“What f**ker?” she gritted through her teeth now.

“Gavin. I came to see her, not long after we fought. You know, when I found out that she’d kissed him? He was coming out of her room, and he said that he’d spent the night,” I hung my head feeling foolish that I believed him.

“Fuck! That ass**le played me to get me out of his way. And I just f**king waved him right in,” I thought.

I was sick, and felt like I was going to throw up, though I’d only had a few sips of a beer. Suddenly, I needed to talk to Nolan more than anything in the entire world. I left Sarah standing in the parking lot and stormed back into the Wheelhouse and found Sean still sitting at the bar. He was working on his second beer now. I looked around a bit for Nolan but didn’t see her, instead Trig was just playing pool with a few other guys. Urgency must have been oozing from my pores, because Sean caught on quickly.

“She’s dancing with one of those dudes,” he said, tilting his head to the dance floor. Some local in a cowboy hat was spinning her around the floor, and she was laughing. Where moments ago I was conflicted between loving the sight of her smile and resenting her for it, now I only appreciated it more than the air I was breathing. She looked happy—simply, deliriously and absolutely happy. I had missed those carefree eyes, and when I thought about the tears that fell from them on the day you’re supposed to be thankful, I felt like the biggest ass**le ever.

I leaned into the bar for the entire song, just watching her, soaking her in. She was suddenly flawless. I could look at her without seeing Gavin, and my gut sank thinking of how much suffering she had endured. I was lost in her when I started a little as someone pushed me off balance from the bar, falling to one knee just to catch myself.

“Hey, bro,” Jason said, reaching his hand out to catch a hold of me. I grabbed it, and stared him down as I got back to my feet, and brushed off the dirt from my jeans.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, completely uninterested in his lame-ass attempt at bonding.

“Hmmm. Nice, little brother,” he said, taking a drink from his beer bottle and setting it back down on the bar. I hated that he called me little brother. He’d always done it. Just another part of his faulty personality and constant need to make sure I knew I was less than he was. Truth was, though, I was ten times the athlete Jason was, and the attention I was getting was killing him.

“Dylan wanted to come check this place out. She likes karaoke,” he made a sour face as he spoke. I think Jason liked the idea of being with someone like Dylan more than he actually liked her. Even more, though, I think he liked the fact that our mother praised him for picking such a lovely girl. My mom’s need to marry one of us off to the Nichols family was, apparently, relentless.

I saw Dylan walk out of the hallway by the pool tables with another blonde and in a flash my stomach turned. Shit! It was the girl I walked home that night with Trig! The one who stripped for me and I’d left half naked in her living room!

I wanted to sprint from the building immediately, but my muscles were rendered utterly useless after the rush of adrenaline passed through my legs upon realizing my newest nightmare was walking up to me, wrapped in a scantly dressed bow. Dylan was reaching up to kiss Jason on the neck, while straightening the strap on one of her shoes when she looked me in the eyes to introduce me to her friend. “Fuck!” I thought; I didn’t know what to do.

The girl locked eyes with me right away, recognition washing over her. “Reed!” she squealed. Uhg, suddenly that near-mistake seems like a cliff-edge I had almost dove from. She reached up, and kissed my cheek as if we were familiar. Though, I suppose sadly, in some ways we were.

“Uh…yeah, hi,” I smiled softly, trying to find a balance between retreat and polite. Sean was sliding away from me now, to go join Trig, escaping my personal hell and sensing that things were about to go very far south.

“Oh my God! You two know each other?” Dylan said, looking between me, and my mistake.

“Well…sort of. I…uh,” I scratched at my head and turned sideways to find Nolan’s eyes locked right on me while she danced with the cowboy. Damn it!

I smiled politely and turned back to Dylan again. “I’m sorry?” I said, my train of thought completely derailed.

“I said, you two know each other?” Dylan was clearly thrown by my reaction now.

“Oh, yeah. I walked her…” I paused realizing I didn’t even know her name. In my head, I called her Peaches, because of the scent of her hair. “…home the other day.”