Page 26 of Underground Prince

“Not bad,” I said, handing my drink over. “My manager only gave me the hairy eyeball once.”

“Improvement!” Verily high-fived me. “Say, we should celebrate.”

“Give me that.” I took my coffee from her hands before she drank it all. “That segue was too convenient to be innocent.”

“It’s fun, I swear.” She pondered for a second before diving in. “I want you to come with me for drinks. With our friends.” I hoped my expression was still pleasant. “You remember them, don’t you?”

“Of course I do. But—”

“Come on, Scar. Stay for an hour. Then you can go home and bury yourself in the crypt of your bedroom.”

I sipped at my lukewarm coffee. “I prefer to call it a boudoir, not a crypt.”

“Then open your blinds more often,” she shot back.

There would come a time when these old friends of mine wouldn’t be sending me messages, or emails, or smiling at me on the off chance they caught me unaware. As time went by and the fog in me lifted, part of me didn’t care, but the other section, the one that was increasingly difficult to find inside myself, did. You’ll regret this one day, it said, so faintly.

“Fine,” I said to Verily. “One hour.”

“Yay!” She looped an arm through mine, lifting me off the bench, and I had the sense she was attaching herself to me in case I decided to bolt. She didn’t let go for four blocks, until we stood at the front of our college’s local haunt, Square One.

Our friends were already there, the four of them crowded around a high-top near the bar. As each lifted their head and noticed me, their expressions lit with surprise.

“Oh my God, my eyes,” Jamal said, waving his hand in front of his face. “I’m hallucinating.”

“Get over yourself.” His girlfriend, Lila Kim, grabbed his hand. “You have five fingers and one Scarlet in front of you.”

“Whew,” he said before enveloping me in a hug. His familiar smell and warm body nearly had me in tears, but I gulped them back. I was not about to sob the first time they saw me in months. I was supposed to be better by now.

Lila followed suit, her ebony hair straight and shining in the overhead lighting. The silver stud in her nose glittered with her smile. “I’m so glad to see you, girlie. I missed your grouchy face.”

I forgot about the heat around my eyes and throat and smiled. “Thanks for that.”

“You missed me too, right?” Erin piped up in the background. Her brunette curls, usually drifting like a cloud around her face, were tamed into a low ponytail.

“Of course,” I said, hugging her. “I missed all of you.”

I was entirely conscious of the person to my right, nursing his beer. Verily stood between us, but that did little to block the thrum between my ears. He was a tangible presence, digging into my side and nudging me to turn, to look.

“Noah,” Verily said. I heard his name over the cacophony of voices, the chirps of Lila and Erin, the booming cheer of Jamal. “See who’s here?”

Don’t look.

Dark blue eyes met mine, and the world swirled into watercolor. Noah’s sable hair was shorter now, cropped close to his head when I remembered it as being longer and curling around his ears. Stubble lined his once clean-cut jaw. He was also skinnier than he was a year and a half ago, his arms leaner.

He blinked once, then turned back to his beer, and the world was set on its axis again.

That was probably all I was going to get from him, and that was fine with me. Because if I had trouble meeting his eyes, I couldn’t imagine how it was for him. I’d changed too. But not altered enough, it seemed.

Verily clapped her hands. “Drinks for everyone! We need to celebrate Scar’s return!”

Everyone agreed except Noah, and I trailed Verily to the bar. If this was what my hour was going to be like, I was happy to spend most of those minutes doing shots.

We elbowed our way through the thirsty crowd, but the bar itself wasn’t any better. Someone squished in beside me and said, “Whiskey sour please and just uh—draft special. Whatever you got.”

The voice was too familiar to dismiss.

“Matt. Hey,” I said. Verily pinched my other side, but I refused to flinch.

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