Drawn

Chapter 2.10:

The party was fucking chaos.

There were way too many people invading the space around me. The claustrophobia was sucking all the air out of my lungs until I was suffocating like a fish out of water.

I raised the bottle and took another swig to dull my overwhelmed senses.

Nothing I snorted or drank tonight came close to helping my nerves. Only one thing on this Earth could take away this feeling—and it wasn't hiding in the bottom of my bottle.

I had been waiting for three hours since the party started for any sign of Riley. I circled the door for the first two hours, watching it, impatiently waiting for the tiny blond to walk through.

Brynn told me she would get Riley here no matter how she had to do it. She mentioned not telling Riley I would be there, which I shut down immediately before she had time to object.

Tricking Riley was the last thing I wanted to do, even if my last bit of humanity melted away every second that she wasn't by my side. I owed it to my beautiful girl to let her decide whether she wanted to see me or not.

It was a risky judgment call, but it had to be done if I wanted her back. I had to lock away the person I was and fight every natural urge to manipulate her to climb back between my sheets.

I had to be better this time around, or I would lose the best thing I ever had in my life.

Hopefully, Brynn will be able to come through and keep her promise to convince Riley to talk to me.

Before I left their apartment, I made a point to make Brynn swear one last time that she would tell Riley I was the one who asked them to come to the party tonight. My stupid ass had already surprised Riley once before and didn't want the shock of seeing me again to send her into a panic like the other night.

Riley was too skittish—she would run the second she laid eyes on me.

My heart was racing faster than my mind as I drained the last drop from the bottle of Jack in my hands. It was getting later and later, but I wasn't planning on moving from the door until she walked through it or the sun came up.

I was on a mission and failure was not an option for me.

My mind began zoning in and out of consciousness until my bladder suddenly informed me it was about to burst. My dick was standing straight up, completely filled to the tip. Even though I didn't want to move, I was going to piss my pants if I didn't.

I stood up from my seat and jogged up the stairs to hit the bathroom quickly. I would only be gone a minute from the door. There was no way she would be able to sneak in that fast.

I pushed through the small crowd of people waiting in line and flipped off a few girls who bitched at me. It was my fucking place. If I wanted to skip the line to use the bathroom, I was well within my rights.

The door opened and a curvy girl covered in tattoos wearing a painted-on dress stepped out. She stopped directly in front of me and boldly evaluated me from head to toe. She decided she liked what she saw and flipped her jet-black hair off her face. The girl batted her eyelashes up at me, wanting my full attention. Her dark lips began to move and jumbled, incoherent words poured out. I shoved her out of the way with my shoulder and bypassed her without even a second glance. When I turned around to shut the door, she had turned to follow me in. I shut the door in her face without hesitation.

The person I used to be would have dragged her inside behind me without even knowing her name. She would be on her knees for me in a few seconds.

Now, the girl wasn't even a tiny blip on my radar.