❝and it's easier to still believe
this new year will be for you and me.❞
— lacrosse,
this new year will be for you and me
♥
THE M15 WAS A FUCKING ROLLERCOASTER. Yeah, it was the equivalent of a shitty, low-budget amusement park ride for lonely New Yorkers on New Year's morning.
I clutched the pole tightly, mostly to keep myself from falling on my face and looking like even more of a fucking idiot in front of this beautiful brunette. But no. It wasn't enough that the M15, or the entire fucking world, wanted to knock me on my ass. Levi kept bumping into me.
Correction: Levi and Carly kept bumping into me.
They were a disgusting mess of hands and fingers, glued together, speaking softly between sloppy kisses... and stumbling into me every time the M15 hit another pothole in this fucking hellhole. I'd started the night in Bushwick, I think, but somehow, I'd ended up in the trenches of the Lower East Side.
Yeah. Fuck me.
I'd also started this night hoping I'd get lucky, but now, I was just hoping the M15 would crash and burn, and maybe, just maybe, we'd all fucking die.
My gaze dropped, fell, plummeted to the stranger that had suckered me into some lovesick haze, and as soon as I found the soft smile on her lips, my heart sank. Maybe we wouldn't all die. Maybe this wouldn't be a train(bus)wreck. Maybe we'd do all the things that Kayla and I had talked about. Maybe we'd buy a house in Long Island with a white picket fence, get a dog, walk off into the sunset, live happily ever aft—
"Baby."
Fuck. No.
I shook off that fucking haze, all those memories of fantasies, glancing away from Scarlett to absentmindedly listen to Levi and Carly.
"C'mon, babe, why do we have to go to Berlin?"
"Because..." Carly exhaled heavily. "Because Scarlett... well, we promised to stop by and see someone."
"I promise, you don't need anyone else," Levi lowered his voice into a teasing plea that I knew from many, many, many unfortunate victims would end with him bringing her home.
Levi might be a douchebag... but he had game.
"Levi, I—"
"Let's just go back to my place."
"Levi, I'm not that easy."
"Why not?"
I didn't even have time to prepare.
Everything swerved. There was a sharp jerk out of traffic, a droning announcement, a shuffle of feet. Carly reeled away, shoved him, Levi went tumbling into me, and together, the dream team of 2020, my brother and the fucking M15, finally knocked me on my ass.
I hit the ground with a curse, wincing at the way it shook the entire bus. My cheeks warmed; my palms burned. "Shit." I averted my gaze from the handful of strangers looking down at me. "Shit, I... I—"
The back doors swung open.
Carly stormed out, and Levi didn't even have the decency to look at me before he ran after her, abandoning me on the floor of a dirty bus. "Wait, Carly!"
I could've died, and Levi would still be chasing pussy.
Scarlett snickered, standing to offer me a hand. Cautiously, I blinked. Those rings on her fingers looked sharp, and I just couldn't take another hit tonight. When I didn't move, her lips twitched. "I promise I don't bite, Nick."
