Distraction (21 page)

When I got out of the shower, I wrapped a towel around my
waist and fell on my bed, thinking. Maybe I could clue Bret in. He'd be on my
side and help keep Green away, right? No, I'd only look like a pussy. Shit, and
Kellie would be there, too.

My phone rang, dragging me from my current list of problems.
Getting up, I grabbed it off the dresser. I didn't recognize the number, but
answered anyway. "Hello."

"Tristan, hi." The female caller paused. "It's
me, Heather."

"Hey, Heather. What's up?" I never thought she'd
actually call.

"Oh nothing. I just wanted to say hi." She didn't
sound right.

"You sure you're okay, kid?" I waited, worried.

She laughed, all breathy like. "Hey, remember when we used
to play hide and seek when we were kids?"

I walked back to my bed and sat down. "Yeah, sure. Fun
times."

She sighed into the phone. "I thought I was the best
hider. You and Elle would walk around calling out my name, usually close to
where I'd be hiding."

"Yeah. We did." I thought back to us playing. Elle
and I always knew where she hid but pretended not to.

"Even back then Elle never stopped looking until she
found me."

I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Heather, she'll never
stop looking for you. She loves you." I didn't know what to say, but the
more she talked, the more I worried about her state of mind.

"Yeah, I know. I've got to go. Don't tell her I called.
Um, I'll call you later."

"Wait," I said, but she'd hung up. I thought about
calling the number back, but figured I'd only push her away. I saved the number
and wasted no time making another call.

“Hello?" Mrs. Richards’s frail voice irritated me.

“Hey, it’s Tristan." I had to bite the inside of my
cheek to keep from yelling. Dealing with Heather, knowing she was fucked up and
I couldn’t do a goddamn thing about it, had anger just waiting to find the
right target. Unfortunately, Elle would probably never forgive me if that
target ended up being her mom.

“Did you find her? Is she all right?"

I knew which daughter she worried about without having to
ask. “She–yeah, she’s fine." What I really wanted to tell her was no, the
girl is fucked and needs some tough love, but I refrained.

“Oh, thank God." Her relief traveled through the phone
line, pissing me off more. She actually believed everything was okay… damn, I
wish she’d let me borrow her rose-colored glasses.

“She doesn’t want me to tell Elle. I… I think I should tell
her."

“No! Don’t do that. Elle has enough to worry about. Please,
as long as Heather’s fine, we don’t want to worry anyone needlessly."

Ah…what? Whatever. Crazy-ass family. The only sane one
happened to be the one I loved, who, by the way, didn’t want much to do with me
right now. “Fine, sure. But if Heather gets worse–"

“We’ll deal with that if it happens."

After I hung up with Elle's mom, I dressed, grabbed my car
keys, and drove to the frat house. I parked my car a bit down the street to
keep her safe from drunken idiots. There weren't too many cars parked, but I'd
gotten there early.

When I walked in, the house was strangely quiet. I headed to
the kitchen. Freshmen were responsible for keeping the fridge and ice chests
stocked, music playing, and shots full. I needed a drink, and in the kitchen
found some freshmen stocking the fridge, but no shots poured. Rookies needed to
get their shit together.

"Boys, let me show you how it's
done.
" Kirk, a
freshman on the team tossed me a bottle of tequila. "
Nice choice,
" I said,
hunting around in the cabinets for the plastic shot glasses.

"Here," another dude said, handing them to me.

"Thanks. You guys go grab some ice chests and fill ‘em
up with ice and beer."

"On it," they said in unison.

Fifteen minutes later, I heard laughter in the living room,
and then Jarred walked in.

"Damn, you planning to get fucked up tonight?"

I looked at the three rows of top-full tequila shots. "I
know some are."

"I knew you
'
d fit in," he said, and a few more guys from the team
joined us.

"Hell yeah. Daniels, you know how to party," James
said, picking up a shot.

"Let
'
s get this party started." Jarred grabbed his shot. Of
course I had no choice but to join.

"All right, here
'
s to getting laid," I said,
raising my shot in the air. We clanked our plastic cups, sloshing precious
liquid down the sides, and then tossed ‘em back. The burn hurt, but in a good
way.

"We need some music. What the hell are the freshmen
doing?" About then, the speakers came to life.

"Now that
'
s what I
'
m talking about," James said, bobbing his head off beat.

"Dude, if you want to get laid, don
't dance.
" I paused.
"At least get her drunk so she doesn
'
t care that you can
'
t move to a
beat."

"Screw you. I
'
ve got skills,
" he said
still bobbing his stupid-ass head.

"Whatever you say, man." Jarred and I laughed.

"Don
'
t forget we have a game tomorrow. Keep the drinking under
control," Jarred said.

"
Will do,
" James replied, but when Jarred left the kitchen he
picked up another shot and downed it. I laughed and headed out to join the
crowd in the living room.

An hour later the entire house had people dancing and
drinking. When seven rolled around, I kept an eye out for Kellie. The music
tempo slowed and people started complaining. I walked over to change the set to
something with more of a beat when Bridget walked up. She had a killer body,
and her tits looked ready to pop out of the short, tight dress she had on.
Damn.

"Hey, cutie. Missed you in class."

"Yeah, I wasn
'
t feeling it today." I smiled,
knowing she
'
d give me any notes I needed. "Other than missing out by
seeing you, I
'
m sure it was boring."

She licked her lips, and then smiled. "You always know
what to say." She moved closer. "You didn
'
t miss much, but
we do have a paper due next week." She trailed her finger down my arm,
still smiling. "I
'
d be willing to help you go over the details."

"As tempting as your offers always are," I winked,
"I
'
ll have to turn you down." She frowned, but I knew she
wouldn
'
t give up.

"See ya tomorrow on the field." Bridget waved,
leaving me alone with the music. After I changed the slow crap to some upbeat
dance tunes, I took out my phone thinking maybe Kellie had called, but I didn
'
t have a missed
call. I decided to call her and headed to a quieter area. On my way, off in a
corner, I found her talking to Robbie. Go figure. I walked over and interrupted
their conversation.

"I didn
'
t know you were here already?"

"Baby, I just got here. The party is great. Everyone is
here." She stayed beside Robbie. He grinned back at me.

"I
'
ll see you around, Kellie," the dick said.

"Great, thanks for talking to me." She smiled,
dimples and all. She had on a tight dress, one she usually wore for one reason.
But I didn
'
t think it was me she wanted taking her out of it later.

"You want something to drink?" When she turned back
to me, her smiled faded.

"Sure, a beer or whatever."

"I
'
ll be right back." On my way to get Kellie
'
s drink, the
front door opened. Bret and Alyssa walked in with Elle and Green following behind.
I couldn't move. Green whispered something to Elle, and she looked up, smiling.
She had on an orange and white dress making her naturally tan skin seem darker.
I followed the length of her legs down to the high heels she had on. Damn she
looked sexy. Someone called out my name, but I didn
'
t turn right
away.

"Daniels," Jarred said, closer now. I turned.

"Yeah?"

"We need to make another beer run, you okay to drive?"
I
'
d only had the
one shot from earlier, so I nodded in reply. Not liking the way Elle smiled at
Green, I decided to ask if she wanted to drive me. I walked over and smiled.

"Hey, Spud."

"Hey."

Green eyed me carefully and Alyssa cocked her brow, waiting
for me to say more.

"I need to make a beer run. You think you can drive me.
I
'
ve had a few shots
already." She
'
d never know the difference.

"Um, why don
'
t you have Bret drive you? He hasn
'
t had anything
to drink yet." Not the answer I hoped for.

Bret joined in. "Yeah, let
'
s hurry.
"

"
Cool.
" I headed to the front door pretending not to be
annoyed when Alyssa smiled like the devil at me.

"Dude, you wasted already?"

I took out my car keys. "
Nah, I just
–" Fuck.
"Yeah, I guess I am." Bret laughed and instead of my car, I followed
him to his and got in.

"How
are things
going with Alyssa?"

Bret roared his car to life and blasted down the street.
"Good for now." He turned a corner fast and I buckled my seatbelt.

"
I don'
t want to die, dickhead."

He laughed, again. “Pussy."

When we pulled up to the liquor store I ran in, bought two
cases of beer, and headed back out. Bret pulled out of the parking lot
squealing his tires like a dumb ass. My phone buzzed and I pulled it out to see
who texted me.

Thanks for telling me you were leaving. It doesn
'
t matter, I
'
m out.

"Shit," I said, just then remembering Kellie.

"Problems in paradise?"

I glared at Bret. "I was supposed to be getting Kellie a
drink. I forgot."

"Nice," he said, parking not far from the frat
house. The fucker didn
'
t help carry the two cases of beer in and just about ran into
the house. Right now, I hoped Alyssa would drop kick his stupid ass to the
curb.

Where the fuck did all these people come from? We
'
d only been gone
ten minutes tops. I could barely get to the kitchen with the beer. I sat the
beer on the floor and texted Kellie. She didn
'
t reply. Fuck
it. Probably best to leave it alone, anyway.

"I heard Kellie left," Elle said. I stood up from
the ice chest I filled full of beer.

"Yeah. I kind of forgot she asked me to get her a drink
and left without telling her."

Elle folded her arms over her chest. "You guys okay?"

I thought about telling her the truth, but reneged.

"Yeah, sure." I cleared my throat. "What about
you and Green?" She shifted from one foot to the other. Did she really
like this guy?

"Yeah, he
'
s really sweet. I like him."

Fucking perfect.

"I
'
m glad, but if he fucks up, I
'
ll make sure he
knows it." I grinned. I couldn't help it.

"
Thanks.
" Elle laughed, and the sound prickled over my skin like
a cool breeze on a hot day. Shit, I missed her.

"You want something to drink?"

She shook her head. "Nah, I
'
m driving us
later." I felt a little better knowing he wouldn
'
t be able to
take advantage of her. "I better get back out there. Good luck tomorrow."

"
Thanks.
" I watched the swing of her hips when she walked out,
the bottom of her dress rose, showing her perfect, trim legs. I closed my eyes,
gripping the counter instead of finding something to hit. The breathing shit
didn
'
t help. I needed a shot, something strong. There were a few
filled glasses left in front of me. I picked up one, slammed the shot back, and
promptly repeated the process.