Loving You (The Jade Series #3) (22 page)

Friday night, Garret and I go to the party on Beech Street. We get there around 9 and the house is already packed with people. It’s an old house with cracked plaster walls and scratched-up wood floors and it smells like a mix of beer, sweat, and cologne.
 

As we walk through the living room, drunk people keep bumping into me and a guy almost spills his drink on my shirt. Now I remember why I don’t go to parties.

“You okay?” Garret says in my ear as the music blares around us. “Because if you’re not, we’ll leave right now.”

“I’m okay,” I tell him, taking his hand.

“Kensington!” A guy from Garret’s floor comes stumbling up to us holding a plastic cup filled with beer. I think his name is Dean. I see him in the hall when I’m going to Garret’s room. He always wears a polo shirt with the collar up and khaki pants instead of jeans. He’s got the whole preppy look going.
 

“Hey, Dawson,” Garret says.
 

So I guess his name is Dawson, but he looks more like a Dean.

“It’s about time you showed up at one of these things,” Dawson says.

“What are you talking about? I went to parties all last semester. Almost every Friday night. You saw me there. We talked. Played pool.”

Dawson thinks for a moment. “Oh, yeah. Whatever. You never stayed very long. And I don’t think you drank either. Shit, I don’t even know why you went.”
 

I know why. Because that asshole, Blake, blackmailed Garret into going, threatening to tell Mr. Kensington about Garret and me if Garret didn’t party with him. I’m glad that’s over. Blake’s long gone and Garret’s dad has finally accepted us dating.
 

Dawson notices our empty hands. “You guys need a drink. There’s a keg over there in the corner.” He turns to me. “They’ve got some fruity punch for the ladies. But just a warning. That shit’s strong. A girl your size will feel it after one drink.” He takes a big gulp of his beer. “That’s the point, right? Get you girls drunk as fast as possible. Makes it easier on us guys.” He takes another gulp of his beer.
 

Garret puts his arm around my shoulder and leads me away. “You sure you want to stay here?”

I scan the room. “There’s Carson. Let’s go over and talk to him.”

Carson’s wearing jeans and a black polo shirt that accentuates his huge shoulders and muscular arms. He’s built like a football player. I bet he played in high school.

“Hi, Carson. Did you just get here?” I keep hold of Garret’s hand and scoot closer to him.

“I got here a few minutes ago.” He looks around. “This place is packed. Are these things always this crowded?”

“Yeah, usually. There isn’t much else to do in this town.”

I nudge Garret to join the conversation.
 

“So you ready to meet some people?” Garret gets right down to business. He has no interest in making small talk with Carson.
 

“Sure. Can I grab a drink first? You guys want anything?”

“No, we’re good,” I say.
 

Carson goes over to the keg.

Garret leans down. “The guy drinks, Jade, and you want to be friends with him? When we met, you refused to speak to me after I had a couple sips of beer.”

“I’m trying to loosen up a little. If you want a beer, go ahead and have one.”

He waits, anticipating the “but” which he knows is coming.
 

“I won’t kiss you with beer breath, but you can still have one.”

“I’d rather have the kiss.” He says it next to my ear, his lips brushing my skin while his hand rests on my lower back. He’s barely touching me and it still makes me want to take him into one of the bedrooms so we can be alone. Even after all these months, he still affects me this way. It’s crazy.
 

“Okay, I’m ready.” Carson’s back with a plastic cup filled to the top with light-colored beer. The smell is so disgusting. I back away but the stench of it still lingers in the air.

My alcoholic mother didn’t drink beer that much. She usually stuck to hard liquor. But when we were really low on money, she had to settle for cheap beer. She’d buy that before she’d buy food. To this day, when I smell beer, it brings back memories of being hungry. School lunch would be my only meal of the day and those meals weren’t very filling.
 

I’d never tell Garret that story. If I did, he’d never drink beer again and I don’t want him to do that for me. I know he likes it and he should be able to have one now and then. Plus I hate it when he feels sorry for me.

Garret leads Carson over to a group of guys from his floor, including Dawson, who comes over and hangs his arm off Garret’s shoulder. He’s even drunker than when we saw him a few minutes ago.

“Kensington!” Dawson likes yelling Garret’s last name. He does it when I see him at the dorms, too.
 

“Finally decide to come out of your room, Kensington?” Some guy I only know as Shafer yells it from a few feet over. I think Shafer is his last name, but I’ve never heard him called anything else.
 

Garret ignores him. “I wanted you guys to meet Carson. He just started at Moorhurst.”

Shafer stumbles over to Carson, holding a shot glass in the air like he’s trying not to spill even though the glass is empty. “Carson. That’s a stupid name. What’s your last name?”

Carson swigs his beer before answering. “Fisher.”

“Fisher, huh? I can work with that.” Shafer smacks him on the back and some of Carson’s beer splatters out. “Okay. Everyone listen. This is our new friend, Fish.” Shafer turns to him. “Got a girlfriend, Fish?”

Carson shakes his head, then drinks again.
 

“Fish needs to get laid tonight,” Shafer announces. He turns to Garret. “Kensington, you’ve slept with half the girls here. Pick one for our buddy, Fish.”

“Good luck with the friend thing,” Garret says to Carson. He grips my hand and drags me away from them. “You see why we don’t go to these?”

“What was he talking about? Why would he say that about you?”

“Just ignore him. He’s totally wasted.”

“Kensington, get your ass back here,” Dawson calls after us.

I turn back to find Carson following us. “Wait up. You can’t leave me with those assholes.”

Garret turns around, annoyed. “Most of the guys here are assholes, especially when they’re drunk.”

“Decker’s not,” I say, “but I haven’t seen him yet.”

“Who’s this?” I hear a girl’s voice behind Carson and see that it belongs to Sierra, my least favorite person after Ava. They’re best friends, so it makes sense that I don’t like her.

Sierra curls her hands around Carson’s massive bicep. “Hi. I’m Sierra. I’m a friend of Garret’s.” She looks at me as she says it.

“I’m Carson,” he says, not bothering to remove her hands from his arm. “I just started at Moorhurst.”
 

“He’s from Illinois,” I say, waiting for the confused look to appear on her face. It does and I almost start laughing, but Garret squeezes my hand signaling me to be nice. Forget that. I hate Sierra. “Illinois is in the middle. It’s next to Iowa.”
 

Garret squeezes my hand again. I don’t know why he insists I act nice to her. He doesn’t like her either.

“I know where Illinois is, Jade.” From her expression I know it’s a lie.

She smiles at Carson. “Are you on the football team? Because you look like a linebacker with these big muscles.”

I almost gag at her attempt to flirt.
 

Carson smiles back at her. “I played football in high school. I don’t play anymore.” He drinks his beer. “So how do you know Garret?”

Sierra’s in a daze, staring up at Carson, noticing the dimple and those deep brown eyes. She snaps out of it and glances over at Garret. “We went to high school together. Garret played football, too. He was quarterback.”
 

Garret played football? He never told me that. I thought swimming was his only sport.
 

“Quarterback, huh?” Carson nods at Garret. “So finding a date must’ve been easy.”

“I don’t remember. That was a long time ago.” Garret doesn’t like talking about high school. In fact, we’ve never talked about it, which explains why I didn’t know he played football.

“Garret and I went to homecoming together senior year,” Sierra says. “We were homecoming king and queen. Garret, you should show Jade the pictures from that night.”
 

“I didn’t know you two dated,” I say, glaring at Garret.

“We didn’t,” he says, keeping his eyes on Sierra.

“We just went to homecoming together.” She smiles at me with her glossy pink lips. “But we should’ve dated. Everyone said we’d make a great couple.”

Garret clears his throat. “Jade and I need to get going. Carson, just hang out with Sierra all night. She knows everyone here. She can introduce you to Decker if he ever gets here.”

“You sure you have to leave?” Carson asks, directing the question only to me.

“Yeah, we have plans. I’ll see you at class on Monday.”

“Bye, Garret,” Sierra says, as if I don’t exist.

We inch our way toward the front door. It’s so crowded now it’s hard to move. Garret’s ahead of me and I’m stuck behind a wall of bodies unable to get past.
 

And then I smell it. The familiar yet horrid smell that surrounded me on that awful night. I can still feel his heavy body holding me down. His giant hand shoved over my mouth so tight I could barely breathe.
 

My legs become numb and heavy and I can’t move forward. I have to know where that smell is coming from. It’s not from him. He’s gone. He’s in San Diego. That’s what everyone said. Someone else is wearing his cologne. It’s not him. It can’t be him.

“Hey, shithead!”
 

It’s him.
 

I know that voice all too well. I still hear it in my head when I remember what he did to me.
 

The smell of him surrounds me now. I seriously think I might throw up. Right here. Right now. Stuck in a crowd of people.

I try to call Garret’s name but I can’t. My throat is so dry I can’t swallow, so I definitely can’t scream. And the music is so loud Garret would never hear me anyway.
 

“Kensington! I’m talking to you!”

The voice is getting closer. It’s like it’s right next to me. Shit, I think it is!
 

“Hey. What’s up, Ohio?” I feel his long fingers on my shoulder and jerk away from him, banging hard into the girl next to me.

“Watch it, bitch!” she yells at me.
 

I spin around and see Blake right in front of me, leering at me with that sick grin. The same one he gave me that night.
 

Someone yanks me back. It’s Garret and I can feel his anger as he shoves himself in front of me.
 

“Get the fuck away from her!” Garret screams it so loud that everyone around us stops and stares, their chattering quieted to a low murmur while the music continues to blare from the speakers.
 

“What? You’re not happy to see me?” Blake yells out, his voice rich with sarcasm. “I thought we were friends.”

Blake and Garret are now face to face. This is not good. It’s really, really not good. Garret ended up in jail last time he fought with Blake. He got out thanks to blackmail and backroom deals, but if he beats Blake up again Garret will serve time. Blake’s dad will make sure of it. He’s attorney general for the state of Connecticut and I’m sure by now he’s figured out a way to avoid being blackmailed again.

“Come on, Garret. So I slept with Ohio. The bitch asked for it.”

Shit! That’s the absolute worst thing Blake could’ve said. One, it’s a complete lie. Two, he’s implying I’m a slut. Three, he called me Ohio, which Garret knows I hate. And four, he called me a bitch, which makes Garret even more enraged than it makes me. He’s told Blake repeatedly to never call me that again.

Blake isn’t as dumb as he looks. He knows exactly what he’s doing.
 

“Garret, stop!” I yell it as I watch him take a swing at Blake who steps back to avoid being hit.
 

Decker suddenly appears, putting his short, stocky body between Blake and Garret, his arms stretched out on each side. “You know you can’t do this, Garret. Just stop before you do something you’ll regret.”

Blake shoves Decker aside like he’s swatting a fly. “Get the fuck out of the way, Dek!”
 

Garret’s fist goes up again. Then out of nowhere, Carson appears behind Garret, grabbing hold of his arms as two other guys work to hold back Blake.
 

I move in front of Garret and talk directly into his ear. “Just calm down. Don’t do this. You’ll go to jail. You won’t get out this time. Please don’t do that to me. To us.”

Garret relaxes his arms, then yanks them from Carson, his eyes still locked on Blake. He grabs my hand and heads toward the door, his shoulder colliding with Carson’s as we leave.