Game Theory × NH

004 | beryllium

I probably could have left the party, but I couldn't knowing Jamie was drinking and with a boy I didn't even know. I needed to look out for my smallest friend.

"There you are," Bradley said as he snaked his arm around my waist. "I've been looking everywhere for you. I never had the chance to congratulate you on your win after the game." He pulled me in close and kissed my urgently. I wanted to push him away, I didn't like the how his tongue was trying to slip though my lips.

"I was with Jamie," I told him, even though I really didn't need to give him an excuse.

Bradley chuckled and I could feel the vibration through our bodies pressed flushed against each other. "What was she saying about me this time?" he asked bitterly. "Jamie hates me; you need to stop talking to her. She's trying to ruin us."

I wanted to pull away right then, to tell him that he didn't have any right to tell me who I could or couldn't talk to. But instead I just said, "Come on," and tugged him after me by a belt loop. "Let's go for a walk and just... talk."

Bradley stopped in his place and shook his head. He leaned down and placed his forehead against mine. "Not now, babe. Let's just dance," he said, alcohol on his breath.

I didn't say anything as I didn't have much choice in the matter.

"Have you been drinking?" he asked as we moved through the bodies and in the middle of the action and started dancing.

"No," I told him simply, placing an arm on his shoulder and getting closer to him. "You know I don't drink anymore."

Bradley smirked wickedly at me and pulled me in even closer by wrapping his arm around my back so we were chest to chest. "And it's a shame that you don't."

The two of us have been together a little over a year. We met at the college library in the beginning of our first year. I wasn't sure you could call what we had an actual relationship, but we never saw anyone other than each other. It was like a silent agreement that we were a couple without the label.

It was all purely lust and anger. There was nothing really tender with what we had, just a lot of sex and yelling, which, let me tell you, can get old pretty fast. But as much as I asked to go for a walk on the beach or go out on an actual date, just to do something different for once, Bradley would always refuse. I let it go, though, because I knew he would pass that bridge to do what I wanted... eventually.

I pulled away from Bradley, suddenly feeling nauseous from his boozy breath. "I'm going to go find something to drink," I told him. "I'll be right back."

Maneuvering myself around sweaty bodies, I gradually made my way into the kitchen. I bumped into a guy with a camera and apologized before going over to the fridge. It was empty except for cans of beer and I sulked in disappointment. I pushed around the cans and prayed there was something other than water and beer I could drink. In the back corner I found a Dr. Pepper and grabbed it with a smile. Taking a red solo cup, I poured the soda into the cup so I wouldn't be harassed that I wasn't drinking. I wasn't in the mood for that confrontation.

"It's weird seeing you out of your jersey and shin guards," a deep voice behind me said. I spun and saw one of Niall's teammates. He was leaning against the kitchen wall with a beer bottle in his hand loosely. He had a different accent than Niall that I noted as British, but it was clearer and a lot more comprehensible.

I didn't know his name, but he was the biggest one of the team, the one that a majority of my teammates thought was the hottest. I started to understand why they thought so. He had this thing about him that caught your attention, in a brooding kind of way. His dark brown hair was short at the sides and longer on the top with some stubble along his jaw. He had dark brown eyes and his muscles were protruding through his long sleeved blue shirt.