Night Class (18+)

eight.

don't forget to vote ily 😡♥️

i finally got to expand on one of eliza's friends in this chapter :D they actually have personalities, who knew???

ALSO 600 VOTES??? TYSM 😩😩♥️ should i do like a q&a or sum??? if u guys have any burning questions about the characters, future chapters, etc. u can comment here LOL. i'll also be making more mood boards

***

Let me explain, I haven't lost my mind.

Not yet. Not completely.

Back at Candice's house, I checked my phone to see 22 unread messages from my mother. Now was definitely not the time to go home and face her wrath, so I sent her a quick hey-I-can-explain-but-not-right-now text and turned my phone on mute.

Rach drove me to her place in her beat-up Camry with the windows rolled down. Autumn air fanned across my face, making the tip of my nose sting, and the cold air helped to clear my mind. I looked over contemplatively at my red-headed friend, oblivious, as she angrily fiddled with the Bluetooth on her phone.

A part of me wanted to tell her everything. After all, she was definitely more experienced than I was in that department. At the same time, how do I explain that I'm in love with our music teacher? Or that I think my step-brother-but-not-really wants to keep me tied up in his basement like some kind of sex doll?

... Or better yet, that he thinks I'm even worse than him?

Um, yeah. Hard pass.

I chewed the inside of my lip as flashes of yellow, orange, and red trees lining the suburban streets passed by my window.

Even worse than Kai? Is that even possible?

It's not like I wanted to keep Sive hostage. I just thought we were soul mates.

I involuntarily smiled to myself. Hmm... that did sound crazy.

We pulled into her two-story colonial house and I felt weirdly nervous as I walked in even though her parents weren't home. I knew from what Rachel told me that they were overtly religious, and here I was walking in, freshly fucked with a thin sheen of sinnery still coating my skin.

But then I walked into Rach's room, and I immediately felt better. It was a stark contrast from the rest of her kitschy household and its infinite supply of Live Love Laugh throw pillows.

A giant tapestry with a hand-painted astrological chart covered the North wall, handfuls of crystals were dumped in colourful piles on every available surface, and scattered throughout her room were a dozen lamps, all different genres: Mediterranean pink salt, one shaped like a mushroom, another with a 1920 geometric design...

"Oh wait, this is your first time in my room, isn't it?" She glanced around, as if trying to see it from my perspective. "Yeah... it's a bit much."

"No," I murmured, playing with the tassels on one of her lamps. "I really like it."

It felt nice hanging with another girl after being consumed with solely boy drama for the past couple of days.

I began to wipe off my day-old makeup in front of her vanity and reapply it all over again. I hesitantly sorted through Rachel's makeup bag, all the colour palettes being way more intense than mine: a hundred different shades of black, blues, and purple. This was definitely going to end up more dramatic than I anticipated, but maybe that was a good thing.

Meanwhile, she sat on her bed behind me, searching through her tote bag for something with an unlit cigarette dangling from her mouth. Smoking reminded me of Kai, but I shook my head, immediately banishing the memory. As of this moment, he's a later problem.