2.

Lori

Travis scrambled off the mattress the second the blinding fluorescent light hit his eyes, tossing the sheets aside before my shock frozen mind could even begin to comprehend the nightmare unfolding before me.

“Lori... babe... wait, please!” He stammered out, his voice laced with frantic panic as he stood there completely naked, using his hands to clumsily shield his lower body. “It’s not what…”

“It’s not what I think?” I snapped, cutting him off before he could even finish the cliché excuse.

I forced my tear blurred eyes to look past his shoulder toward the bed, desperate to see the face of the girl he had chosen over me. My heart dropped straight into my stomach, and a wave of hot fury roared through my veins when I met her gaze.

Elena was staring right back at me with a lazy, triumphant smirk plastered across her flushed face.

Elena was the captain of our varsity cheerleading squad. She is a ruthless, snobbish bully who had made my life an absolute living hell from the very first week of my freshman year. She had spent months putting me down, mocking my routines, and treating me like garbage. And now, she was sitting completely naked in my sheets.

“You literally swore to me an hour ago that you were going to tell the entire campus about us tonight, Travis!” I choked out, my throat tight as I fought with everything in me to sniff back the hot tears stinging my eyes. “And instead, you’re in my bedroom, fucking my worst enemy on my own damn bed?!”

Elena let out a soft, amused scoff, swinging her long legs over the side of the mattress with zero shame as she and Travis began frantically searching the floor for their discarded clothes.

I couldn’t stand the sight of them for another single second. The stench of sex, cheap liquor, and betrayal filling my room made me physically sick. I turned on my heels and sprinted out of the bedroom, slamming the door shut behind me.

I rounded the corner of the hallway and nearly plowed straight into Jessica, who was holding two red cups. “Woah, Lor! What’s the rush? Where are you—?”

I didn’t say a word. I shoved past her, ignoring her confused shouts as I wove through the crowded living room, pushing my way through bodies until I burst through the front door and hit the night air.

The icy breeze slammed directly into my face, making me gasp for breath as I stood on the porch. My chest heaved violently, but the fresh air did nothing to quench the explosive rage ripping through my organs.

Without thinking, my feet began moving, and I took off running down the dark campus path. I had no idea where I was going, and my mind was far too drunk and chaotic to navigate properly. But I was far too angry and far too deeply humiliated to stay anywhere near that dorm.

I needed to put as much physical distance between myself and Travis as humanly possible. I desperately needed to numb the agonizing betrayal burning through my chest, to wake up from this waking nightmare, and to erase the image of his hands on Elena from my brain forever.

The dam broke, and hot, heavy tears began streaming down my flushed cheeks. I didn't bother wiping them away, letting them flow freely as my lungs burned with every frantic step.

After ten agonizing minutes of mindless running, my legs finally gave out. I stumbled to a harsh stop in front of an off campus dive bar, leaning my hands against my knees as I gasped for air, my whole body trembling with sheer exhaustion. Realizing my aching legs couldn't carry me a single step further, I pushed open the wooden door of the bar and slipped inside.

The interior was dimly lit, filled with low hums of conversation and soft rock music. I walked on unstable legs over to the central counter and collapsed onto a tall leather barstool.

The bartender, an older man with a silver beard and a clean white apron walked over to my side, wiping down the wood with a rag. “What can I get for you tonight, beautiful girl?”

“Give me the strongest drink you have available,” I demanded through seethed teeth.

I needed to drink until every single trace of clarity vanished. I needed to drown my thoughts until the image of Travis and Elena in my bed was completely burned out of my head.

“Strongest drink?” the bartender repeated, his thick eyebrows pulling together in a suspicious frown as he evaluated my disheveled hair and tear stained face. “That would be our top shelf rye whiskey.”

“Great. Bring me the whole bottle,” I demanded flatly.

“Hmm...” was all the bartender muttered, letting out a low grunt as his eyes flicked past my shoulder to exchange a subtle, knowing look with someone sitting further down the counter.

Curious, I turned my head to see who he was looking at and my breath hitched instantly in my throat.

Sitting just two stools away from me, casually swirling a glass of amber liquid in his hand, was no other than Lucas Miller.

Our eyes locked in the dim lighting, holding each other's gaze for what felt like an eternity but it was just a split second.

If Travis was the golden boy of the varsity football team, Lucas was the undisputed king of the ice.

As the elite captain of the university hockey team, he was easily the most famous, devastatingly handsome, and untouchable athlete on campus. A notorious playboy whose name was constantly whispered in the cheerleader locker rooms.

“Isn’t an entire bottle of raw whiskey a little too intense for a gorgeous girl like you to be knocking back alone?” Lucas asked casually, his deep voice breaking the silence.

A slow, dangerous smirk spread across his sharp jawline as his dark eyes gave me a lazy, deliberate once over as he checked me out.

A sharp breath caught in my lungs, total shock paralyzing me at the fact that Lucas Miller was actually talking to me.

I stared back at him, unable to look away, as his dark, piercing gaze held mine, promising a dangerous kind of distraction I was suddenly more than willing to take.