“YOU BETTER NOT be punking out on us again tonight.” East’s voice filtered through my bedroom door before he pushed it open and strolled inside, a martini glass in one hand and a tumbler with amber-colored liquor in the other.
I glanced up at him from my bed with my computer on my lap and took the drink he offered.
“I didn’t punk out on you. I took a vow of sobriety—”
“To detox that liver of yours. I know. Well, you’ve had your three days, and now it’s time you confess your sins.”
“My sins?”
East took a sip of his drink. “Did you or did you not try to corrupt a golden boy through gluttony and lust this past weekend?” He smirked, pulled a rosary from his pocket, and started to swing it around his finger.
I knew exactly where he was going with this. I also knew the detox after this night was going to take a lot longer than three days.
“I did.”
“That’s what I thought. And did you or did you not befriend this boy to win a challenge?”
“A challenge you initiated.”
“I know. That’s why it’s time we go to Church.” East raised a haughty brow as he took another sip. “We’ve got a lot of repenting to do.”
I snorted and shook my head. “More like you feel an urge to get down on your knees and—”
“Pray? Yes. I do believe it’s time he heard his name on my tongue again.”
“Jesus—”
“Nope. I believe ‘oh God’ might be the more direct route.”
“Get the hell out of here.” I picked up a pillow and threw it at East’s retreating back as he headed to the door. Then I settled back against my headboard and took another sip of my drink.
The bourbon felt good as it warmed a path down my throat and relaxed my body and mind after spending the last couple of hours catching up on school work. But as I saved the last half of my essay and shut down my computer, East’s idea of going out became more and more appealing.
The few days I’d given myself to recover from our party had done the trick, and now that I was feeling myself again, I was ready to hit the town and see what trouble we could get into. I pushed my laptop aside and drained the rest of my drink, and then an idea sprang to mind.
East had mentioned going to Church to confess my sins, and maybe, just maybe, JT would want to do a little confessing of his own. God knows he’d certainly apologized to me enough over the last couple of days to indicate he might be in need of a little contrition. But I wasn’t sure about his stance on the whole Church thing.
Should I or shouldn’t I?
Who the hell was I kidding? I was totally going to ask him. We’d gotten past the kiss debacle. I was back in the friend zone, and what kind of friend would I be if I didn’t invite him to join us tonight?
I scooped up my phone and opened up a text message to JT.
