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“No, no, no, Nikolai. No. You already took my last drink, and I have to make up for lost time, remember?” Hannah shot him big, blue eyes as she cradled her solo cup protectively to her chest, referencing some conversation they must have had.
Nikolai stared her, but his hard expression softened incrementally. “Fuck, okay. Fine, but do not leave my sight.”
“Fine, fine,” Hannah waved at him in agreement then turned to me and raised her cup. “Cheers!”
I clinked her solo cup with mine and gulped down the burning liquid. “Oh my god, that’s terrible,” I screeched as I breathed in out as fast as possible to decrease the heat in my mouth. Suddenly, Jack thrust a red cup full of what looked like juice into my hand. I looked at it suspiciously.
Jack grinned, clearly getting a kick at my grimacing discomfort. “It’s just juice. You need a chaser.” I gulped the juice gratefully, eager to remove the taste of the alcohol. I looked over and saw Nikolai doing the same for Hannah. After swallowing the last of the sweet juice, I felt a warmth start to slide through my veins and heat the pit of my stomach.
“What was the deal with you and Cassidy?” Jack asked after taking the empty cup out of my hand and replacing it with another drink.
I looked at the contents of the cup skeptically. “What is this?”
Jack smirked. “It’s a hell of a lot better than anything Hannah would’ve made you. Drink it.”
I cautiously raised the cup to my lips and took a small sip. I was pleasantly surprised when all I could taste was orange juice mixed with…something. Something tasty. “Wow, this is really good.” I took a bigger sip, Jack’s dark green gaze following my tongue as it swept across my lips to catch stray droplets of the much better tasting drink. “What is in this?”
“Malibu and orange juice. You two are terrible at mixing drinks.”
I took another grateful sip and felt even more heat sink in to my stomach, although I wasn’t sure if it was from the alcohol or from Jack’s avid stare.
“So, Cassidy?” Jack prompted.
I sighed. “That was a misunderstanding, I guess. He invited me to the party, but I knew he invited a hundred other people, too, so I don’t know why he would think it was a date. He flirts with me all the time in school, but he never mentioned having a girlfriend. I’d never seen him with a girl in school. I would have shut him down completely if I had known, open relationship or not.”
Jack nodded. “Delia graduated last year, but goes to school in Chicago, so she’s usually around on weekends. Obviously, he was looking to take advantage of her absence. Douche move.”
“I wouldn’t think you’d have a problem with cheating,” I blurted, instantly blaming the alcohol for my sudden bluntness.
Jack stilled and cocked his head. “Why’s that?”
“Well, I may not have been in school long enough to learn about Mark Cassidy’s girlfriend, but I’ve certainly been around long enough to hear about your reputation. Not to mention that I see you at school paired off with various girls in one hallway or another all the time,” I continued in a drunken ramble.
Jack didn’t respond immediately. He simply stood and stared at me thoughtfully for a long enough moment that I lifted my cup and started gulping down my drink in order to break our intense eye contact. Had I offended him? Had everybody lied about his reputation? No, I’d seen him with different girls in our school, leaning against walls, and one time headed into a janitor’s closet.
I’d completely finished my drink before he answered. “Look, Ava, I’m not dating anyone. I can sleep with whoever I want.” I opened my mouth to, I don’t know, maybe apologize, but he distracted me by plucking the empty cup out of my hand. I stared at him as he turned to the counter and started making me another drink.
“If I dated someone seriously,” he continued while mixing, “I wouldn’t cheat on them. That’s a fucking pussy move. You want to fuck another girl, you don’t act like a fucking coward and sneak around. You man up and tell her before you move on.”
He finished my drink and handed a full cup of Malibu and orange juice back to me. I felt so stupid for having brought this whole thing up, for having possibly offended him, that I started gulping down my drink again.
“Whoa, Jesus, Ava, easy,” Jack said as he grabbed my cup and pulled it away from my mouth. My tongue again reached out to lick liquid off my lips, Jack’s eyes again following its path.
I cleared my throat. “I’m sorry for misjudging you. I just assumed...”
“I know, you assumed because I fuck around that I’d probably be cool with cheating, too. Right?”
I nodded my head. The intensity of his gaze had me stepping back slightly, but I was stopped by the counter at my back. Jack put his hands down on the counter on, bracketing me with his arms, and leaned in so closely, I could feel his breath on my mouth.
“Look, I don’t care what happens between Cassidy and his girlfriend. I don’t give a fuck if he cheats, but cheating is chicken shit. It means you don’t have the balls to just break up if you want to fuck someone else.”
I was getting perilously close to swooning right now. There was something indescribably hot about his intensity, his closeness, his maleness. I could smell the soap he’d used when he’d showered mixed with beer and his natural scent. Whatever anyone said about pheromones was true, because I felt more drunk from him than the drinks I’d consumed.
Jack started to lean in, close enough to see some flecks of cobalt towards the center of his mostly dark green eyes, and I felt his right hand move to my waist. I knew he was going to kiss me, and I had absolutely no desire to stop him. My eyes slid closed, and I licked my lips in anticipation.
“Ava!”
I jumped, nearly bumping my head against Jack’s mouth, and jerked my head to where Hannah stood in the doorway to the kitchen. I felt Jack’s sigh of frustration blow against my cheek.
