Learning Curve

Finn

We’re not even through the front door of the fancy Delta Omega house when I have to dodge the first elbow to the face. It’s not some crazy partygoer, though, but my roommate, announcing his presence like he’s a member of the royal family.

“Ace Kelly in the house!” he cries obnoxiously, garnering the shouts of an apparent fan club shortly after. I’m not surprised he’s popular—he’s charismatic and rich. But I am surprised by the number of people who already seem to know who he is within the first week of school.

With a roll of her pretty blue eyes, Julia steps around him, and I take that as a cue to do the same. When she smiles back at me, I’m reminded why Ace does nothing but talk about her. Her features are almost delicately feminine, and her eyes are a crystal-clear blue ocean that seem to go on for miles.

“Come on, Finn. Let’s go get a drink. You’re going to need it, living with Ace.”

I chuckle and follow her gratefully, not bothering with the tedious explanation of my general aversion to alcohol. It’s not that I’m righteous or sanctimonious or some bullshit—you just see it a little differently when you grow up with a mean-as-fuck drunk.

She shoves her way through a group of writhing bodies first, me following behind, and takes a cup of beer from the guys at the keg on the far side of the food bar. They eye her longingly, dicks perking in their pants like ears on a dog, and I find myself crowding her back possessively. Maybe I’m fucked in the head, but for some reason, I’m feeling protective of Ace and his feelings, even if he doesn’t realize them yet.

Because for all he says they’re just friends, I sense there’s more brewing beneath the surface. I’ve only known Ace for a week, but six out of seven cumulative days have been spent on the topic of Julia. A guy doesn’t talk that much about a girl without deep feelings being involved.

If I got paid a dollar every time he brings her up, I’d be a rich fucker too, and all my problems would be solved.

The tallest one of the drooling suitors is still an inch or two shorter than I am, so my back crowding makes him change the way he’s looking at her entirely. The determined scowl on my face may be another reason his hot-girl hope bubble has been popped, but Julia, thankfully, doesn’t seem to notice any of it.

She hands me the first beer and takes another. “Thanks,” I remark, relegating myself to the idea of just holding the cup until I can find somewhere to put it down.

Julia lets me turn her away from the two of them—which I finish out with a wink over my shoulder—and guide her back out into the living room through the crowd. She turns to smile at me gratefully when we’re not being absolutely choked by bodies anymore, and I actually return it. Just like Ace, she’s got an undeniable magnetism.

Ace comes bounding over, and I step aside to allow him the space to flail. Julia laughs, and against my will, I do too. He’s just that kind of guy.

“Oh, man,” he pouts. “You got beer without me?”

“Here,” I offer, holding my cup out. “You can have mine.”

Ace wraps an arm around my neck and pulls me toward him. “Aw, schnookums! You’re the best.” I shove him away jovially, and he laughs.

“You want me to go get you another one, Finn?” Julia offers.

I shake my head. “I’m good.”

Neither she nor Ace pushes the issue, and I allow myself to like them both a little more, despite my better judgment. It’s not that I don’t want the full college experience or that I don’t want to make any friends at all. I just have a bigger, conflicting goal while I’m here, and if Ace’s parents are friends with Ty Winslow, chances are good that Julia’s are too. And I’m not so sure they’ll like me after I eventually follow through with my plan to turn his world upside down.

Sure, it’s a half-baked plan at this point, but once I open the can of we-have-the-same-dad worms, there’s no way Julia and Ace will still want to be friends with me.

Because friends don’t hurt friends, and everything inside me wants to hurt Ty Winslow. I want to see the look on his smug, my-life-has-been-a-cakewalk face when he finds out we both have the same deadbeat dad. I want to see him feel an inkling of what it’s like to have our shitty father actually stay in your life and the kind of destruction that causes.

My phone buzzes in my pocket twice in two short bursts, and I pull it out to read the text. It’s from one of my younger brothers.

Travis: At tne Grto, Cver for me?

The Grotto is a really sketchy, unofficial club where underage kids in our town hang out because they don’t ID, and they can drink and screw around without the cops showing up. I find it creepy as fuck, since it’s in the catacombs where old New Yorkers are buried.

Drinking may not be my thing, but Travis and Jack—my younger twin brothers—can’t seem to get enough. Before I left for college, I was normally their DD, their protector, and their get-out-of-jail-free card. Frankly, keeping the two of them out of trouble has been a full-time job ever since they hit puberty.

Me: I’m at Dickson, Trav. You’re going to have to find someone else to cover for you while you’re at the Grotto. And for the love of everything, DO NOT DRIVE DRUNK.

Travis: Akl good. I wont drve.

“Fuck.”

“What’s wrong?” Ace asks, surprising me. His goofball act is absent from his face. Julia turns to us, attentive too.

“Nothing.” I shake my head and shove my phone back into my jeans. “Just one of my younger brothers getting into trouble like usual.”

He and Julia both let out huge exhales and nod simultaneously. My eyebrows draw together, but Julia rushes to explain. “We both have crazy younger siblings too. Though, my sister Evie is Taco Bell mild sauce compared to Ace’s brother, Gunnar.”

“Dude.” Ace runs a hand through his dark hair. “My baby bro is off his rocker.”

“More so than you and your dad?” I question with a knowing smirk. Ace doesn’t get defensive at all, instead nodding with wide eyes while Julia laughs herself sick.

“Tell him about Gunnar’s fourteenth birthday, Ace!”

“That crazy fucker paid off the window cleaning guys of our building to take him up to the 69th floor so he could stand outside our living room windows in his underwear with the words Birthday Boy painted on his chest.”

“And if that isn’t already crazy enough,” Julia chimes in, and the most adorable snort leaves her nose. “He timed it perfectly when Ace’s parents were throwing him a surprise party. Everyone was standing in the living room, waiting to yell ‘Surprise!’ but Gunnar was behind everyone through the windows.”

“Julia’s mom about had a stroke when Gunnar started pounding on the glass instead of coming through the door,” Ace states, smiling over at her.

“And your mom literally grabbed a butcher knife from the kitchen and threatened to cut his balls off if he didn’t get his feet back to pavement!”

“And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.” Ace laughs.

“How sure are you he wasn’t involved in the whole Titanic debacle?” I ask teasingly, making Julia snort beer through her nose.

Ace offers the sleeve of his suit coat to Julia without hesitation, adding, “I’m terrified for the day he starts college.”

“Me too. And your parents are going to be out of their minds. They’re worried about you, and you’re only a fourth of his crazy on a good day,” Julia teases. “The number of times your mom and my mom have texted me about you since we moved in to the dorms would make your nipple hairs stand on end.”

“What?” he questions, putting his hands over his nonexistent boobs out of reflex. “What the hell are they saying?”

She pulls her phone out of her purse and shows the screen to both of us. It’s a text conversation between Julia and Ace’s mom, Cassie.

Cassie: Is Ace still alive?

Julia: Yes.

Cassie: Is he planning on pranking Thatch back after that idiot showed up in Ty’s English class?

Julia: Also, yes.

Cassie: Son of a bitch. Maybe we should’ve sent him off to a college on the West Coast. Watch him for me, okay? Honestly, leash him if you have to. I’m not above leashing my kids.

Julia: I thought they only did that with toddlers with a run-into-traffic tendency?

Cassie: And? You’ve just described Ace, sweetheart. Anyway, I couldn’t send him to the West Coast because I need you together, and we both know your stage-five-clinger mother would’ve spent the next six months crying her eyes out if you were so far away.

Julia: Speaking of my mother, I think it would be REALLY great if you take her out for some drinks so she’s too busy to call and text me every 10 minutes.

Cassie: I’m on it, Jules. Love you, girl.

“Letting my mom secretly keep tabs on me? You’re a sneaky little turncoat, Julia.”

She narrows her eyes. “Like you’re not texting with my mom too.”

“Hey, I can’t help that Georgia and I are besties.” Ace smiles over at her like a guy who would lick the ground she walked on if she asked, and I silently wonder when he’s going to become aware of his feelings for her.

But when he wraps his arm around her shoulders and sways her playfully from side to side, I get the feeling that denial is his coping mechanism of choice. The two of them are in sync, and it’s not just because they’ve known each other forever.

“Hey, Scottie!” Julia exclaims across the room suddenly, startling Ace’s arm off her shoulders when she shoves her hand into the sky to wave. I turn slowly to look, though my heart is pacing anything but slow, and lay eyes on the girl who invited me here tonight in the first place.

She’s standing in the back of a rowdy crowd, but for some reason, I can see her perfectly.

Her long brown hair is pulled up in a fancy ponytail with loose strands curled around her face, and her fit body is covered in a tight black dress, a jean jacket, and black Converse sneakers. Her eyes shine in the DJ’s lights.

Fuck. She looks incredible.

She notices Julia first and then me, her gaze flicking theatrically in a double take. It takes a minute and several mini conversations of explaining herself, but eventually, she maneuvers herself away from the boisterous crowd that includes her douchebag boyfriend and the flirty blonde who sat beside him in our English class.

I can’t seem to find it in myself to look away as she closes the distance between us, no matter how much I know I should. Several idiots gawk as she crosses the room, but I’m not surprised. Scottie’s petite build and uniquely striking face are hard to resist, especially for a bunch of dudes with low impulse control.

When she arrives, her eyes on me, Julia smothers her in a hug so intense the two of them end it in giggles. Ace and I look on like a couple of schmucks, but Julia quickly includes us.

“Scottie, do you know Ace and Finn?”

“Yeah! The three of us have English class together,” Ace confirms. “Scottie here is the one who invited Finn tonight.” He waggles his eyebrows at Julia. “Remember…I was telling you how Finn has no friends except for the one girl—”

I knock the back of my fist into his stomach, a gentle warning, and he stops immediately. Julia smiles and laughs.

“I’m kind of sad your dad isn’t actually enrolling,” Scottie jumps in to tease, and Ace groans.

“Trust me, you’re not. He’s a caricature of a human.”

“Says the apple under the tree,” I say with a gravelly chuff.

Scottie’s eyes meet mine and then flutter to Julia and Ace too. “I didn’t think you were coming tonight…any of you. It got late.”

I tilt my head toward my three-piece-suit-wearing roommate. “Someone had a bit of a clothing crisis.”

“That wasn’t the only reason,” Ace counters, but someone yelling both his and Julia’s names steals his focus. A few seconds later with a brief excuse to us, the two of them are heading toward a guy I’ve only seen on ESPN before, Blake Boden. Evidently, Ace knows our star quarterback in a more personal sense.

“I’m glad you came,” Scottie says, her voice a mere whisper now that we’re alone.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” She nods, and a piece of hair falls in front of her face. My fingers reach out to tuck it behind her ear before I can stop them.

My stomach feels like a lead-filled helium balloon—simultaneously in my throat and my toes. Her eyes lock with mine for a long beat, the unspoken connection between us tethering just the two of us to a moment and making the crowd disappear.

But the contact is broken suddenly and violently, when a body barrels into hers, making her sway so hard she almost falls.

It only takes a second for me to realize it’s her boyfriend—a brutal reminder of how little business I have stealing moments with her at parties.

“Wha the fucks, babe?” he slurs. “You over here flirting with this dude in my face?”

“Dane,” Scottie says placatingly.

“She wasn’t flirting, man,” I correct, stepping closer to him. “Just saying hello.”

He tosses his head back on a laugh as he roughly wraps his arm around Scottie’s shoulders. “And what’s a friendly hell-o it was.”

Every bone in my body wants to get nose-to-nose with this drunk fucker and tell him to stop being so fucking aggressive with Scottie, but a loud cry across the room startles our attention. The flirty blonde from the back of English class is on the floor and holding her wrist with a grimace on her face. Several girls help her stand on unsteady feet.

Scottie shoves out from under Dane’s arm and runs toward them. Dane follows, and against my better judgment, so do I.

“We told you not to drink so much, Nadine,” a girl I don’t know says to the blond flirter, who’s actively crying now and still holding her wrist. “What if it’s broken? What’s that going to do to our season?”

“I’m an alternate this year,” Nadine grits out. “Scottie has my position covered, remember? So, what’s it even matter?”

“Nadine, you know how important you are to the team,” Scottie consoles, which is more than I can say I would do, given the way she’s behaved every moment I’ve been around her.

“Ugh, this shit is so boring now,” Dane complains. He grabs Scottie’s arm forcefully then, dragging her in the direction of the door with no warning. Her face flinches, and I step forward without even thinking. Next thing I know, I’m right in the middle of their mess again. “What the fuck? You just about ripped her arm off.”

“She’s fine,” he says with lazy, bloodshot eyes. “And she’s my fucking girlfriend. Not yours. Lay off.”

A potent mix of anger and adrenaline dumps into my veins, and I clench my fists at my sides at his complete lack of remorse and concern. This motherfucker. He’s just as vile as my deadbeat dad.

My vision tunnels, homing in on his stupid face, but a gentle hand on my shoulder pulls me back before I can shove that anger straight between his eyes.

I don’t even realize it’s Ace until he steps in front of me. He’s lucky I didn’t turn and swing on him.

“I’m Ace Kelly,” my roommate says, introducing himself to Scottie’s boyfriend. “You’re Dane, right?” Sticking out his chest, Dane unwraps his arm from Scottie so he can shake Ace’s hand. Julia steps into the hole he left, carefully pulling Scottie back from the staggering asshole and over toward me.

“You okay?” I ask just as another guy takes a spot at my back and says the exact same thing. When I turn to look, I’m expecting anyone but Blake fucking Boden.

Scottie shakes her head once and then again before finally smiling at both of us.

“I’m okay,” she says then, but I know that face—I’ve fucking lived it.

She’s anything but.