The Art of Falling in Love

Chapter Twenty Nine

The stupidest decision of my senior year happens in this moment, where Joshua Williams kisses me and I let him. In a moment of anger and heartbreak, I lead him to his room, and lock the door behind us. I continue to kiss him, a feeling of nostalgia clouding my judgement.

"Diana, are you drunk?" Josh pulls away from the kiss for a moment. "I've been dreaming of kissing you for the longest time, but not while you're drunk."

"I'm not drunk," I assure. "Are you?"

Josh smirks, the devilish glint in his eyes making me feel alive. "Nope."

He pulls me to his bed and kisses me again, making me forget.

❀ ❀ ❀

"Josh, we have to go out for the countdown." I tell him, putting on my t-shirt.

Josh wraps his arm around my waist, pulling me back to him. He kisses my neck, "Just a few more minutes."

"A few more minutes and the countdown will start," I roll my eyes. "You're the host, you have to be there."

"There are more than a hundred people here, they won't notice," Josh murmurs, looking at me with his blue eyes that had once made me fall in love. "How about we have a round two?"

He raises his eyebrows suggestively and I hit him with his pillow. He laughs and puts the pillow back onto the bed, leaning forward to kiss me. His kiss is soft and sweet, a nice change from his normally aggressive and lustful kisses. Don't get me wrong, both are great, but sometimes it is nice to have the gentle ones.

"Diana, I just want you to know..." He murmurs hesitantly. "I haven't slept with anyone since our breakup. I could never get you out of my head."

"You didn't sleep with Harley?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.

He shakes his head, "We only ever made out and if it seemed like it was going to go further, I never went through with it."

"Well, if it matters, I didn't sleep with anyone else, either." I tell him.

"I forgot what I had been missing." Josh grins and grabs me, pulling me on top of him. I laugh and kiss him. He is my temporary panacea.

Josh and I finally leave his room just as the countdown for one minute starts on the television downstairs. Everyone is already gathered, and I spot Noah immediately. He has his arm around Amelia's waist and a beer can in his other hand.

When the countdown hits zero, the cheers are beyond loud and excited. Josh leans down to kiss me and I kiss him back. I don't see if Noah kisses Amelia.

❀ ❀ ❀

I know sleeping with Josh might possibly be the worst decision I have ever made, but I can't reverse time now. All I can do is accept what I did, and hope the people around me are supportive. So when I finally get the nerve tell Alyce, I had hoped for a better reaction than what I get.

"You fucked Joshua Williams?" Alyce screeches.

Every head turns in our direction. We are currently at Damon's just to hang out. Unsurprisingly, Amelia is here, too.

"You did what?" Hunter exclaims, jumping up and down excitedly beside Alyce. "Yes, girl, get some!"

"Don't encourage this behaviour!" Alyce snaps at her boyfriend.

"I didn't want everyone to hear," I groan. "It was just a reckless, in-the-moment kind of thing that won't happen again."

Noah is awfully silent and when he gets up and storms outside, no one stops him. Amelia frowns at the action, watching as he stands out on the front lawn.

"Why is he so upset?" Amelia asks no one in particular.

Jasper coughs uncomfortably, "why do you think?"

"Tell me you used protection," Katia says with concern.

"Of course, and I'm on the pill," I tell her. "Can't be too safe."

"I knew you were the smart one of the group," Thalia says. "Well, if we're spilling secrets, then I guess it's a good time to tell you that Dylan and I hooked up and I still haven't told his sister."

"What the fuck?" Damon cries out. "Why is everyone so scandalous?"

"You should tell Lauren," Mackenzie frowns. "She deserves to know. Especially if she thought you two were exclusive."

"Uh, no," Hunter disagrees. "A little white lie never hurt anybody. It'll break her if you tell her. It's better to just keep it to yourself."

"No way," Amelia argues. "This is the kind of thing that will blow up in her face if Lauren ever finds out. It's not worth the risk."

"Were you two ever even official?" Damon asks. When Thalia shakes her head, he looks satisfied, "so she doesn't have to know. It's not cheating."

"But they went out a couple of times," Mackenzie disagrees with her boyfriend. "They're at least a thing. If I was seeing someone casually, I'd like to know if they were hooking up with other people."

"A better question is who you like," Katia puts in. "That's what really matters here."

"I don't know," Thalia groans. "Why do the Halls have such good genes?"

Jasper pats his sister on the shoulder half-heartedly, "Oh no, two good looking people are in love with you. Must suck to be you."

"But now she's caught in the middle of a family," Alyce chides. "Whose parents, by the way, think both kids are straight."

As my group of friends continue the debate on what Thalia should do, I walk to the front lawn. Noah is standing there, kicking rocks with his hands in his pocket. I catch a glimpse of his face and my heart breaks; I have never seen him so shattered.

I take a deep breath and my hand travels to the diamond necklace he had gotten me. It is time to have the conversation that has been controlling my thoughts these past two weeks.

A/N: that song quote was quite relevant to this chapter ;)

also, the way this chapter was written was past tense for the first half (the part leading up to her "stupid decision") and the second half is told in present like the rest of the novel.

if you were Thalia, what would you do? shut up or tell her? i'm intrigued.