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“Oh my god, you know Nick?”
Leaning over, I take the bottle back. “Yeah, the three of us met during our freshman year, got tight, have stayed that way. Why, did you and he…” I trail off, not sure if I want to know the answer to my question. I always knew Nick had a girl named Elissa back home, and I’d always thought she was the someone who he’d left behind even though it had broken his heart. I’d also always thought that had made him a bit of a pussy to be honest, yet more proof of why relationships were a bad fucking idea. But it seems like he and Delaney know each other too, which means…
Delaney laughs, her head falling back a little. “No, shit, Alex. Nick and Elissa are like childhood fucking sweethearts. He never had eyes for anyone but her. Broke her heart when he left.”
“So he was always with Elissa, huh?”
“Yup,” she says with a nod. “Like since forever.”
“So how come she didn’t go with him to Colorado?”
Delaney shrugs. “I don’t know all the details, I mean they’re a couple of years older than me, but I do know Elissa’s mom got sick right before she was supposed to go, so she pretty much couldn’t.”
I feel a sharp pain in my chest at her words. “And Nick didn’t stay?”
She shakes her head. “Elissa wouldn’t let him. Was only supposed to be for a year while her mom got treatment. But by the time she was better, Nick had moved on. Had left college and was on the US team and was going to be traveling and shit.”
“So, they’re like, over?”
Delaney lets out a long breath before taking another sip. “Yeah, I guess. I mean it seems like it, although I don’t think Elissa wants them to be.” She holds out the bottle to me and I move to take it, my fingers brushing against hers as she looks up at me. “Do you think Nick does?”
The bottle hovers between us, both of us holding it, our eyes locked and I swear there’s way more to her question than Nick and Elissa’s relationship status. If I didn’t know better, and really, I don’t, I’d almost swear she was asking about us, about her and me.
But what were we anyway, other than two people who were amazingly good together, but who also couldn’t stop arguing either.
But almost as soon as I think that, I also know it’s not true. Because we were so much more than that. So fucking much more.
“I don’t know,” I say with a shrug as she lets go of the bottle and I lift it to my mouth. “I mean, I remember our freshman year and him being all sad and pathetic that his girl wasn’t there, but then he left. And I…I mean, I don’t know.”
I take a mouthful of bourbon, the liquid somehow going down easier now. Delaney watches me still, a look on her face that has me thinking all sorts of shit I should not be thinking. I take another big swig of liquor.
“Are you sad about the guy back in Vermont?”
I have no idea why I ask her this or why I even give a shit.
“Him?” she scoffs. “No way. The guy was a dick, I’m better off without him.”
Her words sting even though they aren’t directed at me. But they may as well be, because fuck, I really was a dick to her. I take another mouthful of bourbon before she waves her fingers, letting me know she wants some too.
“Guys are assholes,” I say, the words falling out before I have a chance to stop them, before I can even censor them.
She laughs. “Yeah, Alex, they really are.”
I watch as she takes a long gulp from the bottle, brushing the back of her hand across her mouth as she swallows.
“I’m an asshole.”
She looks over at me, her eyes widening a little as though she legit cannot believe I just said that before she blinks a couple of times and takes another swig. “You can be,” she says, handing me the bottle. “And then you can be the complete opposite too. The really sweet and funny and caring…” She trails off, as though she didn’t mean to say that much.
I take it from her, having another sip. “I know,” I exhale.
“Why?”
“Why what?”
She laughs. “Why are you like that?”
I have another mouthful before handing her the bottle. “I don’t know, Laney,” I say, flopping down onto the mattress so my head is lying in her lap. “Because I’m a guy?”
