I hadn’t forgotten that he’d ghosted me during the summer and been kind of a dick so far this year.
“Hey, gorgeous,” he said before leaning close and giving me a kiss on the cheek.
I hadn’t expected either of those things—the compliment or the kiss—and I wondered how much he’d had to drink. Was he as drunk as Matt?
“Sorry again, Operation SunnyMac,” Matt slurred his words as he stumbled away, and I pressed my lips together to stop from giggling.
“New recruit?” I asked, assuming Matt was a new freshman.
“Transfer,” Mac corrected, and I nodded in surprise.
For whatever reason, I’d expected a transfer student to be a little less sloppy than a first-time freshman.
“Any idea what he’s talking about? The operation thing?” I tried to question, but Mac seemed distracted.
“Who cares?” He waved Matt off. “He’s trashed.”
“You look nice,” I said before I could stop myself, taking in the way his shirt pulled tightly across his biceps and shoulders. Freaking baseball players always had the best arms.
“You always look nice,” he fired back, and I felt my face get hot.
I was pretty shocked that we were standing face-to-face and not tearing each other’s throats out like we’d been doing all the other times before this one. And I’d been looking forward to—and dreading—this moment since he’d left that flower in my car.
“I like your hair.” His fingers reached out and grabbed some of my newly dyed silver strands, twisting them around as he stared.
At some point during the last two weeks, I’d found myself craving some sort of drastic change. My hair seemed like the easiest thing to control and manipulate, so I’d gone to the store, picked out a box of silver permanent hair dye, and done it myself, praying that it would look good. I had no idea how much I’d love it.
“The color really suits you,” he added.
I found myself at a loss for words. I—Sunny Jamison, who rarely got flustered to the point of being unable to speak—couldn’t find a single syllable to utter in this moment. I knew I was supposed to be angry with him still, but I was struggling to hold on to that particular emotion.
A loud crash caused us both to startle and break away from one another. We looked around, and Mac spotted the chaos before I did, his head shaking with his disapproval. Matt was on the floor.
“Shit,” Mac mumbled. “I gotta go handle that,” he said, giving my shoulder a quick squeeze. “Do not go anywhere,” he insisted before hurrying off and leaving me alone.
I wasn’t sure what to do. Should I stay put and wait for Mac to come back, or should I wander the house and see if I know anyone else here?
Feeling unsure and uncomfortable, I decided to go walk around instead of staying in one place like a loner with no friends.
Wandering a crowded house filled with drunk athletes on the prowl might have been a mistake, considering that I was doing said wandering alone, but at least I was sober. I got stopped every few feet by random guys offering me a drink. Instead of taking one from any of them, I kept moving, not stopping until I got into the backyard, where a pony keg sat, unattended. It was shocking that no one else was outside when this was usually the place to be at these parties.
I moved toward the steel barrel and poured myself a cup of …foam.
“It’s out,” a voice sounded from somewhere behind me, and I spun around quickly to see Colin stalking my way.
“Already?” I asked even though the answer was obvious.
“We might have started a little too early,” he said with a grin. “But you came! I knew you’d come,” he said before pulling me into a tight hug. “Your hair looks sick,” he said, and I was surprised that he could even see it in the dark.
I liked Colin. He was always so laid-back and happy, and the text messages from earlier had swayed my decision.
“Thanks. And, well, you did threaten to kidnap me if I didn’t show up tonight.”
“It was a necessary evil,” he said seriously, and I gave him the side-eye. “What? It was. It is. It’s pertinent that you and Mac work your shit out.”
“Ooh, pertinent, eh? Big word,” I teased.
“You have no idea what he’s been like lately,” Colin added, sounding stressed.
But he was right. I didn’t have any idea because I hadn’t freaking talked to or seen Mac since the morning he’d changed my