Getting Schooled (The Wright Brothers #1)(21)

I had to walk a bit to get to Refill, but the vibrant energy of the city was doing me some good. No matter how much I wanted to stay home and sleep the day away, now that I was out, I actually did feel better. It was nearing ten o clock by the time I made it into Refill, and the dynamic was beyond hype inside. According to the bartender, Dani was taking a little break but would be back on stage in a few minutes. I ordered a cranberry vodka and sprite, and sipped it while I walked around, looking for familiar faces.

It didn’t take me long to find one.

I saw Olivia, sitting down at one of the elevated bar-height tables along the perimeter of the club. The room was dark, brightened every few moments by the flash of a strobe light, but those tables each had a little individual spotlight, thanks to the sconces on the wall.

She was grinning hard as hell – smiling bigger than I’d ever seen. As much as she came out, Olivia wasn’t really a party girl. She forced herself to do it to be seen. When we first met, I’d had to drag her out after one too many complaints about being bored with just doing work and school. She’d attached herself to me – going out when I did, getting her nails done at the same place, shopping where I did. She took that little push I’d given her and ran with it – hell, she even dressed better than me now. I didn’t mind it, but it bugged the shit out of Devyn. I just saw it as her blossoming.

And blossom, she had.

Her grown ass had been painfully shy about men when we met, but now here she was, half-shrouded in shadows, giggly pleasure illuminated on her face while some dude whispered in her ear and kissed on her neck. In public.

I shook my head, even though the sight brought about one of the very few smiles I’d been able to summon today. Student had unquestionably surpassed the master, because I was nowhere near bold enough for that.

I kept sipping from my drink as I weaved my way to her through the crowd. The emcee announced that Dani was about to get on the stage, and I wanted to be front and center for that. I could say hi to Liv first though.

“Olivia!” I called over the din of the crowd when I was a couple of feet away, and realized there was a rail separating me from the area with the tables. I would have to walk around to a short staircase to get to where she was. She looked up, and I waved, then wiggled my eyebrows at her as I cut my eyes toward the guy she was with, who was apparently a vampire and trying to suck her damn neck off.

Her eyes went wide when they landed on me, and I giggled, and nodded. “Busted!” I mouthed at her, and laughed. “Fast ass!”

That crazy wide eyed look still hadn’t left her face, but she slid her eyes away from mine and over to her new boy toy. Her lips moved – she said something, but not to me, and just as Dani Renee’s band played their first notes, he detached himself from her neck, turned around, and looked me right in the face.

My smile died on my lips, and I hopped that fucking railing with my drink still in my hand.

“Well this is cozy.” I stopped right in front of the table, looking back and forth between her and Grayson. “When exactly did this happen?”

“When you decided to stop being a good gir—”

“Shut the hell up,” I snapped at Grayson, who’d taken it upon himself to answer a question that wasn’t directed at him. “I’m not talking to you. Fuck you. I’m talking to the bitch that’s supposed to be my friend.”

I turned my scowl back to Olivia, who looked like she wanted to crawl in a hole and die. At that moment, I wanted that for her too.

“Reesie, I—”

“Don’t call me Reesie. Friends call me Reesie. It’s Reese for you.”

She swallowed hard, her eyes darting around like she was looking for an escape. “Okay. Okay. I… um… I didn’t mean for this to happen, I’m sorry! He just started coming to the library after you introduced us, and… and… ”

“And what? You slipped and fell on his dick? Come the hell on, Olivia! I mean… I know we aren’t best friends, but come on! I’ve never been anything but cool with you, and you do this?”

“Why are you so mad?” Grayson drawled, and when I looked over at him, he was wearing a dumbass smirk. “You barely wanted me anymore anyway. Consider this moving on… no harm done.”

“No harm done?! You could have given me something from this… ugh!”

I took a deep breath, calming myself from screaming for everyone to hear that Olivia had screwed a good 10% of the male population in our city. For one, she was within her rights to screw whatever single men she wanted. For two, that was her business, and unlike her, I wasn’t a grimy enough bitch to spread her information just because I was pissed.

Directing my voice at Grayson, I sneered. “Your corny ass better hope like hell that no harm done is true.”

He chuckled. “Your prissy ass isn’t going to do anything.”

“Keep thinking that,” I nodded, giving him an ugly smile, and then turned back to Olivia. “Let me give you one last little tip - I hope you don’t think you won some sort of prize with this fool. He did this shit to me? He’ll do the same to you.”

Finding the nerve from somewhere to get an attitude, Olivia scoffed. “But I’m not you Reese. You taught me some stuff, yeah, but you can’t teach what you don’t know… how to keep your man. I’m good.”