Chapter Ten
Zoey
I stared at Gordon for a full ten minutes from across the room. He ruffled Hendrix’s fur in the kitchen, drinking his water with his eyes totally distant, like he wasn’t anywhere near the crowded, super loud party.
And you’re officially a creeper.
I pried my eyes off him, clenching the roll of quarters in my hand in an attempt to regain my nerve. Just because the guy smelled great, and we made a badass team at games, and he looked adorable petting Lennon’s dog didn’t mean he wasn’t a jerk.
Right.
But the game of would you rather…? had been fun. He’d been right. We’d answered so many questions the same, our thought processes so close it was almost scary.
Except I wasn’t scared.
Every time he’d explained the reason behind one of his answers, it had made me feel less alone…which was refreshing.
It definitely made plan A much harder to stomach, but it was too late to back down. Julie already had everyone there. There was nothing left to do besides take Gordon. But the timing had to be right. Besides, just because we’d answered some questions the same, and kicked ass at Cornhole, didn’t mean we were meant to be BFFs.
We were lifelong rivals. And despite how he was acting now, he’d crossed a line this morning. I had to forge ahead. He deserved to know what it felt like—to be hit by a bus you never saw coming.
Resolved, I headed over to him with an extra swish in my hips. “Hey, there,” I said, my voice pitching more than I’d like.
“Hey,” he said, standing from his crouched position. Hendrix bolted once he realized he’d lost Gordon’s attention. He opened his mouth a couple of times before any words came out. “I think I’m going to take off…” He jerked his thumb toward the front door.
“No!” I blurted. “I mean,” I said, trying desperately to recover. “We’re about to play another game.” I held up the roll of quarters. My heart thudded hard in my chest. If he left, my plan would be ruined. Two more hours. That’s all I needed. Then it would all be over. “They just finished up a round of Kings in the game room. Now it’s time for Quarters.” I grinned, hoping like hell he couldn’t see the cracks in my facade. Pretending like I wasn’t actively destroying him was way harder than I thought, and I’d aced advanced physics.
He licked a few stray drops of water off his lips, and chills raced across my skin. “You want me to play?”
“Of course,” I said and paired it with a shrug like it wasn’t a big deal. He cocked a brow at me, but an almost hopeful smile shaped his lips.
“All right,” he said, and I sighed. I swore at any moment he’d call me out for the fraud I was, but he continued to surprise me with his openness to go along with whatever I said. Probably a direct result of the guilt he felt—the same reasoning behind his apology. Totally for his benefit only, and he was clearly so confident about his meeting with my dad that he wasn’t worried at all about losing sleep. Too bad for him, but at least it was keeping him here, with me.
Because of the plan.
…right?
That’s the only reason I was happy about him extending his arm for me to show him the way.
I looped my hand through his and tugged him down the long hallway until we made it to the game room.
Todd and Jenny stashed the deck of cards they’d used for their game of Kings in the drawer of an end table in the corner of the room. Between some overtly too-public kisses, they gathered up shot glasses and three rows of longneck Corona’s on the main coffee table in the center of the room.
“Yes, the brains are here!” Jenny threw her arms in the air like she’d won a race. “You get them?” She eyed me.
“You know it,” I said, handing her the roll of quarters. We didn’t need nearly that many, but Blaise—Lennon’s second-in-command with Lennon missing—had handed me the bunch when I’d come asking for a few. He’d all but ignored my insisting that I didn’t need the entire roll, and he went back to setting up the rest of Lennon’s stage on the lake. I guess Lennon brought the hammer down more than that guy Braylen obsessed over in those comic book movies she loved.
“Perfect!” Todd jolted at Jenny’s shouts, but he laughed it off, gazing at her with puppy-eyes. That had happened fast.
Almost as fast as finding Gordon kiss-worthy?
I couldn’t argue with myself on that one, but at least I wasn’t the only one losing my mind tonight. Besides, Jenny and Todd weren’t in the same situation as Gordon and me…we were a fluke. And this was an act on my part. Gordon’s? Well, every action he made tonight was clearly motivated by the guilt of what he’d done this morning.
You don’t believe that.
Yes. Yes, I do.
“Do you know how to play?” Todd asked as we plopped on the floor around the table. I scooted close enough to Gordon for our thighs to touch. Not because I wanted to. But because another couple crowded the other side of the table. I hadn’t had a choice.
“I think so,” Gordon said, pushing some stray hair off his forehead. He eyed the shot glasses as Todd passed everyone at the table a quarter. “Basically, whoever’s turn it is has to hit the table with the quarter and hope it pops into the glass.”
“Right,” Todd said, situating himself next to Jenny now that the game was set up. “And if you make it, you get to pick someone to take a drink. Then you take another turn. Make it three times and you get to come up with a rule.”
Gordon nodded, and butterflies flapped in my stomach. I needed to win. Getting Gordon to drink a few more beers would only help my plan come full circle. Not that he wasn’t handling that part mostly on his own. I had rarely seen him at parties—we both had that in common—but I hadn’t even heard rumors of him being a drinker. I was surprised he was so on board with partying all night tonight, especially with the meeting tomorrow. Just what exactly was his reasoning? Because no matter what my father had insinuated, I knew Gordon would never flake out on a business deal. So, was he so pissed about losing the scholarship that he wanted to drink the night away? Or was there something more?
“Got it,” he said, drawing me back to the present.
I forced my eyes off him and watched Jenny fail miserably at her turn. Todd and the other boy missed. The girl won, and made her bae drink. I was up next.
I scooped up the quarter, holding it between my thumb and forefinger. Watching four people take their turns before me had given me an advantage. I’d studied them like any good student, and tracked what they’d done wrong. Instead of focusing on the rim of the shot glass—like each one had done—I honed in on the spot just an inch before it. A deep breath and a quick flick of my wrist, and the quarter bounced off the spot perfectly and tinked into the shot glass.
A round of claps and whoops circled through the room, and Gordon laughed. “Nice,” he said.
I tipped the glass upside down, retrieving my quarter. “You drink.” I pointed at Gordon.
His eyes popped, but he took a drink out of his freshly cracked Corona.
“Your turn again.” Todd urged me onward.
Another flick and another tink. “You again,” I said, smirking right back at Gordon.
He scrunched his eyebrows. “Are you trying to get me drunk?”
I swallowed hard. “Maybe.”
Something flashed behind his eyes—it was a draw between utter confusion and the acceptance of a challenge—and it made my stomach dip. I missed my next shot.
“Ah,” Gordon said, rolling his quarter over the back of his knuckles. “She’s human.”
I snapped my eyes to him. Before I could ask him exactly what the hell he meant, he popped his quarter perfectly into the glass. “You know it’s you.” He eyed me, and I drank a sip. He huffed at the tiny amount I swallowed but didn’t call me out on it.
Another turn and another clink of the glass. We had more in common than our academic goals—the boy had studied like I had. We were the same on so many levels and yet, we fought like crazy. How was that possible?
“You.” His brown eyes locked onto mine and I sipped my drink again, my heart racing as he didn’t break my gaze.
“Ugh,” Todd groaned. “At this rate only you two will be drunk.”
Gordon laughed, finally looking at someone else besides me. “Are you saying you’re not already lit?”
A slow, lazy smile spread over Todd’s face. “Nope.”
Gordon rolled his eyes and sank another quarter. He glanced at me but pointed at Todd. “Drink, buddy.”
“All right!” Todd gladly took a huge gulp. “What’s the rule?”
“Oh right,” he said, blinking a couple times.
“How about you make the girls lose an item of clothing any time they say the word drink?” Todd joked, and Jenny smacked him hard in his chest.
Gordon shook his head.
“What?” Todd snapped. “I was just joking!” He kissed Jenny’s neck until she burst out laughing.
“Help me out here,” Gordon whispered, his cheek brushing against mine as he spoke in my ear. “I’m blanking.”
The breath stalled in my lungs with how close he was, and how his soft words sent warm chills across my skin. The notion that he thought I was someone he could ask advice from both thrilled me and made my nerves twist. Or that could be because I could smell him again, which seemed to have a direct line to my crazy-button. Because only an insane girl would be wishing her enemy would keep whispering in her ear like that—he could recite the alphabet for all I cared, as long as he kept talking.
“Um,” I said, stumbling over my own words. New experience. Not exactly fun. My eyes darted over the faces in the room—completely oblivious to the battle raging inside me, the one that screamed to give in to what I was feeling for Gordon, and the other side reminding me how he’d slayed me this morning. I finally spotted the quarter on the table and remembered how to use my brain. “Any time someone says quarter, they have to drink.”
Gordon smiled and I felt it in my bones. “Thanks,” he said. “What she said.” He spoke a little louder as he sat up straight again, and I instantly craved the warmth of his nearness.
I’m in so much trouble.
I focused solely on the game and on the plan, but my body…my heart…wanted what I couldn’t have.