Crushed - Pamela Ann Page 0,70

frazzled woman with so much adrenaline they’d think I was high on something. Trust me, I was borderline hyperventilating and a little all over the place after seeing that snake.

Therefore, after fifteen minutes of everything being back to normal, I started the engine, heading to go see him. It took another seven to get there, a minute to get out of my car before reaching the front door, and a second to realize that the house was jam-packed with people. What happened to the laid back atmosphere I left earlier? I thought with utter frustration as I plowed myself through the crowd.

It wasn’t intentional, more like a bad habit I couldn’t help, but I scanned the crowd for Brody. My intention of coming back here was to speak to him, but at least I could have been subtle about it. What the heck, though? Who cared anymore? After seeing Rob, I simply wanted someone to soothe me, my soul, and Brody was the only person who had the power to do just that. With him, nothing mattered. With him, I was cocooned in his safe embrace.

After thirty minutes of not seeing him, I finally cornered Cooper. “Have you seen Brody around?”

“Hmmm … he’s around,” he said.

“But he’s not here.” My eyes and body would surely give me a telltale sign if he was around. None of my senses had gone off, however, so I had to know where he was.

He pondered a moment as he looked at me intently before finally responding to me again. “I think he’s still upstairs…”

I stared at him, knowing what he was thinking. Cooper wasn’t necessarily vague unless, of course, for a reason—such as covering one of his friend’s asses, which I thought was the case here since he was being such a pain about giving me more information.

“He’s with someone, isn’t he?” I pressed, knowing full well what the answer to the question was and still feeling inclined to say it.

“You didn’t hear it from me.” He shrugged before he gave me an “I’m sorry” look.

I knew it, yet my heart couldn’t fucking take it. The very idea of him doing the nasty in his bedroom made me want to puke. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to run out of there or go up to his room to confront him. Regardless, I knew it wasn’t my right to demand anything from him. I specifically made things clear between us. He was a free to do as he pleased.

And just when I thought things couldn’t get uglier, Joanna came downstairs, wearing his jersey, boldly emblazoned with his last name and number.

God, that hurt.

If I had thought I was hyperventilating before, I was about to have a heart attack just about now as I scrammed towards the door, seeing red everywhere.

“Leaving the party early?”

Dammit. How in the world did he manage to spot me amongst all these people? Probably because I resembled a bat-shit crazy woman out of hell.

Not daring to glance at him, I responded without pausing my steps. “Um, yeah. I have a headache.”

“I have some Tylenol if you’d like,” he kindly offered as he followed behind me.

Fuck Tylenol. I needed something harder than that so I could pass out and forget everything that had happened tonight.

I gritted my teeth. “No, I’m good. I’m just going to head back home.”

“Are you sure?” he pressed. “You look really pale.”

Who wouldn’t be? Joanna was wearing his jersey. There was nothing left to be said. That had said it all.

“I’m fine.”

“Good. Let me walk you to your car.”

“I need to walk.” Fuck the car. I needed to sweat this off, or I would crash due to this frantic state of mind I was in.

“Then let me walk you to your house.”

I wanted to growl at him to leave me alone and go back to Joanna, but even that, I couldn’t do, because I couldn’t look at him. I just couldn’t. I didn’t trust myself enough.

“It’s fine. There’s no need for that.”

“Please, don’t argue with me. If you’re walking home this late, I need to make sure you’re going to get there safe.”

Fuck. Okay, whatever. He could follow me or go back into the house to fuck Joanna, whatever. I didn’t care about any of it.

Fast pacing, I tried to freeze him out by not speaking to him. Although he probably could guess where my thoughts were going, he didn’t have the decency to put any of them to rest or to even openly say it without