I stared at the closed door for a minute or two after he left before scrambling to make myself presentable in the time I had remaining. I didn’t doubt for a second that Colton Fowler had every intention to make good on his promise.
COLTON
WITH LESS THAN A minute to spare, Allie came rushing down the stairs dressed in a pair of cut-off jean shorts and the UCLA tank I sent to her for her birthday. Her hair was in a knot on the top of her head, and she wore large sunglasses to cover her red-rimmed eyes.
I pretended not to notice that she’d been crying when I woke her, mostly because I’d already ruined her first night and just wanted to see her smile. Also, because I was afraid that she was truly having regrets about coming here and I needed to change her mind before she up and left.
“Is this okay?” she asked, glancing down at her outfit while smoothing out the invisible creases in her shirt. “I have no idea where you’re taking me...I can go and ch—”
“You look fine,” I answered, trying not to go overboard. Alex was beautiful in anything. Feigning indifference with her would not be easy. Not when she made my heart race like this. Not when the mere sight of her made breathing nearly impossible.
“You sure? I didn’t even have time to put on any makeup...Can I have just a few more minutes?” She puckered out her bottom lip, sliding the glasses down the bridge of her nose while giving me the most pitiful puppy dog eyes. Red-hot lava coursed through my veins. I wanted so badly to suck that lip into my mouth. Shaking my head, I walked over to grab her arm. “Put those weapons away.” I pushed her glasses up with my index finger. “They won’t work today. It’s already after one, and I’m starving.” I rubbed my stomach. “You know how hungry I get after playing ball.”
When we got on the road, I put into motion operation Cheer Allie Up with a song I’d downloaded while waiting for her to get dressed. I knew it would bring up a slew of memories for her, just as it always had for me. “Sha la la la la la la la la la la ti da,” I sang, tapping my thumbs to the beat against the steering wheel while watching her face light up from the corner of my eye.
Alex kicked off her flip-flops, curling her legs up in her seat, smiling and blushing while I sang along to her song—our song. It was the song I’d been singing to my brown-eyed girl for as long as I could remember. Often times belting it out when we passed each other in the halls of Mercer High. She’d turn bright red, pretending to be pissed, but I knew deep down that she loved it. It was us, Allie and Colt.
“Every time I hear this song, I think of you,” she said, beaming as the last chords played. “Nothing’s the same when you’re not around.”
My heart clenched at her admission. “What? Are you telling me Dean doesn’t serenade you in the grocery store?” I teased, remembering a time when her song came on at the Piggly Wiggly, and I just couldn’t help myself. Her dad joined in, and we sang at the top of our lungs, drawing the attention of everyone around. We didn’t care that they stared or whispered. Getting a reaction out of Allie was more than worth it.
She scoffed. “Um...no.”
“No worries, Al. If embarrassment is what you seek, you’ve come to the right place.” I winked as I flipped on the blinker, turning in to the parking lot of Moe’s.
“What is this place?” Her nose was scrunched as she looked around in disgust.
“It’s not much to look at, but trust me, the food is fantastic. This is just what you need to cure that hangover.”
Moe’s was a hole in the wall located off a back road just outside of campus. The building was small and old. There was probably more paint chipped off the wood exterior than not. But, the inside was clean and the service top notch. It was the best place I’d found since moving to LA for when I was in the mood for some good southern cooking.
I glanced over to Alex as we approached the sagging steps and had to laugh at her upturned nose and pinched lips. “This place is really old, Colt...You sure it’s sanitary?”
“Think of it as vintage, like a fine wine, aged to perfection.”
She rolled her eyes as I opened the door, and with a hand on her lower back, ushered her inside. “After you.”
“Colton...it’s been a few days,” Sally, our waitress, purred before realizing Alex was with me. “And you brought a friend.” She eyed her up and down, giving Alexis an obviously fake smile. This would be fun.
“Hey, Sal,” I said, wrapping my arm around Allie’s shoulders and pulling her close. “This is my best friend, Alexis. She’s staying with me for the summer.”
“Oh, how nice...”
I fought hard not to laugh at the pained expressions on both girls’ faces as they shook hands. At the way Allie rubbed hers against the side of her shirt like she was wiping off something dirty afterward.
There was an awkward moment of silence before Sally remembered herself, grabbed our menus, and began leading us to a table. While taking our drink orders, she kept a hand on my shoulder, clearly trying to send Alex a message. By the tight lips and narrowed eyes homed in on me from across the table, I’d say that it was being received. Loud and clear.
“You had sex with her, didn’t you?” Alex leaned across the table and hissed as soon as we were left alone.
I bit back a smile as I set my menu on the table. “No,” I answered briefly and truthfully. I hadn’t realized Sally was working today, or most likely I wouldn’t have brought Allie here. She’s usually off on Saturdays and Sundays, and I really was trying to make up for last night. But luck must’ve been on my side because the venom in Alex’s tone just confirmed that Finn was right. She was jealous. I just had to feed that jealousy enough to make her as desperate for me as I was for her.
Alexis scoffed. “Yeah, okay,” she muttered.
“I didn’t.”
“I don’t believe you.”
Reaching out across the table, I took her hand, relishing in the slight flush of her cheeks at the contact. “I’ve never lied to you before, Alexis Mack. Why would I lie about this? I have no reason to...”
She shrugged, pulling her hand away and lowering her shades to cover her eyes, which were beginning to water. “You did something...”
I nodded just as Sally walked up behind Alex. She licked her lips, drinking me in. Clearly, she’d heard the end of that conversation and was doing all she could to confirm that suspicion. “What can I get for you, Colton?”
“Ladies first,” I answered, directing her attention to the woman seething across from me. I wanted to make her jealous. I didn’t, however, have any desire to make her hate me.
Sally nodded, reluctantly turning to face Alex. “Do you know what you want?” She wasn’t exactly rude, but her tone lacked any warmth.
My girl cleared her throat. “Bring us a few hamburger steaks and mashed potatoes with gravy.” Allie reached out, snatching the menu from my hand and shoving them both toward Sally, effectively dismissing her.
I felt my eyes widen as our waitress stormed off. This time, I couldn’t help but laugh at the pissing match before me.
“What’s so funny, Colt?” She was pissed.
I shook my head, still laughing. “Nothing, Al.”
“I don’t like her.”
“I can see that. Any particular reason?”
She leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms over her ample chest. “I just think she’s rude, don’t you?”
Pressing my lips together, I shook my head slightly. “She’s not usually, no.”
Allie shrugged. “It’s a girl thing, Colt. You wouldn’t understand...” She turned her head to glare in the direction Sally just went. “She was doing it on the sly.”
I had to bite the insides of my cheeks to keep from laughing again because nothing that just went down with these two women was anything but blatantly obvious. I nodded my head in agreement, realizing the need to tread lightly. I wasn’t about to risk turning that anger in my direction with words. My mouth had a way of getting me into trouble.
“So...” Allie drew
out after a quiet moment, drumming her nails on the wood table.
“Yes?”
“You were saying?”
My brow quirked in question. “About?” I knew exactly what she was fishing for, but to be honest, it felt really fucking good to watch her squirm a little.
Alexis sighed. “Finish telling me what happened with waitress girl back there.” She tilted her head back, waving her hand in the air toward the kitchen area.
“Does it matter?”
“Call me curious.”
Shit. This felt like a trap. “She, uh...” Al looked at me expectantly as I glanced around the room to be sure that Sally was nowhere in sight and that the handful of other customers weren’t listening in. “She suckedmydick,” I mumbled.
I watched her throat move as she swallowed hard, nodding her head. “You seem to really like blowjobs...” she observed loudly.
“Show me a man who doesn’t,” I challenged.
Alex cleared her throat, shifting in her seat. “Did you two date?”
“I don’t date.”
“Like at all?” Alexis asked, bewildered as if she didn’t already know. As if I hadn’t told her this countless times before.
“Like at all,” I echoed.
Alex huffed, looking simultaneously confused and impressed. “So, girls just suck your dick expecting nothing in return?” she asked at the exact moment that Sally approached our table to deliver our lunch.
Our plates were set down in front of us with a little more force than necessary. Sally moved to walk off but thought better of it. Placing both hands on the table in front of Alex, she leaned in close. “Some girls simply enjoy pleasing a man. It doesn’t always have to be about getting something in return.”
“Oh, I’m aware...Where I’m from, we call those girls sluts.”
ALEXIS
THINGS WERE BEGINNING TO get rowdy downstairs as I rifled through my side of the closet, trying to figure out what I was going to wear. I needed to make Colton notice me, but I also didn’t want to look out of place.
When we’d returned from lunch, Finn had informed us that he’d invited everyone over for a kegger tonight. By the sounds of it, “everyone” was a lot of fucking people, and I was more than a little nervous. I had no clue what to wear to a college party. Dean and I didn’t go to those things, at least not to any that sounded like whatever was taking place beneath me.
As I was stripping out of my purple dress for the third time, Colt’s message alert sounded.
Colton: Where are you? Get down here!
Me: I don’t know what to wear.
Colton: Something baggy. Really fucking baggy.
Rolling my eyes, I slipped the plum dress back over my head. It was short, ending mid-thigh, with a scandalously low V-neck, held up by thin spaghetti straps. What I loved most about the new girls was that they were always perky with or without a bra. Colton’s message was exactly the push I needed to forgo the strapless booby trap that I’d just be adjusting all night anyway. He’d notice all right...Hopefully, I wouldn’t piss him off too much.
I slipped my feet into a pair of strappy silver gladiator sandals then sprayed a little perfume on my neck before inhaling a few deep breaths and heading down to join the party.
My heart raced as I gripped the banister tightly in my sweaty hand, feeling a little disoriented as I descended the twisty stairs. The music was so loud that I couldn’t hear my own thoughts above the bass pounding in my head. During the few hours I’d spent getting ready, the living room had been transformed into a dance floor, complete with strobe lights and a fog machine. There was a DJ set up in the corner and a handful of girls on the dance floor, grinding all over one another. The furniture had been pushed up against the far wall where there were already couples getting hot and heavy with their tongues down each other’s throats and hands pawing away beneath their clothes.
“There you are,” Blex said, intercepting me at the bottom of the steps. Instant relief. The guy was a saint.
“Hey, you.” I beamed, taking his hand as he led me to the kitchen. “You guys work fast.”
“Yeah,” he agreed, smiling back at me over his shoulder while filling a Solo cup from one of the kegs that were now taking up the space where the kitchen table sat just a few hours earlier. As he handed me the cup, Blex’s eyes gave me a once-over. He sucked in a deep breath, scrubbing his jaw in his hand. “Very nice, Miss Alexis.” He nodded with an appreciative smile. “Fowls is going to shit when he sees you.”
I gave him an exaggerated wink. “That’s the plan.”
“Brace yourself,” Blex warned, placing a warm hand on my lower back as Colton strode over with yet another blond bimbo on his arm. So, apparently, blondes and blowjobs were his thing.
I fought hard to keep my emotions from showing on my face as I smiled at my best friend and his latest Hoover. “Hey, Colt!”
His eyes were scathing as they scanned my body. Colt cleared his throat, opening his mouth to say something before quickly clamping it shut. From the corner of my eye, I saw Blex shaking his head slightly.
“You look nice,” I said, running a hand down the front of his white button down. I swallowed the saliva pooling in my mouth. He didn’t just look nice. He looked...delicious. Colt had traded his signature mesh shorts for khaki cargos and his Jordans for Sperrys. His white shirt was cuffed at the elbows, and his hair was a fluff of wild, tousled curls. I fought the urge to lick his jaw—the desire to feel the day-old scruff growing on his face against my tongue. He looked like summer. Momentarily, I was taken back to weeks spent at the beach. Memories of the two of us lounging in the sand for days on end flooded my head. Catching starfish and hermit crabs and storing them in buckets as temporary pets for the duration of our stay.
The rough sound of Blex clearing his throat brought me back to reality, making me realize I’d been standing there with my hand on Colton’s chest far longer than anyone would deem appropriate. His heart was thundering against my fingers, matching the erratic rhythm of my own. “Sorry,” I whispered, snatching my hand away.
“You’re fine...It’s fine, Allie,” he rasped, clearing a ball of emotion from his throat. The way he looked at me at times—the way he was looking at me right in that very moment—had me questioning how it could even be possible that he didn’t feel what I felt. But if he felt this too, why the games? Why the girls?
“I’m Lyla,” the blonde on Colton’s arm announced, extending her hand in my direction, breaking the trance I’d obviously needed help getting out of. If she’d noticed that I’d been fawning over her—whatever Colt was to her—she didn’t let it show.
The kind smile on her face and the softness of her voice had my stomach churning with guilt. “Nice to meet you, Lyla.” I reached back, shaking her hand. “I’m Alex.”
Recognition dawned on her face, and she burst out laughing.
Colton’s head hung, his hand lifting to pinch the bridge of his nose, and I swear I heard the word “shit” groaned in his voice despite the music and conversations taking place all around us.
I looked over to Blex, who shrugged his shoulders. Apparently, he wasn’t in on the joke either.
“What’s so funny?” I asked, feeling less guilty and more annoyed.
“It was you.” She shook her head with a resigned smile. “I was the one with Colton...”
“Umm, okay.” Did she think she was special or something? From what I could tell, Colt was with a lot of girls.
Colt looked up at me beneath his thick dark lashes, nibbling on his bottom lip.
“I was about to suck his dick when he got your call and sent my ass packin’.” She elbowed Colton. “It was her, right?”
He mouthed the words, “I’m sorry,” as he bobbed his head slowly.
“Dayum, girl. Is your pussy made of gold or something? I must say, I’ve never had a man snatch his dick out of my hand and shove it back in his pants like that.”
Heat filled my cheeks...my neck...I felt it radiatin
g in my ears. “We’re not...Colt and I aren’t like that. We’re just friends.” I felt like I would faint on the spot, but Blex’s hand reached out for mine, steadying me.
Lyla eyed me suspiciously. “You sure, honey?”
I raised the cup in my hand to my lips, downing its contents. “Yup...Best friends. Right, Colt?”
For a moment, he had this blank stare, and I didn’t know how to read it. “The best,” he finally agreed with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.
“Dance with me?” Blex asked, presenting me with a fresh beer. I hadn’t even noticed when he’d left my side to grab it. He was like my guardian angel sent to look out for me. I was so grateful for his presence.
“Thank you.” I smiled up at my new friend, taking the drink from his hand. He was offering me an escape, and at that moment, I needed one desperately. “I’d love to.”
Blex was an incredible dancer, and the more I drank, the more I began to enjoy the feel of his hard body rubbing up against mine. I wanted him to touch me. To kiss me. But Blex was the perfect gentleman, thwarting all my advances, which would have been a good thing...If only I wasn’t totally shit faced. If I hadn’t got an eye full of Lyla straddling my best friend on the couch. If her tongue weren’t down his throat. If that bitch wasn’t dry humping my Colton right in front of my fucking face. If my heart hadn’t damn near stopped beating in my chest.
“Blex,” I whimpered, squeezing his arm.
“It’s okay, Alex...Don’t look.” He shook his head, disappointment written in every crease on his face. “He’s a fucking idiot.”
“Blex,” I whimpered again. The alcohol, my emotions...everything was hitting me all at once. “I-I really need you to kiss me right now.” Colton had reduced me to begging a man to kiss me. I’d never forgive him for this.
My new friend bit his bottom lip, shaking his head to himself. “I can’t. I promised Fowls...he’d kill me.” He started to move the thumb of the hand at my back in soothing strokes. Blex thought that he was comforting me, but he was only making things worse. I didn’t want to be comforted. I wanted to retaliate. I wanted revenge. I wanted to gouge my eyes from my head because I couldn’t un-see this. To cut my heart from my chest and stomp on it repeatedly ’til it was numb, because I couldn’t un-feel this.
Breakaway: A friends to lovers romance Page 6
