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The cheerful chatter around us made my shirt itchy all over, and someone let out a bubbly laugh behind me, while I wanted to roar.
My jaw tightened until my teeth ached, and the restraint I clung to hairline fractured as he turned, eyes widening, before they narrowed on me.
He straightened up, almost level with me, and the curl to his lip disgusted me to my core.
“You ruined everything,” he snarled, voice low enough it wouldn’t carry.
My glacial smile dampened some of his rage.
I ordered myself a whiskey and gave him a calculated once-over, molars grinding, ice clinking against crystal, before a grounding sip settled my pulse a little.
“I ruined everything?” My tone could’ve frozen continents.
“She’s my friend! You could’ve stuck your dick into literally anyone, why her?”
I flinched as if he’d hit me.
“First of all, was your friend. If you think she still is, after that crap…”
I shook my head and gave him a look dripping pity.
“She forgave you, didn’t she?”
His skin stretched taut over his temples where a vein throbbed and popped, but it was the venom in the word that made me want to punch him. I shoved my shaking hand in my pocket to quash the impulse and took another gulp.
“Second of all,” I went on as if he hadn’t interrupted, though inside, my blood raged, “it’s none of your business what’s going on between us.”
I set my glass down with a quiet clink, so at odds with how I wanted to slam it down.
“None of my business, my ass,” he nearly screamed, then winced as heads turned.
I gave the onlookers a cold smile of dismissal, but I knew this would spread like wildfire regardless.
“Why her, man? Why do you gotta take everything?”
His voice splintered. For a second, a flicker of hurt passed over his face, before the snarl snapped back on.
I waited, jaw tight, spine stiff, my entire frame aching with restraint as I shoved my other hand in my pocket.
“Do you have any idea what it feels like to live in your shadow? To watch as everything flocks to you, while I settle for scraps? You’re always a second earlier, while I…” His voice dipped, and my unease spiked, because that had never crossed my mind.
“She was my friend…” He swirled his glass, downed it, and set it down with a clatter, and I wondered if he even noticed he’d used past tense. “And you had to go and ruin it.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but he forestalled me.
“Oh, but you did. Or if you didn’t, you will. You always do,” he spat, venom clinging to every word and slicing my guts open. “You know that, I know that, your parents…”
He let the threat hang in the air, or maybe it was a warning. I couldn’t read him anymore. His eyes had dimmed, like he was somewhere else entirely. Someone else entirely.
“Leave my parents out of this,” I snarled, composure cracking as white-hot panic barrelled through me, before I shoved it down with all I had.
He shrugged, as if I’d missed the point.
I grabbed my glass again and downed it. It growled in my grip before I set it back down harder than I’d meant and shoved my fingers deep into my pockets.
“Here’s what’s gonna happen,” I said, tone deliberately calm.
I didn’t know how the hell I managed, when all I wanted was to pummel him into the ground as the image of her shaking with sobs splintered my chest again.
