My Sweetest Escape (My Favorite Mistake #2)(46)
Author: Chelsea M. Cameron

I was shocked the party hadn’t gotten broken up already, because it was so loud you could feel the bass beat in your chest from a half mile away. It only got worse the closer we got.

By the time we were standing in front of the house, I was second-guessing my willingness to go along with this. I’d been to plenty of wild parties, and if my past experience was any indication, this was a rager. I hadn’t been around one of these in quite a few months. In fact, I barely remembered the last one. It was a wonder I hadn’t gotten raped, or had anything else happen to me, but Kelly and Mac had always looked out for me, and if things got crazy, we usually went back to his place and just drank with his friends. I’d gotten a few texts from her, but I’d ignored them.

“You ready for this, Han?” Her arm had tightened on mine the closer we’d gotten, and I could almost hear her second thoughts.

“Right behind you, ladies. You say the word and we’re out. No one is going to mess with you. Either of you.” I looked over my shoulder and met Dusty’s eyes. Even though it was dark, they burned with an intensity that told me he meant what he said. That he was telling the truth.

“Thanks,” I said as Hannah started dragging me toward the pounding house. It was a wonder frat houses managed to stay standing after all the generations of partying and damage their inhabitants did. There had probably been more than a few repairs over the years.

“Let’s rock this.” Hannah gave me a fist bump and we both took deep breaths and walked into the house.

* * *

An hour, many turned down drinks and dances, almost getting a beer spilled on my dress, one broken heel and one lost earring later, Hannah and I were dancing right in front of the giant speakers. The other members of our group were standing just out of the way, talking and laughing. Except for Dusty, who was really taking sulking to a whole new level. Well, it wasn’t really sulking. It was more like brooding. It didn’t look good on him, the guy I was so used to seeing with a smile on his face.

We’d kept our eyes wide-open for the guys, but it was so packed and the crowd so fluid, it would have been nearly impossible to find them, even if they were here. I’d pretty much given up on looking when Hannah grabbed my arm and pulled my ear to her mouth so I could hear her.

“There they are!” she yelled. It was still hard to hear her, so I motioned and we moved away from the speaker.

“Where?” I said, doing a visual sweep. Ah, there was one of them, standing over near one of the couches that had been pushed to the side. He hadn’t seen us yet.

“Right there.” Hannah jerked her chin in his direction, and I picked out some of the other guys I’d seen in the Union. They were all laughing and talking and drinking, clearly at ease. For all I knew, they were residents of the house.

“Come on.” Hannah didn’t give me a moment longer to think about it before she pulled me to the center of the improvised dance floor and started grinding her hips like she was born to do it. She’d been dancing earlier, but this was a little more…something you’d do against a pole wearing a lot less than a dress. I had to give her credit; she was good at it. I took her lead and let myself go.

“Is that them?” Taylor said in my ear after touching me on the shoulder. I nodded and she looked over at Darah and Renee. They came over as well, and we formed a circle. Taylor gave Hannah a run for her money in the dancing department. That girl had moves. More than once I glanced over at Mase, Paul, Hunter and Dusty, but they just watched with bewildered smiles on their faces. Dusty still looked even more surly than he had earlier.

Hannah kept looking at the group of guys, but they weren’t paying attention. More than a few of the other guys at the party were, though, and a few tried to come and dance with one or more of us, but we weren’t interested.

After the third guy tried to grind on Taylor, though, Hunter had had enough and came to dance with her. Mase joined Darah and Paul grabbed Renee. The song switched to the latest dance hit that you heard fifty times every time you listened to the radio. Hannah’s hips were still going strong, and the group of guys had finally noticed. I pulled her in, pretending to give her a hip bump.

“They see you.” She pretended to toss her hair and looked at them. Oh, they had noticed. The entire group was now fully aware of Hannah and her supersonic hips.

She threw her head back and laughed, executing a twirl that would have had me on my ass. I had no idea she was such a good dancer. The guys were pointing and talking, and it was definitely about Hannah. The guy who seemed like the ringleader started walking over. I gave Hannah a signal.

He looked like the typical college “dude.” Backward Red Sox cap, jeans, Hollister shirt. He was so generic it was a wonder I’d even recognized him. Wading through the crowd, he came closer to our group.

“What are you going to do?” I yelled in Hannah’s ear.

“Depends on what he does. Maybe he feels like a douche and he’s coming to apologize.” She shrugged and kept dancing. Yeah, I wasn’t going to hold my breath. Guys like that seldom thought anything they did was wrong, so they didn’t have to apologize. But maybe that was me being judgmental? He could surprise me.

Hannah spun around and stopped right in front of him. He looked startled for a second.

“Can I help you?” she yelled, loud enough for me to hear.

“Yeah, you can get your disgusting ass out of this party. The girls with you are welcome to stay, but you gotta go.” He had one of those sort of half smiles on that dick guys used when they thought they were being charming, but really, they were just being dicks.

Hannah’s face froze for a moment and I waited for her reaction. I didn’t have to wait long.

She slapped the bottom of the cup of beer he had in his hand and her aim was true. It exploded and covered him.

“What the f**k? You psycho!”

Hannah smiled in a way that, if I were that guy, I’d be worried. But clearly, he wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer because he looked like he was going to slap her, or yell at her, but Hannah got there first. She socked him in the jaw so hard that I heard it, even with the loud music.

They both screamed in pain as I dived for Hannah.

“You f**king bitch!” His friends rushed over, but Dusty, Mase, Hunter and Paul were there in a flash.

“Walk away, dude. You’re lucky a busted jaw is the only thing she gave you,” Dusty said, getting right in the guy’s face. Hannah cradled her hand to her chest.