Page 80 of Left on Base

Across the room, Camdyn laughs at something Frat Boy says, and my stomach turns.

Inez does that thing girls do when they know you’re lying—flat lip frown, rolling their eyes. “Okay, um, yeah.” She fidgets with her glasses again, that nervous habit that used to seem endearing but now just reminds me how wrong this is.

Camdyn has my attention more than I’d like, but I’m not about to admit that. Especially not to Inez. I push my hood off, getting ready to tell her I’m leaving. The sticky air in here isn’t helping—some genius cranked the heat with half the campus crammed into this house. I don’t have a plan, but I need Cam away from that dude and I can’t do that standing next to Inez.

I watch as Frat Boy puts his hand on Camdyn’s waist. The red Solo cup in his other hand tips dangerously as he leans in closer to her.

Then Inez does something that makes everything worse. She turns to face me and reaches for my hat, her fingers grazing my forehead. “I’ve never seen you without your hat on.” And then she takes it, smiling, as if it’s funny to her, as if we’re still in that place where she can do shit like this. The smell of her vanilla perfume mixed with whatever’s in her cup makes my stomach turn.

I grab it from her and put it back on my head, backwards. “Don’t.” My voice comes out harder than I meant, but fuck it.

Now I’m getting the “what the fuck?” face and I’m almost certain I’ve pissed her off. The party noise fades to a dull roar in my ears as I watch her expression shift from playful to hurt.Someone bumps into her from behind, making her stumble closer to me. “Don’t what?”

“Take my hat.” Around us, people are dancing, drinking, living their best college lives. Some dude’s trying to do a keg stand in the corner while his friends chant, and the bass is making the floor vibrate. But all I can think about is a girl in a parking lot who stole my hat.

“What?” Inez adjusts her glasses and stares at me. I’ve offended her. Her cheeks are pink, either from embarrassment or the insane fucking humidity of too many bodies packed into this house. “Why?”

“I don't like it when people take my hat,” I mumble. The bass is still thumping but all I can hear is my heart pounding. Over Inez’s shoulder, I see Frat Boy whisper something in Camdyn’s ear that makes her laugh. My fingers curl into fists at my sides.

I don’t tell her the real reason. There’s a memory I can’t shake when it comes to this hat. The last girl I let take my hat from me is talking to someone else at the moment and I’d give anything to stop it. I think about that night. Six years ago, when everything was simpler.

My heart pounded the moment I saw her in the parking lot. I smiled as I walked over. “It’s awfully dark for a pretty girl like you to be alone.”

“I’m not alone.” She laughed, sitting on the edge of her tailgate, blowing out an easy breath. The sun was setting behind her, backlighting her blonde hair to almost a golden hue, like she had an aura or some shit.

“I suppose you’re not.” I stepped closer and leaned in. “Miss me?”

“Mmm. Maybe?” She scooted to the edge and wrapped her legs around my waist. “I think you missed me though.”

“Don’t get too excited.” I laughed and adjusted myself. “That’s my cup.”

“Nah.” She shook her head, the cutest smile ghosting her lips, her eyes dropping to where I adjusted. “I think you missed me.”

“Maybe I did. You’ll have to find out.” I slid her forward on the tailgate so she was lined up with me. It wasn’t comfortable but I had a hard-on already and it was digging into the cup, uncomfortably so.

For a second, she stiffened, her hands on my chest. She eased back an inch before my lips touched hers. “What if someone sees us?”

“There’s nobody here.”

She turned my head toward the boys by Aldon’s truck. “What about them?”

“They don’t care.”

She laughed lightly. “Mhm. They might.”

“Mmm.” I leaned in and pressed my lips to hers. They were warm and inviting and sent a wave of need through me instantly. “I don’t care. I want you, baby.”

“See?” She giggled and buried her face into my neck. “You definitely missed me.”

“I always miss you.” I carried to the truck, setting her down on the passenger side seat. Pulling off her jersey, I kissed along the curve of her breasts and then lower, sucking her right nipple. “Do you wanna?”

“Do I wanna what?”

“You know….” I didn’t want to say it out loud. Maybe I was embarrassed. We’d done everything but sex over the last two years. We kept talking about it, but up until now, we weren’t ready. Drawing in an unsteady breath, I worked up the courage to say it. “Do it.”

She knew what I was referring to as she nodded slowly, a smile ghosting her lips.

My heart pounded. “Still got those condoms in the glove box?” I could feel my entire body trembling.

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