“Greyson- I talked to her today. She’s the same Jules. She just has extra barriers up now.”
The doorbell rang then, ending the conversation. I was grateful for it. I had enough to think about when it came to Jules. I didn’t want to hear about her happy, fluffy, perfect-picket-fence life she had built without me. But maybe Paige was saying it wasn’t so perfect? But that hurt too. As bitter as I was, I still wanted her to be happy. It was so fucking confusing.
Jules had always had a way of seeming perfectly put together, but she could poker face with the best of the upper class. I used to be able to detect cracks in her facade easily. I wondered if I'd still be able to.
Chapter Thirteen: Grey- 9 years ago
“Grey, your girl has got it going on!” Jonesy slurred and looked at her lustfully.
I clenched my jaw.
“Keep looking at her and you’ll be fucking sorry,” I snapped, causing Smitty and Max to let out an “ooh” in the background.
Jonesy just laughed. Asshole freshman. He shouldn’t even be in the bar.
I glanced at my girl with a little unease. She definitely had it going on. But she was also most definitely gone. Sloshed. Trashed.
I was sitting in the wooden booth with the guys on the second floor of The Westshore, the hole in the wall college sports bar that everyone watched games at during the day, then smushed together to dance in at night. The bar’s open floor plan allowed me to watch the bar and dance floor from a bird’s eye view.
Jules had gone to the bathroom a bit ago, then never made it back up here. She was pulled to the bar by some of my other teammates’ girlfriends and then started dancing with them.
Just then, I caught her eye and we held gazes for a long minute. She broke first, winking at me and I forced myself to smile back at her, but I was a little nervous she was going to get me into a fight tonight if she kept dancing around like she was.
She ran her hand through her now shorter and blonder hair. It made me a little sad that she changed it because I loved her long brown hair.
I hadn’t even recognized her when she walked up to me with shades on earlier this weekend. Neither had Max or Smitty because both of them hit on her. I almost punched Max in the face after she took her shades off and revealed her giggly self. She asked if I liked it and I choked out a yes. I mean, she looked hot, she always did. But I wasn’t good with change.
Now she was heading toward the more elevated stage part of the club, giggling as she went… and she was dressed… not like her usual self.
She was dressed hot. Like really hot. She was showing off everything. I had to push down the urge to take my shirt off and put it on top of what she chose to wear. I didn’t understand why she needed to dress that way all of a sudden. She was in a low-cut leotard that was basically all black mesh. I really hated those things. The ones that snapped under their crotch. For one, it was like one of those things a baby wore… and it made for way harder access to get under her shirt...and I didn’t understand how that could be convenient for going to the bathroom.
During the pregame at my place, Smitty made a joke that she had to get naked to pee and Max had to hold me back. Why the hell was he thinking about my girl naked? No one should think that. Except me. I was probably already riled up because of their comments about her earlier.
I rubbed a hand over my eyes.
Max nudged me then and I looked up to see him sliding another beer my way, “Dude, chill. She’s just having fun. If you go all control freak on her, you’ll be just as bad as her grandaddy.”
I clenched my jaw at that too, shoving away a mental image of him. I was nothing like him.
“He’s right,” Paige offered earnestly. “Just have fun with her. That’s all she wants, and it shouldn’t be too hard to do. Go dance with her and show everyone she’s yours if you’re so concerned.” Paige gave me a pat on the arm and then started pushing Max out of the booth.
He took the hint and relented that he was going to be dancing tonight.
“Get your girl!” He called back at me as he was being dragged down to the first floor by Paige.
I took a swig of my beer. They were right. I needed to loosen up a bit.
I made my way down the stairs, being slapped on the back and offered knuckle punches for winning our game as I went.
Down on the first floor, I pushed myself through the initial slight claustrophobic feeling I always felt at parties and made my way through the sweaty bodies to find my girl.
Finding her, I took the drink from her hand and gave it to the girl next to her. Jules did not need anymore. She gave me a funny look then. But I grabbed her by the waist and carried her across the dance floor to where Max and Paige were dancing. I could hear her giggling softly through the thick club music blasting.
She danced around with Paige some, and then paid attention to me. She was arousing me.
“You’re mine,” I said, pulled her closer to me.
She giggled and turned her neck to look up at me. “That ok with you?” I felt my eyebrows pinching together. I didn’t want to sound as possessive as I felt.
