The music is too loud, the kitchen too full, and half an hour ago someone decided that the lighting apparently only counts as party-appropriate once you can barely tell what you're actually drinking.
He is handling it just fine.
Judd is standing between Bo and two guys from another team at the transition to the living room, a half-empty bottle in his hand, while Bo tells some story that with every retelling is obviously getting shittier and simultaneously more dramatic.
"You didn't jump over the table,"
he says.
"I did."
"You ran into it."
Bo puts a hand on his chest.
"I was drunk."
"You were sober."
"You can't prove that."
Judd laughs and shakes his head.
It's easy. Party. Friends. Music. Someone calls his name from the other side of the room. A woman he knows from some seminar holds her glass out to him as she passes, and he clinks his briefly against it. Two freshmen are arguing about whether the Herons will win the next away game. Bo chimes in uninvited.
And somewhere at this party is you.
He knows it. Of course he knows it. He doesn't need to know exactly where you are right now to know that you are both here tonight.
No one here knows it. Not Bo. Not the guys from his team. Not the students who have known him as the Herons' shooting guard for years and just as naturally assume that he is single.
Owen knows. Almost no one else.
So he does exactly what he has been damn good at for months. He keeps his private life to himself. You included. Publicly, anyway.
"Fothergill!"
He looks up.
"Living room. Now."
"Why does that sound like a summons?"
"Truth or dare!"
Bo groans.
"Oh no."
He is already grinning.
"Oh yes."
Twenty minutes later, easily fifteen people are somehow scattered around the low living room table. On the carpet. On the couch. On the armrests. Two people have sat down on the floor even though there are still free chairs three meters away. Empty bottles and cups stand between snacks and phones, while each new round is accompanied by increasingly loud commentary.
He has grabbed a spot on the wide end of the couch. Bo sits on the floor in front of him and has already tried twice to slip him a truth even though it wasn't even his turn.
"You're obsessed with me,"
he states.
"I just want transparency."
"Get a therapist."
Laughter runs through the group. Then someone points at him.
"Eleven."
He slowly raises an eyebrow.
"Your turn."
"I have a name."
"Truth or dare, Eleven?"
He takes a sip and sets the bottle between his shoes.
"Dare."
Of course dare. A few people cheer immediately.
"That was too fast,"
Bo says.
"You're going to regret it."
Judd laughs, and he does not take the dare back.