Page 12 of Ink & Ambition

To my right, Devon’s got some chick’s tongue in his mouth, and Kai is chatting with a girl who looks way too young to be here.What’s going on with these parties?I feel like every week it’s the same old boring shit.

“Do you wanna head somewhere a little bit more…private?” The blonde asks me, her beer breath in my ear.

“Nah, I’m alright,” I reply, trying my best to hold my breath so as to not inhale any of hers. “In fact…” I move to stand and catch her as she all but falls off my lap. She scoffs at the sudden affront but I don’t really care. I don’t even remember her name.

“I’m going to get a drink,” I say, walking away from her shocked expression. The jaw on the floor face reminds me, for a second, of another surprised face I saw this week. A face I haven’t been able to get out of my mind since I saw it peering down at me from the top of the auditorium in that public speaking class.

If I had known someone in my everyday life would be in that class, I never would’ve opened up so much about my mom. Not that Margot is in my everyday life. In fact, I haven’t seen her since that day. And if I drop that class, like I intend to do now, I won’t have to see her ever again if I don’t want to.

I head into the kitchen and spot Keith cozying up with a football player, grinning as I recall our conversation earlier in the week. I don’t want to disturb him so I quickly grab a beer from the ice bucket and turn back the way I came, content to just sit upstairs in my room and play Xbox until the party is over.

That is until the door opens and the porchlight shines through, casting a glow around the head of the girl that just walked in. The same glow that shined the first time I saw her. The glow that earned her the nicknameSunshine.

“Fuck,” I breathe out and immediately duck back into the crowded kitchen, out the back door and into the backyard where there’s already a crowd of smoke from the smoking corner.

Taking a seat by the empty fire pit, I finally release a breath and ask myself the question on the top of my mind.Did I just run away from a girl?

“Alex, hey,” a female voice says above me and I look up to see the familiar face of my friend, Gia. I’m not known for my friendships with girls but Gia’s a good one. We hook up now and then, she knows the deal and never asks me for anything more, which is why I keep her around. The relief that floods through me when I see her must be evident on my face because she says, “You okay?”

“Fine,” I reply, hurriedly. “Come here for a sec?” I ask but don’t give her a chance to respond before I grab her waist and pull her onto my lap, her long brown hair flying up as her legs rest together over my left side. She gasps in happy surprise but the sound doesn’t linger before I grab her by the back of the neck and pull her face to mine, combining our mouths in a familiarway. Gia responds immediately to me, as she always does and I relax a little bit into the comfortability of it all…until I remember that the reason I’m even doing this is because Margot just walked into my house and now I’m all worked up and even more confused.

After a few minutes of intense making out, Gia pulls away and looks back and forth between my eyes. “Not that I mind at all, but is there something you need to talk about, friend?” She smiles and I again remember why I’ve kept her around so long. She’s a great friend, always ready with a listening ear and a piece of helpful advice.

I sigh, resting my forehead against hers for a second before looking into her eyes again. “Probably. But I’m not sure yet.” Gia seems to take that in stride, pouting her lips in thought before cracking a smile again.

“Well, I’m here if you need me. For anything,” she says and the double meaning isn’t lost on me.

“Thanks,” I reply, almost sadly. Gia removes herself from my lap and gives me a couple pats on the back before saying her goodbyes and heading back into the house. I should follow her. I should drown myself in her like I’ve done many times before but for some fucking reason, I can’t bring myself to move from this chair. All I can seem to do is stare into the flickering flames of the fire and picture another pouting brunette’s face.

Chapter Seven

Margot

“Let’sdoalapand end in the kitchen. I need to know what areas to avoid if I don’t want to run into Nico.”

Danika dated a soccer player named Nico for the better part of sophomore year, but the two ended on messy terms when she caught him hooking up with his lab partner from their shared biology class. She’s way over it now, but it’s always better to avoid him whenever we can. Nico still finds a way to ruin Danika’s fun even a year later. At parties and such, we’ve gotten good at finding where he and his friends have posted up early and avoiding that area completely. It’s worked well for us so far.

Sydney, Danika, and I make our way through the house, following crowded pathways until we end up in the kitchen.

“Drinks?” Dani asks and Sydney nods.

“I’m gonna get some water first. That margarita took a lot out of me, Syd,” I tease and head over to the sink to fill up a cup with the tap water. As the cup fills, I glance up and peek out the window at the backyard. I do a double take as I see Alex sitting in front of the roaring fire pit with a girl plastered to his face.

Of course I expected to see Alex here. This is his house. What I didn’t expect was to see him making out with a gorgeous brunette. Actually, no. I probably did expect that. What Ireallydidn’t expect was the way my stomach clenched when I saw it. I could not fathom why my body would have that much of a visceral reaction to seeing Alex Prescott kissing a girl in his own backyard.

“Uh, earth to—oh,” Dani starts and I break from my trance to feel the cold water pouring down my hand. I shut off the tap quickly, pouring some of the water down the drain so the cup isn’t so full. Turning to Danika, I’m ready to pretend like all of that never happened but she’s too focused on staring at exactly what drew my attention in the first place.

“Typical,” Dani scoffs. “Girls just can’t get enough of that tall drink of water.” I choke a little on my drink and her gaze catches mine. “All the better for your podcast!” She says as if the last thirty seconds of me watching Alex sucking face didn’t just happen.

The door to our left swings open and the girl in question waltzes into the kitchen, not sparing any of us even so much as a passing glance. I mean, why would she? It’s not like she knows we’ve just been watching her writhing her little toned body all over—

I feel Sydney’s hands on my shoulders as I’m pulled back again from my dark thoughts. “Are you okay, Margot?”

“She’s fine,” Danika demands. “And she’s found her opportunity to talk to Alex!” Dani walks around to my back as Sydney drops her hands. She pushes me toward the door the beautiful stranger just came in from and I can see Alex through the glass, his hands in his hair as he leans down over his knees, staring at the fire.

“Hold on just a damn minute,” I cry, backing up away from the door, but Danika’s body doesn’t budge. I whip around to faceher instead. “I agreed to come, I never agreed to talk to him. We made a deal!”

Danika laughs and my eyes narrow, suddenly feeling a little bit hurt.

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