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I was sure on the outside it looked like it was just beginning, and it might if Wells continued to say stupid fucking things to me.
He posted his hands on his hips, the two of us more than at fucking odds lately. He didn’t like having to look out for Aspen. He didn’t like that I asked, and he certainly didn’t like the fact that I was looking out myself by spending more time with her. Dorian, Wolf, and Bru were indifferent. I’d gotten Bru caught up on everything and gotten him in on the Aspen shifts. He was cool and had been more than ready to help. He was the nice one out of all of us.
There was blood on Wells’s Pembroke Football shirt. He spat blood. “You know what the issue is. It’s one thing to look out for her, but the amount of time you’re spending with her is not fucking good for you.”
Yeah, Snowflake wasn’t good for me. She was terrible, and he was an idiot on top of being an asshole if he actually fucking believed that. I shook my head. “Yeah, she’s really fucking terrible.”
“Isn’t she, though?”
I refused to believe my friend was this much of a dumbass, and I hated this shit. I hated that this shit was putting me at odds with him so much. This guy wasn’t just my friend. He was my brother in every sense of the word.
And I felt like I was losing him because of all this.
This Aspen thing was putting a wedge between Wells and me that I didn’t like, but I was standing my ground on this. I put my finger in his chest. “Yeah, she’s really fucking dangerous. So dangerous in fact that I’m not getting fucking drunk off my ass these days and higher than shit.” Or had he failed to notice I hadn’t been at the raves lately? I hadn’t. I hadn’t had the urge in days, weeks. My jaw clenched. “I’m not even fucking partying anymore. Yeah, Aspen Davis is so fucking terrible for me.”
Wells’s mouth parted, his dark eyebrows narrowed, and I wasn’t surprised. I think I too was realizing in that moment that I hadn’t been doing those things. I really hadn’t had the urge. Zero urge in fact.
Blinking, I shifted away. Wells called after me, but I ignored him. I needed to find Snowflake.
I needed to apologize for my dumb-as-shit friend.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-ONE
Thatcher
I attempted to get in touch with Aspen over the next few days, but she really wasn’t having it. She avoided all contact, including me showing up to her door to take her to class. I stayed outside knocking until just about making me late for my own classes.
Fucking Wells.
My buddy had fucked up whatever this was I had with Aspen. I didn’t know what it was, but I didn’t hate it. I liked walking her to class. I liked just hanging out, which was fucking crazy. I didn’t hang out with girls. Especially when I was attracted to them.
I texted Aspen too when I realized she was going to class without me. She responded to those, but they were one- or two-word answers. They were clearly a brush-off, and she was ghosting me.
I was the one who usually did the ghosting, so I definitely wasn’t used to that shit. Being ignored didn’t sit well, and since I wasn’t used to it, I nearly got desperate and dropped in on one of her classes. I knew where she was at pretty much every moment of the day, but that felt like I’d be laying things on too strong.
Especially considering our history.
I hadn’t respected Aspen’s boundaries back when we first came into each other’s lives, and though that situation was completely fucking different, I knew I had to play this another angle. Friends didn’t stalk friends.
Even if I wanted to.
I saw her sometimes even though she avoided the quad and the student union. I mean, Pembroke was a decent-size campus, but I would see her from time to time walking to her next class with Phil behind her. I’d always want to approach her, but she tended to have a fan club constantly following her.
I wanted her alone.
An opportunity came to do that when one of my frat’s annual charity events rolled around. I didn’t live at my frat but was an active participant. Many of the guys who were in it came from my hometown and the club we were all a part of there. It was called the Court, which was where the gorilla ring I had came from. Dorian, Wolf, Wells, Bru, and even Sloane and my sister were a part of the Court, but hardly anyone had been active since high school ended. My sister and I had been more involved, but only I had gotten into the Greek-life thing. That was more to connect me with my father since my frat was the one he’d been in when he was in school.
My dad wasn’t terribly involved in fraternity events these days. Not like he had been in the past. He was working a lot and stuff, and though my gram wasn’t actively sick, he didn’t like being tied up too much away from home.
I got that, understood that, but I had looked forward to the days where we could both be involved in the fraternity. Obviously, sometimes things changed.
I held the invitation to my frat’s charity event in my room one day, my phone in hand. We sold tickets to this thing, and all my friends were going. Frat brothers got comped for their tickets, though, and it included a date.
I wanted to invite Aspen.
I wasn’t dating this girl, but we were friends, and it’d be nice to have a date that wouldn’t be all over my jock all night. I tended to work the charity event since I was involved and wanted my hands and attention free.
