Page 2 of Stop and Seek (Our Childish Games #1)
“Oh my god, no ,” Alyssa gasped, one hand flying to her mouth.
“ Right!? ”
Theo closed his eyes, resting his forehead against his hand. His other hand curled around the shot glass.
This couldn’t have been going worse.
Shoot me now.
“Holy crap, is that Kyran?”
Rachel’s voice cut through the noise, her hand shaking Theo’s shoulder hard enough to jostle him away from the drowning misery.
Following her gaze across the crowded bar, he scanned unrecognizable faces until he saw it.
Decker.
Kyran fucking Decker .
Same bleached and dyed hair, except longer.
The five piercings on his face had turned into fifteen—or twenty, hard to tell from this angle.
The last time Theo had seen him was back in high school, when Decker was the guy you went to for a fake ID—if you had extra cash laying around and zero fear of expulsion.
Theo had only talked to him once. Briefly. In the computer lab that smelled like crayons and BO. They’d run in completely different circles.
So what the hell was he doing here?
“I thought he went to California,” Theo muttered.
Rachel slapped his shoulder. Hard. Repeatedly . “It’s wild, right? It’s like looking at a ghost from your past.”
“The past can stay there.”
“You didn’t hear, Teddy?” Alyssa asked, her nails tapping the table. The glitter eye-shadow had melted into raccoon-like smudges down her cheeks, streaked with sweat and eyeliner.
Theo glared at Rachel, and she grinned back.
“Hear what?” he muttered, tilting back the rest of his drink. A few warm drops. That was it. There wasn’t enough alcohol in the world to deal with the two of them.
“It’s all over social media. Our reunion? Ten years, baby!”
Across the table, Liam perked up. “ Wow , ten years? That’s so exciting.”
Theo looked at him. Just looked. And Liam’s mouth snapped shut like he’d never said a damn word.
A high school reunion.
The absolute last thing he needed.
No way .
He’d barely survived those four years—hallway whispers, pranks that felt like hate crimes, locker-room laughter that was always about him. Getting carted off in an ambulance senior year had sealed the coffin on his shit reputation.
So many rumors.
So many fucking sympathetic looks.
And not a single word from the one person who mattered.
Theo’s tongue pressed against his bottom teeth as he locked eyes with Alyssa, her compact now out, patting herself down with translucent powder.
“Yeah, no. I don’t think so.”
“You are such a buzzkill, babe,” Alyssa said.
The spiderweb design on her cheeks caught a flicker of blue neon and made her look alien.
She swiped at her under-eyes, smearing the shimmer even worse.
“Everyone else is going. Plus, like, Noah posted that he's going, so you know the rest of the football team’s going to show. Didn’t you have a thing for Aaron way-back-when? ”
God.
Aaron’s name made Theo’s stomach plunge to his feet.
“One of my shows is coming back,” was all he managed to say, barely audible over the music and shouted drink orders.
“Theo.” Rachel grabbed his shoulder again, squeezing hard enough that her nails dug through the thin material of his jacket and hit bone. “No one cares about The Housewives of blah blah blah. You want something from the bar?”
Theo shrugged.
With an over-the-top sigh, she finally let go, and the girls disappeared into the crowd .
“Do you actually watch reality TV?” Liam asked, too loud. He finally tore his face away from whatever flashing, pixelated game he’d been tapping at.
Where was this going? It didn’t sound like a conversation, it sounded like a jab.
“Yeah.”
“Really? I always thought those shows looked cringe.”
And there it was.
Theo’s jaw clenched. The music throbbed behind his eyes, through the plastic cup in his hand. The dull ache building in his temples wasn’t migraine worthy. Yet.
“You’re wearing a dinosaur shirt and you talk like a fucking toddler. You want me to keep going on your cringe factor or are you done?”
Even with the chaos around them—glass clinks, shouting bartenders, the reek of sweat and spilled tequila—he still heard Alyssa’s laugh.
It cut straight through the haze. Bounced around the walls and back at him, ten times louder.
A reminder.
He should’ve been nicer.
He needed to try. Really, really needed to claw his way out of this six-year-deep pit he’d been stewing in. But—god—not with this damn twink.
Liam’s mouth sagged open. Red, purple, and blue lights flickered across his face, making his skin look bruised and cartoonish.
“I was… n-never mind,” he said, retreating back to the glow of his phone like it might protect him .
Before the silence could go from fucked to apocalyptic , Rachel and Alyssa came back, weaving through the crowd with drinks balanced in their hands.
Rachel slid into the seat beside Theo and raised one eyebrow. She brushed the red curls over her shoulder. “You guys good?”
Theo didn’t even try to fake a smile. He glanced at Liam, who was now fully absorbed in whatever dumb mobile game. “Super.”
Alyssa launched into another story, Rachel screeching and ooh-ing and aah-ing at the right moments.
Theo leaned back, jacket stuck uncomfortably to his spine, and swallowed the drink Rachel handed him. She pushed another glass over and he tossed that one back too.
Burned all the way down. Didn’t help.
Worst blind date ever.
The next time he came out, he’d go alone. At least then, if he hated everything, he’d only have himself to blame.
On the drive back to Theo’s apartment, Rachel wouldn’t speak to him.
She hunched forward in the driver’s seat, stiff as a mannequin, her hands locked around the wheel. The faint, sticky pink scent of her perfume—cotton candy laced with cigarette smoke—curled in the air between them.
He tried to catch her eye. Nothing. Only the soft line of her jaw and the tremble in her nostrils when she inhaled too hard .
Theo rolled down the window instead. Warm, diesel-tinged air rushed in, carrying the hum of 1:00 a.m. highway traffic.
Nothing helped.
Ever.
“Alyssa’s taste in men is shit,” Theo tried after a while.
Rachel didn’t answer. She flexed her fingers on the steering wheel—thin silver rings catching the dashboard lights—and lit another cigarette. Menthol filled the car.
She was pissed pissed, then.
Damn.
It wasn’t his fault Liam was a whiny prick. But Rachel clearly wasn’t in the mood to hear that.
If she had screamed at him—just once, just something —he would’ve felt better. Would’ve known what to do.
The quiet sounded louder than any insult.
When she stopped in front of his building, the engine idled.
“Text me when you’re home,” he said, already opening the door.
Rachel didn’t look at him.
He left his hand hovering in the open window for a second longer—long enough to catch the tight, jerky nod she finally gave.
Inside, the apartment reeked of takeout bags and last week’s laundry. Theo tiptoed over the mounds of clothes and books and crap he kept promising himself he’d clean.
He threw himself into bed. The springs groaned.
For hours, he scrolled. Bright videos. Facts he didn’t care about. Music he couldn’t remember. Everything blurring past like the stupid, jagged neon lights from The Rat’s Nest .
Flash. Swipe. Flash. Swipe.
Nothing stuck.
Nothing touched the hard, aching thing in his chest. Or maybe his skull.
Whatever.
His glasses landed somewhere near the side table when Rachel’s text came in.
Rachie
ily you know i do
Theo dragged the phone closer. The screen lit up his face, made his eyes water. He squinted, nose nearly pressed to the messages until the white smudges became letters again.
Theo
i know
Rachie
if all these dates keep going bad its not them
Theo
***
Rachie
you were a dick tonight. liam is in fucking TEARS
Theo
sry
Rachie
no you’ re not
why can’t you be nicer? just once?
would it KILL YOU????
he was nervous you asshole
lyssa and i spent an hour on the phone w/ him.
he’s her COUSIN jfc and now he never wants to go on another blind date
because of YOU
Theo typed out a response, backspaced, and waited until the three dots popped onto the screen again.
Rachie
im sorry. im not mad at you. i know its been hard
but you need to srsly start trying again
pls
you cant let jagger ruin your whole life