Page 32 of Perfect Score
Brent looks over at Ben, too. “Hey, drop it, man.”
“No… it was Stiffy Longstocking,” David pipes up with a chuckle.
The entire table chuckles at the nickname. The name is a little absurd and not all that original, but when I look over at Brent, I see that he isn’t laughing. Instead, he’s looking over at Liam withthe same look he reserves for an opponent out on the ice, right before he strikes.
Is Liam responsible for the nickname?
Is that why there is such bad blood between them?
Is Brent right that Ben should have left it alone?
The Brent I know from high school would have laughed at the nickname, even at his own expense. Something feels off here.
“That’s right,” Ben laughs, taking a swig of his beer. “It was because you showed up at practice with a boner for Zoey, wasn’t it? She jumped you because of a clown in one of your classes?”
My cheeks warm and my belly flips at Ben's explanation. I rub the gloss on my lips together, trying to hide the look of shock on my face.
I remember the clown—but not the boner.
“Fucking idiot.” I hear Liam mutter.
He stands straight out of his chair and starts trudging out of the bar with Shelby chasing after him.
“Shut the fuck up, Ben,” Brent says, turning to him.
Whoa, things are starting to get a little out of control now. I doubt anyone was expecting the embarrassing stories to turn out like this.
“What?” Ben says, lifting his hands up in question. “I don’t know why everyone’s so touchy about it. You’re dating Zoey now. She must give you boners all the time.”
I heart stutters for a second and I dart my gaze to Brent—this is mortifying.
“You really don’t know when to quit, do you?” Phoebe jumps in, coming to defend me. "I think you've had enough."
She pulls the beer from Ben’s hand and slides it to the other side of her.
Realizing that we need a dramatic change of conversation, Phoebe’s new stand-in maid of honor, and our cousin, Christine turns to me, a twinkle in her light brown eyes. She's a coupleyears younger than me but we all grew up together and she's more like a sister to us than a cousin.
“How is that honeymoon suite? The pictures online look amazing," she beams.
I’m relieved that the conversation has shifted, though I’m curious if the nickname is true and if Brent really did get aroused when I jumped into his lap in our Spanish class. Not that it means anything. It was high school, and some things can’t always be helped. Was he actually attracted to me?
The idea seems unlikely.
I probably just rubbed against his lap and his cock didn’t realize it was only me.
“The honeymoon suite is really nice, though I wish Brent wouldn’t have spent the money on it. I would have been happy with a standard room, but they were completely sold out.”
“No way… Brent totally owes you for that room you rented during your senior prom. That place was pretty expensive too if I remember,” Abigail, Phoebe’s other bridesmaid, and the college friend who booked the prom night hotel for me.
I totally forgot until just now that it was her that the reservation was under since she was old enough to rent it for me.
“Wait, what room?” Brent asks, his eyes shifting from mine to Phoebe’s friend.
“It’s nothing,” I say quickly, cutting eye contact with him.
Instead, I watch Ben reach for David's beer and take a swig.
“Wait, did you even go to our senior prom?” Ben asks. "Now that I think of it, I don't remember you being there."