Beautiful Broken Rules (Broken, Series #1)(43)

“Hey, nothing has happened between him and I. You know that right?” I asked while grabbing at his face. He still didn’t budge and his mind was still in some faraway place, so I helped him out. I got off his lap and threw my t-shirt back on. When he still hadn’t moved, I walked out of the room. On my way out the door, I heard Jaxon talking to Cole, but I didn’t stick around to see what they were saying about me.

When I went back to the apartment, it was packed with football players, cheerleaders, frat guys and everybody in between. I ran down to the closet and changed into one of Quinn’s one-shoulder mini dresses. This one was a deep red and since it was Quinn’s, it was a little tight in the chest… perfect. As I was pulling my hair up, I noticed Jaxon’s message still on my hand. I doubt I’m his favorite right now.

An hour later, I was three margaritas into my night and there was no sign of Jaxon. I was in the kitchen playing bartender, as usual, with a hot guy I had never met before named, Gage. He was pretty hands-on and I didn’t mind, since he was helping me not to think about the fact that Jaxon couldn’t even look at me. There were a bunch of guys at the dining table playing a drinking game. Every once in a while, someone from the table would shout for more beer or liquor from me.

After about the third shout, Gage hollered back, “Shut the hell up and get your own damn beer, you idiots!” He smirked at me.

“Thanks, I always get suckered into being the bartender.” I smiled back. I noticed he took a final chug from his beer so I popped open a new one for him. Old habits die hard. I also decided to switch to beer, because the tequila was going straight to my head. “Do you go to our school, Gage? I’ve never seen you around.” I was pretty sure I would remember him, although he did look vaguely familiar.

“No, I go to Columbia University. I’m just out here visiting the little brother.”

“Wow, Columbia, what a way to empty the parents’ bank account.”

He shrugged like it was no big deal. I understand that going to college in southern California wasn’t close to being cheap, but I tried to work as much as I could tooffset those expenses.

“So who’s your brother, I probably know him.”

“Micah Woods, he’s a Sig Alpha.” Of course he was.

A couple of guys at the table started laughing and Garrett opened his big fat mouth. “Oh yeah, she knows Micah, all right,” he teased.

“Oh, Garrett, let’s not talk about the time we ‘got to know’ one another. I know forty-five seconds was probably an all-time high for you, but trust me; most girlswould prefer at least a minute,” I scolded.

Everyone at the table including Gage started hooting with laughter. They all had their heads thrown back and were slamming their bottles on the table. There was a chorus of cuss words and slaps on Garrett’s back.

“Yeah, yeah, Em, that was freshman year. Try me out again,” Garret laughed, taking the ribbing well.

I turned around pulling more bottles and cans out of their boxes to put them in the fridge for later. When I stood back up, Gage was right up against me.

“Let’s go dance,” he whispered into my ear. I thought he was hot, but I really didn’t want to do anything with him. Honestly, I wanted to know why Jaxon never came. I was almost tempted to go down the hall and ask him myself. Almost. I hated that I was missing him. That thinking is exactly why I grabbed Gage’s hand and pulled him out to the makeshift dance floor in our living room. I can’t allow thoughts like that. This is who I am, right here on this dance floor with Gage.

When we got to the middle of all the other dancing bodies, I turned toward Gage and lifted my hands above my head. I started dancing in his wandering hands to the fast beat of the song. When I turned to my left, I noticed Quinn and Cole were right next to us. I leaned over and bumped her with my hip. When she turned to look at me, she had a happy glazed-over look in her eyes. Cole didn’t even look in my direction; his face was stuck in the side of Quinn’s neck. They were already disgustingly cute.