Gravity Happens (Forcing Gravity) (35 page)

“Ethan, I meant no offense, but in my opinion if I was your best friend, I wouldn’t be able to stay out of your bed.”

She tentatively stepped closer to me, and I let her. I looked down into her bright blue eyes.

“You don’t have to be my best friend to get into my bed,” I said, falling right back into the role of the guy who could get a girl to concede to hooking up with him in thirty seconds. It was a gift.

Ali smirked at me. “I’ll keep that in mind for later. Do you want to dance?”

I smiled back at her. “Hell yeah.”

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Logan

“Ethan’s moving on,” Ellie said to me as she refilled her glass of champagne. “Are you okay with that?”

Garrett was in the restroom, so I think she’d held off asking me about the girl Ethan had been hitting on until he left, figuring we could have some girl talk if needed.

I looked out at the dance floor where Ethan and the blond were dancing close together. She was laughing at something he was saying, and he was smiling at her. They looked cute together. And I didn’t feel an ounce of jealousy.

“I’m fine with it,” I told her, as I took a sip of my second vodka tonic. Ethan had made the first one too strong, so I made the second one more to my liking. I wasn’t really looking to get wasted.

“There’s also a gu
y staring at you,” she said, and I looked up. “Don’t look to your right, but he’s been watching you off and on for the past thirty minutes.”

“Who is he?” I asked, as I continued to watch Ethan and the girl dance.

My heart had started pounding, and I wasn’t sure why. Except for Jase, it had been almost a year since I’d flirted with a guy. I was out of practice, and I wasn’t sure I was ready to do that. But I wanted to move on, so that might mean flirting. I didn’t have to do anything else, but flirting might be acceptable.

“Okay, you can look up now,” Ellie said. He’s talking to one of his friends.

I looked up, and as soon as I did, I saw the guy look back in my direction. When he caught my eye, he smiled and took a sip of his drink. It was Dustin Craig, an actor I’d met back in September when Jase had been filming
Vacation From Hell.
They’d shared a trailer.

“I know him,” I told Ellie, as I noticed Dustin start to make his way over to our table.

“Hey, Logan,” he said as I stood to greet him, offering him a kiss on the cheek. “How have you been?”

“I’m good, Dustin,” I said, trying to turn on the charm. I was so out of practice. “
It’s good to see you. How are you?”

He smiled, and it was a really great smile. “I can’t complain. I just got back from
Miami where I was filming for the past two months, so I’m out with my boys trying to ease back into the L.A. lifestyle.”

He gestured behind him to a group of guys I didn’t recognize, and I smiled at him. “L.A. is different, right?” I said knowingly.

He chuckled. “You have no idea.”

“Oh, I do. I grew up in Ft. Lauderdale, so I’m no stranger to the craziness of South Florida.”

“I didn’t know that,” he said, moving closer to me. “What was that like?”

I spent the next thirty minutes talking and, I suppose, flirting with Dustin. He was nice and fun, and although I didn’t really feel any sparks, he made for good company. When one of his friends approached us, he introduced me. His friend said they were heading somewhere else, and Dustin asked if I wanted go to with them.

“No thanks. I’m good staying here with my friends,” I told him.

“Oh, I just figured since Jase is here that you wouldn’t want to stay.”

It was the first time he’d brought up Jase since we’d been talking, and I felt the color drain from my face as I fought the urge to look around. Jase was there? I had no idea.

“No, I’m – I’m good,” I said, smiling as good naturedly as possible. “Jase and I
are friends. It’s fine.”

Dustin narrowed his eyes at me. “Logan, I’
m not the paparazzi. You can be honest with me. I know what he did to you, and I wouldn’t blame you if you hated the guy.”

I smiled again. “I don’t hate him.”

Yeah, I kind of do, but I also still love him. Dammit!

“But you hate what he did, don’t you?”

I bit my lip. “Yeah, I do.”

He leaned closer to me. “Would it sway your decision to come with us if I told you Chloe was here too?”

My eyes got wide at that comment, and I started to look around. I didn’t care who saw me. I didn’t see Chloe anywhere, so I turned back to Ellie.

“
Chloe
is here?” I hissed.

She looked at me sheepishly. “Yeah, she got here about twenty minutes ago.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?!”

She gestured to Dustin. “You were engrossed in a conversation. I didn’t think it was important.”

“Is she here with Jase?”

Ellie looked at me in alarm. “Jase is here?”

“Apparently!” I said, throwing my arms up. The club suddenly felt very crowded.

“Uh, I’m going to go see if E wants to go,” Garrett said then, a look of concern crossing his face.

I knew what he was thinking. Ethan had a few drinks in him, and if he saw Jase, it wouldn’t be good. Hell, if I saw Jase, it wouldn’t be good.

I looked out at the dance floor then in search of Ethan and the blonde when my eyes locked with Jase’s. He glanced to my left
to where Dustin was sitting very close to me, and his eyes narrowed, and when he looked back at me, the pain on his face was evident. He turned away and disappeared into the crowd before I could even register how seeing him made me feel. I saw him leave soon after that, relieved that I wouldn’t have to encounter him in person.

“Lo, I’m going to go outside,” Ellie said then, holding up her phone. “I need to take this call.”

“Yeah, sure,” I said, waving her off. I just needed to say goodbye to Dustin, and then I was going to head to the bathroom. I needed a minute to get my shit together. The combination of the alcohol I’d consumed, the impact of seeing Jase, and the remix of the Alex Clare song pounding overhead was starting to make me feel dizzy.

“So
you’re sure you won’t come with us?” Dustin asked, and I shook my head.

“No, I’m good, but thanks,” I said, as pleasantly as po
ssible, trying not to let go the floodgate of emotions that had barraged me as soon as I’d locked eyes on my ex-boyfriend.

“Alright, well, here’s my number,”
he said, handing me a small torn-off piece of a napkin. “Call me if you want to get together.”

I nodded, as I stuffed his number in my clutch. Then I went through the motions of kissing him on the cheek and saying goodbye. When I was alone, I fought my way through the club to the bathroom and locked myself inside one of the stalls, thankful for the full doors that muffled the sound. The music playing in the club was still able to be heard, but on a much lower register, so I didn’t think anyone heard me start to cry.

I was grateful to let out the emotions I’d tried so hard to bottle up. It had been three weeks since Jase had broken up with me. I knew I shouldn’t be over him, but I didn’t want to still be crying over him. But shit, if the look on his face didn’t break me into pieces. He looked as miserable as I felt. Nora had been right.

But it was his fault. The whole thing was his fault. He’d gotten drunk and hooked up with Chloe. He’d cheated on me, whether intentionally or not, he
’d still cheated. And I hated him for ruining something so great. I hated him for making me feel like shit and for crying in the middle of a club when I should have been dancing and enjoying myself. I hated that I was locked in a bathroom stall, hiding and wishing I could teleport myself back to my dorm room.

Henley would be out, so I’d have the place to myself, which was a rare occurrence. But I needed to be alone. I was falling apart. And the fact that Ethan wanted me to fall into his arms made it that much worse. I was trying not to let his feelings affect me, but they were so obvious now that I knew about them. I knew he was just hooking up with that girl because he was trying to show me he could, but I knew if I offered him what he wanted, he’d drop her in a heartbeat. And that wasn’t fair.

Why couldn’t I like him? He was gorgeous and sweet and funny, and he adored me and loved me. But it was just like when I hooked up with Garrett last August. It was like kissing my brother. I’d known the two of them since I was a kid. They were my family. I loved them like brothers. I’d never had romantic interest in either of them. I knew that, even without making out with Ethan.

And even if I couldn’t move on with Ethan, why was I so hesitant to move on with someone else. Dustin was cute, and he was interested. But I couldn’t muster the energy to do more than talk and flirt with him. And the worst part was, I actually felt guilty that his number was in my bag.
My small clutch felt like it weighed fifty pounds, as the understanding of how much my life had changed in three short weeks hit me square in the face.

Jase and I were over. We’d broken up. He’d cheated on me, and I think the reality of that and the magnitude of it finally sunk in as I sat on the lid of a toilet in a club, feeling so empty and alone and angry all at the same time.

We were never getting back together – like ever. Okay, quoting Taylor Swift was just wrong, but in that moment, that was all I could think of. We weren’t ever getting back together. He’d never again hold me in his arms. I’d never again wake up in his bed or smell him on his sheets or hear him tell me he loved me. My heart ached so much at the thought of how much I’d lost.

I missed him. I missed him so much. I just missed him.

I let myself cry for a few more minutes, before I decided I just needed to leave. Everyone else could stay. They didn’t need to leave on my account, but I had to go. I needed to be alone.

I left the stall and stopped by the mirror to see how bad I looked. It was dark in the club, so it was feasible that no one would notice my puffy eyes as I walked out, but I didn’t want to take a chance. I took a few moments to fix my make-up and fan my face to make my eyes less red.

“Guys are assholes,” someone said, as they came up behind me.

I looked in the mirror to see the girl Ethan had been dancing with
approaching me. She’d just come out of one of the stalls.

I smiled good naturedly at her, even though I wasn’t in the mood to bond.

“You’re Ethan’s friend, right?”

I nodded. “Yeah, I am.”

“I’m Ali,” she said, as she reapplied her lip gloss and caught my gaze in the mirror. “He’s a good guy.”

“He’s a great guy,” I said.

Then she turned to me. “But you’re not into him?”

I shook my head. “No, I’m not.”

She smiled. “Good news for me.”

Then she winked at me before turning to leave the bathroom but was stopped by her two friends coming in that moment. They were giggling and gushing over Hunter and TJ, so she talked to them through the stalls as they used the bathroom.

I slipped out of the restroom, leaving them to their light-hearted gossip, wishing my life was that simple. I ran into Ethan who was waiting in the hallway. He smiled at me, shooting me his trademark ‘Ethan Lewis panty-dropping smile’ that never worked on me, and I started to stop and talk to him, but then switched directions when I noticed Chloe ten feet away.

“Lo?” Ethan asked in confusion
as I barreled past him. Then he saw where I was headed. “Oh, shit!”

As soon as I was in shoving distance, I stuck my arms out in front of me
, and I pushed Chloe as hard as I could in the back.

“You bitch!” I screamed over the Fall Out Boy song that was playing in a rapid, blinding beat overhead.

“What the fuck?” Chloe screamed, as she fell forward into the guy she was flirting with.

She
spun around to look at me, and as soon as she did, I punched her in the face, so glad my dad had taught me years ago how to defend myself. I knew his intentions had been for me to ward off potential muggers and rapists, but his lessons were serving me well in beating the crap out of the girl who’d stolen my boyfriend and my happiness along with him.

Chloe was grasping her cheek in her hand, and out of the corner of my eye I saw a bouncer coming toward us, so I knew I only had seconds before I was tossed out.

“That was for sleeping with my boyfriend, you callous bitch, and that,” I said, as I slapped her across the cheek she wasn’t covering, “was just because you’re a heartless, fucking cunt!”

Her jaw dropped open in shock, and she started to lunge for me as Ethan’s arms wrapped around me from behind and pulled me back, causing Chloe to lose her balance and
fall forward on her stilettoes and land on the floor of the club. I laughed maniacally as the bouncer final got to us.

I turned to him. “I’m leaving,” I hissed, as Ethan dragged me backward. Then I looked back at Chloe who was getting to her feet, her face red in embarrassment. “Whore!”