CHAPTER 12

JAYDEN’s POV

The party was already in full swing by the time I finished getting ready.

Music pounded through the walls of the dorm, voices echoing from down the hallway. People laughing, shouting, as the alcohol had already taken over them. I grabbed my phone and wallet before glancing toward the bathroom.

“Are you done yet, Princess?” I called out to Zander, waiting for him to finish preparing.

“Don’t call me Princess, asshole?” Zander shouted out from the bathroom

The door finally clicked open and for a second, my brain completely stopped working.

Zander stepped out, adjusting the sleeve of a black lacey shirt with pearls decorating its neck and they hugged his arms before disappearing beneath fitted leather pants. The fabric revealed just enough of his skin to make looking away impossible. His silver necklace rested against his collarbone, a few rings decorated his fingers, and dark eyeliner framed his eyes perfectly.

His lips had the slightest tint to them and his hair was styled just enough to look effortless. He looked… dangerously beautiful and I couldn’t even look away.

He frowned.

“What…..? Do I look that bad?” He asked,

I blinked.

“Nothing.”

“You’ve been staring at me for like one minute.”

“I have not.”

“You literally have.”

“I was thinking.”

“With your mouth open?”

“Shut up.”

A smile tugged at the corner of his lips.

“That’s what I thought.”

He brushed past me, and a faint scent of his cologne lingered in the air and I swallowed.

“How does someone even look this beautiful?” I muttered under my breath, making sure he doesn’t hear me.

I shook the thought away before it could settle.

“It’s just makeup,” I muttered to myself.

“What was that?” he asked.

“Nothing.” I replied almost immediately.

We left the dorm together and as usual, we kept bickering over directions, argued over whether pineapple belonged on pizza, and somehow ended up laughing by the time we reached the house.

The moment we stepped inside? It was full blown chaos.

Music blasted from every corner of the room. People danced on tables. Someone nearly spilled a drink on me before apologizing and running off.

“Jayden!”

I barely had time to react before someone threw an arm around my shoulders.

“There you are!”

Another person shoved a cup into my hand and a girl I vividly recognized from my sketch class smiling and walking towards me. Before I knew it, I was being asked if I was up for a threesome.

Zander stood near the snack table by himself.

He looked really lost and fed up. For a second, I considered walking over to keep him company because these guys around me were beginning to irritate me.

Then someone pulled me back into another conversation.

By the time I looked again, he wasn’t alone. An older guy who was definitely not a student stood beside him trying to make him smile and talk?

He looked to be in his late twenties, and he was dressed far too formally for a college party. I’d be lying if I said he wasn’t attractive as fuck.

Zander laughed and that pulled me back to the party. What the fuck did the dude possible say that could make Hades smile the way he was smiling. Thinking about this made something in my head switch.

I frowned.

The guy leaned closer and said something in his ear.

Zander smiled again and my stomach twisted.

“Who the hell is that?” I said to myself.

I didn't care about what he did, so I ignored them and started kissing this guy who’s been trying to get in my pants for the last few minutes while holding the brunette next to me, and when I was finally getting into it, I noticed the man gesture toward the back exit.

I turned away from them and continued kissing and switching between the blonde and the brunette. When I opened my eyes and eventually looked around, I didnt see Zander anywhere.

"Where's my roommate?" I asked. 

The blonde replies first and casually tells me he saw him leaving with some older guy while rubbing my dick with his ass.

My body goes cold and my raging hard on immediately goes soft. "For fucks sake! Now I have to go check what he's up to out there."

I had to leave the guy who had his tongue down my throat. “I’ll be back.” And he of course he didn’t bother questioning me but I could faintly here him groan in annoyance. Ipushed through the crowd and slipped out the back door, listening as the music became muffled and faded behind me.

The alley was dimly lit and I spotted them almost immediately. The older man had Zander backed against the brick wall. One hand rested against the wall beside Zander’s head and the other was on his waist.

Everything inside me snapped immediately.

“What the fuck are you doing?!” The man turned to look at me, then proceeded to fucking ignore me?! just as he was about to place his lips on Zander’s, I grabbed the front of his shirt and slammed him into the wall.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing to him?” I yelled like an actual maniac.

My fist connected with his jaw and he stumbled with how much force I hit him with.

“You sick bastard!”

“Jayden!”

Zander grabbed my arm.

“Get away from him!”

I shoved the man backwards.

He cursed under his breath before stumbling away into the darkness, disappearing without another word.

My breathing was ragged with my heart hammering against my ribs.

I turned to face Zander who was visibly shaking with an uneven breathing.

His eyes looked… frightened.

Relief should’ve been the first thing I felt after this but instead, anger immediately enveloped me.

“What the hell were you thinking?”

He blinked at me in confusion.

“What?”

“You followed some random older guy into an alley?”

“I—” He tried to say something,

“Are you still this desperate to get fucked?”

The words came out before I could stop them.

“You seriously never changed huh?” I shouted at him. “Wasn’t Professor James old enough for you?”

His lips parted and closed back like the words he wanted to say were stuck. The color drained from his face.

The tears gathered so quickly in his eyes that it was Impossible to miss them.

“Jayden…..” His voice was barely a whisper. “You don’t know the whole truth.”

Silence.

“I really thought…” He sniffed and then something changed,

“I really thought you’d finally changed.” and tear rolled down his cheek.

“I thought maybe…” he swallowed hard before he continued, “…maybe we could actually be friends and let go of whatever grudge we might have had.

My chest tightened.

“I guess I was wrong.” He stepped back like I was a disease he needed to get away from. His eyes met mine for the first time since I got here and there was no irritation— Just full blown disappointment and this didn’t look like something I could fix with an apology.

“Get the fuck away from me, Sinclair.”

My heart stopped and I felt my stomach knot with how disgusted I felt with myself.

“This party…” His voice cracked. “…and whatever friendship I thought we were building…” He looked down for a second before meeting my eyes one last time “was a fucking mistake.”

Then he turned and walked away.

I stood there, frozen. The music inside the house continued as if nothing had happened, but all I could hear were his words.

“Get away from me.”

I looked down at my trembling hands.

“What the fuck just happened?”