“We’re gonna hit the dance floor, you coming?” she asked, the excited smile on her face not wavering.
Carmen nodded, flashing her friend a smile of her own. She then turned towards Asa. “You joining us?”
He snorted, stifling another laugh. “I can’t dance to save my life. You go ahead.” He smiled at her in reassurance, ignoring the small flash of worry he felt right in the centre of his chest as he watched her go with the other three girls.
He didn’t feel like smothering her by hanging around too closely during the one time she wanted to let loose and just have fun.
After standing there for a few more minutes and making sure she was all right with her group of friends, he turned around and started heading further into the house, deciding to find his own group of weirdos to hang out with.
A small sigh fell past his lips as he pushed his way through dancing bodies, silently wishing that tonight would provide Carmen with that sense of freedom she was looking for, and hoping against hope that his demons didn’t find their way to her tonight.
Carmen had been through enough, and she didn’t need to start paying for his mistakes, too.
46.
Kiss Me Right
Asa and Wyatt were laughing hard with a couple of other guys as Hayden told them about a prank that had gone terribly wrong last Halloween.
“You know,” Wyatt said, leaning into Asa’s side so that Hayden wouldn’t hear him. “He’s a pretty happy drunk. I forget he always has a stick shoved up his—”
“I can hear you, asshole!” Hayden yelled from where he was sat, causing Asa and some of the guys to snicker.
Wyatt just raised his hands in surrender, leaning back in the beanbag with a sheepish smile. “You know that somewhere deep down I love you,” he said smoothly.
“I bet.” Hayden snorted.
Asa leaned back in his chair, a lazy but content smile on his face because the night seemed perfect so far. He didn’t know the last time things had gone so well without it being interrupted by something terrible happening, but he was trying not to let his wandering thoughts tamper with his good mood.
He was, however, beginning to get thirsty, so he pushed the chair back and stood up. “I need a drink,” he said, flexing his arms as he rose. “Please tell me there’s something that’s not spiked.”
“Yeah, there’s a white icebox down in the kitchen,” one of the guys within earshot called out. “All canned soft drinks.”
Asa shot a grateful smile towards the guy as he walked past. “Thanks, man.”
He stepped into the marbled kitchen, stopping in his tracks as his eyes searched for the icebox. He found it easily, considering it was pretty huge and propped up against the corner of the pantry cupboards.
Opening the box, Asa found a few unpacked cartons of fizzy drinks sitting between the pile of ice cubes. He pulled out the Pepsi pack and placed it down with a heavy thud on the counter, kicking the lid of the icebox so it fell shut. Despite the number of times Asa had used his hands to throw punches hard enough to break noses, he couldn't seem to tear the goddamn polythene of the sealed carton.
“Joder!” he swore under his breath, growing extremely frustrated as the only damage he’d done so far to the packaging was a few dents.
There was an impatient sigh from next to him and before he could turn around, an arm shot out and yanked the carton from Asa’s grasp.
“Couldn’t have used a fucking scissor,” Hunter muttered under his breath as he easily ripped off the tightly-packed polythene. Grabbing one of the cans from the pack, he shoved it into Asa’s chest, sending him stumbling back due to the force.
Asa blinked at the carton that Hunter had opened within a matter of seconds, then looked down at the drink in his own hands. “You know...” He shifted his eyes from the drink to Hunter. “Only you can pull off helping someone out and being a goddamn dick at the same time.”
“I wasn’t helping you out. I was getting impatient of waiting for you to open the stupid thing because I wanted one myself.”
Asa raised a brow at Hunter’s empty hands. “So where’s your drink then, if you weren’t really helping out?”
Hunter’s jaw ticked, and he forcefully wrenched a can from the pack for himself, which caused the rest of the cans to tumble over and fall, the sound of it muffled by the music.
Asa just shook his head in exasperation and kicked open the icebox, dropping all the extra cans into it before shutting the box.
“And since when do you even attend parties?” Asa furrowed his brows. “The last one you came to was around three months ago.”
“You keeping track of my extracurricular activities, San Román?” Hunter cocked a brow, juggling his can of soft drink in the air.
“No,” Asa shot back. “I just no longer had to keep looking over my shoulder, wondering when you’d show up and ruin the night for me whether it was something you’d say or do, like another round of punches.” Asa’s grip on his drink tightened. “I preferred the punches over the words, by the way. The punches healed.”
Something flashed across Hunter’s eyes, but it was gone before Asa could take in another breath of air. He seemed like he was struggling to say something. It wasn’t that he opened and shut his mouth repeatedly—no, Hunter was more composed than that. But there was a tensed air about him in the way his shoulders were squared and his mouth was pressed into a
