Dylan
When the front door opens, I expect Zoe to walk through on her own two feet. Not on our neighbor’s back.
Zoe’s arms are around Kyler’s neck and she laughs like she’s enjoying his playfulness. I didn’t know they even knew each other, but she’s damn comfortable with Kyler holding her, and it makes my skin crawl. I have to shove my phone in my pocket so I don’t chuck it at his head.
Tonight was supposed to be about us—a first step in showing the rest of the world we’re ready to do the whole relationship thing. But instead of joining me on the couch, she walked right out the front door.
I shouldn’t have cared, but I did—I do. Just once, I wanted a gorgeous girl to walk into a room with her eyes focused solely on mine. She’d sit down beside me and let me wrap my arm around her. She’d stay tucked against me where she’s safe and warm and everyone would see how amazing she was. Their jealousy would eat away at them because they’d wish they had a relationship as great as ours.
That’s not how tonight has gone.
Letty showing up was out of my control, and I admit I shouldn’t have been paying her so much attention. She was excited to be here though, and with it being my house, I couldn’t ignore her. That’s not the person I am.
Regardless, she isn’t the girl I want to be sitting beside tonight. The girl I want spent the majority of the night out on the porch, for reasons I don’t understand.
With the way she was eyeing Letty, looking like her blood was ready to boil, I thought for sure Zoe was ready to stake her claim. That didn’t happen either. Now the roles are reversed and I’m the one who’s about to lose my shit because some other guy has his hands all over Zoe’s body.
I need to kick his ass out of the house, but what if Zoe doesn’t want him to leave?
What if he’s what she wants?
What if she’s already chosen him over me because he’s the easier choice. There’s no history to worry about. They can start fresh without memories holding them back.
I’d have my answer, not the one I was hoping for, but it’d be an answer nonetheless.
Kyler carries her into the kitchen and the last time I heard one of her high pitched squeals she was in my arms and in my bed.
“Dylan.” Letty latches onto my arm like a leech. “What’s wrong?”
“I’ll be back.” I never once led Letty on, but I haven’t told her to leave me alone, either. She’s Trevor’s neighbor—I can’t be a dick.
“Where are you going?”
“I have to make sure Zoe’s okay.”
Letty reaches for my hand and though I try to shrug it off, she won’t let go. When she pulls me closer, the alcohol on her breath is a lot stronger than it was a half hour ago. “She’s old enough to take care of herself. If she wants to take that guy to her room, let her.”
Life would be so much easier if I wanted Letty instead of Zoe. If I could accept Letty’s flirtation and be turned on by it. But I’m not. And I can’t. Zoe’s always been my first choice and now that Letty’s put the visual of Kyler and Zoe screwing into my head, I can’t seem to pry Letty’s hand out of mine fast enough.
Trevor gives me a look, and I give him one back. “Take care of Letty,” I tell him. “Keep her out of the kitchen.” The last thing I need is her following me and causing a scene.
He nods and takes my spot on the couch where Letty is pouting like a child. She rests her head on Trevor’s shoulder and he runs his fingers through her hair. For a second I wonder if she’s his Zoe. If she is, he better prepare for one hell of a ride. It doesn’t get any easier.
As soon as I walk in the kitchen, I wish I hadn’t. Kyler has Zoe sitting on the kitchen counter and he’s standing between her legs. One pant leg is pulled up to her knee, and he’s dabbing a wet paper towel against her shin. He’s taking care of her the way I would, and I don’t like him invading my territory.
“Are you okay, Zo?” I ask her.
She tries with all her might to press a button on the watch she’s holding. When she gets it, she turns it around and shows Kyler. “We did so good.”
“Three minutes and twenty-one seconds. Told you,” Kyler says.
I glance back and forth between the two, confused by their secret conversation. “What’s going on?”
Zoe blinks and throws me a bone. “I fell on the porch,” she giggle-slurs.
I step closer and see the cut she knocked open. “Is it hurting you? She fell in her room earlier today, but you wouldn’t know anything about that, Kyler. Would you?”
Kyler glances over his shoulder and smirks. He fuckin’ smirks at me and I’d love nothing more than to punch the grin right off his face. If he stands in my kitchen, touching my girl much longer, I just might.
“I’m fine,” Zoe tells me. “Can’t feel a thing.”
“It’s freezing outside, you’re numb.”
“Na, I’m hot,” she insists. She makes a sizzling noise that sends her into a fit of hysterics. I’ve never seen her this drunk before. She likes control too much to get this far gone.
“Why are you so hot?”
“Cause I drank the gas.”
“What’d you drink, Zoe?” If I find out Kyler slipped her something, he’s dead. Right here, I will kill him with my bare hands.
She giggles, an actual over-the-top girlie giggle that’s never once come out of her mouth before today. “Not the car kind. The bottle.”
“I assume you mean alcohol. Where’d you get it?”
“Kyler likes beer, but Price had whiskey in his trunk. It’s horrible.”
“Who the hell is Price?” I’m raising my voice like an asshole and I don’t even care.
Kyler’s probably a nice guy. At least he seemed to be the few times we’ve run into each other. But Zoe’s not his. She may be wasted, but she’s still not available.
“You’re all set, buttercup. Need a lift to your room?”
“Buttercup?” I mutter under my breath. “How original.”
Zoe giggles again as Kyler turns back around. Like they’ve done this dance a hundred times before, she attaches her arms around his neck and hops on his back.
They’re heading toward her bedroom before I can get the words out to stop them. The door closes, the same one I had to bust through earlier, and I turn into a crazed lunatic.
This time, I don’t care what she’s doing on the other side of the door. I don’t care if she’s only half dressed. And I could give two shits if I’m invading her privacy. All I care about is getting Kyler away from Zoe.
I’m through the door and in Kyler’s face, pushing him against the closet door I fixed a couple hours ago.
“I think it’s time for you to go,” I tell him.
He holds his hands up, backing away. “Calm down, Dylan. Everything’s cool.”
Glancing at Zoe, I realize something’s wrong now that her smile’s gone. She’s no longer laughing, and she doesn’t seem to want whatever was about to happen.
The red I was seeing a few minutes ago has become the deepest shade of burgundy. I get in Kyler’s face, giving him one chance and one chance only to tell me the truth. “What’d you do to her?”
“Nothing,” he tells me, unconvincingly. “This was all a game.”
“Don’t lie, Kyler. That girl has only been with me. If you so much as touched her with your pinky, I’ll know. And when I find out all the details, I’ll come across the street and strangle you in your sleep.”
Zoe stands up and moves in between the two of us. Her body sways from side to side as her eyes try their damndest to focus on mine. “Stop, Dylan. He’s my friend. We were just playin’ with you. Don’t go mad.”
“What are you talking about?” Is this some kind of joke?
Kyler helps Zoe sit on the edge of the bed before spotting the broken bedpost and laughing. I take it they covered that topic during their drink-fest on the porch. “You weren’t kidding about the bed.”
“Kyler, I never ever joke about my bed.”
Zoe doesn’t realize it because of the alcohol, but her comment’s laced with so much sex appeal, she’s sending the wrong message to Kyler.
“Zoe, I think it’s time your friend left.”
“Right,” she says. “He’s a good guy, Dylan. Don’t be mad. I got jealous. I had big plans to make you feel the same way, but I bumped my leg on the stairs and it never happened.”
“Oh, I’m positive it’s happening, Zo. I think it’s time to call it a night. You got your revenge.”
“Is Letty going home, too?” she asks with her arms crossed over her perfect chest.
Kyler stands by her side, rubbing her back like the supportive chump he is. Why does he have to keep touching her?
I run both my hands over my face, hoping that I don’t lose it before we finish this conversation. “I don’t want Letty. I want you, Zoe. How many times do I have to say it before you’ll believe me?”
She flinches, but she’s still being stubborn. But shit, angry Zoe is so damn sexy. “But I saw you through the window. It looked like you wanted her, Dylan.”
Before we continue, Kyler steps in front of Zoe and hugs her. “I’m gonna let you talk it out with Dylan. You have my number if you need anything. Or come across the street and knock on the door.”
“That’s right, we’re neighbors.”
He chuckles. “We are, but call instead. You’re a little too tipsy to be near traffic.”
Zoe nods and the urge to yank each one of his pearly white teeth out of his mouth is strong. As usual, I have to be the bigger person, even when he doesn’t deserve it.
Once Kyler finishes his pep talk, he turns and faces me. “Before I go home to my boyfriend,” he stresses. “I suggest you stop worrying about how to win her heart, Dylan. You already have it, she’s just scared of losing yours. That Letty chick did nothing to ease her fears.”
Shell-shocked, I stare at the back of Kyler’s head as he leaves Zoe’s room. “I didn’t see that one coming.”
Zoe slides to the floor in front of her bed and looks defeated by both me and the alcohol.
Squatting in front of her, I wait for her to look at me, but she won’t. “I’m sorry, Zo.”
“I wouldn’t get naked with a stranger, you know. I’m not a slut.”
Her words knock me on my ass. I’ve spent years building this girl up, and then in one night, I’ve somehow made her think she’s trash. “I know you’re not a slut. I’m sorry. My head’s all over the place. When I saw you with him, I thought you stuck to that crazy pact to date someone else.”
“I’d only get naked with you,” she whispers. “I busted my leg. I tried to make you jealous with a gay dude, all so you’d want me and not Letty. New low.”
She can’t be serious. How in the ever loving fuck could she think I stopped wanting her? I’m a douchebag if I led her to believe that’s possible. “Hold up,” I tell her.
“What?” she asks as her eyes well up with tears.
“You occupy every part of me, Zoe. You know that. You have to.”
“Could you love me?” she asks with a trembling bottom lip. “Do you love me?”
I’ve never heard her talk about love before. As much as I wanted to believe we’d reach that point, both of us and not just me, I wasn’t convinced it’d happen. “Zoe, we had sex, and it changed us. And I’m glad because I’ve loved you since ninth grade. I’ll always love you.”
She blinks a couple times before pulling her hair off her shoulders and tying it in a mess on top of her head. A strand falls by her face, framing her jaw perfectly. “You promised me sex wouldn’t change us. You lied.”
“I didn’t lie, baby. We’ve changed, but it’s for the best. I like the changes. I like being more with you.”
“You do?” Her voice is scratchy from the alcohol and it makes her sound more like her sister. Another reason why I like sober Zoe better.
“I do.”
“You mad about Kyler?”
“Furious.”
She hugs her knees against her chest and rests her chin on top of them. “I tried hard. But I can’t do it. I just can’t.”
Here we go. I don’t want her to say it, but I can’t convince her we’re right for one another. She has to believe it, too. She has to want me, too.
“What can’t you do, Zoe?”
“I can’t stop these feelings. You’re my best friend, but I want you to be more than that.”
I wish we weren’t having this conversation while she’s three sheets to the wind, but at least alcohol is her truth serum. Thank god for small miracles.
“You love me, Zo?”
She nods and makes herself dizzy. Grasping fistfuls of air like it’ll somehow steady her, she giggles when she tips over. I catch her and she stares at me with her mouth half open.
“Kyler said you’d do that. And you did.”
“I don’t know what that means.”
Even though she can barely support her wobbly neck, I lean her against the bed. And when I shift my eyes, I notice hers locked on my mouth. “I love your stupid smile.”
“Thank you.” She’ll be so embarrassed once her buzz wears off.
“Not done,” she says with a hand in the air.
“Sorry, keep going.”
“I love those hot muscles when you walk around without your shit. I mean shirt. Makes me all bothered. Everywhere.” She points to her head and almost pokes herself in the eye. Then to her heart, and finally to mine. “I love you,” she says with a shrug.
“Zo,” is all that comes out once I get my mouth to cooperate with my brain. She deserves so much more than a little over half of her name, but it’s all I have. My heart’s pounding so hard, I can’t think straight.
“Don’t love her,” she says as a tear rolls down her cheek.
“Who, baby?”
“Letty. It hurts my insides when you flirt.”
Before she sheds another tear, I grab her and pull her against my chest. She doesn’t fight me. She just melts against my body. “You’re the only one I love. There’s nobody else. There will never be anyone else. I promise, Zoe.”
Her tears dampen my shirt and it kills me that I’m the reason she’s crying. But it doesn’t matter what broke the damn, all that matters is that she’s letting me in.
She raises her head and her glistening eyes gut me. “Do you think you could love me forever?”
“Yeah, Crash. I do. From the moment I found you tangled up in that net, I was done for. And then I fell in love with you when you picked a hair out of my spaghetti and took it to Shirley McHurley, the lunch lady from hell.”
Even though she’s crying, she manages a laugh. “That woman’s waffle. I mean awful.”
“Yeah, she was terrible. But she gave me one of my favorite memories, so she’s not so bad.” I swipe my thumbs underneath Zoe’s lashes, wiping away her tears.
She leans into my touch and I fall deeper in love with my brown-eyed girl. For the first time, the same amount of love looks back at me—it’s indescribable.
Her tongue darts out to lick her lips like she can tell I’m thinking about kissing her. She’s right, that’s all I want to do, every day for the rest of my life.
“Wait,” she says when I lean in to taste her. “If you kiss me, Dylan, that means we’re together. Is that what you want?”
I love the way she lays it on the line. She’s always held all the power, and she’s finally using it. “Being friends isn’t enough, Zoe. I want more.”
“You do?”
“Yes. We’re doing this.”
Another sweet smile appears. “So, you’re my boyfriend?”
“You’re my girl, baby.”
She blushes, but this time it’s not the alcohol’s fault, it’s mine. “Still gets me horny when you say that.”
“I’ll have to say it more often.”
I lean in for a kiss, but she swats me away. She pauses for a few seconds, trying to catch her breath. I’m worried she’s already changed her mind, but she lurches for the trash can and hurls.
She heaves her guts out, crying through all of it. I rub her back until she’s pale and exhausted.
“Dylan,” she whispers with a shaky breath. Her body’s still trembling. “Don’t remember this part. It’s gross.”
“Even with your head in the trash can, you’re still my girl. Just promise me you won’t forget this by morning.”
I don’t know what I’ll do if she wakes up with no memory of this conversation. We’re finally together and I could lose it all when the sun comes up.
“I won’t forget,” she promises. “I’m scared, but I love you.”
I lay her in the bed and pull the blankets over her. She’s asleep in seconds, still looking way too pale. I’m worried she’ll be sick again, so I climb in beside her, brushing a few hairs away from her face. “Don’t be scared, Zo. I’ve got you.”