What I Should Have Done ✓

Chapter 24

It had been almost a week. Almost a week since we had gotten back from New York, almost a week since I had last talked to John. He had texted me about meeting him and Devin for dinner, but I had declined. Being friends with him seemed impossible now. We had crossed a line. In fact, we had crossed line after line. I didn't know which one had marked the turning point for me, but I did know that being around him hurt, ever since New York.

Which is why compulsively staring at John and his soccer friends from across the room at a Friday night party at Brooker, Liam's house, wasn't helping. I didn't know why I kept doing this to myself. There were few people I knew, most everybody was drunk, and all that was there for me to do was try to talk to Liam over the blaring music or, like right now, wait for him to return from the bathroom.

A guy I had never met but thought was either on the football or the rugby team shot me looks from the corner of the room. I ignored him as best as possible while hardly being able to detach my own gaze from John. Brooker was the last place I would have expected him. He knew Liam lived here, and he usually kept far out of his way. I wouldn't have come. I wouldn't have dressed up in a tight pair of gray jeans and a red cotton crop top with a pretty neckline and decorative wooden buttons if I had known he'd be here.

John was wearing a simple black V-neck t-shirt and stone-washed jeans, but he looked so good. Inky swirls of guilt wound their way through my stomach. Liam didn't deserve this. To say he had been annoyed when John, Aidan, and a few other guys had showed up would have been an understatement. But the party was thrown by Liam's roommates, and the soccer players were behaving, so kicking them out was not an option. Leaving was also not on the table because it was Liam's house and he still had some responsibility to co-host, he thought.

Somebody stepped into my line of view and stood a little too closely. Rugby Guy.

"Hey, you here all alone?" He blew his beer breath into my face. Judging by that, he'd had more than a couple already.

"My boyfriend went to the bathroom," I said coolly, not looking at him, and took a step to the side.

"Is that why you're staring at the soccer guys? Is that fair to your boyfriend? 'Cause you don't look like you're with one of them."

"Mind your own business," I spat, growing irritated.

### trigger warning: harassment/attempted assault, to skip continue to next ###

But he wouldn't drop it: "You should ditch all of them, if you ask me. Dance with me?"

"I am not asking you, and I will not dance with you, and I won't spell it out for you, so leave."

Disregarding my demand, he took yet another step closer and placed his hand on my hip. I was so shocked that I could neither stir nor yell at him, only stare at him with wide open eyes like a deer caught in headlights. Judging from the smirk he donned, the asshole seemed to revel in the power he had over me. Still unable to move, I had never in my life been more grateful than when John intervened.

"You take your hands off her right now," he hissed. "She said no." Legs astride and chest puffed, he tried to maneuver himself between me and the other man.

"There's no way you heard what she said from all the way over there," the guy said condescendingly and took another step closer to me to block John's way.

"I know her and I know she wouldn't hook up with a piece of shit like you."

"Oh, yeah?" Rugby Guy said belligerently. "This doesn't concern you." I used the moment of his distraction to rip myself from his touch.