Mistakes : A College Bully Romance

“Well, well, well,” Kelsey mused, taking another sip. “Look who it is. My knight in shining armor. Didn’t know this was your party, Blue.”
I resisted my urge to tell her that I was no knight, I had no armor. I leaned my side on the counter nearby, sizing her up. “Didn’t think you’d like parties like this, so I never invited you. Plus, it took you forever to come see me at the quad, so…” That wasn’t the truth. The truth was I didn’t want her here, but now that she was here, I couldn’t let her out of my sight. I had to stake my claim on her, so to speak, let the other guys in the house know she was not to be toyed with.
“Oh,” Kelsey mused, her full lips curling into a sly grin, “I love parties like this. This ain’t my first rodeo.” Another sip of the beer. She was practically chugging it. She finished it off and went for another, opening it the same way she popped open the first. “And you wouldn’t be my first college boy, either.”
College boy. I was anything but a boy.
I had to ignore what her words meant—that she’d been to other college parties before, even though this was her first year here. That she’d hooked up with other college guys? My blood raced a bit quicker at the thought. She wasn’t mine to control, and yet I still didn’t particularly like the thought of her with someone else. Call me crazy.
“You should slow down,” I told her, watching as she drank the entire bottle. She was a small girl, her frame petite, even though she did have curves. I didn’t know how much alcohol her body could handle. Beer was light on the alcohol scale, but she was downing them awfully fast. “You just got here.”
Kelsey glared at me, practically slamming down her second empty beer on the counter. “Don’t tell me what to do, Blue,” she growled out. Eyeing me up, she got a third beer and stormed away, out the back door.
A smart man probably would’ve let her go. A smart man might’ve taken her home and told her to sleep off whatever was bothering her—because surely something was. She seemed on edge, tense, angry. More angry than usual. But I meant what I said earlier; I was no knight. I knew she shouldn’t be here, and yet now that she was here, I didn’t want her to go.
Only Kelsey could make this night bearable.
I followed her outside, passing the keg and the group of people around it. So many faces I didn’t know, sprinkled in with a few of my fraternity brothers—ugh, I fucking hated calling them that. They were not my brothers. They weren’t family. They were scum, nothing to me.
Kelsey had found a cushioned chair and plopped herself down on it, extending her legs. She took another sip of her beer. “This stuff tastes like shit,” she muttered. “You frat boys can’t even get good beer?”
The seat she’d found was pretty far from the house. All of the backyards lined up with each other from the other houses nearby. This chair was pretty much on the edge of our property. There were no other empty ones nearby, so I sat on my ass beside her, staring at her all the while.
“Is something wrong?” I asked, knowing, deep down, something was. Kelsey was wild, but this? This was self-destructive. This was an implosion. I didn’t like seeing her like this, and I…I wanted to make it better. Make her better.
Fuck. Listen to me, going all gooey for her. How the fuck did this happen? It’d only been a few weeks, and most of the time I spent with her I just teased her, mocked her, egged her on. I liked her feistiness, and I did my best to bring it out every bio lab.
“Besides the beer tasting like shit?” Kelsey asked, staring at the dark sky above us. “Nope. Nothing at all is wrong. Everything’s fine and fucking dandy.” Bitterness laced with her tone, and I studied her slumped figure, how she leaned back in the chair, looking like she wanted to call it quits and wake up in the middle of next week.
“I know we’re not…friends,” I spoke, not sure why I was offering to listen, “but I’m here if you—”
Kelsey turned her head to me, and those dark eyes silenced me. They looked black under the night sky, shadows dancing across her face, the only light coming from the windows in the house. “You talk too much, Blue.”
“It’s Levi,” I said, correcting her not for the first time.
“I know. I like Blue better.” She ran a finger around the bottle’s lid, her eyes still on me. I had no idea what was on her mind, but if I had to bet, I’d say it wasn’t anything good. “I can’t decide if I hate you or like you.”
I managed to grin at that. Just a fast, fleeting grin, but a grin nonetheless. That was not what I’d expected her to say, but unlike most people, I wasn’t insulted by what she said. I only threw back, “I think I’ve made up my mind about you.”
Her eyes fell to my mouth, and though I sat two feet away from her, it suddenly felt way too far. “Oh, yeah? Care to share, Blue?”
“I don’t think you’re ready for it.”
Kelsey laughed. “I’m as ready as fucking ever, but you know what?” She tossed her beer aside, letting it roll on the grass and spill out the rest of its contents, turning on her chair. “I don’t care. I don’t fucking care, Blue. Tonight I want to make a mistake, and you—you’re the perfect mistake.”
She got off the chair, practically falling to her knees before me. Kelsey didn’t give me the chance to say anything