Rich Prick – Tijan Page 0,111

Our first night here?”

Veronica thrust her drink in the air. “HELL YEAH, BITCHES!”

Angeline giggled.

We’d learn soon enough that that’s what Angeline did. She sipped on her wine cooler and giggled, a lot.

Veronica boomed and said bitches a lot. I kinda loved it.

Jade was clearly our leader.

After another drink for each of us (and a new wine cooler for Angeline), we got ready to go. Jade went and found the girls who’d been talking about the party, and they included us in their group. We walked from campus to a street down on Cain’s frat row.

The whole block was packed, and it wasn’t just one party. There were a few of them going.

A part of me was like, What am I doing? I should go back to the room and call Blaise. I should tell him I’m here. But the other part of me was like, This is college. I should embrace this, and hell yeah to me for not just eavesdropping on a party for once.

I was a mixed bag this evening.

I should’ve brought a wine cooler of my own. Though Jade had us covered. She had the serious party/tomboy look going, including a backpack full of drinks, and she was pulling it off glamorously. No joke. She didn’t care how she looked, but she still looked good—tight tank top, tight shorts, sneakers, and a backpack.

I followed along toward the back of the group, because five more girls had attached to us when they learned we were all from the same dorm. Was this normal? I had no clue. But it was the first weekend, so the normal social rules might not apply.

We went past the first party to a bigger party.

I eyed a few of the guys on the front lawn because they looked so much like Zeke, they could’ve been twins. I mean, the faces were different, but the douchebag, bully/joker, preppy partier vibe was the same. They were throwing beanbags at a piece of wood with holes in the middle of it, and they were doing pretty well. They kept yelling, “Hole in one!” Then they’d cheer with their fists in the air and salute each other, downing an entire red cup of beer. Or I assumed it was beer. They’d done this three times by the time we got to their sidewalk.

Then I caught the end of what a girl in front of me was saying, “...he, like, moved from New York to California or something? I don’t know, but Columbia was supposed to have him on their team. Something happened, and we got him on ours. He’s a big deal, I’m telling you.”

“How do you know this?” another girl asked.

“My brother’s a junior on the soccer team. He swears he’s never seen a player like this in person. This guy should’ve already been in Europe playing for one of their clubs.”

“Why isn’t he?”

The original girl shrugged. “I don’t know. My brother said something like his dad was the biggest douche ever not to let him go over there.”

“What’s his name?”

I knew. My stomach was tight, but also blooming in pride.

“Blaise something. He’s fucking gorgeous too.” She looked up at the party. “Keep an eye out. My brother said the soccer team likes to party with these guys. That’s how I knew about the party in the first place.”

Blaise could be here.

Blaise could be here!

I wasn’t nervous.

No. That was ridiculous.

For real, it was seriously ridiculous.

But… I did have a bad case of déjà vu. Blaise was already the popular guy.

I was once again on the outskirts.

All I needed were some woods and to get caught spying on a girl going down on him, and I’d be back in my social loner hell.

The butterflies and knots were all in a flurry inside me. They were spring-boarding off my intestines.

No.

Blaise got serious this month.

Therapy. Soccer. He’d said that’s all he would do, and he was honest. He was always bluntly honest.

He’d told me he loved me, and the therapy was for a reason. Because he loved me. Because he didn’t want to be a risk for me.

He did that for me.

I did not need to be nervous or scared.

This was not high school.

He had changed. I had changed.

We were good. We would be good, and besides—

I’d been so busy giving myself a pep talk that I’d missed how we’d walked past the guys on the front lawn. We’d gone up the front stairs and were now inside the house, the music almost deafening, and Jade took her leadership