Page 10 of Dare (Fighting Fate)

The story of the guys’ troubles with Leighton’s label was an interesting one to me. It stirred something inside me when I heard them talk about it. It made me see entertainment law as something I could really enjoy.

Dean waggled his eyebrows a little, mischief sparking in his eyes. “We’re going to end it with a bang, though. We go on our first world tour this summer. The UK, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand.”

“Fuck, yeah,” I said, seriously impressed. I knew the guys were awesome, but playing overseas? That shit was like a huge mark of success. “That’s fucking awesome, dude.”

“Yo!” Isaac hollered from across the room. “Are you fucking brewing that shit or what?”

Dean gave me an amused look before holding up Isaac’s can. “Apparently, I’m a bar bitch now.”

I laughed as he started to walk away. “Next time, tell the pretty boy to get his own.”

“Next time the pretty boy can fetch mine for me,” he called back over his shoulder.

Sighing, I glanced around the room. I knew I should stop being so antisocial, but I just wasn’t sure which conversation I could be bothered to participate in. It definitely wasn’t the best idea for me to join Amber, Emmy, and Jess, that was for sure, but I wasn’t really in the mood for Isaac’s antics, either.

“You doing okay, Bro?”

I turned at the sound of Adam’s voice and found him staring at me with a curious gaze. Tilting my head from side to side, I gave him a little shrug.

“Just contemplating how much beer it’ll take to put me out cold.”

One side of his mouth curled upward as he glanced over at Jess. “That bad, huh?”

Rolling my eyes to the side, I groaned. “You have no idea.”

“Why don’t you just go talk to her?” he said, lifting a shoulder as though it was the only solution he could come up with.

I still found it weird that almost all of my family and friends knew how I felt about Jess, yet she didn’t. Or maybe she did and she just pretended she didn’t because she didn’t want to hurt my feelings by telling me I had no chance. That would also make sense to me.

Hitting him with a deadpan look, I huffed. “Oh, I don’t know. I could probably think of a couple of reasons,” I said, unable to stop the surly tone in my voice. “The biggest one being that I swore off dating until I’d passed the bar exam.”

My body hummed, the beer well and truly filtering in through my system. But my brain couldn’t be fooled by my words. How was it that the biggest issue I had with the whole situation wasn’t the fact that she already had a boyfriend?

Adam swiped his hand in front of me, his expression dismissing my concern. “News flash for you, little brother. Pining over someone is more distracting than actually dating someone who supports your goals. Trust me. Getting where I am now would’ve been ten times harder if I didn’t have Kara there to keep me sane.”

“Okay, but you’re missing the part where she already has a boyfriend, Adam. So none of that fucking matters anyway,” I said, done with the conversation.

Picking up his beer, he held it to his mouth, turning his body slightly away from me. “Okay, well, if your plan was to avoid her,” he muttered so I could barely hear him, “you failed.”

I frowned as he started walking from the room. What the hell did he mean, I failed?

“Hi, Eli.”

I closed my eyes in a long, slow blink. Fuck.

Drawing strength, I prepared myself for what was to come. Then I turned.

“Jess.” The only way I knew how to describe it was torture. Pure torture. My gaze swept over her long, silken curls, soft, creamy skin, and vibrant green eyes. Everything about her made me want to touch. Forcing my walls to go up, I offered her an easy smile. “How are you doing?”

Her return smile was kind, but it was locked well and truly in the friendship zone. I was lucky I had the alcohol swimming around in my system or it would’ve hit me right in the feels.

“I’m good,” she said, sliding herself up to sit on the counter across from me. “How’s everything with you?”

“Oh, you know. A slave to the study, as usual.”

Inside, I cringed. Could I be any more fucking lame? Taking a gulp of my beer, I prayed for it to be over so I could just go bash my head against a wall somewhere.

She rolled her eyes with understanding. “Wyatt’s been the same. I’ve hardly seen him lately. I can’t wait for us both to graduate so we might have a chance of looking like a normal couple for a change.”

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