Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 124451 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 622(@200wpm)___ 498(@250wpm)___ 415(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 124451 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 622(@200wpm)___ 498(@250wpm)___ 415(@300wpm)
She pushes off him and goes to walk away but Jax catches her hand. “Ari,” he whispers, the silent plea for her to stay shining through his tone.
“I’m sorry, Jax,” she whispers, letting her hand fall away. “I just … I need to think about this.”
He nods and lets her walk away, the girls all getting up to follow her, probably to get blind drunk.
Logan nudges his brother’s foot and lifts his chin, demanding Jax’s attention. “You good, bro?” he questions, knowing from experience just how much that kind of rejection hurts. Though luckily for Jax, it wasn’t a flat-out no. “That was rough.”
Jax shrugs his shoulders. “It is what it is,” he mutters, switching out his bottle of water for something a little stronger, despite the painkillers he’s on. He doesn’t expand on that, but I don’t expect him to. Though the pressure dissipates when Riley throws himself to his feet, gaping at his phone.
He jumps right up onto the edge of the fire pit, holding his phone and flipping it around so we see the screen. “HOLY FUCK,” he blanches, panic in his eyes. “She responded. Zoe fucking responded. What do I do? What do I do?”
Jax grunts, not able to be happy for Riley right now. “Fucking message her back, dickwad.”
A smirk pulls at my lips as I try to get a closer look at the screen. “What’d she say?”
Riley grins. “Not much.”
My brows furrow. “Huh?”
“To the message you sent,” he tells me, shoving his phone closer to my face so I can scan over it properly.
Riley - Hey, what’s up?
Zoe - Not much.
“Huh,” I breathe, glancing up at Riley and trying to push his phone out of my face. “Yeah, umm … I don’t know what to do with that.”
“The fuck, man?” he panics, trying to push his phone into my hands. “You started this. You need to finish it. I don’t know what the fuck to say to this girl.”
“Well, figure it out, and do it now before she puts her phone back down and loses interest.”
His eyes widen, realizing I’m right. “Fuck,” he says, jumping down from the edge of the fire pit and backing up to his seat, not bothering to even look before he sits in it. His fingers hover over the screen, moving closer before hesitating and pulling back again. He goes on like this for at least five minutes before frustration gets the best of him. “FUCK! This shouldn’t be so hard.”
“What the hell is wrong with you, man?” Logan questions. “You never strike out. Just have a normal fucking conversation with her and seal the deal already. Just leave the bullshit pick-up lines out of it and act like a normal fucking human being.”
Riley groans, bunching his hands into fists before taking a breath and trying to relax. “Fine, okay,” he says, letting his fingers move across the screen. He hits send before his gaze snaps up to mine. “Holy shit, I did it,” he says, his face white as a fucking ghost.
I laugh. “What’d you say?”
“Asked her what she’s doing,” he says before blanching again. “Oh, fuck. She’s seen it,” he says before his eyes widen further. “OH FUCK. SHE’S TYPING!”
I shake my head, not prepared to watch Riley freak out over his phone for the next hour, but I’m saved when Damien and Jensen come striding through the party, wide grins on both their faces, already drunk as fucking skunks. “Yo, what’s crackin’ bitches?” Jensen says, raising a beer he swiped from the kitchen. He doesn’t wait for a response before turning to Jax. “Nice to see you still breathing, asshole.”
Jax rolls his eyes, clearly not in the mood after Arizona’s dismissal. “What’s going on?” I ask as the moron just grins back at me.
Damien takes pity and finally clues us in, throwing his arm over his new stepbrother’s shoulder, both of them grinning ear to ear. “This fucker just got accepted into Brown, that’s what,” he says just like a proud big brother would.
“Fuck yeah, man,” I say, getting up. I go to congratulate him, pulling him in and clapping him on his back. “That’s fucking awesome. Have you told Bri yet? I’m sure she’ll be thrilled to get you out of town.”
Jensen scoffs a laugh. “I bet she would,” he says. “But nah, only just found out on the ride over.”
“Congrats, man,” I say, really fucking proud of the bastard despite kinda hating him. I suppose Bri has unintentionally brought us back together like when we were kids. I know last year was hard for him, finishing his senior year, only to have some girl falsely cry rape to avoid her parents’ wrath. He was dropped from all his college options and left with nothing despite clearing his name. At least now he’s finally getting back on track.