Life's Not A Doughnut

Chapter 24 ~ After

"One minute until count down!"

My eyes file through the coupled people, looking for a single figure that resembled Billie.

"Nora!"

I turn and smile as I see her, my anxiety reducing to a dull summer. We stand touching side to side and put our arms behind each other's back. It felt nice to have someone be next to me.

"Ten!"

I turn and face her, both of us giggling with awkwardness.

"Nine! Eight!" 

My stomach is remarkably calm, but my gut feeling is telling me something is wrong.

"Seven! Six! Five!"

Billie is suddenly pushed from my grip and her face is replaced with Mia's.

"What the-"

"Four! Three!"

"Sorry," she says quickly with a small smile.

"Two! One!"

Her lips are against mine before I can comprehend anything other than her.

"Happy New Year!" The crowd cheers, embracing one another in celebration.

Mia pulls back slightly and wraps her arms around my waist.

"No Mia I have to talk to you about Will-"

I choke on the words I thought I could finally get out so clearly. I am looking over Mia's shoulder at Will holding Annie in one of the most passionate kisses I've ever seen. I can only recall a few times he ever kissed me with such urgency. But out of the few times I had kissed Mia, they were all like that.

"What about him?" Mia is still waiting for me to finish.

I look at Billie who has distracted herself with the sand, waiting for me to explain what happened to her kiss. I then look at Mia who is looking at me expectantly, an alcoholic tinge to her cold breath.

I kiss her again, then tell her to wait for a minute.

"I think I just saw that dog, I bet he is sad he missed out on my lips too," Billie puckers her mouth and laughs to herself.

"I'm sorry, Bee. You know it's complicated I just-"

"Seriously Nora, you don't have to explain yourself to me. I understand. History, love, blah blah blah. Just go have fun. And use protection." She winks.

I hug her briefly but tightly, "Thank you."

Mia pulls me into her tent minutes later, our clothing already lost amongst the blankets and sleeping bags. Her hands trail down my body and I twitch as she presses on sensitive skin. Her legs tangle amongst mine as she hovers above my body, her weight leaning into all the right places.

"I love you, Mia." I whisper.

She smiles before locking her mouth to my neck and tracing her tongue along my flesh. I exhale in ecstasy as we push against each other, not being able to be close enough.

~~~~~

When I wake it is still dark. I pull out my phone to get a sense of time. 3:26am. I rummage to find my clothes and lazily put them on, wondering why Mia is no longer beside me.

"Well it's not my fault you're an idiot, is it?"

My ears prick at her voice which grows nearer. She is talking to someone just outside the tent, speaking quickly in a half whisper.

"I couldn't help it! Annie was just...there! I want to change the rules." It's Will's voice

"Nah ah. No changing anything. You lost, so hand over the money."

"I don't have that kind of cash on me! And besides, I tried to do this the nice way. You're obviously telling the truth when you say you hate her."

I stay frozen still, trying to gather as much of the conversation as I can.

"She broke my fucking heart, Will. And she was naïve enough to believe I was ok when she came back into town."

"She hurt me too, Mia, but I never wanted to take things this far."

I can feel my stomach in my throat and I become anxious that I'm going to pass out. My eyes are burning, my head is spinning, and I have no where to run. I'm trapped. I grab the rest of my belongings and unzip the tent, climbing out to face the siblings.

They turn and know they've been caught. The game was up. It was over.

"Nora please hear me out," Will begins in a plead. "I only agreed to this bet as a joke, I didn't think it would go this far and yes I was still partially angry at you for everything that happened but I didn't want revenge on you. I still care about you."

"So what was this bet?"

"Who could get you into bed first."

My skin was crawling in anger and embarrassment. How could I have been so stupid? Why did I trust them? Either of them. I turn to look at Mia. She shrugs.

"I'm not sorry. You fucking broke my heart. I had loved you for years and I told you I loved you that night and you never said it back. Instead you told everyone it meant nothing and it was a mistake. It wasn't a mistake to me then, Nora, I thought we were finally going to be together. But of course, you had heart eyes for my brother because he was drama and your life would be boring without the drama." Her face is unforgiving. "I was the easy choice but you wanted the attention you got from being with Will, so you chose him."

I didn't want to cry but I was. My whole world had been shattered once again and I couldn't stand another minute of it. I take a final look at them both standing there in the dark. Mia O'Brien, my once loving friend who had been manipulating me for the past month. William O'Brien, my once loving boyfriend who had been playing a wicked game on me for weeks. I loved them. I hated them.

My back is to them both as I run down the beach, desperately searching for anyone but them. Anyone but anyone who knew me.

"Oh hey sleepy head. How was the sex?"

"Billie," I sob as I meet her eyes. Her joking expression disappears.

"Nora? What's the matter?"

I fall into her, my entire body exhausted from the pain.

"Take me home. Please. Take me home."

She holds me as we walk off the beach and up to the gravel road. She finds her car and helps the crippled shell of a human into the passenger seat. I can't feel myself. I can't feel the leather beneath my legs or the cold glass window against my cheek. I can't feel.

Bee drives in silence, only occasionally quietly asking me for directions. I only replied with yes or no and a point of a finger. I was cold. Suddenly shivering. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't see.

It was black.

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