Page 28

Jake

“’Sup, man .” Oliver calls out as he and Adam bring a keg down to the basement. “Tonight should be relatively chill. We didn’t invite that many people tonight. It should be like sixty people max.”

Sixty people was nothing given that ten of us already lived here.

I honestly can’t remember the last party we had that was less than a hundred people, but I wasn’t sure what Eliana was expecting.

Given the girl had never even been to a college party, I knew that whatever was tame to us would seem like an absolute rager to her. “Are the boys all showing up?”

“Yeah most of them are coming by and some girls from Tri Delt and Gamma Phi. A solid chunk of the men's lacrosse team, and some other people I can’t remember now. Should be a good time.”

“That sounds like a lot of people, Ollie…”

“Relax man it’ll be like no more than like a hundred people.”

“You just said sixty.”

“Well I never claimed I was good at math. Does your girl know any math tutors? Maybe she could set me up with one.” Ollie winks.

I don’t correct Ollie, even though Eliana and I are just friends.

No matter how many times I caught myself counting the freckles on her cheeks or wondering how her soft lips would feel against mine, she’d never indicated she wanted to turn our fake dating situation into something real.

So I just stayed in my lane, and tried to fight the urge to touch her every time we were together.

“So are we all good on booze?” I ask hoping the question deflects his attention.

“We should be. Though it would’ve been nice if you also got salt and vinegar chips for the rest of the party and not just Eliana.” He smirks

“I want her to have something here if she gets the drunchies. It does me no good if she leaves halfway through in search of Taco Bell.”

“No one likes salt and vinegar chips, Jake.”

“You have no taste.” I scoff, hiding away the family-sized bag in the cabinet. Drunk college kids are heathens, and this bag would be gone in seconds if I left it out.

In the hour since people started flocking in, the place is already packed to the brim and more people will continue to pour in.

We’ve already gone through a whole keg of beer, busted out the emergency keg, and had to send the freshmen out with fake IDs to get more alcohol.

I didn’t know if it was a good or bad thing that Eliana wasn’t here yet.

It was certainly a plus that she missed my total meltdown over the fact that the lacrosse team had tried to sneak in a wild turkey.

It never made sense to me how Boston got infested with turkeys every year, and all it took was a couple of college athletes getting drunk enough to capture one and keep it as a pet.

I was a few beers in and loosened up enough after the turkey incident that I didn’t even notice her arrival until I felt a small hand squeeze my shoulder. “If this is your definition of a small party, I’d hate to see what happens when you guys throw a rager.”

“You should’ve seen the wild animal I—” I turn my head to finally look at her, and immediately feel like I'd been punched in the throat.

In place of her usually cozy cardigan and leggings combo is a short black ribbed dress that hugs her body like a second layer of skin. Her legs are nearly covered with her thigh-high boots, and she looks lethal as sin. I can’t even help it. I fully gawk at her.

The best part is I can tell she knows how good she looks from the way she cocks her eyebrow at me and flashes me a smile that makes me want to fall to my knees and worship her ten times over.

Who was I? I hadn’t been this nervous about a girl in…

.well, ever. And I’ve definitely never been left speechless by one either.

But Eliana had a way of throwing me completely off my axis, in a way that made me question whether I even really knew what it meant to feel alive until I met her .

I pull us further away from the living room into the hallway so we can hear each other. “You look…” Beautiful? Incredible? Neither of those words seemed to do her justice. “Breathtaking.”

She dips her head slightly to hide the blush on her cheeks.

Standing on her tiptoes she raises her voice so I can hear her over the chaos surrounding us.

“You can sweet talk me all you want Keeley. I plan on still seeing you studying your ass off at 6 a.m. We can’t let this B+ on your exam be a one-time thing. ”

“I wouldn’t dream of skipping out on my unofficial tutoring session.” I wink, nudging my hip against hers. “Thanks again by the way. For not giving up on me.”

Her eyes soften as they lock with mine. “You’re welcome. Thanks for pushing me to be a normal college student for once.” She does a once over, taking in the living room, “So, where’s the bartender?”

I can’t help my laugh. “I’m sorry?”

Her eyes widen as they lock with mine, and I see a slight hint of embarrassment. “Given your reaction, I take it most people don’t hire bartenders for their house parties?”

“That would be a negative.”

“Also going to assume DJs aren’t really a thing?” She blushes.

Damn, this was pretty adorable. It was becoming very obvious her only knowledge of house parties came from the movies. “Nah. We have Spotify, an aux cord, and speakers. Gets the job done.”

“Makes sense. I guess that serves me right for thinking Mean Girls and 10 Things I Hate About You were accurate portrayals of party culture. Although I do have to admit I thought they only did that in the movies.” Eliana nods her head toward Oliver, who’s doing a keg stand in the middle of the living room. “That’s pretty impressive. ”

“We can get you up there next if you want. Get the full college experience.”

“Mmm, I’d rather not flash anyone tonight, given my outfit choice. Probably best to sit this one out.”

“Fair enough. While there’s no bartender, I’m happy to serve you up a drink.

” I wink. Without thinking, I grab her hand, locking our fingers together as I walk us over to the kitchen.

Eliana has yet to pull away from my touches the past few weeks.

She follows my lead and lets me hold on to her as I pull two cherry Jello shots out of the freezer and hand one to her.

Her face turns serious. “Is now a bad time to tell you I’m allergic to cherries?”

I feel my heart hit my stomach and immediately snatch the container out of her hands. “Shit. You might’ve just touched cherry juice! How allergic are you?! She smirks at me, then licks her fingers. “...You’re not really allergic, are you?”

“No.” She shakes her head. “But it was really sweet to see how fast your life, and mine, flashed before your eyes.”

“I would say it’s nice to see you making jokes and letting loose, but that was a sick joke.”

“That was barely a joke,” she laughs. Then she seems to consider something. “Do I really come off as that up tight?”

“You’re the tightest,” I respond, getting an eye roll from her. “I’m just messing with you. Did you know you get this cute little crease between your eyebrows every time I say something obnoxious and you don’t want to laugh?”

“You think you know me so well, huh?”

“Not nearly as much as I’d like to.” The confession leaves my lips and hangs in the air for a moment. I don’t want to put her on the spot, so I pivot. “So, are we doing this or not?” I hand her back the cherry Jello shot.

She brings her container up to cheers mine before squeezing the Jello into her mouth. “That’s actually not half bad. I can see how those get dangerous real quick.”

“One day, I’ll tell you about the time Ollie double-poured the Jello shots and then ate most of them.”

“Yikes, that sounds like a rough night.”

“And a rough morning,” Ollie interrupts. “So what’s next on your ‘college party’ bucket list Eliana?”

She looks around casually. “Where’s the beer pong table?”