“I know, I know. If you’re gonna be all fun police about it, you can just drop us off. All the parties at Frat Row are within walking distance from one another.” He turned to Gus who was already smiling big. “We’ll split an Uber back and crash here tonight.”
“ESU?” Byron asked taking a swig of his beer.
“Yeah,” Nando said with a soured expression. “I ain’t Ubering all the way back from SC.”
“I can do that.” Byron downed the last of his beer before adding. “I can drop you off but I ain’t doing frat parties.”
“Man, you’re wack!” Gus shook his head taking a drink from his bottle then added. “I’ve seen losers way older than you lurk around at those parties.”
“Exactly,” Byron said standing up. “Losers.”
“Dick! I said way older than you.”
Once again thoughts of that chick were in his head. Already she likely thought him a gawking creeper. Running into her at one of these things would for sure seal whatever first creepy impression he’d already made on her. Not that it mattered really but fuck that. Not only was Byron older than most of the guys at those parties since it was mostly freshman and sophomores, but he also knew he looked older—at least a lot bigger—even back when he was still in school. He knew he’d stand out like those losers Gus was talking about for sure. Besides not wanting to come across as an even bigger douche, he did have an image to uphold being Beast’s younger brother, and part owner of a shop that got so much media attention now.
Heading upstairs to his apartment, Byron let Gus and Nando know he’d be down in a few as soon as he changed into some jeans. A few minutes later they were all in his car. Gus and Nando sat in the back seat as if Byron were their Uber driver.
Glancing up at the rearview mirror Byron smirked as his two eager riders gawked out the window at the girls in the car next to theirs. By the time they reached Frat Row, the parties were in full swing. Traffic was a bitch, but there’d been no shortage of wisecracks the whole way there, so Byron was actually in a good mood instead of his usual temperamental one. It was a long stretch of frat houses and of course Gus and Nando wanted to hit one of the ones furthest down. Despite the bumper-to-bumper traffic, mostly college kids cruising the frat parties and many making traffic worse as they zig-zagged through the cars, didn’t stop Byron from laughing at some of Nando’s stupid cracks.
That is until Byron started doing double takes whenever he thought he saw her. In each case though it wasn’t even close. Just someone with a similar stature or highlighted long hair. It wasn’t until the third or fourth one that his thought process began to feel annoying, if not alarming. Each heart spiking instance when he thought he saw her, was followed by the same thought or even muttered words, not even close.
Close to what? She was just another a cute—okay, hot girl—with a sweet smile. One who he knew nothing about except that as innocent, sweet and shy as his first impression of her had been, Byron knew firsthand now she had it in her to turn that sweet smile, wicked sexy.
“We’ll just get out here,” Gus said opening the back door. “This way you can turn off the next side street instead of having to sit in this mess the whole way.”
Byron turned in time to see Nando jump out after Gus. “Thanks, man,” Nando said leaning back into the window. “Just leave the backdoor unlocked like last time. This way we won’t wake you since we’ll probably get back late.”
Nodding, Byron started moving since the line of cars in front of him finally started inching along. Taking in the party scene all around him, he shook his head with a smirk. Nothing had changed since his days of frat party hopping. It was still fairly early, for a college party scene anyway, and already there was drunk young girls stumbling around.
Like he’d been doing earlier, one particular drunken girl leaning on some loud dude had him doing a double take. Only it was for a different reason this time. There wasn’t any resemblance from this chick to her, but he thought he recognized her from somewhere. Since the traffic was at a halt again, Byron took the moment to continue to peer. He’d always hated that feeling of not being able to place someone and there was something about this girl that he could swear he knew her.
Mostly he had too many friends and co-workers who had sisters and shit around this age. The girl looked drunk, and the loud guy with her seemed a little too excited about that. Not only that, but the other guy with him also kept leaning over and whispering shit in her ear. The guy holding her was doing so as if he was with her. Then he said something to the other guy, and they switched places. Now the other guy was talking so close into her face he pecked her lips.
It wasn’t until she jerked her head back and looked around that Byron got a better look at her and it hit him. Except for the time he’d seen the little college girl at the gym with the meathead this girl had been at her side all the other times.
“Ah, hell.” He turned around to see if he could merge into the next lane, closer to where the threesome was standing.
What the fuck was he doing? For all he knew this was perfectly consensual. God knew he’d been to enough of these parties to know the kind of shit that happens all the time and how willing too many of these freaky young college girls were willing to go along with this. But something about the way she’d jerked her head back and seemed to look around apprehensively, made him think this wasn’t the case here.
Byron had finally managed to merge over to the lane closest to the parked cars on the side of the road. Despite his being torn about just driving on or stopping, that all changed when he heard male voices yelling out for Jake and Conner. Glancing up at where the yelling was coming from, he saw two other guys looking out a second-floor window of one of the frat houses.
“Get her up here!”
Holding the wobbly chick by the arm Jake or Conner, whichever he was, started her toward the house. Instinctively, Byron swerved into the break in cars and blocked the driveway to get out of the traffic. His tires skidding when he hit the brakes had the two guys turning back in his direction.
Pushing the ignition button, Byron jumped out of the car not even sure what he’d say or do. All he knew was he had to at least find out if in fact this threesome—or whatever else they had planned upstairs—was something this girl was consenting to.
“Hey.”
They all peered at him curiously but then glanced around as if his sudden arrival might not have anything to do with them. The crowd around the area was so that he very well could’ve been talking to someone else. Then he saw it. The girl’s eyes widened and despite her clearly inebriated state, she appeared to recognize him suddenly. “You okay?”
None of them said anything at first. While the girl seemed to understand it was her, he was speaking to, the guys still didn’t look sure. So, he pointed at her. “You. Are you okay? You need a ride or something?”
“What are you stupid?” the guy holding her arm sneered. “She’s with us.”
“I wasn’t talking to you, asshole.” Byron turned back to the girl. “You sure you’re okay?”
It was so subtle he almost missed it, but her head shook just slightly and then she hiccupped. “I know you,” she slurred then took a step forward jerking her arm away from the guy a little too hard and she toppled down onto the grass.