Page 46 of Blocked Score

Their voices overlap, the effect making them both curl their lips hostilely at the other.

Scarlett looks at me, amusement dancing on her expression. “Yeah, when I invited her over, Harper warned me that she and Sebastian aren’t exactly the best of friends.”

“How did you two meet?” I ask them, my mouth carving with interest.

“Long and unpleasant story,” Harper answers breezily. “Let’s save it for another time.”

Harper gets up from her seat on the couch to pour herself another shot. When she bends over to tip the liquor bottle, I don’t miss how Sebastian’s gaze snaps to her butt, nor do I miss the flames licking in his eyes.

“Sacrificed any puppies lately,Harper?” Sebastian asks ironically, venom coating his voice when he pronounces her name.

“Written anything lately that wasn’t weighed down by awkward mixed metaphors and stale cliches,Sebastian?” Harper parries, mimicking his own tone as she spits his name. She throws down the shot.

Sebastian nods to Scarlett. “Make sure you take a couple more shots yourself. You’re going to need them if you plan on spending a whole evening toleratinghercompany.”

Scarlett crosses her arms challengingly. “Harper and I are besties now, Sebastian, and she’ll be over a lot more often, so you’ll just have to get used to it.”

I stifle a laugh as Sebastian’s lips roll with annoyance.

“You have my number, right?” I ask Scarlett. “In case you need to get in touch for whatever reason?”

I’ve just assumed she still has my number in her phone. We haven’t had a reason to text each other since she’s moved in yet, though. But now that she’s going out, I want to know she’ll have a way to reach me if she needs to. Plus, I want to be able to check in on her if the clock starts to tick into the early hours of morning and she still isn’t home.

“I have a new phone. I lost my last one on that day in …” she shakes her head. “I just lost my last one a little while ago.”

After we trade numbers, Harper pushes up from the couch. “Alright, let’s go, Scarlett. There’s too much testosterone in this room.”

“Don’t wait up, boys,” Scarlett sings as she spears her arms into her coat.

“Be safe,” I tell her. My eyes scrape over her one more time. “And zipper up that jacket.”

“She’s not responding,”I grumble, looking at my phone despondently.

“Duh, she’s out having fun,” Rhys says, basically calling me an idiot with the tone of his voice. “She’s not checking her phone every five minutes for texts from her overbearing roommate.”

“I’m not overbearing and I’m not texting every five minutes,” I respond like a petulant child disputing that he’s six years old becauseactuallyhe’s six and a half.

“I can’t believe I haven’t met your new roommate yet,” my little sister Maddie says, snuggled under Rhys’s arm. “You guys should throw a little party or something. Get Olivia and Summer over to meet her, too.”

A warm feeling spreads through my chest at the thought. Hudson and Summer. Tuck and Olivia. Rhys and Maddie.

Me and Scarlett.

Then I remember the other night again, how just letting a glimpse of my feelings peek through the cracks for Scarlett to see had her running away from me like I was radioactive.

A sour feeling seeps into my mouth. I toss my phone to the side and try to distract myself from wondering how Scarlett’s night is going by watching the movie that Rhys and Maddie have on.

It doesn’t work very well.

After the movie, Rhys and Maddie head upstairs. I approve of their relationship completely, but I don’t think I’m ever going to totally get used to seeing my sister heading into my best friend’s room for the night.

Without anyone left in the living room to judge me, I pick up my phone and send another text. But before my thumbs move over the screen, a flash of realization hits me. Something Scarlett said right before she left that I’m only picking up on now.

I lost my last one on that day in …

The sentence she trailed off and didn’t complete when she answered about still having my phone number.

What day? Where? When?

---