Traitor to My Heart

Curtis Ward was Oli's charming, sweet, funny, crazy best friend. He knew how to keep people entertained while keeping himself in-check. He never threw things at people or pissed on people's legs. What he did do, though, was drive me mad.

Every time I was around him, my brain would go and my heart would disconnect from the fact I was in a relationship with Oliver. Curtis and I were shameless with our private conversations and awkward yet playful in front of company. He could make me laugh and blush and he always knew what to say.

Yet my heart chose the pretty boy front man.

Oli whispered something in my ear, making me jump. I asked him to repeat the question and he wrapped his lank, inked arms around me and asked me if I "wanted a beer or what?" I said yes to the beer and he ordered for me, leaning forward and continuing his conversation with Matt. Lee's girlfriend Caitlyn came into view from the bathrooms and I smiled at her. She returned the smile, her blonde hair flowing behind her as she walked towards us. Caitlyn had been my good friend a year before I met Oliver. She and Lee met at a party Oli and I had invited her to and the rest was history. Looking deliberately at me first, then to the three boys, "Where's Curtis and the other Matt?"

I glared at her, for a moment I regretted telling her about Curtis and I, then smiled. She returned the smile with a wink. She was what Americans would call a Southern Belle. Blonde and quite nearly perfect. Very pretty and sweet. She had dropped out of Oxford University two days before I found her at a bad pub in Leeds. I smiled at the memory but was broken from my thoughts as Matt, his girlfriend Nikki, and Curtis walked in the bar.

Butterflies erupted in my stomach.