The Boy Who Has No Belief (Soulless 7)

Brett pulled back his sleeve and looked at his watch. “Who had ten thirty?”

“I thought he’d make it until eleven, at least.” I sat beside him and smacked one of his shoes.

Ryan flipped me the bird, but he pointed at the wall because he was too drunk to have any sense of direction. Then he dropped his arm at a weird angle, like he’d fallen asleep instantly and couldn’t keep his eyes open.

Brett looked across the room then set his drink down. “I’ve been waiting for this woman to be alone all night.” He left the chair and smoothed out his shirt as he crossed the sea of people to where she stood alone at one of the tables, her friends all in the bathroom. She pulled out her phone and scrolled through it.

It was just Ryan and me in the seating area now because the guys were mingling with girls or other people they knew.

I stayed at his side to keep an eye on him so no one would rob him or do anything weird. Women made a few passes at me, but I told them to leave me alone. I wasn’t even nice about it because it was just obnoxious. I didn’t make eye contact with them, and I sure didn’t act like a single guy. I either looked at one of the guys or at my glass so it wouldn’t appear I was inviting anyone over.

Whatever. It was unavoidable, I guess.

Someone sat in the seat across from me, so I looked up, expecting to see a woman who’d decided to engage me in another pointless conversation.

But it was Kevin.

My blood immediately boiled when I realized he’d come to talk with me.

I couldn’t leave Ryan there by himself, so I couldn’t walk off.

So, I stared Kevin down, my look ice-fucking-cold.

He held my gaze for a while before he dropped it.

Leave.

But he lifted his gaze and looked at me again, wearing that same stupid guilty expression on his face that he had the night before my wedding, when I’d found out he’d been fucking my fiancée and had no intention of telling me about it. “Derek—”

“Walk. Away.” I set my glass down so my fist would be ready to punch him in the face if it came to that. I told Ryan I didn’t have a problem with Kevin being there, but I never said I would behave myself if he provoked me. “You’re here for Ryan. I’m here for Ryan. So, let’s go back to ignoring each other.”

Ryan continued to sleep beside me, obviously knocked out because he didn’t react to his two friends engaging in a very hostile interaction.

Kevin’s elbows rested on his knees, and his glass was in one hand. He bowed his head again and looked at it for a while, gathering his bearings, taking my rejection in silence. But instead of getting up and walking away, he lifted his head and looked at me again. “Look, I’m sorry. I’m fucking sorry—”

“Does it seem like I’m looking for an apology?”

He shut his mouth tightly, his jaw clenching just the way it used to when we were young. He’d been my best friend since first grade, and we’d stayed best friends all the way through undergrad. And then it all went to shit…because he couldn’t keep his dick in his pants. Because he forgot the meaning of loyalty. Because he forgot what it meant to be a friend. He looked away and squeezed his glass, the look of irritation exactly the same as it used to be, like he hadn’t aged a day. “I know you don’t care, Derek. But I’ve felt like shit for the last ten years, and I…think about you all the time—”

“I never think about you.” I was just as angry as I was the night everything happened. “Walk away, or I will deck you the way I did on the night before my wedding. You know, the worst day of my fucking life.”

He winced slightly, as if the insult truly hurt him. “I would give anything to take back what I did. I would give anything for us to be friends again.” His eyes turned emotional as if he might burst into tears. “You have no idea how much I regret everything…”

“Still don’t care, Kevin.” My anger was so raw that my body radiated heat, simmering like the plains of a desert that burned at 120 degrees Fahrenheit. “Now get the fuck away from me and pretend I don’t exist. I’ve managed to pretend you don’t exist this entire time quite effectively.”

He bowed his head but still didn’t leave.

The only reason I still sat there was because my loyalty to Ryan was greater than my rage for this piece of shit.

Like an idiot, Kevin tried again. “Look, I’m getting married—”

“Then maybe I should fuck your fiancée the way you fucked mine.”