Waiting on the Sidelines (Waiting on the Sidelines #1)(57)

“Thanks for inviting me; this is pretty awesome,” Tyler said, startling me back to the present. “We don’t do anything like this in Chandler. I mean, we party… but it’s usually in someone’s back yard.”

We laughed a bit. I introduced him to Sienna and he shook her hand. Uncomfortable by his good looks, she giggled a little uncontrollably. It was cute to see my put-together, level-headed friend a little flustered.

I brought Tyler over to the pickup truck and offered him a drink, a little excited that he just grabbed a bottle of water. I didn’t think I could handle more than Reed being drunk tonight. We all sat on the edge of the truck bed for a bit as I pointed out various people at the party to Tyler and explained to him the inner-workings of the football status circle in Coolidge. Who was in, who was out, why the cheerleaders were all drooling over certain seniors who were looking to sign huge contracts with Division I schools, why we were historically so good at football, how the entire town shuts down on Fridays. Pretty much everything except our amazing quarterback, and thoughtfully, he didn’t ask anything about it either.

A good hour had passed with Sienna, Tyler and I making up conversations for the various people at the party. Sienna and I had a good time watching the various forward girls from our school come over and feign interest in us just so they could talk to Tyler. He was always polite, but was also sure to tell people that I had invited him here.

Every so often I stole a glance to the black Mustang. Reed was still there. Still drinking. He was hanging out with a couple of the seniors on the team now, trying to keep up with rap lyrics to some song they were blasting. I didn’t recognize it, but every now and then it had the word ‘whore’ in it. I knew because all three of them would sing it loudly and start laughing.

As the night grew longer, Reed and his drunken crew were getting louder and more obnoxious, but they still stayed in their corner. Sarah had finally dragged the three of us out into the center of the party. She said she wanted to dance more, but I think she wanted to show off some of her curvier moves for Tyler. Amazingly, he wasn’t interested. He was instead watching me…which, while it was nice to have positive attention after having my heart smashed, it also made me anxious, like a time bomb was waiting to go off.

Sarah made Sean put on her favorite song again and made us do the dance routine that she had drilled into my mind. Sienna joined in to make me more comfortable and we were soon once again lost in the silly happiness of it. When the song ended, Tyler started clapping, I think to make me feel better about how embarrassed I was that Sarah was making me show him my poor dance skills.

When my back was to him, though, his clapping was soon joined by someone else’s. I turned to see Reed clapping, with a bottle tucked in his arm so he could use both of his hands. His eyes were blood red, and his face was puffy. He had his cargo shorts on and a long-sleeved gray T. He was messy and unshaven. I had never seen him like this, and it made me feel sad.

“Wooooooo whooooo, yeah baby!” Reed slurred. Sean was walking up behind him, trying to grab his arms to get him to stop clapping, hushing him. He was embarrassing himself. “No, Sean. That was something. We should celebrate it, woooooooo! Come on everyone, give them a round of applause. Our girls can dance, woooooooo!”

I turned to Sienna, my eyes tearing up a little and I just grabbed her hand. I was so uncomfortable from the attention he was drawing. I wanted him to stop, but he wasn’t going to.

“That’s right…our girls can dance. Let’s celebrate!” he flung his head back gulping a half-bottle of beer at once, then throwing the bottle off into the brush behind him. He spun around on his heels, falling backwards a little and taking a minute to right his balance.

“Reed, come on man. Let me get you home,” Sean said, trying to get his friend to stop.

“I’m fine, Sean. Come on, let’s celebrate,” he said, walking over to one of the seniors he was hanging out with, grabbing his bottle of hard liquor. He raised it over his head. “Let’s toast. Let’s toast. Have you heard? I’m going to be a daddy! Woooooooooo, f*ckin’ A! That’s right, wooooooo!”

He took a big drink, wiping his mouth across his sleeve when he was done, holding my gaze the entire time. I was frozen, and couldn’t help the single tear I let slide down my cheek. “That’s right, Nolan. I knocked Tatum up…” he slowly walked closer to me, and the smell of him was making me sick. He tilted his chin up, turned sideways to take another drink, and kept his eyes on me. “So whatcha gonna do about that, huh? How does that fit into your perfect world?”

His eyes flared a bit. He took two fingers and pushed them into my chest, pushing me off balance a little. This pissed Sarah off, who broke our gaze when she yelled at him: “Stay the f*ck away from her, Reed. Knock this shit off. You’re drunk, and you’re being an *!”

Reed just started laughing as he turned around in a slow circle, taking in the crowd of onlookers, who were several dozen now.

“Reed?” I said so quietly I wasn’t sure it was out loud. It was enough to jolt him to turn right back into my face, the stink of the alcohol on his breath stinging my eyes.

“Nooooooo-laaaaaan,” he said in a mean spirited tone, raising his eyebrows and mocking me, but for what who knew.

Suddenly Tyler was between us, and he was pushing me back. “Hey, man. Don’t talk to her like that,” he defended.