Page 82 of Keep Me
Sucking in a breath, he bit his bottom lip as countless scenarios ran through my mind. None were good. “If I tell you, do you promise not to hate me?”
“Hard to promise that when I have no idea what happened.”
He closed his eyes and squeezed my hip. “Okay, so you remember how we were talking about your situationship with Marty the other day?”
“It’s not a situationship.”
“So you keep saying,” he muttered. “But to everyone else, that’s what it looks like.” I pressed my lips together, waiting for him to continue. “Well, I’m honestly tired of seeing all this back and forth when you two are clearly crazy about each other.” I froze, not sure I wanted to hear the rest of what he had to say. “Well, I couldn’t leave it. I’m a trickster. I like to joke around, and pretending to be your boyfriend for a hot second was cute, but when I’ve meddled too much, I try to fix things.”
He was waffling, which was so unlike him, and only led me to heinous conclusions.
“Erik, what did you do?”
“I talked to Marty.”
My blood ran cold, and I stopped swaying. My ears were ringing and the room was spinning.
Where was Matty?
It was the first time tonight I looked for him as I thought about Erik and Matty together talking about me. I felt sick, but Matty wasn’t on the dance floor or at the football table.
“About?” I asked, still searching for him. He wasn’t at the bar either.
“You.”
That drew my attention back to Erik, and I patiently waited for him to explain himself.
“Look, at first, I thought it was fun to mess with the kicker. But as time went on, I realized I was just fucking up something that shouldn’t be so complicated.”
I swear I stopped breathing when I felt eyes on me. Matty. He was standing off to the side with his eyes narrowed, watching me.
“I basically told him to get his head out of his ass and claim you or let you go so someone else could have a shot.”
“You did what?!” I said a little louder than I wanted to.
He smiled. “You deserve more than an idiot half-heartedly pining over you.”
I closed my eyes, desperately trying to keep my cool, but I wasn’t sure how possible that was. “There’s more to it than you know.”
“Either way, I think it worked.”
“How?”
“Well, for one, he hasn’t stopped staring at us since I asked you to dance, and he’s clearly annoyed.”
“No he’s not.”
“Then why’s he heading over?”
“He’s what?”
“Honestly, though, I’m not sure I should leave you alone with him tonight.”
“Why not?”
“Britt?” Matty strained behind me. When I looked over my shoulder, I was shocked. His eyes were bloodshot, his face was pale, and his hair was all over the place. It looked like he’d been out drinking heavily since last night, but the ball only started a couple of hours ago.
Still holding on to me, Erik stepped back and muttered, “Hey Marty.”
