Page 17 of No Romeo
He puffed on his inhaler, so many times I lost count.
“Fine, fine. Off to the geek party we go.” I let out a sigh and shoved my feet into my ratty Converse. “There had better be beer.”
Oh, there was beer. And it wasn’t just a geek party. Enough pickups to fill half of Dayton’s parking lot were backed up to a massive bonfire, tailgates lowered. Hordes of drunk teenagers swayed in beat with the loud music blasting from a busted subwoofer.
Meanwhile, Kyle’s friends all huddled around in a circle, clutching beers and playing Truth or Dare. It was wild. This would require a lot of beer.
Kyle’s nervous gaze kept straying over the party. “The football players are here.”
“And so is half the school. Told you we should have stayed at your house.” But now we were stuck. The only way in and out was by way of a pickup, and the one that had dropped us off had gone to pick up another round of people.
“I did it,” Robert said, dropping back into his circle of friends, cheeks red.
He’d just been dared to pay Jessica Masters ten bucks to kiss him. Once a slut, always a slut. I lifted my beer to my lips,
“Betty…” Robert glanced across the circle at a busty brunette in a tight tank top. “Truth or Dare?”
Betty chewed at her bottom lip like this was some life-or-death situation, and she’d just been asked to jump off a cliff. “Truth.” Boring. Only pussies picked truth.
“Have you had sex?” Even in the dim glow of the firelight, I could see him blush.
“Twice.” Betty tucked her chin with a smile. “With Hendrix Hunt.”
The circle gasped, and my stomach bottomed out. I’d heard the rumors, buthearingwhat a manwhore my ex had become and having the evidence rubbed in my face were two very different things.
“You’re lying, Betty,” the girl next to her said. “Hendrix Hunt doesn’t screw the same girl twice. Everyone knows that.”
Robert looked across the circle in disgust. “Why would you sleep withhim, Betty? He’s slept with Carol Davis and Becky Brown. Samantha Thompson…the Greer twins.” The list went on and on and on, and with every name, the urge to throw up got worse.
It was so much worse than I’d imagined. The boy who’d been nervous as hell his first time, the boy who had promised me it would only ever be me, had moved on from me with half the school.
I downed the rest of my beer, then snatched a bottle of cheap vodka from the lap of the guy beside me and chugged it. The burn did little to erase the gross images circling my mind.I just wanted them to stop talking about him, for the curse of Hendrix Hunt to stop following me everywhere I went in this stupid town.
“All right, Betty. Your turn,” I announced before swigging more vodka.
“Lola.” She arched a brow. “Truth or Dare?”
“Dare.” Obviously.
“I dare you to kiss Kyle.” She looked so damn proud of herself.
Kyle looked like he wanted to pass out before the ground opened up and swallowed him whole.
“Really?” On a sigh, I grabbed the back of Kyle’s neck and wrenched him close.
He let out a little squeak before I kissed his cheek.
“Are you trying to get him killed?” Robert sounded panicked. “Hendrix will put him in a locker and leave him there until he dies of starvation or—” Robert’s attention darted over my shoulder, his eyes popping wide before he crab-crawled backward on the dark grass.
I knew it was my ex without even looking. Of course, my touching Kyle would summon him like a séance with the devil himself.
Sighing, I raised a middle finger above my head. “Fuck off, Hendrix.”
“What are you dipshits doing?” His deep, rough voice washed over me, and I tipped more vodka down my throat in an attempt to numb myself to it.
No one in the circle answered him, their stares all fixed on the big, bad bully looming behind me.
“Maybe you should answer me, ObiwanStar WarsWookie fucker,” he said, undoubtedly to Kyle.
