by Casey Diam
Smiling, I shook my head, letting myself in.
“You know it isn’t a party until I arrive, and I have arrived,” I said to myself as I moved toward the light in the back where there was music, specifically, Nirvana’s “Smells like Teen Spirit.” That song and the girl I used to hang out with went hand in hand.
I remembered relaxing on the couch, nodding and watching her dance around.
I chewed on my lip as I walked to the room, and sure enough, Gabby was there. Lost in the music, leaning against a desk with her eyes closed, her head bobbing, her lips moving silently along with the words.
My eyes traveled over her body, greedy with want, while I vaguely noted that her boyfriend wasn’t with her.
“Hey! Where’s the liquor?” My gaze shifted to Nicky, who is sitting on a chair with her phone. I reached inside my coat, retrieving my half-empty bottle of Jack.
“Yay! You’re the best.” Nicky stood and reached as if to grab it from me, but I lifted the bottle higher. “Not for you.”
“What?”
“You’ve had enough.”
“Yeah, well, your boyfriend didn’t dump you over Christmas break. I’m allowed, okay?”
I glanced to Gabby and found her watching Nicky and me.
She pulled the open flaps of her coat closed. “I’m going to head back to the party.”
“No,” Nicky said, turning to Gabby, “you should stay. My dress is almost done anyway.”
Lee, one of the guys in my ex-snowboarding crew, walked in and he nodded to me. I still hung out with them every once in a while, but since some of the guys from my football team and I had formed our own shredding squad, I hadn’t been seeing too much of him. I’d intentionally stepped away from some of my friends to give Gabby the space she’d wanted from me because I didn’t want her to hate me, but as it turned out, she hated me anyway. The worst part was that I couldn’t blame her.
“Dude, seriously, you’re doing her laundry?” I gave Lee an incredulous look.
“Ryker, shut up,” Nicky said, her eyes twinkling as she added, “He’s being a gentleman.”
My eyes narrowed.
“I don’t mind.” Lee crossed his arms over his skinny chest. “Plus, she promised to sneak me into the party.”
“Really?” I looked him up and down in his sweatpants and long-sleeved shirt. “And you’re going to go there dressed like that?”
“Ryker!” Averie screeched.
“I’m just saying.” I shrugged and uncapped the Jack before taking a swig. What else was I supposed to say? It was the truth.
“He doesn’t mean that,” Averie said in some sort of apology on my behalf.
“Yeah, he does,” Lee supplied.
I smiled at the angry crease forming between Averie’s eyebrows. “Looks like he knows me better than you do, A. Mozey.”
With eyes trying but failing to cut me in half, she shook her head. “Do you always have to be a dick?”
“Only when necessary.”
Ash’s mouth twitched as his girlfriend placed her hands on her hips.
From behind her, he placed his hands on her shoulders and kissed the top of her head. “It’s okay, babe. We’ve known Lee for years, he’s just messing with you.”
“Or maybe he’s just an asshole?” Gabby asked Ash.
Ash looked up, speechless.
When no one said anything, Gabby pushed up from where she was leaning against the table. “My boyfriend’s probably looking for me. I’ll see you guys later.”
I decided in that moment that, no, fuck this. I passed my bottle to Ash, turned, and stalked after her into the open area of the laundromat.
“I don’t need company,” she muttered, seeming to know I was behind her.
“I know, but I’m still walking you back, so how about we act like adults for once, and keep our mouths shut unless we have something nice to say.”
“There’s nothing nice to say about you.”
“Then I guess it’s going to be a quiet walk.”
As we stepped out into the cold night air, she stuffed her hands into her coat pockets and walked quickly down the sidewalk, giving me the silent treatment as her heels clicked on the pavement. I kept close behind because I’d slipped on an icy patch on the walk over, I didn’t fall but—I swung my arms out, catching Gabby as she scrambled for her footing, which caused me to slide a second before catching my balance.
“Shit,” she cursed, breathing hard as we got out of the icy spot. “Sorry,” she said under her breath, struggling on her next words. “Thanks.”
“You don’t have to thank me.”
Back in the day, she and I used to joke about it being something trivial like this, like falling over a step, slipping on ice, or running into a door that would prevent us from going pro—me as a football player and her as a professional snowboarder.
She started to walk again and halted, causing me to bump into her. My hands went to her waist, steadying her.
“It’s your fault,” she said.
“Of course it is,” I agreed, guessing that she was blaming me for our small collision.
“No.” She turned to face me. “I mean why we’re like this now.”
“Again, of course it is.”
She let out a breath. “You’re so frustrating.”
“Gabby?”
My eyes lifted at the sound of her name and saw Jax walking toward us.
“Hey,” Gabby responded, stepping away from me, her shoulders dropping.
Chapter 6
Gabby
Ryker headed back to Glores Tavern as Jax wrapped his arms around me. It felt wrong, and I didn’t realize just how much until the guy I wanted was leaving me in the arms of well—my boyfriend.
“Jax.” I drew in a breath as he leaned into me, nuzzling my neck. “Jax, I—”
He grabbed my hand and pressed it to his crotch. “You feel that? It’s all for you, Gabs.”
I tried to pull my hand away. “Jax, stop, someone’s going to see—”
He pulled back. “See what? How you’ve been out here all snuggled up with that dude for who knows how long. Are you fucking him? Is that why you’ve been holding out on me? Was that why you wanted to leave the party so you could be with him?”
“What? No. I told you, I was helping—”
“He fucks everyone in this town, Gabs, I don’t have to tell you that, you’re the one who lives here.” He let out a humorless laugh and shook his head. “I guess my friends were right.”
“What are you talking about?”
“There’s no fucking way you’re a virgin, Gabby. Virgins don’t suck dick like you do.”
Nausea settled in my stomach as something vile moved through my gut.
Jax may be in college, but he acted like a horny teenager, and I was over it and the way he treated me.
“I can’t do this with you anymore. We need to break up.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“No.” I shook my head, knowing this was the right thing to do.
The disbelief on his face was clear from the street lights above our heads.
“So, you’ve been leading me on all this time, for what? To tell me this now? No. Fuck no, Gabby.”
“I’m sorry.” I turned to walk away and he grabbed my arm.
“You can’t just break up with me, stop being dramatic.”
“I can do whatever I want, Jax.”
“It’s about him, isn’t it?”
“Him? What are you talking about?”
“Ryker. You act like you’re so self-righteous—”
“We’ve been out on like five dates in three months. I’m always gone, I’m not screwing anyone else, and I’m not fucking self-righteous. If I was, I would tell you to go fuck yourself and never talk to me again, which I guess I’m doing, so yes, I guess I am fucking self-righteous when it comes to immature pricks like you.”
“Whoa!” I turned around to see Lee backing away. “Don’t mind me, I was just, ah—” His
feet slipped back and forth, right and left, his body swaying until he went down, back first.
“Oh my gosh! Lee!” Minding my steps, I made my way over to him. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I, uh, I just need to lie here for the rest of the night or year . . .”
I sighed.
“I’ve never heard you go off on someone like that,” he said under his breath. “I almost thought you were someone else.”
I shook my head. “I guess some guys just know how to bring it out of me.”
“Then maybe those guys don’t deserve your time,” Lee said, and when I looked over my shoulder, it was in time to see Jax disappearing down the sidewalk.
Getting to his feet, Lee added, “Looks like it’s going to be one hell of a new year, huh?”
“Looks like it,” I murmured.
Sometime close to midnight, I joined Nicky on the roof next to one of those six-foot-tall tower heaters while we waited for the fireworks to start.
“Hey, who’s that guy?” Nicky asked, placing an arm around my shoulder as I rubbed my cold hands together.
My gaze drifted to where she was looking and found Ryker, Brody, and Tyler. Since she was Averie’s friend and had only been hanging out with Ash and Brody as of recent, I figured she hadn’t met Tyler.
“I’m guessing you’re referring to Tyler?” I asked.
“Yeah, Tyler, who’s Tyler?”
“It’s Brody’s older brother. He lives in L.A. but shows up here from time to time. But, no matter how much he dazzles, what you’re looking at right there is bad choices and heartaches.” My eyes shifted to Ryker.
“It’s always the hot ones,” Nicky murmured, sounding deep in thought and also as if she was speaking from experience.
“Not always. Brody isn’t a douchebag.”
“Ashton isn’t either,” she agreed. “How about Ryker?” Her mouth quirked into a smile as she looked at me.
“Douchebag.” I grinned, but I didn’t mean it. Ryker could be a dick, but he’d never been one to me, not intentionally anyway, and the only time he ever was—that one time ruined our friendship and broke me.
“I saw that look.” Using a gloved finger, Nicky combed each side of her long black hair behind her ears. “Do you think we’re going to be attracted to assholes for the rest of our lives?”
“I hope not.”
I hadn’t told her and Averie about the specifics of why I’d broken up with Jax. Just that he was being an asshole.
“Is your ex here tonight?” I asked her.
“No. Ryker hates him.”
I chuckled. “That doesn’t surprise me.”
“Yeah, I’m glad though. It means I won’t have to see his face outside of school.”
She paused for a moment, a somber look on her face.
“What is it?”
She shrugged. “It’s stupid. You’ll probably think I’m stupid.”
“No, I won’t, besides I feel pretty stupid a lot myself so—”
“I think—I think my ex is in love with Averie, which is why we broke up, and I could see why, but it sucks because I love him, I loved him, I don’t even know anymore.”
She forced a brittle smile while I tried to figure out who she was referring to. “I’m sorry, I’m not really up on the gossip. Who’s your ex?”
“This guy Ben. Before we were together, he and Averie hooked up. They were never serious, but I shouldn’t have gone out with him in the first place, but that doesn’t change how stupid I was for being with him after they were together.”
Nicky jutted out her chin for me to look somewhere, and I smiled at the first explosion of fireworks over Alpen Lake, the burst of colors lighting the night sky a half mile away. She grabbed my shoulders and turned me around.
“Isn’t that Jax?”
It was him, and I should feel something, but as I watched my ex-boyfriend make out with a girl who wasn’t me, I felt nothing.
No that wasn’t right.
I felt something.
Disappointment.
Not anger.
Not jealousy.
He knew my two older brothers weren’t here tonight to beat the shit out of him, so maybe that was why he was trying to prove something.
Like that I was replaceable or that he was a—
“What a fucking dick!” Nicky fumed. “Are you kidding me? You literally just broke up. Why can guys be such assholes?”
“It’s okay.”
She looked at me as if I were crazy as another giant blast went off and lit the sky.
“We weren’t serious,” I told her. “I liked him, but not enough to care that he—” Before I could finish my sentence, my eyes shifted and locked with Ryker’s stare, burning with silent anger.
He pushed himself off the wall, effectively breaking our eye contact as he strode toward Jax, his posture relaxed. When he reached the two who were practically eating each other’s faces, he tapped them both on the shoulder, and when neither of them noticed, Ryker held their shoulders and pushed their bodies and sucking lips apart.
Oh my God. A stupid smile pulled at my lips.
“I can’t read Ryker’s face, is this good or bad? Maybe he’s going to ask him to leave,” Nicky commented. “Should we go over there?”
Speechless, I didn’t know what to do. Jax seemed to be saying something to Ryker, and a second later, Ryker’s mouth moved, but I couldn’t tell what they were saying.
“Gabby?” Nicky tried again.
Before I could reply Jax pushed Ryker, and without missing a beat, Ryker clocked him in the face. I drew back as if I was the one who’d been hit.
“Oh shit!” Nicky said, pulling on my arm as Jax clumsily moved forward and threw a fist that Ryker blocked, except the next one caught him in his jaw, and that was it. Ryker Stanley was unleashed, and his fist landed square in Jax’s face.
So, as music played in the background and fireworks bombed and sparked all over the world, a small crowd formed around my ex-boyfriend and my ex-friend as they went at each other.
“What’s going on?” a woman asked.
“What happened?” someone else asked, looking at me for answers.
Still stunned, I shook my head. “I-I don’t know.”
Ryker straddled Jax’s body, punching him in the face over and over and over again until Ashton and Will were there grabbing Ryker’s shoulders, arms, and anything they could as they tried to pull him off Jax.
“Ten . . . nine . . . eight . . . seven—” people started to count down, not realizing the hell that was breaking loose behind them.
Chapter 7
Ryker
Realizing I was losing the fight against the people trying to pull me away, I threw my shoulders back, elbowing the person grabbing on to my arm. “Get off me!”
I grabbed Jax’s collar and yanked his bloody face toward mine, hissing, “You talk about her like that again, I will find you, and I will fucking end you.”
Getting to my feet with help from behind, I turned, my eyes moving across each of the stunned faces staring back at me. I was used to it. This was me. The douchebag who people hated. That did not include my brother though, but as our eyes locked, I knew just how bad I’d fucked up.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” he said, pushing me in the chest hard enough that I jerked back a step.
Averie was next to him, looking as if she were close to tears. Fuck. We’d been working together for months on this. This party was the launch of Twisted Events, and I’d found a way to ruin it like I did everything.
“Listen, you need to go somewhere and calm down,” Will said.
I looked at him, bitterness and anger eating up my insides. The last person I needed to tell me what to do was my biological father who’d practically lived down the street from me my whole life, but wanted nothing to do with me, and why would he? He already had the perfect son.
“I’m fine,” I huffed.
“No, you aren’t,” Averie said. “You just beat the crap o
ut of someone in the middle of our launch party.”
I knew she was right. This night was supposed to encourage people to book events with us, with Twisted Events.
Nibbling on the inside of my lip, I shook my head, my eyes trying to convey the words I wanted to say to her before I went on my way.
When I got to the main floor and was walking toward the front entrance, I heard my name but I didn’t turn around.
“Ryker.”
“Ryker.”
“Ry!”
It was Gabby. I turned and found her scrambling around the few people who had remained inside.
“Just remember I fucked her first.”
“Is that right?”
“Yeah, and that thing she does when she deepthroats? Just remember I taught her that.”
My teeth ground as I tried to ignore the words that were urging me to march back up to the roof and finish that asshole.
“What’s up?” I asked
My fists clenched and my knuckles burned, but I wasn’t the least bit fucking sorry for what I did.
“What did he say to you?” Gabby asked.
That was what was bothering her? What her douchebag boyfriend said and not that he was making out with some chick in front of her?
Her bright blue eyes peered through the holes of the black lace mask. “That’s what you really want to know?”
This wasn’t the time to consider how she looked like some mystical creature with her bouncy dark waves and long black coat, but I was already envisioning all the lines and angles I would be using when I sketched her.
She folded her arms across her chest. “Well, I’m guessing you got in a fight with him because of what he said, so what did he say?”
When everyone else assumed I fought because it was just in my nature, she was here looking for the reason. And that pissed me off even more because, at one point, she’d known me better than anyone else did. Yet, I still hadn’t been good enough to keep around.
“Maybe I punched him because I’m a dick. In fact, you should go check on him, nurse his fucked-up face or something,” I said before turning and continuing out the door.
