Loud: The Complete Series (A Bad Boy Alpha Male Romance) (40 page)

"I didn't
have sex with him!" I shouted.

"No, it's
worse. You cheated on me emotionally," Trent said. "I know how you
feel about him. For God's sake, Quinn, you should see your face when you talk
about him." Trent turned to John. "She has his magazine cover on her
desk. Total crush."

"So
what?" I asked. "He was there when I needed someone. While you were
here with John. And that's the end of it." I pushed Trent aside and opened
the door.

"Wait. Are
you breaking up with me?" Trent asked.

"Yes.
Goodbye. Good luck, John," I said and slammed the door behind me.

I was still
heaving angry breaths when the phone rang. "Darla?" I asked.

"Quinn, where
are you? Are you out of breath?" my roommate asked. "You can't
seriously be going to class right now."

"Now's not
the best time, Darla."

"Okay, fine.
It’s just I saw your stuff so I know you're on campus. I just wanted to make
sure you were heading to class. Do me a favor, okay? Before you head off to see
Trent will you come back? We need to chat," Darla said.

"Chat about
Trent?" I asked.

"Yes. Maybe
it’s no big deal but I don't want you to get blindsided by rumors," Darla
said.

"What
rumors?"

My roommate
hesitated and then plunged ahead. "I don't want to do this over the phone,
but I saw Trent at this big party."

"When he was
supposed to be with me at my sister's funeral," I said.

"God, yeah.
This is awful. Just come back here after class, okay?" Darla asked.

"Its fine,
just tell me," I said.

"Well, I was
at the party too, and I saw Trent there with someone," Darla said.
"He was with a guy and they were, ah, really getting to know each
other."

"Like go back
to his dorm room and have drunken sex?" I asked.

"Oh my
God," Darla said. "Did you already go over there? What
happened?"

I reached our dorm
room and once I was inside I dropped my phone. "What happened is I went to
Trent's and found him having sex with John."

Darla dropped her
phone too. "Quinn, I'm so sorry. What did you do?"

"I broke up
with him," I said. There were no tears in my eyes. I blinked and realized
how my hurt was mixing with relief.

"So, what do
you want to do now?" Darla asked.

"I'm heading
back home for a few days," I said.

The four-hour
drive was a blur. When I got home, my parents had not even remembered I had
left. So, I grabbed some snacks and headed to the basement before the tears
came.

CHAPTER
SIX

Quinn

I
had to dive into the chocolate ice cream first. Every television show, movie,
and girl's night had taught me that chocolate ice cream was the magical elixir
for broken hearts. And it was a good distraction from the other emotions I was
feeling.

I tried a few
bites, but the cold sweet slide of the ice cream did not lessen my hurt, the
future embarrassment, or the strange mix of relief and excitement my sudden
single state caused.

Next up was a
glass of red wine. It had been easy to boost from my parents' kitchen. A few
open bottles remained after the reception, so I took the fullest. I sipped down
a double pour while I thought about Trent.

His constant need
for attention was exhausting, so the idea of him wanting a girlfriend and a
lover made sense. I just could not fit myself into that equation. And how had I
not noticed his attraction to men? It just showed me that one major flaw in our
relationship was the amount that I was involved. Trent was fun and the rest had
not really mattered to me.

Still, it hurt.
The red wine was helping, but I decided against watching sad movies and bawling
my eyes out. What I really wanted to do was eviscerate something.

I turned on my
gaming consul and cued up
Dark Flag
.
Before long, I was running alongside the Black Fields.
One of the perks of my break-up
, I decided,
was that it did not matter if I hoped to see Owen in the game. Light
Slayer was single and so was I
.

My thoughts
skittered off nervously and so did my avatar.
Was Trent right? Had I been cheating on him emotionally with Owen?
I depended on Owen for good advice, a shoulder to cry on, and ways to cheer me
up. It seemed like my actual boyfriend had been more jealous of my crush on
Owen than I was over his suddenly-discovered relationship with John.

 
No,
I thought,
I was just out for revenge
.
Trent had hurt me and the very first thing I could think about was hurting him
right back. That seemed to go along with a break-up just as naturally as ice
cream. Just because Owen was the first person I thought about did not mean
anything out of the ordinary. Neither did the excited pace of my heartbeat as I
traversed the Black Fields where Light Slayer had last been seen.

Still, I was more
surprised by the appearance of Owen's avatar than I was by the sudden attack. A
Black Fields Boa, a nasty creature that was half person, half snake, appeared
and coiled a paralyzing grip around my sword hand. I struggled to master the
kick-boxing sequence of commands. Luckily, the other player was also a newbie,
so the Boa was still unable to undulate, and I sent a hard kick to his chest.

"Impressive,"
Light Slayer said.

I ignored the
soaring feeling and typed, "Thanks. Guess this proves hand-to-hand combat
heals a broken heart better than chocolate ice cream."

"Broken
heart?" Light Slayer asked.

I heard a few of
his clan members express their disappointment when our conversation moved to a
private chat.

"What
happened? Are you okay?" Owen asked over chat.

"You would
never believe me," I wrote back. "I broke up with Trent today."

"What did he
do?" Owen asked.

I smiled. Only
Owen would immediately assume that Trent had done something wrong. The
immediate proof that Owen was definitely on my side warmed my heart. "I
caught him having sex with another man."

There was a long
pause before Owen typed, "Screw hand-to-hand combat. You need a drink.
Come over."

A hurricane of
conflicting thoughts and emotions followed me up the stairs and into the car.
No matter what my brain said, my body took me straight over to Owen's
apartment.

He opened the door
brandishing a bottle of tequila. "Was that a typo or did you actually
catch your boyfriend having sex with a guy?"

It was hard not to
fall right into Owen's open arms. I had been on the verge of tears for hours,
but they just would not come. I knew if I felt the warm circle of his arms
around me, I would not be able to hold them back. It was very tempting, but I
managed to remind myself I was not out for revenge. Owen's friendship meant
more to me than that.

I held up the
bottle of red wine I had brought for myself, an unopened bottle from my
father's collection that I realized might actually cost close to one hundred
dollars. "Not a typo. Where's your wine opener?"

He opened his
apartment door wide and pointed towards the kitchen. It had been almost four
months since I had dropped by his place before Sienna and I drove back to UCLA.
The open layout and leather furniture were classic bachelor pad, but it felt
comfortable. His roommate had not lived there very long and had barely made a
personal mark on the place. Everywhere I looked were little reminders of good
times with Owen.

"Is that the
rock I made you lug all the way back from Calico Basin because it looks like
Yoda?" I asked.

Owen knocked back
a shot of tequila. "Yes. But no changing the subject. Trent, cheating,
break-up, go." Owen looked a little rough around the edges and I wondered
why he had started drinking without me. It was nice to have a friend so upset
on my behalf, but it seemed like more.

I poured a large
glass of wine and shrugged. "Now that I think about it, Trent might have
just been something to do."

Owen clapped a
hand over his mouth to keep from spitting tequila across the kitchen island. He
swallowed hard and cleared his throat. "'Just something to do?' My, my,
Ms. Thomas, you are a modern woman."

"I meant
between classes and homework," I said before I realized that sounded just
as bad. "No. What I mean is that I was only dating him for the
distraction. Though, that might just be the hurt and wine talking."

"Drink more,
get to what happened today," Owen said. He led me around the kitchen
island and over to the leather couch. His big-screen television was still cued
up to
Dark Flag
. Light Slayer was
paused surveying the Black Fields. Below, his clan members were running some of
the missions he had sent them on. The messages flooded back to him down the
left hand of the screen. In the upper righthand corner, I could see his list of
flagged players open in the corner. I was at the top of the list.

"I introduced
him to this cute nursing major in my program," I said. "Oh, God. I
remember talking with Trent about how adorable John was that night. Am I just
completely oblivious?"

"No. People
are in relationships for all kinds of reasons. Just because you did not
psychically know he was attracted to this John does not mean anything. It just
did not disrupt what you wanted out of your relationship. So what did?"

"I walked in
on the two of them in Trent's dorm room today," I said.

Owen slammed his
shot glass down on the coffee table and poured himself another messy shot.
"Fucking hell, Quinn. I know how that feels. I'm sorry."

"You know how
that feels?"

Owen picked up the
shot glass and paused. He then sat back very carefully, took the shot, and
turned to face me on the leather sofa. "I know exactly how it feels. I
walked in on Sienna fucking some other guy."

#

The
tequila shots and foul language suddenly made sense. Owen was feeling the same
things I had. His empathy was driving him to drink and curse and reach for my
hand. His agate-blue eyes were locked on mine and I could see he was telling
the truth.

"Sienna
cheated on you," I said. I had to look away, down into the deep red of my
glass of wine. Then, I took a long, slow drink. My insides were fluid, loosened
by the red wine, and his confession had sent a tsunami through me. I took his
hand and felt his warm, hard grip.

Owen shifted on
the sofa but his eyes did not leave mine. "About the same time you met
Trent, I came to campus to surprise Sienna."

"I
remember," I said. "You had called me about her class schedule."

"It was going
to be our half-anniversary. She always liked to create as many celebrations as
possible. We hadn't celebrated a ‘halfversary’ for a few years," he said.

"Except I
remember she found out and told you it wasn't a good time," I said.
"I didn't tell her."

"I know.
Things had not been going well for a long time. After she moved to UCLA, we
became more pen pals than girlfriend and boyfriend. I knew it was over, but I
needed to see her face-to-face."

"And instead,
you saw that," I said. The same cliff-falling feeling that had come over
me was in Owen's eyes. The scene with Trent and John flashed in front of my
eyes and I drained my glass of wine. Even then, the image still swum before my
eyes. "She never thinks, thought about what other people might do or feel.
Why couldn't she just be the bigger person and break up with you?"

"Is that what
you wanted Trent to do?" Owen asked.

"Yes, but
that's totally different. He wants me to be the kind of girlfriend that
understands he likes to have a little guy action on the side. He didn't even
think it was cheating. Sienna knew she was cheating on you." I stood up,
agitated.

"Sienna
didn't want to break up because she liked the image of sweet collegiate girl
with a high school sweetheart," Owen said. "And I wanted to visit to
see if she had outgrown that yet or not. I got my answer and it was alright. We
had been over for a long time."

"That's a
terrible reason to keep dating someone and you just let her," I said.

"I know, but
would you and I have kept talking if I wasn't with Sienna?" The question
burned his throat more than the tequila and he cleared it a few times in a row.
"Now, wait. This is supposed to be about you. Are you going to take him
back?"

I went to pour
more wine. My mind was sloshing around, but I tried to stay on topic. "I
really liked him. He was a lot of fun. He was funny. He liked to do a lot of
the things I like."

"Good grounds
for a friendship," Owen said.

"Isn't that
the best foundation for a real relationship?" I asked.

Owen poured
another shot of tequila. "Does Trent play
Dark Flag
? Let me guess, is he the Boa I saw you bashing into the
ground earlier?"

"No," I
laughed. "Trent is not into video games. Now that I think about it, he
hates video games."

"Good,"
Owen said. "Let's play."