https://youtu.be/nFmirotxXjM

*Note: READY FOR DRUNK ALEX + ELIAS? Click the Youtube link above to listen to the Audiobook Version of this chapter voiced by kaelking12 (Kristen Maglonzo) featuring music by Conor Maynard, The Chainsmokers, Jet, and Jake Reese.

Elias

Jersey and Indigo are hella late.

As in Roxy's been banging on their door for the last fifteen minutes-kinda late, and I'm pretty sure that if they don't open up soon, Little Miss Barbie's gonna bust out a chainsaw.

Real talk.

Now, I'm not saying I'm the brightest tool in the shed, but if I've learned anything about anything, it's to avoid pissing off princess types--especially ones like Roxy.

Bad shit happens when Daddy's little girls get angry, and she passed the pissed off mark a while ago.

The thing is, nobody else in the Quad gives a shit about Social Night.

The weird vegan dude who lives next door showed up earlier than I did and hasn't done anything social with anyone aside from throw a couple hello head nods around. He's a beanpole but he hides it well. He's got these tie-dyed, baggy Hare Krishna clothes on that look like they could be Indigo's. Who knows? Maybe her next boyfriend's closer than she thinks.

He looks like the kinda guy she'd go for, long, blonde-brown, waxy dreads, freakishly blue eyes, weird sense of style. Totally her thing.

I look over in his direction and half open my mouth to start a conversation, but he pops in a pair of headphones before I can try.

Smart kid.

I should've thought of that.

It's not like anyone in the hall's worth talking to.

The pair of fraternity losers who live right next to Roxy have been trying to sweet talk their way into her panties for the last half hour. The brunette's got it bad for this girl. Every time she speaks he gives her his complete and undivided attention. He laughs and smiles at whatever she says no matter how stupid or mean. My guess is, they probably hooked up at one point, but she's over it. He's clearly not.

If he wasn't such a meathead I'd probably feel bad for the guy. No matter what he does to get her attention, she refuses to focus on him, 'cause she's wasting her time focusing on me.

At least she was, until Jersey and Indigo's no show threw off her game. Good thing they screwed up her plans, otherwise I would've been stuck talking to her about which lipstick color she likes the most on herself.

For the record, I don't care.

And I'm never going to.

I'm just waiting to see Jersey.

But Roxy doesn't get that.

She doesn't seem get anything if it doesn't have to do with her.

Or me and her.

But I don't like her like that.

Even though I'm starting to get the feeling that she wants me to.

She waltzed out of her room at six fifty sharp, all done up, platinum blonde hair stick straight and shiny for reasons I don't understand. She even put on a whole new face which I also don't get 'cause normally she doesn't look like she's trying out for a Britney Spears music video. She b-lined straight for me and kept doing that weird thing where she leans in like super, super close whenever she talks.

But I couldn't follow the conversation 'cause of her damn clothes. How she found a pinker, shinier outfit than she had on earlier is beyond me, but it gave me a fucking migraine and boom, here we are.

My eyes are wigging out, my happy place is gone, everything's glowing, and my stomach's kicking my ass for downing those pills.

Life lesson of the day? Don't hang out with Roxy. Ever. Putting up with her physically hurts.

Watching her does too.

Her hair's popping out of her head like cat whiskers, her eyes are all scary, and she's screaming at Jersey and Indigo as loud as her little party lungs will let her.

Vicodin may drown out a lot of things. But Roxy isn't one of them.

"Alex and Indigo, if you don't come outside right now I--"

"Hold your horses, My Little Pony, we'll be there when we get there! Don't get you tanties in a pwist! "

Yep.

Jersey's wasted.

And pissed.

This is gonna be good.

"Look, frosh, if you've got something you wanna say to me you better open the door and say it to my face!"

"You got it, sunshine! Ready, Indigo?!"

The door swings open and Jersey's standing there in a skin-tight black dress that hugs her body in all the right ways. Her hair's a little more beach wavy than usual and spilling down over her bare shoulders. My eyes dart down to the hot cherry red lipstick on her lips and my jaw drops open.

Holy shit.

This is better than Vicodin.

She's better than Vicodin.

This girl might be the best high I've ever had.

I just hope the come down doesn't kill me.

Her eyes lazily make their way over to mine and my heart just about stops. She hasn't even said anything yet and I'm sweating through my clothes just thinking about what I'm gonna say. I wanna tell her how amazing she looks and how her outfit's got me thinking about flying her to Vegas and making her Mrs. Elias King.

But that's just the Vicodin talking.

I think.

"Okay party people, who's ready to rock and roll?!" Jersey says.

She struts into the middle of the quad and has every single guy on the floor's complete and undivided attention. Even the two idiots who were slobbering over Roxy are eyeing her and whistling at her which makes me wanna punch something. Neither of those goons are good enough to touch this girl.

I mean, I'm not either.

But at least I'll take care of her which is a hell of a lot better than anything those assholes are planning on doing.

The thing is, when it comes down to it, I'm probably no different than those assholes according to Kai.

But whatever.

I'm the best outta three.

Besides, even if I was like those guys and wanted to mess around with Jersey, I physically can't 'cause my nuts are fried.

See?

Best outta three.

"Ladies and gentlemen, attention on me please! While Ms. Alex is doing a great job as icebreaker--"

"Hell yeah I am!" Jersey says.

So cocky.

So into it.

"--Of course you are, but I'm the one who actually knows where we're going. So follow me to the club please! We're running late to all the fun!"

Roxy snaps her fingers and starts cat walking towards the stairs despite the fact that most of the Quad 3 crowd is still looking at Jersey.

Some part of me's proud of her--for standing on her own two feet, for not taking any of Roxy's bullshit, and acting like the rock-steady Jersey girl she used to be.

It's weird thinking that she's not like this when she's sober anymore.

She's smaller, less sure of everything, and lies to herself more than she did last year.

She's different.

Way different.

I just wanna know when everything changed.

And why.

"Earth to Elias, the wildebeest herd's on the move and if you don't stop staring at Alex you're gonna end up in the dust without her."

Indigo practically pops out of nowhere and points me in the direction of a very wobbly Alex stumbling after the group. I glance over at her only to see that she's transformed into a beach activist. Indigo's got seashells in her hair and is wearing some weird t-shirt dress thing with a beached dead whale on the front and "Their time is running out," printed at the bottom.

Yeah.

I'm not even gonna try to ask.

"I wasn't staring."

"Yes you were. I notice these things. And you're kind of obvious."

Fuck, really?

"She's hot, what do you want me to do?" I say.

I probably shouldn't have said that out loud but whatever. Indigo seems cool enough to keep a secret--if it even is a secret anymore--I'm pretty sure the whole concert thing blew my cover.

Oh well. Nobody knows who Jersey is but me and Indigo. As long as shit stays that way, I'm cool.

"Help her walk maybe? The spirits tell me that she's due for a fall down the stairs in five, four, three--"

Indigo doesn't even get to two before I bolt over to Jersey and grab her by the waist to keep her from killing herself. She trips backwards into my arms and her head flops onto my shoulder like a rag doll's.

My heart starts beating holes through my chest and as badly as I wanna blame it on the drugs, it's because of all her.

"Careful, Jersey! You could've hurt yourself."

Jersey's head rolls back to the point where her lips are way too close my neck. It takes saintly levels of restraint not to tip my head down a couple inches and kiss her the way I've been wanting to. But she's not mine to want anymore.

"You're so nice. I know why Dan likes you," she says.

Jersey stares up at me with dreamy-glazed eyes, smiles, and then kisses me on the cheek.

She kisses me.

It's slow.

And soft.

And I don't know what's happening anymore, and I'm pretty sure she doesn't know what's happening anymore because sober her would never do this kinda thing.

So I can't let drunk her do it either.

"Easy, Jersey. I don't think Kai would want you to do that."

Her head drops forward and a muffled laugh sneaks out of her lips.

"Kai doesn't want me to do a lot of things, Elias. But this--"

She lifts her mouth up to my ear till her breath brushes my skin.

"--this is okay. 'Cause he knows your--"

"You told him I was gay?!"

"Yes-indeedy-doo!!"

The buzz from Jersey's lips slips straight outta my body and sinks into the floor. I pop the pressure outta my fist just to keep myself from putting it through the wall.

It's one thing if she thinks I'm gay. I get it. I was an asshole of a boyfriend and left without saying anything.

So the whole her thinking I'm gay thing kinda makes sense.

If she walked out on me the way I did her, I'd probably be praying that she was secretly into chicks too.

But Kai thinking I'm gay is a different story.

The dude's totally gonna think he has the upper hand when it comes to Jersey 'cause---

--wait a second.

If he thinks I'm gay, then he shouldn't have a problem with me hanging out with Jersey.

Or talking to Jersey.

Or spending time with her one on one.

This could be excellent.

As in, how I get her back, excellent.

If I go with the gay thing for a little while, Jersey'll be cool with chilling again, Kai can't say anything, and once the time's right, I'll tell her the truth.

Will she be pissed that I lied?

Hell yes.

But I'm hoping we'll have bonded so much that she won't cut my balls off for lying, and eventually decide that she'll leave him for me.

#nextlevelgenius.

Maybe my mom should've popped a couple Vicodin when she was pregnant with me so I could be this smart all the time.

Hm.

Maybe that's why Tanner's so good at everything.

"Well, w-what did he say about it?" I ask.

Jersey regains her balance and manages to lean against me just enough to look like she's semi-walking straight.

"That he doesn't really believe you--"

Asshole.

"--but he believes in me so, it's fine. He just thinks I should be "mindful" around you, but that's just Kai being Kai."

No babe, that's just Kai being careful.

"Obviously, he's paranoid, Jersey."

She whips her head towards me with a megawatt smile lighting up her lips. I try not to blatantly stare at her but that lipstick doesn't wanna be ignored. Real talk.

"I know right!? If you weren't gay we couldn't do stuff like this!"

Jersey stumbles off me, grabs both my hands, and pulls them toward her chest.

Towards.

Her fucking.

Chest.

Holy shit her boobs are so much bigger than I remember. And softer. That's it. I'm gonna fail the gay test. Hard.

I mean, sure, I might be drugged up to the point where most of what's going on downstairs is numb, but geeze. The Little Kings doing the New Jersey mambo right now and I'm gonna have to run through the ABCs fifty times backwards and forwards just to keep from injuring the little guy.

Jersey steps forward and presses even more of herself against my palms.

"Aren't boobs cool?!" She asks.

Yes, Jersey.

They're awesome.

I wish you'd let me play with them until I'm too old to move my hands but obviously that's not gonna happen.

Yet.

#Lifegoals.

"Totally. Super perky too."

I squeeze them. A little bit. And it's great. They're great. And she should absolutely slap me because I'm being super creepy right now and I'm not nearly as ashamed of it as I should be.

But she just smiles and laughs this cute little drunk laugh that echoes through my chest and all the way up the stairwell.

My eyes drop to her lips again and for a second or two I forget that I can't just kiss her.

That I can't just pin her against the wall till she begs me to take her back to my room.

We're already halfway there.

Barely anybody's around.

She's got my hands all over her.

And I'm driving myself crazy just thinking about the things we could do.

The things I would do.

If there weren't any damn rules, I'd lose my hands in her hair, kiss her neck like I did last summer, and slide my thumbs a couple inches higher and touch her the way that used to make her fall apart.

I could change everything if I stopped acting like a pussy and just--

"Woah. Talk about tantric energy. Impressive, Elias. I leave you alone for five minutes and now your groping your way to nirvana."

Indigo stares straight at my hands, which are still very happily attached to Jersey's boobs, and my whole face heats up. I try letting go of Alex, but she slaps her hands on top of mine and keeps them glued to her lady lumps despite me.

"He is not groping me, Indigo! He's gay!"

Indigo lets out something between a laugh and snicker and then shifts her focus back to me.

"She thinks your gay? How'd that happen?"

I open my mouth to say something but Alex clomps up the stairs and steps between me and Indigo before I can get a word out.

"I don't think he's gay, Indigo. I know he's gay. But it's a secret! You can't tell anyone, okay?"

Jersey lifts her fingers to her lips, leans forward, and shushes Indigo a little too loudly. She tips off balance and I grip the sides of her waist to keep her from tripping backwards.

Indigo leaves her post at the top of the stairs without saying another word to Jersey. The second she gets to our step she looks straight at me, clicks her tongue a couple times, and wags her finger in my face.

"Love isn't love unless it's honest, Elias. You should be more careful. Karma's known to be unforgiving."

(Thank you guys for reading! Part 2 will be posted on Saturday! How'd you guys like the Audiobook for this chapter? We had a blast recording and can't wait to share the next one!)