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Seb takes it and gets to his feet, walks slowly over to where I’m standing. He leans in for a kiss, which is way more intimate than the kind of kiss I’m usually comfortable with in front of an audience. A few people whistle and catcall and Seb smiles against my lips, eventually pulling back and looking at me through tired eyes. “You doing okay?”
I study his face for a few seconds. “I’m worried about you.”
He steps back. “What? Why?”
“Because you seem really out of it.”
“I’m fucking wiped, baby. That’s all.”
“Okay… Are you sure that’s it, though?”
He leans in for another kiss. Then another one. “Positive.” He takes a swig of the drink in his hand, then scowls down at the contents of the cup. “Fucking Xave and his old man drinks,” he mumbles. “I’m going to get a beverage that isn’t some old person pre-dinner drink shit.” He cocks an eyebrow. “You want anything?”
“Uh, a Coke would be good.”
“Coming right up,” he winks. Then tips the remainder of his drink onto Xave’s head as he passes him on the way to the bar. “That shit is foul, man.”
Xavier swipes a hand through his hair and just chuckles. Like someone pouring liquor in his hair is just a mild annoyance. The guy is so laid back, it’s kind of funny that he’s best friends with Sebastian—usually the most hyper guy in the room.
Except for tonight. Tonight, he’s not acting like himself at all.
Fifteen minutes later, Seb’s still not back with my drink. I crane my head and peer over at the bar, but he’s definitely not there. I scan the room, and still don’t see him, so I get up and start walking around, and eventually spot him toward the other end of the room by one of the pool tables. He’s standing with Scarlett and two guys who were total assholes to me just three days ago. Who’ve treated me like crap for years. And when Seb found out about it, he was furious. Even more livid when he heard some of the things they said to me. So livid I had to make him promise not to start anything with them when he witnessed their degradation in action.
And now he’s hanging out with them, all buddy-buddy and laughing and catching up like they’re best pals or something. And I mean, I didn’t want him to start a fight with them, but I also didn’t expect him to be acting likethiswith them. As if nothing happened at all.
I don’t think it’s weird that I’m hurt by this, is it? And honestly kind of shocked. That he’s choosing to hang out with a couple of guys who he knows have been really mean to me. Who he’switnessedbeing mean to me.
There’s a heavy weight crushing my chest from the inside out, and I try to swallow the familiar feelings pushing toward the surface. Because I don’t want to accept that Sebastian is the one who roused them.
“Caro!” Seb calls when he spots me a few feet away. “Come hang out with us!”
I let my eyes skim over the guys standing across from him; swallow… lock eyes with my boyfriend. At the look of confusion on his face, I just shake my head, turn, and head back toward the bar.
Because yeah, he also never got me the drink he said was going off to grab.
“Caroline!” he calls again.
And I just ignore him.
He doesn’t come after me or seek me out to find out why I was clearly just pissed off at him. He doesn’t even do his usual check-in, that has become our thing at parties and hangouts with larger groups of people. And when I turn back a while later, he’s not there anymore.
I glance around… do another walk through the room, stopping to talk to a few people. And when I still can’t find him, I start asking around if anyone’s seen him. But no one seems to know where he is. And when I ask Lisa, who’s standing by one of the pool tables with a group of girls I mostly don’t know, she gets this weird look on her face. The girls all glance at each other in this awkward way. And my stomach gets that uneasy feeling again, because I can tell there’s some kind of silent communication being exchanged between them.
I know something is up.
“Did any of you see him, like in the past fifteen minutes or so?” I ask again, glancing between them, because technically no one answered me yet. I can tell Lisa doesn’t want to say anything, even though she obviously knows something.
One of the other girls finally speaks up. “Uh, honey… I don’t think you want to know where your ‘boyfriend’ is right now.”
“Shut up, Tania,” Lisa says, and gives me this worried but also apologetic-looking half-smile.
“What? Why? Where is he?” I ask. Because I need to know. Something feels really, really wrong.
“Your boyfriend went off to one of the guest rooms with Scarlett Thiels, Fish Girl,” Victoria from science class says. She wasn’t even part of their conversation, but obviously overheard us as she was walking.
“What?” My heart feels like it stutters for a couple of beats before starting up again.
“You’re a bitch, Victoria,” Lisa says. “Shut the hell up.”
