“Hey,” he says nicely enough. “You’re Xavi, right?”
I frown, unsure how he knows that. If Carter didn’t even bother telling Nate I was coming, why would he tell this guy?
“Frankie texted me and told me you were here,” he explains. “I’m Easton.”
I nod, awkwardly tucking my hands into my pockets. I don’t really know what to make of him or what Nate’s told these people about me, so I just watch him for a minute, slowly backing up the way I came. “Okay, well, I’ll just…uh, go—”
“You hungry?” he asks, holding up a bag of Chinese food before setting it down on the island. “I was starving so I got one of everything.”
“Um…”
He begins taking containers out and opening them up, raising a brow at me as he leans over and taps the counter with a pair of chopsticks. “Sit down, Xavi. I don’t bite.”
Okay then.
I take the seat opposite him, and he opens the fridge, pulling out two beers. “Want one?”
My heart starts pounding faster. “No thanks.”
There.
Easy.
Fucking breathe, man.
Easton shrugs as he puts one back and grabs me a soda instead, holding it up in offering. I take it and pop the cap off the top, watching as he dishes out enough food to feed a small village. He keeps looking at my face as we eat, and I can tell he’s curious about the black eye, but he doesn’t ask me about it. Instead, he tells me about his classes and games and his spot on the team, talking my ears off about everything and anything. He’s kind of sweet, and I find myself more relaxed around him than I thought I would.
“There’s a party tonight,” he says as we begin cleaning up. “You wanna come?”
I automatically open my mouth to say no, but then I think about Katy, imagining her grabbing me by my hair and shoving my antisocial ass toward him.
I still hesitate, wanting to ask if he knows if Nate will be there, but of course I don’t do that.
“Yeah,” I tell him, forcing the words out around the lump in my throat. “I’ll come.”
“What happened to the girl you lived with?” I ask Easton, looking up at the house he brought me to as we climb the wide steps leading up to it.
The whole place is made out of glass and pearly white marble.
“She burned all my shit and kicked my ass to the curb,” he answers, laughing lightly at the look on my face. “Don’t feel bad for me.” He shakes his head, pushing the front door open and allowing me to step in first. “I deserved it.”
“Why? What did you do?”
“I fucked her sister.”
I raise a brow at that, turning to face him as I back up into the house. “You tell everybody you just met that you’re a cheating asshole?”
“Only the ones I really like,” he jokes, slinging his big arm over my shoulder and spinning me to walk me forward into the crowd.
I tense against his side, unsure what I’m supposed to do with my hands. His fingers squeeze my collarbone through my hoodie, and I fight to keep my dick in check, telling myself not to read too much into it. Not to think about the way his hot body feels against mine, or how that easy smile of his comes out to play when he looks at me.
For the love of God, don’t.
Don’t start crushing on the straight basketball player who also happens to be one of Nate’s best friends, you idiot.
He steers me toward the kitchen, bumping a few fists and grinning at a few girls as we pass them. I stay wedged against his side and let him move me, nodding along as he points out the guys on the team and tells me which positions they play. He tells me their names, and I don’t bother telling him I already know them. I’ll keep that little secret to myself.
He starts talking to Bryson West—the guy whose parents own this house. I look over at the pool through the window behind us, chewing my lip as I search for any exit points out there. There must be something. A side gate or—
“Xavi.” Easton shakes my shoulder, pulling my attention back to him and Bryson.
“Hm?”
“I said you obviously don’t like beer, so what’s your drink?”
I shift from foot to foot and eye the several bottles of alcohol lined up on the island. “Water.”
His brows pinch, but he sobers faster than I thought he would. “Okay. Water it is.”
He moves around me and grabs a bottle from the fridge, his back to all the people in here as he uncaps it and pours it into a solo cup. I could drink it from the bottle, but I think he’s doing that so I can blend in with every other drunk college kid here. He knows something’s up, and he’s trying to help me avoid drawing any unwanted attention to myself. Or maybe I’m just desperate for someone to give a shit and I’m reading too much into things again.
He hands me my drink, and I lean back against the counter as I lift it to my lips, moving my eyes over all the people bumping and grinding on each other throughout the house. It’s been a little while since I’ve been to a party like this, but it’s not all that different from the ones I used to go to back in high school as far as I can tell. Alcohol. Drugs. Sex. Bad decisions… Nothing ever changes.
I spot at least a dozen couples tongue-fucking each other, some making their way to the glass staircase in the corner. There’s a half-naked girl lying on the dining room table on her back, a few guys around her snorting lines of coke off her bare flesh. I clear my throat and tear my eyes away from the scene, already regretting my decision to come here. I rub my chest with my knuckles as the panic rises, stealing my breath and blurring my vision.
Damn it, I shouldn’t be here.
I can’t be here.
I can’t, I can’t, I can’t—
“Hey.” Someone touches me. It’s Easton, his hand clutching my shoulder again as he bends to level with me. “Dude, are you good?”
“Yeah,” I breathe out, nodding too fast, but then I’m shaking my head and backing away from him. “I need some air. I’m gonna go outside for a sec.”
He says something else, but I don’t hear him as I turn around and all but stumble out the back door. As soon as I’m out of there, I pull in a breath and let it out slowly. That helps, so I do it again, three more times until the mess inside my head starts to clear. I drink some water and carry on walking, the loud music fading the further away I get from the source. There are just as many people out here, if not more, but the groups are more spread out than they are inside, so it doesn’t feel as crowded. Nobody pays me any attention as I lean back against the side of the house and scrub a hand over my face. Taking out my cigarettes, I thumb the pack open and slide one out with my teeth, my head lowered as I search my pocket for my lighter.
Fuck it.
Just one won’t hurt.
I just need one fucking—
I feel more than see the glare on me the second I flick the lighter on, the flame hovering just a couple inches from the tip. Cutting my eyes up, I snatch the cigarette from my mouth and let my arms fall to my sides.
Nate’s sitting on the other side of the yard, the neon blue lights from the pool shadowing his face and making his features look even darker. Frankie and the group of people with him are laughing and having a good time, but his stare doesn’t leave mine. Even when he knows I’ve caught him, he doesn’t react or look away. He looks furious, and he has every right to be. I’m not proud of the person he sees when he looks at me—the cocky, stupid little shit I was two years ago. That guy was reckless and selfish and all he cared about was chasing the next high. I hate him just as much as Nate does. For corrupting Katy. For turning the town’s good girl into the horror story they all whisper about. For encouraging her, enabling her because it hurt less not to hurt alone.