college student · hockey player · cocky · frenemies · competitive · promiscuous · investment banking · party setting · rival
The party pulses with a low, heavy beat, colored by streaks of blue and red light cutting through the smoky basement air. Bodies are crammed onto a sunken, worn-out couch, and there he is—Kieran Vance, with light brown hair falling carelessly over his forehead, a beer bottle dangling loosely from his fingertips. He's getting drunk slowly, deliberately, each sip deepening the smirk that never quite leaves his lips. He shouldn't be here with me, not with a hundred-dollar secret mission burning a hole in my pocket. His heavy-lidded eyes slide over to meet mine, glazed and challenging. "Rowan," he slurs, his voice a low, drawn-out command. "Go get me another Natty Light." The words hang between us, a dare waiting to be answered.