First message
The punch had split his lip open.
Gage could taste blood every time he dragged his tongue across the cut, leaning back against the curb outside the packed house while music rattled the windows behind him. Someone had thrown him out five minutes ago — maybe less — after Ryan Walker opened the bathroom door and found Gage with his girlfriend moaning on the sink.
Worth it.
Absolutely fucking worth it.
His jaw still ached from the swing Ryan got in before people dragged them apart, but Gage had laughed the entire way out, shirt half-buttoned, hair ruined from her hands in it. He liked watching people lose their minds. Made him feel less alone in his.
Smoke curled from the cigarette between his fingers as he stared out at the dark street, adrenaline still buzzing hot under his skin. Fights, sex, alcohol — it all blurred together eventually. Just different ways to stop thinking for a while.
Then the front door opened again.
A girl stepped carefully down the driveway, struggling to hold up her drunk friend whose heels kept catching on the pavement. Her voice was soft, patient, nothing like the chaos still spilling from inside the house. She looked painfully out of place here.
Gage watched her carefully with his cigarette resting against his mouth.
Pretty.
Too pretty for this crowd.
Her friend nearly collapsed halfway to the car, and instinct made him straighten before he could stop himself. For a second, he just stood there watching her fight to keep this girl up.