Read Online Stay With Me by Elyssa Patrick - Free Book Online

It’s my survivor’s mark.”
    I join her on the adjacent bar stool. “Scars are dashing. Just look at all the romance novels with heroes who have scars. Women swoon over them.”
    “Sadly, I’m a female and I’m straight. No one will be swooning over me.”
    “Swooning is overrated anyway.”
    “Says someone who’s always been swooned over.”
    I snort. “Yeah. But when a guy who outweighs you by a hundred pounds swoons and crashes into you . . . Well, it’s definitely not romantic in the slightest. And having to swoon is . . .” I wrinkle my nose at the memories of film scenes in which I had to “faint” over a guy. “Not fun.”
    The oven goes off at that moment, and I slide off the stool to take out the pizza.
    “After this, we’ll get ready,” Daphne says. “But I’m not going for a swoony look. I’m going for fun, awesome, and feeling comfy.”
    “I’m going for skintight leather pants.”
    Daphne chokes on her water. “Oh my god. My brother is going to die.”
    “As long as he doesn’t swoon, I think I’ll be fine.”

    B Y THE TIME WE ARRIVE at Caleb’s house in a cab, the party has definitely started. Some college students are hanging out on the porch, talking, drinking, and smoking. The music is pretty loud, but since the house is flanked on both sides by other houses occupied by fellow students, I don’t think there’ll be any noise complaints issued. The door keeps opening and shutting as people walk in and out, and I wonder about Caleb and his roommates’ pets, and where they’re kept during these sorts of things.
    We walk up to the front door, and a few of the partiers look over at us, then point and stare.
    A beefy guy puts his hand across the door, barring our way, and smiles. “How ya’ doing?”
    Daphne pushes his hand away from the door, and the guy, obviously buzzed, stumbles a few feet back. “Please. Like she’d even be interested in you.”
    “How ’bouts you sign my dick then?”
    “She would,” Daphne retorts, “but your dick isn’t big enough for her name. I’m not even sure she could fit the ‘H’ on it.”
    “Bitch.”
    “And don’t you forget it.” Daphne pulls me inside the house and shuts the door. “Gah. Guess the assholes were invited. C’mon, let’s find the birthday boy and give him this present.”
    The present being an illegally purchased bottle of Vodka and an iTunes gift card that we put in a store-bought gift bag. Daphne and I make our way through the crowd and toward the kitchen, where the table has been converted into a makeshift shot station. Twenty-one shot glasses of various types of alcohol are line up; five of them are already emptied. Jamie is hanging out with some guys and girls I don’t know, and he’s holding up the sixth one when he spots us.
    “Daphne! Hailey! You made it.” Jamie leaves the group, shot glass in hand, and heads in our direction. His good nature warms the room like sunshine after a rainy day.
    “And you brought me a present, unlike some assholes,” he adds in a kidding way to the group behind him.
    “Speaking of assholes,” Daphne says easily, “we met one outside who asked Hailey oh so nicely to sign his dick.”
    I hold out the birthday gift to him, hoping to change the subject. “Happy Birthday, Jamie.”
    Jamie’s easygoing smile disappears as he looks over at me. “I’ll take care of it.”
    “Oh, I already handled it.” Daphne gives him a wide smile. “And besides, it’s your birthday. We don’t want you messing up your pretty face. Happy Birthday, Jamie.”
    “I still don’t like it.”
    “You don’t like what?” another voice asks from behind us.
    And it’s not Caleb’s voice. I’m definitely disappointed it’s not him, and I wonder where he is.
    Both Daphne and I turn around to see Nick. His dark brown hair is a little shorter tonight, as if he just had it cut, and his jaw line freshly shaven. He’s dressed casually in dark jeans and a navy blue tee. The shirt makes his