Winter Air (Sequel to Night Air)

Chapter 7

*Alyssa's POV*

"I'm sorry, you did what with WHO?!"

"Please don't make me say it again."

"WHAT THE FUCK ALYSSA?!" I groaned and pulled the phone far away from my ear to keep it from bleeding. "Give me the damn details! Now! Is he just as good?!"

"Ya see, the thing is, Steph..."

She growled on the other end. "What?"

"I don't actually know..." I confessed ashamed. I had been on the phone for five minutes with Stephany and for the first time, she said nothing. It felt like an eternity before she finally said something back.

"What do you mean you don't know?" I bite my lip and looked around my room. "Please don't tell me-"

"We were drunk?" I cut her off and held the phone far away from my ear.

"YOU CALLED ME AT ELEVEN O'CLOCK AT NIGHT TO TELL ME YOU HAD DRUNK SEX WITH NIALL?!"

I was hesitant to put the phone back to my ear. I waited a few seconds just to be completely sure that she wasn't going to scream again. "Yeah...?"

"Bitch, I got church in the morning! You couldn't call earlier!? This shit's important!"

I paused and then started bursting with laughter, momentarily forgetting about the reason I called her. That was one of the last things I ever expected Steph to tell me. "Stop laughing, God damn it!" That only made me laugh harder as I pictured Stephany in a church appropriate dress standing in church pews singing church hymns. It just didn't seem like something you'd ever see. It wasn't that Steph didn't have a religion, it was just the fact that Steph was far from holy.

"Since when do you go to church?" I giggled.

"Since my granny bailed me out of jail two weeks ago with minor felonies and promised not to say anything to my dad if I started going to church with her." I could picture her huffing into the phone with her eyebrows knitted together and a scowl across her face.

"Steph," I chuckled, "you're 22. Why does it matter if your dad knows?"

I could almost hear her eye roll, too. "Because he threatened to cut me off and Momma doesn't want to find a job." This time, it was me who rolled her eyes. "Anyways, stop changing the subject! We're here to talk about your mistakes, not mine!"

I just laughed and shook my head while my free hand started to play with my curled hair. "Right, right."

"So..." she started, "I'm still waiting for those details."

I sighed and narrowed my eyes at the split ends I was playing with. "I don't know. It just happened. I feel confused about the whole thing to be honest." I paused to see if she was going to add anything, but she didn't so I continued. "I feel so fucking pissed off at him for everything, but at the same time, I'm telling myself that it doesn't even matter anymore. It's like..." I paused trying to figure out how I feel, "I feel like I should hate him, and maybe I do, but then I want to a start talking to him again. I don't know. The man confuses my brain."

Steph let out half a chuckle and half a yawn. "I'd say you're just still hurting but still very much in love with him."

I scoffed at her words and sat up on my pink bed. "Yeah right." I tutted and shook my head. "I'm far from being in love with him after everything that went down. It took me about two months to fall in love with him and three months to say that I am not in love with that man anymore. I don't even know if I know him." I shook my head again and then went back to playing with my split ends. Josh needed to give me a trim.