Love Songs

Chapter Four

Jessica - Sunday, 10:30am.

There's no worse feeling than waking up from a sleepless night. I'd gotten back to my room early enough, but sleep of course evaded me. It was incredibly humid, the temperature climbing up to eighty, and even with the window open I was too much inside my head to relax. Every time I closed my eyes, I was back in that closet. In the silence, one thought screamed through my head. I'd kissed Shay Thaller. I'd made out with Shay Thaller. And worst of all, on some level, I'd enjoyed it.

Nothing about it made sense. Shay was four years older than me. She was Allie's sister. She was cocky, and promiscuous, and reckless, and rude. And most importantly, I was straight. And yet we'd kissed. And I'd felt something I'd never felt kissing anyone.

Allie was silent all morning, barely looking at me as we shuffled around, picking out clothes and putting on makeup. She was sitting at the one dresser, straightening her hair in a mirror she had brought, and I could tell she was using it to glare at me.

"Are we going to talk about this?" I finally asked, wanting to break the tension, as I sat down on the top bunk.

"About what?" she asked tersely, as if she didn't know.

"About last night," I pressed.

"What's there to talk about? You made out with my sister, Jess. You made out with my sister."

"It was a game!" I reminded her. "And I tried to tell her not to."

"It doesn't matter," she said, turning around to face me. "You didn't have to let her."

"You know how she is, Allie."

"She's a flirt, Jessica, she's not a sexual predator."

"She doesn't take no for an answer! Look, it's not like I'm going to marry her, Allie. I'm straight."

"That hasn't been a problem for her in the past," she pointed out.

"Oh my God," I sighed, unable to believe this was happening. "Al, I don't have feelings for Shay. Believe me."

"I'm trying to."

"And she definitely doesn't have feelings for me."

"You don't know that."

"Allie, her favorite thing to do is drive me crazy. And last night was just a game. Now that it's over, things are going to be exactly how they used to be. Okay?"

She exhaled, turning back to her hair. "You'd better hope so," she said.

Around then, the door to our room opened and in walked both Shay and Darius.

"What's up," Shay said indifferently, sitting down on the desk Allie was sitting at. Darius sat down in the corner chair. 

Allie just rolled her eyes. Shay shot me a look which meant to ask me what was wrong with her. The one I gave back expressed that she knew exactly what.

The silence spoke for itself.

"Was it this quiet in here two minutes ago?" Darius asked lightheartedly, though hitting the very heart of the problem. Obviously, the awkward moment had arisen from me being in the same room as both Thaller girls.

I didn't know what to say, so I didn't say anything.

"Okay," Shay said, making a face at both of us. "Well if you guys wanna stop being weird, we're taking some people to the beach."

"Great," I said, wanting nothing more than to get out of that room. "When?"

"We went around to the rooms to see who was interested. We're all meeting downstairs at twelve, and borrowing a van."