ready for it? • t. zegras

thirty

I can't stop laughing as we walk down the sidewalk. I'm holding on to Trevor's arm for dear life. "Trevor, baby, you are glorious."

"I stuttered probably fifty percent of that dinner," he says, whining a little. "Your dad probably thinks I'm a pussy or something."

"Dad loved you," Sunny says.

"Absolutely did," I laugh.

It was the truth. Not some bullshit to comfort him. The whole dinner, Dad was trying to put up a front but the guy loved Trevor. He even let Spence get out of the annual golf game so that Trevor could go in his place. Sunny's been trying to get out of that shit for years. Trevor got in in an hour and a half.

He hisses in a breath. "I don't know, guys."

"Does Tim Neal seem like a man who offers expensive ass whiskey to anyone?" I ask.

"Maybe?"

"Absolutely not," Sunny corrects as he opens the door and shooes us in.

The music thumps through the house. Familiar faces greet me and Sunny both as I lead our little trio to the kitchen. House parties are definitely on the list of things in SF that I don't miss. Well, depending on the house. This one's definitely on the more un-missed side of things. Small hallways, big furniture. Not much room.

"Tenner!" Gracie shouts the moment we get in the kitchen. We've known each other basically our entire lives from school along with growing up playing on the same travel team.

I pull Z toward her. As soon as I'm done hugging her, I'm looping my arm back with Trevor's. He looks so good tonight. Like obviously he does most of the time but after showing him around the city I grew up in? Having dinner with him and my family? He's on a whole other level after that.

"Love the outfits," she says.

What? I'm just wearing black shorts and a blue— Oh. Trevor and I are perfectly coordinated. Like, if I hadn't known better I would think we did it on purpose. It's totally something I could get him to do too. How have I never thought of that?

Trevor shrugs. "She's so obsessed with me, she can't help it."

"Yeah, right," I say. "He's the one obsessed with me."

"Sunny matching you guys too?" Gracie asks.

"Uh..." I look around the kitchen for my brother to see he didn't follow us in here. "Could be, honestly."

"He's wearing bright orange." Trevor laughs. "That's like the opposite."

I roll my eyes and bump the side of my head into his arm. "Maybe you're obsessed with my brother."

"Who wouldn't love Sunny?" Gracie jokes. 'Cause the answer is a lot of people. Not so much anymore but with the lack of a filter on that kid, he was getting in plenty of fights up until about his junior year.

"I'm gonna go find the bathroom." Z presses a kiss to the top of my head and then he's gone. Hope he doesn't get lost.

Gracie watches him over my shoulder and her jaw drops once, I'm guessing, he's gone. "Oh, my god."

"What?" I ask, trying to be casual about it. Even go as far as turning to the counter and looking for a can that isn't open.

"That man is..." She turns my attention back to her by sliding an unopened drink into my hand. And it's cold, much better than anything I would find on the counter. "Ten, he's hot."

"When have you ever called a white dude hot?"

"Now, apparently."

I shrug. "He's something."

"Your boyfriend?" Gracie shakes her head, already knowing my answer. "Girl, you let him wander off looking the way he does in that shirt at a party full of people we know do not care about anything but exclusive relationships? Some of them not even caring about that? That fucking transplant Lindsey is a home wreck—"

"No home to wreck." There's an urge to add on that even if there was, I trust that he wouldn't. Even now, I trust he won't do anything with anyone else.

"If I see that Fresno bitch Lindsey, I'll scare her off for you."

I laugh and crack open my drink. "Thanks, babe."

* * * * *

That Fresno bitch Lindsey is talking to Trevor. After some more Gracie time, I realized he never returned and I found him in the living room. First, he was in a group with Spence and some other people. Then all the guys left and I watched him try to escape though the girls of the group managed to keep him there. He sent me a look that seemed scared but I thought he could manage.

Also, I was in a conversation of my own. Luckily that conversation wasn't in a closed-in situation like Trevor's, whose in a corner with three girls surrounding him. Lindsey is front and center for him to every so often grimace or smile over at me. Those grimaces always turned into smiles though.

I watch the other two girls walk off. Z's eyes widen as they meet mine and he tries to play it off by taking a sip of his drink. Might as well save him now. Excusing myself, I make my way across the room to stand by Lindsey.

"Oh, thank god," Trevor breathes out louder than he maybe should have.

Lindsey frowns and lets out a frustrated sigh at the sight of me. But turns that frown upside down a second later. Probably to save face. "Hey, Teagan. Cute outfit."

"Trevor's is hella cute too, don't you think?" I ask.

"Oh, for sure," she says, looking him up and down.

Something in my brain shifts. Yeah, okay, I invited that reaction. There wasn't much else that could have happened. I didn't like it though. No, in fact, I think I hated that.

"How do you know Trevor?" Lindsey asks.

My face scrunches in confusion. Or disgust. Maybe both. "Well, we slept in the same bed last night in my parents' house so..."

"That explains the answer of only sort of being single," she says barely loud enough to be heard.

Oh my god. There's something so satisfying about finding out you're important enough to cause a sort of single answer. He could have said he was single because it's the truth. Trevor didn't though. He didn't. The way he smiles at me confirms what I didn't need to be confirmed that I'm the sort of.

I want to get him alone so badly. "We're gonna head out, I think. Good seeing you."

"Yeah. You too."

Trevor mumbles out a bye and I'm grabbing his hand and pulling him not out of the house, but to an open bathroom. He shakes his head, smiling, as I turn around after locking the door.

The words slip out. "I need you."

"What's the difference between this and a dressing room, Tennessee?" He's terrible at acting like he's going to dig his heels in on this. His eyes are sweeping over my body up and down and he's already put his drink down on the counter.

"There's an actual door?"

Z laughs. Then he's closing the space between us and pressing me into that actual door.