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They go back and forth like that for a while, before a line of whiskey shots appear before us at the bar. We each take one in our hands and raise them in the air. My arm rests in line with Jude’s, his front pressed close to my back. Addy is on one side of me, and his friends are on the other, completing our circle.
“To the end of the summer, and to another year of watching our guy kick ass in college ball,” Nick toasts.
“To friends—bestfriends—” Addy nudges me with a playful smile, “and to new beginnings.”
Isabella leans closer, eyeing Jude. “To me stealing your girl this year,” she quips, and Jude’s resulting chuckle vibrates against my back.
“To Brooklyn!” Antonio booms like a cannon, making me jump in Jude’s hold with a laugh.
“To it becoming your home, too,” Connor says with a wink thrown my way, and I blush as all eyes fall on me.
I lift my shot glass a little bit higher. “To amazing friends, both old and new.”
Jude’s soft hum tickles my neck, his lips skimming along the surface of my skin before he adds, “To being more than friends, too.”
“Here-fucking-here!”someone shouts, and we all laugh, our seven glasses of tequila clinking together before we take ourshots down as one. Fire sizzles through my limbs, warming my chest—almost as much as the entire experience warms my heart.
______
A few hours into our night, Addy is tipsy, Jude’s friends are tipsier, and Jude is the tipsiest of them all—while I’m pretty much sober outside of the single shot I took with everyone. It’s the first time I’ve seen Jude drink, though, and I immediately decided I needed to be clear-minded enough to witness it all.
The way alcohol has softened his usually rough words, rounding them out in a carefree way.
The way his cheeks have stayed consistently filled with a warm color of pink.
The way he’s kept rolling his lips together in an attempt to tamp down his permanently-affixed smile.
The way his entire body has loosened, tension drained free from his muscles, and I can feel the weight of his relaxed body on me when he leans down and whispers things in my ear.
Things like—God, I like you so much, Little D. You smell so goddamn good. I like you. Really like you. And I don’t like a lot of people. Can I get you anything? Are you comfortable? Are you having a good time? I always have a good time when I’m with you. Fuck, I can’t wait to show you a good time later. I like you so much, Declan. So fucking much. Don’t tell the rest of these guys, but you’ve become my best friend. Truly. Ah, fuck it. I’ll tell them myself—
I stifle a laugh and tug him back into me by the bottom hem of his shirt.
His eyes soften when they meet mine, liquefying, and his smile does, too.
Andyeah,this guy with the most beautiful eyes and most devastating smile has become my best friend as well. I wish I could pinpoint exactly when that happened.
It doesn’t matter, though. He simply is.
He shifts his body forward and drags me closer. And then his lips melt into mine, his tongue slipping into my mouth when my lips part with a gasp. The world blurs around me like it always does when I’m with him. Like everything else ceases to exist. Like nothing else matters but this—him, and me, and gravity narrowing in on the space we occupy together.
The hum that vibrates at the back of his throat spills into mine. “You are the sweetest thing I’ve ever tasted, Little D.”
I smile, my lips curving against his.
“Your mouth.” He kisses me again, deeper, harder against my lips. “Your skin.” He places a lighter, lingering kiss to the base of my throat. “Your pussy,” he murmurs against my mouth as he kisses me again, pressing into me, and his words are a little louder than he realized because Antonio barks out a laugh from where he stands behind him.
“You, my man, are hammered.” He claps a hand over Jude’s shoulder with a wide smile stretching his lips. “And also, very enamored.”
“Three sheets, and in way too fucking deep,” he quips back quickly, his tone playful, but when his gaze reaches deeper into mine, sincerity settles between us.
In way too fucking deep,his words echo, whispering in every corner of my mind.
That’s exactly how I feel, too. Plunged into an entirely new ocean of feelings for him, and I’m not sure which way is up or down. I’m just trying to catch the tide, trying to find the current and roll with the waves, to get a grasp on my emotions before I lose myself in the ocean of my feelings for Jude completely.
______
Addy might be entirely sloshed at this point, but she’s been holding her own in darts, much to my own, and everyoneelse’s, amusement. I can’t stop cracking up at the way she wildly and unpredictably throws her darts toward the board yet still manages to hit near where she’s aiming for every time. Jude’s friends have officially nicknamed herLittle Chucker.And a Chucker is, apparently, someone who aimlessly throws their darts at the board. Which would certainly be Addy.