Page 27 of Missed Notes (Rixon High 5)

“Fuck yeah.” He chuckled.

It was a bad idea, getting drunk at a college frat party, with our parents less than a mile away in a hotel.

But sometimes bad ideas were the best kind.

The only kind to get you through.

* * *

“Seriously,Sofe, you need to relax on the drinks.” Aaron’s eyes narrowed as he tried to snatch the drink out my hand.

“Get your own drink,Dad.” I waved him off as I turned to keep dancing. I loved this song. In fact, I’d loved almost every song since I finished off the bottle of cherry sours with Jordan.

He was fun.

Charming and hot… so freaking hot. But Aaron had ruined any chances of him making a move, laying on the sister card so thick I could feel the invisible wall between us.

Besides, I wasn’t even sure I wanted Jordan to hit on me. But after my week of hell, as I was now referring to it, everything seemed urgent.

I hadn’t lived enough for an eighteen-year-old. I hadn’t made out enough at parties or hooked up with enough guys, and Idefinitelyhadn’t hooked up with enough guys who looked like Jordan Handell.

Seize the moment.

Right?

Right?

“Sofe, I’m not joking.” Aaron leaned in closer, his jaw clenched tight. “You need to calm down.”

“Relax, Bro. Relaaaax. It’s a party.” I threw my hands up in the air waving them wildly as I rolled my hips to the beat.

“You’re going to give him a heart attack,” Poppy whispered as she danced beside me.

“Who, Aaron?” I snorted, waving her off. “He’ll get over it.”

“Not Aaron, babe.” Her brow arched as she slid her gaze to where Ezra and Cole were chatting to some guys in Panther football jerseys.

“Ezra doesn’t care. He’s not—”

“Are you really that dense?” Poppy snapped. “Cole, babe. He hasn’t taken his eyes off you since we got here.”

A fact I was choosing to ignore.

I glanced at him and sure enough, he was watching me. Something crackled in the air between us, the invisible thread I so often felt around him stretching taut.

But it was frayed with betrayal now.

His betrayal.

And maybe it was petty, but I couldn’t let it go, I couldn’t—

“There she is.” Strong arms wrapped around me from behind and lifted me up.

“For fuck’s sake, Handell, put my sister down,” Aaron groaned.

“Nah, Bennet. She’s the hottest girl in the room, and she promised me a dance.”

I had, but it had been the cherry sours talking.

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