Scoring Wilder(26)

My plan was to avoid that conversation for as long as I could.

We parked a few houses down and linked arms to head inside. The house was supposed to be less crowded than it was for the previous party. Most of the underclassmen girls were staying in or heading to parties around the ULA campus. Becca and I got invited through my old club soccer friends… and Josh. Blech.

There was music blaring from an invisible sound system, and the second we walked in, I relaxed. I didn't immediately see Josh or Liam, so for now I could pretend like they didn't exist.

"Kinsley!"

I turned toward my name and saw the group of soccer girls that had invited me.

"Hey everyone! This is Becca," I introduced her, and then we stayed in their group for a while, catching up and chatting about practices. A few of them were playing soccer for colleges around the area, so we’d play them sometime this season.

"I need a drink," Becca whispered in my ear.

"I'll come with you," I said to her, and then turned to the group. "We'll be back in a little bit, we're going to go find drinks!"

I let Becca lead me through the crowd as I kept my eyes peeled for Liam or Josh. We hadn’t found either of them by the time we reached the backyard, but I was too distracted by the fact that it looked like an adult Disneyland back there. In the center there was a giant pool with couples floating around and a group playing volleyball. To the left of the pool there were half a dozen tables set up for king’s cup and beer pong, but the games hadn’t started to pick up yet.

We wandered around until we found the keg station. There was a guy manning it that smiled wide as soon as we strolled up.

"Ladies," he said, pulling out two red cups for us.

"Just a little bit for me," I motioned with my pointer finger and thumb.

"Aww, that's no fun," he pouted and started to fill my cup.

"I'm driving," I shrugged.

"Is this your job for the entire night?" Becca asked.

He shot her a confident smile. "I get a break in a little bit. Do you two want to play beer pong?"

I wanted to say no, but I could tell Becca was interested in the guy. "Sure, why not," I shrugged, giving Becca a knowing glance.

"Awesome. I'll meet you two over there. I'm Jace by the way," he said before filling Becca's cup.

We introduced ourselves and his eyes lit up.

"From the ULA soccer team?" he asked, and I could see Becca blushing.

"Yeah, we're freshmen on the team," I mentioned.

He looked a bit baffled. "Does Liam know you guys are here?"

His question annoyed me. What did it matter? We were allowed to go to parties. He didn't own the place. "I haven't seen him yet, so probably not," I answered with confidence. "We'll be over by the beer pong tables."

He walked away to help more people and I tugged Becca's hand, accidentally sloshing some of her beer onto the front of her dress.

“Oh, oops!”

“Kinsley!” Becca cried, looking down at the spill. “This is a freaking white dress and now you can completely see my boob!”

I tried not to laugh. “Becca! Why aren’t you wearing a bra!?”

“I took it off! This dress doesn’t need one!” I didn’t want to make her feel more self-conscious, but yeah, her boob was on full display. Oh god, people were doing double takes as they walked by. I tried to fan it with my hand, but that only made it worse.

“Welp, now everyone can also see my nipple!” she cried, loudly enough that the people around us peered over to check for themselves.

“Okay, this is okay.” I unzipped my purse and dug around inside until I found a leftover bib from a lobster restaurant I’d gone to last summer. Yes, sue me. I don’t clean out my purse. What, are you so perfect?

“Here,” I said, tearing the package open and handing it to her.

“Why the hell do you have this?” she asked, already tying it around her neck. The front said, “Wait until you taste my crustaceans…”

“I think it looks like—like a trendy necklace or something,” I said.

She glared up at me with her hands lying limply by her sides, and then I couldn’t hold back the laughter any longer… she just looked so pitiful.

“You know, I actually thought Jace was cute!”

I glanced behind her to check him out. Meh, he was decent. Oh no, why was he heading our way? Was his shift already up?

“Ah! Just wear the bib and say that you—”

“Hey ladies, this is Paul, he’s going to be my beer pong partner…” His voice started to fade out at the end as Becca turned around and he got an eyeful of her bib.

“What’s with the lobster thing?”

Becca’s smile was pulled across her face so awkwardly that it made me squirm. “Oh, hah! This is my beer pong bib! Everyone wears them down in Texas.”

Paul eyed her wearily. “Seriously?”

She gave a strained laugh. “Yeah, BIG trend down there.”

I cringed as each team took their positions on opposite sides of the table. The guys generously allowed us to take the first shot, but it didn’t matter. We were about to get our asses handed to us. I was coordinated with my feet, but somehow I’d never fully mastered hand-eye coordination.