“I Follow Rivers” by Lykki Li is, hands down, Ava’s favorite song in the world.
It’s her happy song, and she can’t not dance when it’s playing.
When she makes no move to take the pouty expression off her face, I pretend to head into my bedroom to change out of my pilot’s uniform.
Which I do.
But once I throw on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, I grab my phone and press play on a song—the song—in my “Cheer Up Ava” Spotify playlist. Instantly, the bouncing beat begins to filter into my apartment, and just like that, I’m right back in our dorm, fifteen years ago, right after she told me her boyfriend Blake had broken up with her before the very same bar’s Halloween party.Halloween, fifteen years ago…
LukeI make my way through the bar crowd with a tray of fresh drinks for everyone at our table, skirt around the crowd of dancing aliens at the booth next to us, and hand them off one by one. Beer for Trevor and me, wine for Claire and Desi, and a strawberry daiquiri for Ava.
Since I’m the only one with a truly passable fake ID, I’m always assigned to get the drinks.
Somehow, though, in the five minutes it took me to procure them, Ava has managed to disappear.
“Where’s Ava?” I ask, holding her daiquiri in my hand as I take the available spot she likely vacated.
“Not sure.” Trevor, a guy I’ve been friends with since high school and a fellow aeronautical engineering student, is the first to answer. “Bathroom, maybe?” He runs a hand through his short blond hair and shrugs one lazy shoulder.
Ava’s best gal pals, as she calls them—the two craziest girls in our dorm, as I know them— immediately take notice.
“Uh oh…looks like we’re heading into karaoke round number three,” Claire mutters over her fresh glass of wine. Her shoulder-length, bright-red hair sways back and forth over her shoulders as she glances pointedly between the stage and our table.
Instantly, Desi’s hazel eyes turn big and amused when she looks toward the stage.
“I think this might be round number four, to be honest.”
When the opening beats of the all-too-familiar song “Eye of the Tiger” start to pound through the DJ’s speakers, I groan, run a hand over my face, and eventually, find the strength to look toward the stage where Ava stands with a microphone in her hand.
You know that saying, three sheets to the wind?
Well, when it comes to Ava, there are no sheets. They’ve blown the fuck away. No doubt, her need to drink away the thoughts of her stupid ex-boyfriend and his plans to make time to take his video game career seriously is at the heart of her efforts.
With hips shaking, she swings her tiger tail and belts the words by Survivor at the top of her lungs. We’ve been at Harry’s Bar for two hours, tops, and I swear to God, I’ve heard this damn song so many times, I’m going to be singing it on my deathbed.
“At least she looks hot,” Claire comments, and Desi nods.
“Incredibly drunk, but hot.”
“Ava always looks hot,” Trevor chimes in, and I’m about to smack him upside the head, but a finger taps me on the shoulder. I turn to find an attractive brown-eyed brunette standing beside me.
“Hi,” she greets, a smile on her red lips.
“Hello.”
“So, I was wondering if you’d like to buy me a drink?”
Her confident approach makes me grin. “Oh really, and how long have you been wondering that?”
“For a while, actually,” she answers through a little smirk, and I don’t miss the fact that she’s joined the rest of the Halloween partygoers by dressing up in a sexy version of a Girl Scout uniform. “I’m Brooke. Brooke Evans.” She holds out her hand, and I shake it.
“Luke London.”
“So, Luke…about that drink?”
She’s forward, I’ll give her that, and I’m about two seconds away from taking her up on her offer, but when I glance toward the stage and find that Ava now has some dude dressed in a black leather jacket and aviator sunglasses up onstage with her, my focus gets sidetracked.
The jerk-off puts his hands on Ava’s hips and pulls her close to him while she continues to sing that fucking song.
I glance to everyone else to see if they see what I’m seeing, but I figure out pretty quickly I’m the only one paying attention to our little performer.
Trevor is busy flirting with a girl in a red wig and a Jessica Rabbit-style scarlet dress, and both Desi and Claire have disappeared to God knows where.
Fucking hell.
“So…how about that drink?” Brooke asks again, and I feel like a real bastard for the next words that come out of my mouth. After breaking up with Sarah last month, I should be jumping at the chance to dip my toes deeper into the college pool, but I can’t just leave Ava to fend for herself like that. When the guy onstage with her moves his hand down her thigh, the urgency of the situation brings me to my feet.