Page 14 of Unloved

I didn’t mean to upset you. I’m sorry.

And since then, nothing.

“Maybe I shouldn’t—”

Sadie covers my mouth with her hand, glaring down at me in an unusual reverse of our heights. I’m five foot nine and my best friend is a solid five two, which means we usually look rather comical side by side, even if Sadie Brown carries herself like she’s the tallest person in the room.

“We’re not doing this tonight, okay?” Her voice is solid, strength pouring off her. I’m desperate to soak up as much of it as I can. “You and I are going to listen to ABBA while playing flip cup for shots in the kitchen, and once you’re ready, we are going to a party. We’re going to havefun. And if Tyler has some shit to say about it, he can say it to me.”

My eyes burn a little at her solemn vow.

“Yeah?” she asks.

“Yes.”

The party is overwhelming, but Sadie doesn’t leave my side.

The frat house is massive and I’ve never been before, but I know Sadie is a frequent partygoer here—namely for a guy named Sean, whom I am finding I really dislike.

We’re currently seated downstairs, amid the flashing lights and loud music that somehow feels like the same fifteen songs on a constant shuffle. Sadie is perched on the arm of a sofa, while Seanignores her to chat with his friends. Except for his hand, which keeps running up and down her calf.

Maybe Sadie doesn’t mind, but the guy wears his bravado like an expensive watch, wrist constantly outstretched. He reminds me of Tyler and Mark—their entire prep school crew.

I don’t like it.

My best friend looks ridiculously bored. I make a funny face at her, feeling a little giddy from the cinnamon-flavored whiskey coursing through my body. Sadie smirks—a hard feat to accomplish—before kicking off Sean’s hand and heading toward me.

“Wanna play a game?” she shouts over the music. “They said there’s beer pong in the kitchen.”

I nod, pulling myself off the opposite couch and stumbling a little in my heeled boots. Sadie snorts and grabs me around the waist.

“You sure you’re good, Ro?”

Nodding again, a blissful smile on my face, I shuffle into the overcrowded kitchen and take one of the shots being offered as we enter.

I feel free for a moment, from everything that hurts. The alcohol loosens my muscles and hits me like joy pumped through an IV; it feels good, even if it’s artificial and fleeting.

“Actually,” I say with a giggle, holding Sadie in a loose hug. “Can you help me find the bathroom?”

CHAPTER 6Freddy

“Don’t get him drunk, Freddy,” Bennett warned me before we left for the back-to-school house party nearby. “I’m fucking serious.”

“Wasn’t planning on it,” was my minorly snarky response.

And I wasn’t. Really, I want Rhys to let loose for at least a second before diving back into hockey captain mode full force.

That, and I’d have to beblindto miss the way Rhys stared at my phone over dinner—the photo of Sadie, a figure skater I vaguely remember—like it was the Stanley Cup.

Everyone knows I’m a good-time guy, the life of the party, even if I let our defenseman Holden Dougherty take the lead sometimes. And while I’m not necessarily the best at comforting, especially the captain of my team who I look up to—who seems to be holding on by a thread—I know that I can do this, at least.

Even if “this” means leaving him alone with the twirl girl, who I’ve never seen smile butdidsee taking body shots off some of my swim team friends at a party last spring—even if it was Paloma Blake going upstairs with both guys afterward.

But the way Rhys and Sadie are looking at each other now as I come up the stairs, I’m thinking I might not interrupt them after all. Even more so because lovestruck Rhysie hasn’t even noticed me standing a few feet away from him.

I’m not a mountain like Reiner, but I’m not small, and I’m definitely not quiet.

Especially when a pretty girl stumbles right into me.

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