tease my friends, especially when he isn’t here to defend himself.” I need to calm down . . . My emotions are running wild from being around Hardin and the way he’s hanging all over Molly in front of me.
“Okay, okay, I’m sorry. Besides, I do gotta give him some credit for that black eye he gave Hardin,” Zed says and wraps his arm back around me. Everyone excerpt Hardin laughs, even me.
“Yeah, good thing that professor broke the fight up, or Hardin would have gotten beat even worse by the loser—” Nate says and then looks at me. “Sorry, it slipped,” he says and gives me an apologetic smile.
A professor? Their fight wasn’t broken up by a professor—it was broken up by Hardin’s dad. Either Landon lied, or . . . wait, I wonder if these guys even know Hardin and Landon are soon to be stepbrothers. I look at Hardin, who now looks worried. He lied to them. I should call him out on it right now in front of everyone.
But I can’t. I’m not like him. I find it harder to hurt people than he does.
Except Noah, my subconscious reminds me, and I push her back.
“Well, I think the bonfire will be fun,” I say.
Zed looks at me with interest. “Maybe I will make an appearance after all.”
“I’m going,” Hardin adds randomly from the other booth.
Everyone turns to look at him, and Molly laughs. “Yeah, sure you are.” She rolls her eyes and laughs again.
“No, really, it won’t be so bad,” Hardin softly insists, earning another eye-rolling from Molly.
Hardin going because Zed said he was? Maybe I’m a better flirt than I thought.
The server brings out our food and hands me my burger. It looks great, except for the ketchup dripping off the side. My nose scrunches up and I try to wipe some of it off with a napkin. I hate sending food back, and I’m already having a hard enough time tonight. The last thing I need is to draw even more attention to myself.
Talk of the party tonight circles the booths while everyone digs into their wings and I pick at my fries. Eventually the server stops back and asks if we need anything else.
“No, I think we’re good,” Tristan starts to say, and she begins to walk away.
“Wait. She ordered her burger with no ketchup,” Hardin says loudly, and I drop a fry onto the plate.
The waitress looks at me with concern. “I’m sorry about that. Do you want me to take it back?”
I’m so embarrassed, all I can do is shake my head.
“Yeah. She does,” Hardin answers for me.
What the hell is he doing? And how did he even know it had ketchup? He is just trying to make me uncomfortable.
“Here, honey, give me your plate.” She smiles and holds her hand out. “I’ll bring you a new one.” I hand it to her and look down while I thank her.
“What was that?” I hear Molly ask Hardin. She should really work on her whispering voice.
“Nothing, she doesn’t like ketchup,” he simply says and she huffs before taking a drink of her beer.
“So?” Molly says and Hardin glares at her.
“So, nothing. Just drop it.”
At least I know I am not the only one he is rude to.
My new food sans ketchup arrives, and I eat most of it despite my lack of appetite. Zed ends up paying for my meal, which is both nice and awkward at the same time. Hardin’s annoyance seems to grow as Zed puts his arm around me yet again on the walk outside.
“Logan says the party is already packed!” Nate says, reading a text.
“You should ride with me there,” Zed offers, then frowns when I shake my head.
“Oh, I am not going to the party. Tristan is going to take me back.”
“I can take her back to her room since I drove,” Hardin says.
I almost trip over my feet at this, but fortunately Steph grabs hold of me and smiles at Hardin. “No, Tristan and I will take her. Zed can ride with us, too.”
If looks could kill, Steph would be collapsing on the floor right now.
Hardin turns to Tristan. “You don’t want to drive drunk on campus; the police are going to be looking for people to give tickets to because it’s Friday.”
Steph looks at me, waiting for me to speak up, but I don’t know what to say. I don’t want to be in the car with Hardin alone, but I don’t want to drive