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Do I even have a right to feel like I lost her? Am I allowed to be upset with her actions? Her ability to shake me off so easily angers me honestly. We have so much history. And now that history seems to be…history.
Even if we are able to get back to the point where we tell each other everything and we are able to move on from whatever happened between us, I’m way out of my league because Hollis is too fucking pretty for her own damn good.
Always has been, really.
But I can tell she is not who I left behind, she’s bolder and more confident and has truly stepped out of her own comfort zone. I don't know how anyone will ever compare to her.
“Fuck, shake out of it,” I tell myself as I take the last swig of my beer. I didn’t expect that seeing her again for the first time would be this fucking hard.
My phone buzzes on the kitchen table so I get up to discard my beer bottle and grab my phone.
It's a text from Mason.
Hey, wanna hit Willows?
I look at the clock and see that it's nearing five. I am getting hungry, and maybe a change in scenery will help take my mind off things.
Yeah, meet you there in about an hour.
I head to my room to hit the shower before taking off to meet the guys.
"So, what's new?" Cody asks as I get myself situated at the high-top table.
Willows is an older brick building with an updated interior. The bar section is somewhat separated from the dining section. T.V's are mounted to every wall surrounding us so it's impossible to miss a thing if you wanted to watch your favorite team play.
“Nothing new, just tryna live the dream,” I answer Cody sarcastically.
Nothing seems to have really changed around here since I left. All the guys still hangout with each other. Mason, Cody, Josef, Talon, and myself–well, until I left. The group of us used to hang out at the smoker’s pit in our senior year when we would ditch Miss B’s English class. Man, was that woman insufferable. We’re only missing Talon’s twin brother, TJ, who is some big shot lawyer in New York now. We were too cool for him anyways.
But as I watch everyone settle into their seats, it brings a thought forward that invades my brain like an infestation. Why can the guys act like I never left but Hollis has to treat me like I’m the gum stuck on the bottom of her shoe?
Cody and Mason start talking about work—they work in a mechanic shop near my mom’s—and Josef turns to me to ask about Colorado while Talon seems distracted trying to get a waitress’s attention.
A few minutes pass by when Talon slaps his hand against my upper arms and gasps.
“What do you think about that?” I turn to look—we all do—at who he’s talking about, and I don’t have to see more than the blue stripe of hair to know that it’s Hollis.
“Dude she’s gotten so fucking hot,” Josef states and I try my hardest not to get caught as I squeeze my fist under the table. That comment would have pissed me off just the same back then as it does now. These guys know that Hollis and I were tight growing up. None of them would have thought twice to make a comment like that, so what the fuck changed to make them think they can talk like that now?
But I can tell that Mason and Cody know better, as they’re looking at me with uneasy eyes and Cody dips his head a little. Besides, I remember that Mason and Cody are both married off.
Despite the apprehension swimming in their eyes, Josef and Talon proceed to speak their minds about what they think about Hollis and I don’t give them a pass because they’re single.
“Too bad she’s all team Liam now.”
“She’s been unattainable even before she got with him.”
“I wonder what makes him so special.”
They don’t even pick up their jaws after making the comments. And I feel like the dam is about to burst.
I slam my fist into the table, realizing it comes down harder than I wanted and they all spin their heads in my direction.
“Dude, you good?” Josef asks and I simply nod, trying not to look too angry.
“Don’t talk about her like that,” I say through lightly gritted teeth. “Please,” I add on to try and lighten the mood. But I didn’t soil the mood, they did when they decided to talk about Hollis like she was some piece of meat.
I look back over to where Hollis is standing while the guys go back into small talk. She must feel my eyes on her because she searches the room for a beat until they land on me.
