Free Dissonance by Drew Elyse Page B

groaned.
    “Who the hell is Scott?” Alex was clearly unhappy about not being privy to this information.
    Charlotte sighed. “He was my first boyfriend. If you can even call it that, since Eli ran him off so quickly.”
    “You’re damn right I did!” Eli countered.
    “Why?” Alex asked.
    “Because Scott was an asshole. He and I were friends. We met because we used to smoke pot together. He smoked more than I did, even at my worst. He was a junkie, a drummer, and I’d watched him take girls home without even asking their first names.”
    “A drummer? I know you go for musicians, but come on. Drummers are never a good choice,” Alex scolded Charlotte. I would be lying if I said I hadn’t taken particular note of the fact that Charlotte preferred to date musicians.
    “What? He was a nice guy, to me at least. He taught me to skateboard one day, and things just… got close.”
    “I walked in on him trying to make out with her one afternoon. The dick was trying to get with my little sister!” Eli told us emphatically. “I ripped his scrawny ass off of her and taught him to stay the hell away from her.”
    “You sent him to the hospital with a broken jaw and a concussion!” Charlotte objected.
    “He got lucky,” Eli muttered.
    I couldn’t help but agree with Eli. The thought of some punk-ass drummer with his hands and lips all over Charlotte made me think brutal thoughts. “Good job,” I told him.
    Eli laughed, but Charlotte eyed me suspiciously. Apparently, my comment hit a nerve, because the next words out of her mouth were a low blow. “What about you, Logan? Any questionable relationship choices?”
    Alex, I could tell, had to hold back her reaction. Her face was tense as she tried to keep it blank and her shoulders shook from barely contained laughter. Eli snorted and I shot him a look.
    “Well,” he said, “you don’t exactly pick the deep end of the gene pool.”
    When Charlotte snorted derisively, I decided if she wanted to play games, I would step up to bat. “Well, brains aren’t exactly what I was usually after.”
    Her expression darkened a bit. “Sex should mean something. ”
    “You’d be surprised how many women aren’t good for much more,” I offered.
    Alex jumped to her feet. “Anyone need a drink?” She was trying to cover her nerves. Her voice was calm and natural, but her eyes gave her away. Eli didn’t look oblivious to the land mine I’d set off, but he was not pissed at me, either. His focus was exactly where mine was, on Charlotte, and he looked concerned.
    “Someone always gets hurt that way. Or they’re trying to escape things they won’t man up and face,” Charlotte bit out.
    Alex verged on shock. “Char–” she said in a hushed voice.
    Charlotte shut her eyes for just a second and dropped her head. After a few controlled breaths, she said, “I’m sorry. I don’t know what that was.”
    Seeing her bow her head to me, hearing her apologize again just for simply pointing out my many short comings, infuriated me. She felt terrible for no other reason than that I had pushed her. “You shouldn’t apologize so much,” I threw out to her, trying to keep it light of the sake of our audience. “We disagreed about sex. There’s nothing to be sorry for.”
    Charlotte looked up at me, but I did not find the contrite or furious look I had expected. Instead, there was an expression that stopped my heart. The corners of her perfect lips pulled upward ever so slightly, her eyes shone with appreciation. Underneath it was a lingering sadness, though. She looked like a small child given a kiss and a piece of candy after falling and scraping her knee. It made me want to sweep her into my arms and care for her until the last of that sadness was gone from that sweet face.
    Alex, perpetually working towards harmony, jumped back into the conversation then. “How about we go out for a couple drinks?”
    This elicited a snort from Charlotte, which was indescribably