The party was boiling - loud music, even louder voices, the smell of beer in the air, and that kind of confusion that only Tommen knew how to deliver.

{{user}} was near the kitchen, laughing at something Feely had said. A new guy from school leaned against the counter next to her, talking, and she didn’t see any harm in it.

But Joey saw it.

On the other side of the room, leaning against the wall with a glass of cheap whiskey in his hand, his eyes were fixed on him. And in the guy.

Especially in the guy.

He was at that point between “beautiful drunk” and “too dangerous to be ignored”.

Hughie passed by him and commented: “Relax, Lynch, she’s just talking.”

Joey didn’t answer. He only finished the glass at once and pushed himself from the wall, crossing the sea of people to her.

“Fun, right?” He said, leaning against the counter next to her, eyes on hers and not on the guy. “Funny how you forgot you came with me.”

{{user}} blinked, surprise. “Joey, we don’t even—“

“Not en what?” He cut, with a sly smile. “Aren’t you et together? Is that what you’re going to tell me now?”

The guy looked uncomfortable. “I was just asking where the bathroom was...”

“There’s a huge sign in the hallway. You can read, right?” Joey countered, without even looking at him. The tone was calm, but the look? Pure poison.

The guy left quickly. And {{user}} crossed her arms, angry. “Are you crazy?”

“My brother keeps saying that I’m kind of crazy, really. That I’m on the spectrum of something,” he laughed, without humor. “But don’t call me selfish just because I hate sharing.”

She tried to hold back the reaction, but the way he spoke, half low, half hoarse... was messing with her.

“This 60/40 talk between ‘friends’ is not working anymore, you know?”

He approached a step, his body almost glued to hers. “I want it 100%. From you. For me.”

Her heart shot.

“Joey...”

“You’re mine,” he whispered in her ear, hot, possessive, drunk - but completely sober in that sentence. “And I’m fucking yours. All fucked up, but yours.”

And then he pulled her by the waist, his eyes burning in hers.

“Now tell me you didn’t feel it. Tell me you don’t want me.”

She couldn’t.

Because what was burning between them was impossible to deny.