Page 84 of Twisted Needs

By the time Aviva announces that she and Malloy are heading out, I’m tired, only slightly drunk, and rapidly losing patience with everyone involved. “Ready to go?” I ask Seth a little quietly so Vandy can get the hint. “We can head back to yours.”

“Wait. Hold on.” Vandy says it so fast that all three of us look at him. His eyes widen slightly, like he didn’t mean to answer out loud. “You two should come back to mine and post,” he says. “I’ve got literally every kind of liquor imaginable.” I stare. Vandy just keeps talking. “Seth, man. You know I live with Malloy and Rogers, right?”

“Dude,” Seth grins. “No way, man.”

“I’ll show you their awards.”

His grin widens. “Their awards?”

“Yeah. Their ROTYs and game pucks.”

The music thumps around us, but my patience has been stretched wire thin. Drunk Anders is gone. Cockblocked Anders takes over. “That’s your sales pitch?” I ask derisively.

“Well…” Vandy scratches the back of his neck. “They have this really nice display case downstairs…” I stare harder. That’s what he’s leading with. He thinks he can steal Seth away with a fucking display case?

Just like that, something clicks. Like puzzle pieces finally sliding into place. The dance floor. The bathroom. The way he’s been attached to my side all night. The fact that every time Seth and I ended up alone, Vandy somehow appeared out of thin air. My eyes narrow, and Vandy immediately notices. The guilty look on his face tells me everything I need to know. Oh my God. I start laughing. “No fucking way.”

“What?” he asks.

“You.”

“What about me?”

I point at his chest. “You’ve been following me all night like some little lost puppy.”

His expression doesn’t change, which somehow makes it worse. “Have I?”

I nod my head and throw my hands out. “Yes!”

He shakes his head. “No.”

“Van Deusen.”

His mouth pulls into a grin. “Okay, maybe a little.”

I bark out a laugh, then I point vaguely upward because Parker unfortunately exists somewhere beneath the same sky as the rest of us. “He fucking sent you.” I throw my head back laughing manically again. Back to where I fucking started. “That motherfucker.”

“What motherfucker?” Seth asks.

“No one.”

“Pretty sure it was a motherfucker.”

I wave him off. Vandy looks like he’s trying very hard not to say anything incriminating, which is basically an admission of guilt. Huffing, I scrub a hand over my face. “He actually sent a babysitter.” Vandy opens his mouth and closes it a second later, eyes narrowing, followed by a heavy sigh. I start laughing even harder. “That’s insane.”

“I don’t think it’s insane. No harm, no foul, right? Had a fun night…”

“You’re babysitting another grown man on your night off.”

He blows out a breath. “Allegedly.”

I nearly choke. “Allegedly?”

“Allegedly.” Vandy shrugs. “What, you didn’t have a fun time? I had to pretend to be nonchalant all night long because he said you liked that shit.”

He said I what?

“Oh my God.” At this point, I almost admire the commitment. Honestly, I would do the same if I was in his position. “Well, I think I’m gonna call it a night,” I finally say. “Since this is going nowhere.”