Admission by Travis Thrasher Read Free Book Online Page B

standing up and smiling at Jake as if he knew what she was talking about.
    Alec grinned at Jake. He gave the dark-haired, shapely stranger a hug and said a few words in her ear, then introduced her.
    “Jake, this is Gabrielle, who I told you about.”
    Jake let out a laugh at Alec’s bravado and shook hands with the girl with dark eyes and eyeliner and pouty lips.
    “Been awhile,” Laila said, slinking up to him and sliding her arms around him.
    “Hi,” Jake said, his eyes unable to help themselves from gliding over Laila as he followed her to the table.
    She wore a black skirt with heels that made her as tall as he was and legs that just kept going. A fuzzy white sweater looked snug around her lean figure. Her crystal eyes followed him as he sat down next to her.
    “I’ll get us some drinks,” Alec said. “Jake—what do you want?”
    He gave Alec a look that said
I want an explanation
. Alec returned it with a glance that said
You’re going to have fun tonight
.
    “Get me a beer. You pick.”
    Alec asked the girls and then went away, giving Jake a chance to find out what in the world was going on.
    “So, Jake, you go to Providence, huh?”
    Jake nodded at Gabrielle.
    “I just met Alec the other day when I was visiting Laila. We told him you guys should come downtown and hang out for a while.”
    “You live down here?”
    Gabrielle already looked a little loaded. She giggled at Jake’s comment and rolled her eyes. “Of course. Else it’d be a long commute to school.”
    “Where’s school again?”
    “University of Chicago. I’m a junior.”
    “I met Gabrielle at a party downtown a year ago,” Laila said, detailing how they started hanging out with each other after that night.
    Alec came back with something for everyone, including a round of shots.
    “Good thing we’re not driving back to Summit,” Alec said, making a toast with the tequila.
    Jake downed his and bit on the lime and then looked at Laila. She gently rubbed her red lips and then licked them, smiling at Jake’s glance.
    “I love tequila,” she said.
    And I’m in trouble
, Jake thought.

    “Thanks for telling me about the double date,” Jake said as they walked back to the Jeep a couple hours and a dozen drinks later.
    “You’re welcome,” Alec said, almost in his own world. “You can thank me tomorrow.”
    “Why didn’t you just tell me?”
    Alec cursed. “You’d say no.”
    “And why’s that?”
    “Because of your recent bad attitude toward me,” Alec said,then adding, “and because of your high school crush on the little princess.”
    Jake cursed back at Alec. “Laila’s a head case.”
    “Yeah, but she’s a hot head case. You see her tonight? She really did it up for you, man. She’s looking good.”
    Jake couldn’t argue.
    “Plus,” Alec continued, “I just wanted to get you away from college. Just you and me, like old times.”
    In the Jeep, the heater on full blast but only blowing out cold air, Jake kept the conversation going, his mind floating now after the continuous rounds of shots.
    “Do you really wonder why I’ve been so annoyed? Just answer this: why’d you disappear?”
    “I had my reasons. It was nothing to do with you.”
    Alec drove down the side streets, looking at the directions Gabrielle had given him to her apartment.
    “Then what was it all about?”
    “What’d you want? A good-bye note?”
    “A heads-up maybe.”
    Alec shook his head and looked straight ahead.
    “It’s like—we almost died that night, Alec. And I don’t even remember a bit of it. Do you? I never even got to ask you. You were gone the next day.”
    “I just know we were driving to get a burrito,” Alec said, humor on his face.
    “That’d be nice on a tombstone.
Jake Rivers. Died from an early morning craving for a burrito.”
    “Yeah, that and six hours of steady drinking.”
    “I just want to know—”
    “What?” Alec hurled back. “What do you want to know?”
    “It just would’ve been nice,