Page 21 of Coastal Runaway

Nolan

She got attached and you know how I feel about that.

I stared down at my phone as I left my last class of the day. It was Friday and I had successfully survived my first week of classes. One day Nolan was going to have to face the reason why he was allergic to commitment, but I knew today was not that day. I considered his offer for a few minutes before texting back.

Okay, fine, but only because classes have barely started and there’s no work yet.

Don’t make me regret this.

Nolan

You’re most likely going to regret this.

I totally regretted this.

Nolan scouted out a few options for us tonight and landed on a house party being thrown by one of his teammates in West Hollywood. We pulled up in an Uber to a house that was bursting out the front door with people. Nolan introduced me to some friends and we decided to congregate at the beer pong table in the backyard.

“Next up, Team Brews Brothers against Team Beerleaders!” Shouted the guy who I thought was named Jay. He lived here and had been running the beer pong tournament with an iron fist.

Nolan and I, Team Brews Brothers, walked to our end of the table waiting to see who we were about to dominate in this game. Little did everyone here know, Nolan and I were undefeated.

We planned to keep it that way.

Nolan smirked at me and nodded his head towards the backdoor of the house where I saw the ice queen herself walking up to the table with the brunette girl that I remembered sitting next to Keegan when I first arrived at the Malibu house.

The crowd seemed to part as Keegan walked in with confidence, like no one would dare step in her way.

“We got this in the bag,” Nolan said confidently as he gestured to the girls.

While Nolan and I ran every pong table that we played on in high school, Keegan usually gave up after one game because she was so bad. That girl was competitive; she didn’t like playing games that she wasn’t the best at.

Keegan’s friend whispered something in her ear that made Keegan glance at me quickly before looking back at her friend with a scowl. The two of them very confidently walked to the opposite side of the table and placed their hands on their hips, clearly not messing around.

“Ladies first,” Nolan said as he bowed and gestured his arm towards the table, “do you girls need a handicap? What do you say, Mags? Two cups?” Nolan winked, twirling the two ping pong balls between his fingers before rolling them across the table.

Keegan’s friend gave him a flirty smile, “It’s probably only fair since we really don’t play this game a lot.” She fluttered her eyelashes towards Nolan before she added, “but also we like to play fair, and don’t want any special treatment just because we’re two inexperienced girls.” Then she sent the first ball sailing through the air; it landed with an audible plop in the front cup.

Nolan’s face dropped and Maggie gave him a devious smirk. Keegan burst into a fit of giggles before turning towards the cups, focused on the game. She immediately sank her ball, turning to Maggie and raising her hand up for a high-five. The few spectators that started to gather when Keegan walked up to the table cheered for the girls. Loudly.

We sent both balls back to them as Nolan mumbled, “beginners luck.”

Maggie and Keegan managed to get the balls back again before missing their shots on their third turn, which left Nolan and I behind by four cups in just the first round.

“I thought Keegan sucked at this game,” I whispered to Nolan who looked concerned.

“So did I,” he said, glancing at his sister, “she’s refused to play every time I’ve asked.”

“Well, clearly she's been practicing,” I said before sinking a ball in our first cup of the game. I shot Keegan a wink which made her roll her eyes.

This was going to be fun.

The game continued until we were down to one cup on each side of the table. The girls were giving us a run for our money and they were openly enjoying it. I was playing well but I also had to work hard not to be distracted by the girl across the table.

She was wearing a cropped, long sleeve, black top that went straight across her chest. It was so low cut that you could see the black lace cups of her bra, showing off glorious cleavage. It made my mind go wild as I remembered what’s hidden underneath. She paired it with black jeans that were practically painted on and black thigh-high boots that made my mouth water.

I couldn’t help but picture her in my bed—wearing those boots, and nothing else.

I glanced up to see Keegan looking back at me. She definitely caught me checking her out but didn’t shrink away from it. Instead, she held her head high as if to say “you can look, but you can’t touch.”