Her Safe Haven

Chapter 39 - Love Polygon II

Previously on Her Safe Haven: Winter was stabbed by Sasha's accomplice following the mysterious attacks on her. Now she was in surgery and everyone was waiting. Her mother and her cousin Elijah finally came, too.

With Winter stable but still unconscious and all of them waiting and worried, Riley thought it was barely the most appropriate time to talk about this, but she couldn't help it. She was currently eating lunch with Rose in the hospital's garden, but it had been on her mind for the past few weeks, and she needed to say it out loud.

"I slept with Kai."

Rose almost choked on her sandwich. "You slept with— what?!"

"I slept with Kai," Riley repeated, her expression still flat yet her heart beating so fast with nerve and the excitement that yes, she had finally told someone that the guy she had liked for the past two years finally did something that indicated he saw her as more than just a friend.

Rose furrowed her brows in confusion. "But— I— why?"

Riley shrugged. "Because it was late. And we were drunk."

"So you slept with someone you're in love with but is probably in love with someone else because you were drunk?"

Riley winced back slightly at that. She had to admit, what Rose said kind of hurt.

Though Riley knew the fact that Kai liked Helena was probably supposed to be a secret, Rose and Riley couldn't help their female intuition that just lighted up every time they saw Kai helping Helena with school work in that overly-eager manner of his. And when Seth stuttered the moment they mentioned the topic in a passing comment, they both knew they had hit their mark.

She furrowed her eyebrows back and looked at Rose. "Do you really think it's that bad?"

"Of course it is!" Rose could almost yell at her best friend. "Riley, you like him. A lot. You know how he sleeps around. And he hadn't liked you in that way before, so the chances of that changing, to be honest, is very slim. He calls you his 'best bud'."

Riley sighed at Rose's comment and rested her chin on her hands, closing her eyes dejectedly. "I know... But still, you know. You should understand. What if Gray suddenly, I don't know, kisses you while he's drunk and says, he desires you?"

At that Rose looked far away. And crossed her arms.

"There is nothing between me and Gray," she said, and at Riley's questioning look, she added, "at least, not anymore."

+++

After Riley left her to take a walk "to cool off", Rose thought that she should take a walk to clear her mind off the complicated drama their friendship group was in, too. But when she walked into the hospital's cafeteria, towards her friends' lunch table, she decided that the drama just couldn't catch a break.

"—Well you should know why! ...Yeah, right. It's Riley liking Kai all over again because Helena has liked you for years and she would never—umPH!"

Tria was choking with how hard Rose suddenly covered her mouth, but as soon as she saw Rose's glare, and everyone's stares, she realised what her uncontrollable loudmouth had done this time.

'Oh, SHI—'

While Jonah was aware that Helena had some sort of feelings towards him, his mouth was still wide at Tria's first sentence, and everyone else in the group sat frozen and looked at Tria threateningly.