Slowly We Trust (Fall and Rise #3)(21)
Author: Chelsea M. Cameron

“Just give her time,” Lottie said.

“She’ll come around. She can’t resist you. I can barely resist you,” Simon said, raising his eyebrows suggestively.

I ignored the second part of what he said and tried to focus on the first part as I grabbed my keys to go pick Audrey up.

She didn’t look any different than usual, but still. Seeing her took my breath away. Sometimes I couldn’t even believe that I was lucky enough to exist in her presence. As if she was some sort of royalty, or a goddess.

“Hey,” I said as she pulled herself up into the truck. I didn’t think this was technically a date, so I didn’t get out and open the door for her. I’d debated on whether I was going to do so or not for at least an hour, which was pretty pathetic.

“Hey. You look nice.” Instead of one of the nerdy/band shirts that I usually wore, Lottie had forced me into a fitted black t-shirt and the nicest pair of jeans that Mom had bought me when we’d gone back-to-school shopping.

“Thanks, so do you.” She looked more than nice, but I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it. I wasn’t her boyfriend.

“Everyone is going to meet us there,” I said, just because the silence felt awkward.

She just nodded and stared out the window. Clearly, her mind was occupied with something else.

“Everything okay?”

“Hm?”

I repeated my question.

“Oh, yeah. Fine. Just thinking about homework.” Hey, I gave it a shot. I had a feeling she would lie to me. I knew her well enough now to know the change in her voice when she lied.

“I like your new earrings.” She’d gotten second holes done and I kept getting distracted by the new bling in her ears.

“Thanks.” I waited for her to elaborate, but she didn’t.

I didn’t say anything else until we got to the house where the party was being held. It wasn’t technically a frat house, but a lot of guys who wanted to have the fraternity lifestyle lived there, so it was an unofficial house. I had a few of the guys in my classes, which was how I’d even known about the party in the first place.

I texted Lottie as I crammed my truck into a spot near the back of the lot behind the house. I didn’t see her car yet. She messaged back that Katie’d had some sort of wardrobe crisis and they were on their way. Figured. Katie was constantly having wardrobe crises.

“Guess it’s just you and me. Do you want to go in?” My truck’s heater was a piece of shit and she was clenching her hands together.

“Yeah, sure.” I escorted her across the icy parts of the parking lot, both of us laughing and agreeing if one of us went down, we were both going down.

Finally we made it to the front of the house, where the porch pulsed with a bass beat that moved from our feet up through our bodies. I used to love parties like this, but I’d actually been hoping Aud and I could talk tonight. Guess that wasn’t going to be as easy as I’d thought.

I could feel her getting tense next to me, and I wondered why she’d agreed to this if she felt so uncomfortable. Once again, I had no idea what was going on in her head.

As soon as we got through the door some of my friends spotted me and came over. Judging by the smell on their breath and their glassy eyes, they were already several drinks in. Not that long ago, I would have been jealous.

I had a red cup shoved in my hand and Audrey did too. I tried to introduce her, but I didn’t know what to introduce her as, so I just went with, “this is Audrey.” I wasn’t real close with a lot of these guys so this was the first they were hearing about her. That didn’t stop them from giving me suggestive looks and trying to tease Audrey. She took it in stride and sipped from her cup, but I definitely caught her making a face as she swallowed.

I was beginning to regret bringing her and wishing Lottie was here so she at least had another friend to talk to (other than me) when someone called her name from across the room.

“Audrey!” It was a guy I’d never seen before and the second she saw him, all the color drained from her face and the plastic cup fell from her hand and splattered on the floor.

This wasn’t happening. Couldn’t be happening. I saw him about a half second before he yelled my name. My brain hadn’t even registered who he was.

I could feel Will watching me freak out and I felt the cup slip from my hand, but I couldn’t move to do anything about it. I wanted to run. Really did. But that wasn’t possible.

He made his way through the crowd. He was just as good looking as he’d been in high school, which was the last time I’d seen him. Junior year, specifically, when he’d tried to come and speak with me, but I’d avoided him. Right before I’d transferred to another school. Mostly so that I didn’t have to speak to him again, or see him again, or explain anything.

Finally, he reached us at the same time that he noticed I was standing next to Will.

My voice stuck in my throat.

“Hey, long time no see. I didn’t know you went here.” I didn’t know he did, either. It was one of the downsides of deleting all your social media accounts and transferring schools without a word.

My stomach started churning with memories and I finally found my voice.

“Hi, Eddie.” His dark hair was longer than I remembered, and he might be taller, or maybe my memories were faulty. That was a possibility.

I could feel Will twitching next to me, dying to know who the hell this guy was. That was a question with a complicated answer that very few people knew about.

“So, how have you been?” Eddie said, flicking a glance at Will, but ignoring him.

“Fine,” I said, shifting from one foot to the other and resisting the urge to start playing with my hair. “Um, Will, this is Eddie. We went to high school together. This is my friend Will.” Friend was the easiest way to describe Will right now.

“Sure, nice to meet you,” Eddie said, nodding at Will.

“Same here. Small world, isn’t it?” Will was smiling, but I could tell it wasn’t one of his real smiles. He had seen my face when I’d first caught sight of Eddie and it told him that I wasn’t thrilled to see Eddie. That was an understatement.

“There you are!” Lottie’s voice cut through the noise and the crowd and then there was an arm around my waist.

“Who’s this?” she said, staring at Eddie.

“Eddie,” he said, nodding at her as Zan, Simon, Brady, Trish, Max, Katie and Stryker all came in behind Lottie. The gang was all here. No getting out of this situation now.