By Chance | Complete |

Chapter Thirty

Lyra

Thursday we ditched our last class of the day to leave early to go see August. Sasha and I were taking her car up since we were only staying one night while Teddy and River were staying two nights.

"You are going to love the parties here." Sasha told me. "We went to one last year and it was the best time. He lives off campus so we're crashing at his apartment. Ryder's going to be there."

"You always say that and he never makes an appearance or he seems to always be blackout drunk somewhere."

A soft laugh escaped her lips. "Yeah, Ryder does that a lot. Everyone has a thing they do when they're drunk. That's just Ryder's."

"What's he studying?"

"Science. He's going into medicine. August is studying Law. That's why August is home more than Ryder. They share the apartment."

I nodded. "So they're best friends and their brothers are best friends?"

"Basically since they were in the womb. Mel and Miranda have been friends since high school. They went through their pregnancies together at the same time."

I smiled, "that's cute."

"That could be our children one day."

Something about her saying that made my heart hurt and my stomach twist into a knot.

"I don't want children."

That wasn't entirely true, but explaining things to Sasha wasn't an option.

"That's okay. You're still going to be the aunt to my babies. I guess our kids will never fall in love." She said dramatically before laughing.

"Tempting."

"Let's go, guys." Ryder called out as he stood at the opened front door.

Sasha and I stumbled out of the car with the boys and August following behind us as we entered the party.

The place was completely packed. The music was loud and the lighting was dimmed. It reeked of alcohol.

"I'll get drinks." Ryder offered once we found somewhere to sit down.

"I'll help."

Ryder led me to a room just off the kitchen. It was a pantry filled with alcohol.

He grabbed a few cups that were on the counter and put out six of them before I sat up on the counter beside him.

"Any preference?"

I shook my head as he reached up one of the shelves and pulled down an ember bottle of liquor.

He poured some at the bottom of each cup, before opening the mini fridge and pouring coke in the glasses.

He handed mine to me with a straw and his fingers grazed mine. "Thank you."

I swirled the straw around my drink before taking a sip of it.

"Do you like it?" He leaned against the counter and his grey eyes met mine.

"Yes." I nodded before taking another sip.

"Emily did that to your face?"

I leaned forward. "You can look at it, it's okay."

He took a sip of his drink before setting it down and moving in front of me. He moved between my legs before tipping my head up and to the side.

"She really got you." He whispered as his finger gently touched the edge of one of the scratches. "It kind of looks cool though."