at all. You just kissed me with the hope that Emily and Cynthia would kiss.”
Relief washed over me. Yeah, sure, it was fucking weird that I made out with a dude, let alone my best friend, but it was a hell of a lot better than attempting to break his nose. “Did they kiss?” I asked.
He choked out a laugh. “I don’t know. I stormed off after you finished your mouth molestation,” Asher replied.
Mouth molestation.What a little prick. “Was I good?” I asked as I waggled my brows.
“Fuck off, you weirdo!”
Asher cracked up, and I rested my head against his chest.Thank God, I didn’t do anything to him.“I’m so relieved, man. I had this awful feeling that you were hurt. I was terrified for a minute.”
The rise and fall of Asher’s chest suddenly stopped, and the slightest tremble ripped through his body. I quickly looked up at him and asked, “What’s up? You good?”
Asher just looked at me for a moment, his face frozen with apprehension, before he snapped himself out of it. “Yeah! Yeah, I’m good. Let’s find Cody and Rafael so we can get out of here, huh?”
That sounded like a good plan. I couldn’t describe the gratitude I felt knowing I didn’t do anything foolish the night before, but the sense that something was wrong lingered. Ididn’t know what it was, but this feeling that all was not well hung from my heart like an anvil.
Asher hopped off the table and, together, we searched the house for Cody and Rafael, only to find out they’d left during the night.
Chapter 5
Asher (fall, senior year of high school)
It was the Fall Classic, and the Vipers were riding high on a blowout in the semifinals. We’d stomped one team after another and walked into the championship like our shit didn’t stink.
Well, it did. It stunk really bad. The Hawks were practically putting us over their knees and giving us a spanking.
Hmm…that’s actually kind of hot.
Honestly, getting spanked by those big assholes from Delaware would have been so much better than the ass kicking they were handing us.
It was tied in the second period with two minutes left. I lowered, bracing myself for the face-off. The hyperawareness I usually felt on the ice was obliterated after two periods of being run ragged by the Hawks. My limbs sagged with the heat of exhaustion, and sweat drenched my entire body. I felt like a swamp. A sticky, damp swamp.
The Hawk’s right winger stared into my eyes, a look of intimidation twisting his handsome features into an image of pure menace. He bit down on his mouthguard, causing his leftjawbone to flex from the clench.
My eyes zeroed in on the constellation of freckles stretching across the bridge of his nose. It reminded me of my freckles, which Ross said he liked.
Ross was the dude I was seeing. He’d been at Rowan’s party, but I didn’t have the wherewithal to notice how handsome he was because I was too busy getting kissed by the love of my life and trying desperately to act like it wasn’t a big deal.
It was.
But I couldn’t let hope for something more with Theo seep into my heart. He was my friend. Period. He kissed me because he was being a drunk idiot, and that’s all it was.
