Ceaseless (Existence Trilogy #3)(5)

“Hey, beautiful. You’re new here. I’d remember eyes like those if I’d seen them before.”

I let out a weary sigh and looked up at him. “Really? That’s the best you’ve got?” I asked raising an eyebrow.

His confused frown annoyed me and I stepped around him.

“Harsh! I like it.” Gee chuckled as we took our seats at the bar.

Miranda grabbed my arm and jerked me close to her, “Don’t look now, but Jay is here,” she whispered excitedly in my ear.

I knew Jay went to University of Tennessee, which was just one city over from us but I hadn’t expected to bump into him so soon, especially not on my first night in college. I started to look back but Miranda squeezed my arms tightly. “I said don’t look. He’s with a girl. They’re dancing really close and well I think she may be humping his leg.”

“What do you want to drink Pay-gan,” Gee asked in a mocking voice drawing my name out since I’d corrected her before.

“A Coke will be fine,” I said and turned my attention away from Miranda’s death grip on my arm to Gee, who was perched on a barstool as if she were actually old enough to order something more than a soda.

“You want Coke? Why am I not surprised?” She replied with a roll of her eyes. Her gaze shifted from me to something over my shoulder. “Well, shit.” She mumbled.

Curious, I turned around and my eyes met Jay’s. He was in fact dancing with some girl who just might be humping his leg. His hands were cupping her butt and he was whispering something in her ear or at least he was until he saw me. His surprised expression made me smile. I’m sure he had no idea I was at Boone. I hadn’t spoken to him since Wyatt’s funeral. I smiled and gave him a little wave and turned around to look at Gee. She was watching me closely as if she may need to tackle me to the ground at any given moment. What was her deal? She was just weird enough to make me nervous.

“You know him?” She asked, shifting her eyes from me to Jay’s direction.

Shrugging, I picked up the Coke the bartender placed in front of me. “Yeah, he used to go to my school,” I explained. I didn’t want to explain to her that he had also been my boyfriend for three years. She would probably embarrass me somehow with that information.

“He was her boyfriend for three years. They were inseparable.” Miranda chimed in with her juicy piece of gossip. I’d have to thank her later for that one.

“Hmmm… well Pay-gan, you need to decide what you want to do because here he comes,” Gee replied. She seemed annoyed.

Great.

“Pagan?” Jay’s surprised tone had me wishing I’d stayed in my dorm room tonight. I was not up for this right now. Especially with Gee watching my every move.

I took a deep breath, forced a smile on my face, and turned around to face Jay.

“Hello, Jay.”

“Hiya, Jay. Fancy meeting you here,” Miranda said with a giggle.

“ I can’t believe y’all are here,” Jay said, with a huge grin on his face. “What are you doing here?”

“We’re both at Boone,” I explained.

“Boone? Really? As in you’re living only thirty minutes from me?” The excitement in his voice surprised me. We’d been broken up over a year and a half now. It wasn’t like we were long lost friends.

“Yep. Moved in today,” Miranda said before taking a sip of her Shirley Temple. At least I hoped it was a Shirley Temple. Surely Gee hadn’t ordered her something with alcohol in it.

“Were you gonna call me? Clue me in that you’re right around the corner?” Jay’s focus was on me, but I was watching the blond who had been humping his leg. From the look on her face she wasn’t very happy. I watched her approach us and wrap her arms around Jay’s arm. I shifted my eyes from her angry glare to his suddenly tense one.

“So who are your friends, Jay Jay?” the girl asked, pressing closer against him.

I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing at “Jay Jay”. Miranda kicked me and I heard her muffled chuckle. She was getting a kick out of the nickname too.

“Uh, this is uh, “ he stammered.

I decided to save him from his moment of panic and smiled over at his new girlfriend. “Hello. I’m Pagan and this is Miranda. We went to high school with Jay.” I’d wanted to say “Jay Jay” so badly, but I refrained because I knew if I did, I would burst into laughter.

She reached up and ran her hand through Jay’s shaggy blond hair while keeping her eyes locked on me. Apparently I was the one she was least fond of. “Is that so? He never mentioned either of you.”

That was a little surprising. Since we’d broken up the summer he left to come up here for college. I figured he would have at least missed me a little. Guess I thought wrong. I shrugged, “Must not have ranked real high on his importance radar,” I replied.

I shifted my eyes to Jay’s and smirked. I was done with this fun conversation. I could see the frown puckering his forehead and decided to get away while I could. The last thing I wanted was for him or Miranda to delve into our past.

“It was nice seeing you again, maybe we’ll bump into each other again over the next three years.” I turned back around in my stool and let my fake smile dissolve. Now, it was his turn to walk away. We’d had our little weird moment. Time to move on.