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She’s standing by herself, holding onto an empty red cup and leaning against a kitchen counter loaded with dirty dishes. I wonder what she’s hiding from. Is it me? I’m going to say something to her, even if it starts an argument.
“You showed up with the whole dorm,” I state moronically.
She frowns a little. “You smell like you’ve been here partying for hours.”
“You still doing what you did before?” I whisper.
Her frown deepens. “It’s none of your business, Asher.”
“I’m not causing trouble, but you ought to be careful in the dorms.”
“Are you seriously going to give me advice on how to stay safe?” She turns an evil eye on me. “Hey, did you send me a—” She stops talking when Hudson appears beside us.
His eyes are shining as if he’s been doing more than beer and weed. Chuckling on Charlotte’s other side, he slouches against the counter. “I’m still trying to figure you out,” he says to her.
Scowling, she folds her arms over her chest and won’t look at him. “We had our icebreaker.”
He ignores the apparent brushoff. “Did you graduate from Stonehaven?”
WTF is it with Stonehaven again? A dog would’ve given up on that bone by now. But Hudson keeps digging into the past.
“If I wanted to talk about high school,” Charlotte says coolly, “I would’ve stayed there.”
Hudson shoots me a dirty look when I snort back a laugh.
“She’s right,” I tell him, “You could have gone local if you wanted to reminisce about kindergarten.”
“Hey, I’m just making conversation.” He glares at me, suddenly sober.
“Well, it’s fucking boring,” I tell him, “Nobody wants to talk about high school unless you’re in it.”
Jake walks into the kitchen and completely dodges the bad energy hanging in the room. Mr. Smiles-a-Lot taps Hudson on the shoulder, and they go the fuck away. I sigh with relief, and Charlotte eyes me with interest. She doesn’t look annoyed or scared, just curious. And then she grins a tiny bit. I’ve seen her do that before.
“You mind me standing with you?” I ask her.
In front of the kitchen door, she watches some drunken girl flirting with a horny guy before they disappear. “No. We can hang tonight, but never again. I haven’t forgotten anything.”
“I haven’t forgotten either,” I mumble.
“Like I did anything to you.”
“You did more than you think.” I’ll never forget the way you kiss. I pull the red cup out of her hand and toss it onto the pile in the sink. “You didn’t want that,” I tell her.
Jaxon enters the kitchen with a cup in one hand and a girl wrapped in his other arm. She’s not wearing a pastel sweatshirt. The upperclassman babe is in a tank top with spaghetti straps about to break from the strain. Jaxon’s hand is draped sketchily, so he can claim it’s accidental if he gropes her. But the giggling girl doesn’t mind his fingers grazing over her hard nipples.
He looks at Charlotte but points at me. “Do you remember him from Rockingham?” Swaying, he laughs. “Hudson thinks your friend is full of shit and never lived there.”
I look away, and my skin crawls like a bucket of ants has been poured down my back. Well, it’s better to get called out now than later. I guess this is what it feels like to be at someone else’s mercy.
“Yeah, I remember him,” replies Charlotte. “Asher knows my sister, who lives in Alva Park.” Charlotte sucks her teeth. “I don’t remember Hudson. Besides, is it even possible to know everyone within a five-mile radius of your house?”
Jaxon shrugs his shoulders, losing interest in the conversation fast. The girl nuzzles up to him, pressing her tits into his side, and he nuzzles her back. She laughs before yanking him toward the back door and out of the house.
I run my hand over my warm forehead. “Thanks, Charlotte.”
“For what?” she asks.
“For not calling me out.”
