Seeing You

“Jake, go find your dealer and smoke another bowl. Try not to forget what I told you before, and stay the fuck away.” Ta

Ta

“Let’s go, Jake.” Zeke, another player, pulls on his shoulders.

Jake shrugs it off at first, eyeing Ta

After Jake and his group disappear into the crowd, a breath releases from my mouth, and I lean against the wall. “Thanks,” I say to Ta

“Always.” He winks and smiles at me. “What are you drinking?” He swipes the cup out of my hand and swigs down a gulp. He swallows, and his face cringes. “Shit, Piper. This is crap.” He doesn’t hand it back to me, but he places it on the end table next to him. “Let me make you a drink.”

He links his fingers with mine and escorts me through the throng of people, heading back to the kitchen where—thank God—Taylor has disappeared from.

Ta

“Really, Ta

He ignores me, perusing all the bottles.

“I should probably call it quits anyway.” This excuse earns me a glance, but still no response.

Inching closer, he pushes his body against mine, backing me up to the counter, and my lips part.

“You never let me do things for you. Why is that, Piper?”

He places his hands on my hips, and my breath catches in my throat. Gripping tightly, he hauls me up to sit on the counter. Then, his hands graze the inside of my thighs, and he pushes them apart to make space for himself.

“Tell me,” he urges on.

My voice gets lost somewhere in the midst of this affectionate maneuver. My mind can’t stop obsessing over his warm hands on me again. Things between Ta

“Piper?”

I blink, and Ta

“You know I hate that whole white-knight-save-me crap,” I lie.

When it comes to Ta

Ta

When he creeps closer, I will my legs not to disobey me and wrap around his waist.

“I’d make a pretty great prince.”

Then, he scoots back from me, and I suck in a huge breath when he circles around.

My face heats with a flush, my hands shake, and my thoughts fixate on having Ta

He pours a zillion splashes of alcohol from every bottle.

I think to myself, My first drink was better.

He returns to me, occupying the space between my legs again, and holds the cup in front of me. I grab it with my hand, and he releases it.

“Try it.” He pushes the cup toward my mouth.

I clear my throat, and concentrate on the contents in the red Solo cup from how u

The drink is surprisingly good, much better than my own. Ta

“Told you, I’m a mixologist.”

He swivels his hips with his hands in the air, and I giggle from his absurd ego.

“You made a good drink here.” I lift the cup in the air and then down another sip.

“Did I hear, a good drink?” A redhead with her gang of two copycat versions of herself walk in.

My infectious laugh dissipates, and I quietly begin drinking while watching the redhead cozy up to Ta

The redhead eyes me up and down, clearly comparing me to herself.

Bitch.

“Oh, will you make me one?” she asks, sauntering closer to us.

I so want to place my palm in the air and say, This isn’t a threesome, bitch. But I stop myself because Ta

He smirks over at me and then turns her way. “Sorry, it was a Piper Special. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m taking her to dance.”

He holds his hand out to me, and I jump off the counter.

“Hey, Jake,” Ta

Jake shoots him a get-lost look.

“Why don’t you make this girl a drink?” Ta

Then, his hand lands on the small of my back, leading me to the makeshift dance floor in the living room. Unfortunately, we don’t make it because my wonderful brother, Brad, is too busy punching some guy in the face. Ta

“What the hell happened?” I ask her, now witnessing Ta

“That guy came up behind me, and I thought it was Brad.” She grabs my arm, yanking me down to her level.

I roll my eyes. This is the last thing I need tonight.

“I swear, Piper. I should have turned around,” she pleads with me. From the amount of tears she’s shedding, she’s telling the truth, or she’s a damn good liar.

I’m a fairly good judge of character, so I’m opting to believe my intuition. She kisses my ass way too much to not be into only Brad.

“It’s okay, Taylor. I believe you.” I pry my arm from her grip and weave my way through the witnesses to break up this nonsense. The only result will be the two of them being kicked off the swim team.

By the time I reach them, fists are flying, and blood is smeared across the wall. “Stop it, guys!” I scream.

But I receive no response from any of them. From the corner of my eye, I catch two other teammates, Greg and Drew, on their way to protect their swim brothers in the reckoning.

“Guys!” I yell at the top of my lungs, only earning an eye from Ta

“Piper, get the hell out of here,” Ta

“No!” In defiance, I slam a foot on the hardwood floor. “Do you guys want to not have a spot on the team? What do you think Coach will say about this?” I ramble out questions to get the drunken alpha males to stop and think. Wrong way. I do the next best thing.

Once Ta

“What the hell, Piper?” Brad calls over, knocking his guy in the gut.