Page 15 of Only Some Stars Fall

“Well, hello thereeee,” one of them says, coming a bit too close for comfort. “Looks like someone is excited to see me!” Laughing as he stares at my chest. White crop top, no bra, and nipples that are still hard as rocks. Could this night get any worse? I feel my cheeks burn as I quickly cross my arms across my boobs.

“Fuck off, Matthews.” Hux protectively steps in front of me, glaring at the group.

“Calm down, Anderson, it’s a joke.” They drunkenlystagger down the stairs, still laughing. Hux angrily shrugs out of his flannel and forcibly shoves it at me.

“Thanks,” I say so quietly it barely comes out as a whisper.

“Alex, let’s go. This one has had a bit too much to drink, and we don’t want the locals taking advantage of her.”

Oh, back to making fun of me, I see.

“Elle, let Ashlee know I’ll be back in a bit to get her.” He’s already down the steps and heading toward the front of the house as Alex and I say goodbye to Elle.

“Decided it was a nice night for a swim?” Alex jokes as she throws her arm around my shoulder, and we follow Hux to his truck.

SEVEN

HUX

“Take shotgun,Ev. The knight in shining armor over here will crank the heat for you. You’ll warm those tits up in no time.” Alex hip-checks Everly out of the way and climbs in the back seat of my truck before she can protest. A chuckle escapes my lips when I catch a glimpse of both the embarrassment and anger that washes over Everly’s face.

She’s too easy and fun to get all spun up.

My truck is old, as in an antique-old. But not the kind that causes people to all turn their heads in awe when it pulls into a parking lot. It’s a 1974, rusty, dented-up, two-tone Ford truck. It’s always reliably unreliable and has rattles I doubt I’ll ever be able to fix. But it was my grandfather’s truck and then my brother’s.

It never was supposed to be my truck.

I used to daydream about making enough money working in the city so that I could restore something like this. Not because I needed it to get me around town, running errands for a rundown resort, but for actual fun—a hobby. I would have timefor hobbies like car restoration in that life. I would take my classic beauty out on Sundays for long drives, windows down, winding through upstate New York. A dream that now feels like a mean joke.

The truck heat barely starts to kick on when we pull up to Mr. Croft’s house. I can see the goose bumps that still freckle Everly’s exposed skin. I put the truck in park, and for a reason unknown to me, I wish for a little more time with this clumsy and frustrating chick. I can’t help this weird feeling of wanting to be where she is.

I had no desire to go to Nick’s lame-ass party tonight. Even Ashlee and her very persuasive mouth couldn’t convince me. Still, I have seen Nick and Everly flirting around the resort, and even though I should care less about what some nineteen-year-old housekeeper is up to, the image of those two cozying up with Nick trying to cop a feel makes me nauseous.

And well, I’ll be damned, that’s exactly what I fucking found.

The three of us are sitting in awkward silence, no one making any moves to get out of the truck and call it a night. The only sound I can hear is nearby crickets and a loon out on the lake.

“Okay… So I really need to pee, and I am sure you would rather me not do it back here?” Without further warning, Alex flings herself over the front seat right onto Everly’s lap, her hair and sneakers going in all directions.

Everly squeals in surprise. “Seriously? You couldn’t wait for me to get out of the truck?”

“Emergency, but take your time!” Alex quickly pops out of the truck, shutting the door again before Everly can even unbuckle her seat belt. The awkward silence returns, but I notice she doesn’t reach for the door handle.

“So, how would you rate your first party here in Silsby?” I glance over at her.

Her hair has started to dry in soft waves, the ends still slightly dripping onto my shirt I have loaned her. All that is left of her makeup is a bit of smudging around her eyes, and still, she looks refreshed and more relaxed than I have seen her since she got here.

I expect her to answer the question in a series of stumbling and stuttering, followed by the look of aggravation that she usually gives me whenever she can’t seem to get her thoughts out. I secretly love how easily I fluster her, but instead, she laughs. Holy fuck. Her laugh might be the sexiest thing I have ever heard.

“Well, leave it to me to fail at making out on a dock under the stars and then take it literally one step further by falling into a damn lake.”

“Nah, trust me, it wasn’t you who failed when it came to the make-out session. What idiot leaves you, looking like that, on a dock alone?” Her cheeks immediately flush again, and she looks down at her hands. I’m still not sure what my attraction is to this girl. She’s a college freshman who, most days, has difficulty walking, talking, and knocking, but there is a tiny spark of something there that keeps me wanting to push her a bit more.

I am about to make another bold comment about her legs when a blood-curdling scream comes from the house, interrupting what is by far the most authentic moment the two of us have shared yet. I immediately jump out of the truck. At the same time, Everly flings open the opposite door, and we start to race up the steps when Alex lifts open a second-floor window.

“False alarm. I thought it was a rat, but it was just a dust ball; no need to panic.”

Everly puts her head in her hands and laughs as she walksonto the porch. “Thank you for the ride home. Oh, and the whole pulling me out of the lake thing.”

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