Page 40 of Bliss: Part 1
I nodded, reaching for her hand and pulling it onto my lap. “Yeah. I’m glad you came tonight.”
“You are?” Her expression shifted to something a little unsure. “I feel like you’d probably be having way more fun without me here.”
“Bullshit.” I brought her hand to my lips and kissed her knuckles. “I’d be bored out of my mind without you. Probably would’ve headed home already if you weren’t here.”
Her expression softened, and her fingers threaded through mine. She went quiet for a moment, then said, “We should go home when we’ve had enough.”
“You don’t want to stay?”
“I don’t mind being here,” she replied with a shrug. “But I wouldn’t mind heading home either…just to hang out with you alone.”
“You starting to feel overstimulated?”
I knew that in crowds like this, she could get overwhelmed. It didn’t happen often, but when it did, she never wanted to make a fuss. She tried to stick it out for our sake, but I always kept an eye on her. If I sensed it was getting to be too much, I’d take her home without hesitation.
“Not quite yet,” she said with a tight smile. “I just don’t really see the point of being here.”
I chuckled and looked around. “Well, you were invited, and we all wanted you to come. But yeah, it’s too damn loud and way too crowded. I wish it was a smaller party.”
“Dash!”
I looked up and saw an old classmate walking toward me. I smiled and extended my free hand to shake Aiden’s.
“Hey, man. Since when are you back?”
“Got in last weekend,” he said, grinning. “Didn’t plan to stay, but my mom basically forced me. You know how it is.”
He turned to Bliss next. “Shit…uh, Bliss, right?”
She gave him a polite smile and nodded. “Hi.”
His gaze dropped to our joined hands and stayed there a little too long. I could practically hear the gears in his head turning. He was confused. Everyone knew how close Bliss and I were, but this? This looked like more.
“You okay?” he asked her, clearly thinking she was upset and I was comforting her.
“Yep, I’m okay,” she answered calmly.
Aiden pressed his lips together, then looked back at me, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly. “Right, uh…” He let out a nervous laugh, clearly trying to figure out what exactly he was witnessing.
Me holding her hand like that? Yeah, it probably looked like we were a couple. We weren’t, not officially. But there was intimacy there. Something he couldn’t quite put his finger on. And still, I didn’t let go. Because I didn’t want to. Whatever he thought about it didn’t matter to me.
“You wanna come hang with the others?” he asked, jerking his chin toward a group of guys I recognized.
“Nah, not right now. I’m gonna stay here with Bliss for a bit.”
“You’re welcome too,” he added quickly, giving her a smirk. “We wouldn’t mind some female company.”
“Thanks,” Bliss replied, her expression neutral, clearly unimpressed by the offer.
Aiden clapped his hands together awkwardly, like he wasn’t sure what to do next. He cleared his throat, nodded one last time, then walked off.
“He totally thinks we’re a thing,” Bliss said, amused.
I glanced at her, raised a brow, and laughed. “Probably. But he’s also had, like, five beers already, so he probably thinks he’s just misreading the whole situation.”
At least, Ihopedthat was the case. The last thing we needed was people getting suspicious about what really went on between us when no one was watching.
Time passed, and the party grew louder. It got so crowded we had to abandon our chairs and move off to the side, where the air wasn’t thick with sweat, smoke, and beer breath. People were dancing, shouting over the music, some couples making out so intensely they might as well have been humping each other in plain sight.
