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“Nice to meet you, gorgeous. And don’t listen to him, unlike your boyfriend, I don’t enjoy playing with sticks. I prefer real men’s sports.”
“You prefer real men, period,” Jake chuckles.
Cal laughs heartily, “That I do.”
“Where’s the drink at here?” Jake asks.
Cal shakes his red cup. “Bro, this is water. I’m not drinking tonight. I’m waiting for Carlo to give me his new good shit.”
Jake’s body tenses slightly but his face stays exactly the same and I have to give him credit for that. He’s too good at pretending everything’s fine when not much is.
“They’re selling new shit?”
“Yup,” Cal pops the ‘p’ like he can hardly wait to get what he’s waiting for. “Rose brought it with her last week. You missed a good night.” Cal lowers his voice and gets slightly closer to us. “I think they got a new supplier if you ask me because all their products have changed. In a good way.”
“Cool,” Jake replies casually. “I’ll have to try.”
“For sure, man. I’ll come get you, we’ll celebrate you showing up at a party. Anyway, help yourself to anything you want, yeah? I’ll be finding myself some nice guy in the meantime. Or girl. Your sister here?”
From the smile tugging at Cal’s lips, he’s clearly joking to rile him up, but Jake pushes him a little harder than playfully.
“How about go fuck your mom, huh? Mayor Simmons is a MILF.”
Cal explodes laughing and leaves shaking his head.
“He’s a j–” I start.
“Jerk?”
“I was gonna go for jock, but I guess that works as well.”
“I think all the Simmons brothers are. But they got the biggest houses and unlimited supply of alcohol.”
“Right,” I roll my eyes, “because that’s so important in life, isn’t it?”
“Nope. What’s most important is my beautiful girl and her happiness. So, are you okay?”
It warms my heart that he goes back to where we left the conversation before being interrupted. It’s not much but anyone else would have forgotten or gotten into the party mood after seeing their friends. Jake still wants to make sure I’m okay being here and that counts.
“I’m fine. Your friends haven’t seen you in, like, two parties, bro.” I mock. “You’ve left the party scene, dude.”
He laughs at my imitation of Cal and takes my hand. “Let’s put our jackets in the limo.”
As soon as we’re outside I shiver from the cold. I’m still a little tense from the party, I have a bad feeling about it. Which is stupid because Jake is here, nothing can go wrong when he’s next to me. I see Emily getting out of one of the limos and relax. I’m going to have one friend here and it’s better than nothing. Emily excitedly jumps into my arms and I laugh at her drunkenness. Luke and Rose follow out of the car in a laughing fit.
“Your boyfriend is officially drunk,” Rose says to Emily.
“He’s not my boyfriend,” she snarls back, making everyone’s eyes roll.
Ella is the last one coming out and I turn to Em. “Where’s Chris?”
“Oh, he left his seat to Ella because her dickhead drunk date kept feeling her up,” she replies casually.
“What?” I choke, turning to Luke. “Didn’t you say anything?”
“Chris had a chat with the dude. We thought he’d have more of a chance of survival than if he was having a chat with Luke,” Emily keeps going. My eyes cross with Ella’s, she looks incredibly uncomfortable.
“I’m going in,” she mumbles and pushes past Luke.
