december 31
"No way in hell I'm going," I tell Rebecca and Kenzie.
Surprise surprise, they want me to go to another freaking party. I'm honestly over parties they're too overrated.
"Don't make us get Roman so he can drag you out to the car." Kenzie threatens.
Roman pops his head into the room along with Jaden, "I'm not going either." He tells them.
"Yes, the hell you are," Rebecca tells him.
"I'm going to spend as much time with my daughter as possible so no the hell I not." He explains.
"Perfect I'll keep you company. You two go with Jaden and have fun." I tell them.
I didn't even bring any party clothes, I only brought one nice outfit for Christmas and it's already dirty.
"Roman it's 9:30, look me straight in the eyes and tell me that Aria isn't asleep already." Fuck she has a point.
"I'm not going if she's not going. There's no fucking way I'm going through this torture alone."
"Perfect neither of us is going then," I say firmly.
The girls look at Jaden for help and he just stands there with amusement in his eyes. "Does this happen every time you try to take her out?" He asks.
"Yes." The three of them answer in sync.
"One time they tied me to a chair and did my makeup and then got this ass to carry me to the car," I say the last part pointing at Roman.
Both girls look at him again with pleading eyes and he caves. Fucking hell.
"Get your ass up Lani or I'll tell them about the time in high school when you went to that one p—"
"I'm up! I'm up!" I practically jump off my bed. "Next time I won't cook for you and I'll let you starve to death," I tell Jaden.
"Then Rob—" I interrupt him
"Will you not share my secrets!" I yell at him.
All the shit I've tried to keep hidden is going to end up exposed by this idiot.
"Not so fast, I'm intrigued now so please continue," Kenzie says. I quickly slap my mouth over his hand before he could speak, "you guys know about my dead mother isn't that enough?" I ask.
Sure there are certain things that I wouldn't mind sharing but I don't feel like giving them the whole play-by-play.
"Your- what? Why-"
Oh yeah, the only ones who knew were the twins.
Oh well.
I nod my head at the same time that Jaden nods his.
"Don't be surprised by her reaction, when she told Roman she started laughing," Rebecca tells her.
"Don't worry she does that all the time," Jaden explains.
"Shut it. Now both of you out!" I order the guys, shoving them both out but before Roman could get completely out I yank him back by his sweatshirt. "Get ready Grey because there's no freaking way I'm going through this torture alone," I say quoting what he said to the girls a few minutes ago. "Jaden must have something really good on you." He smirks.
"Some real juicy shit that you're never going to find out about. Now leave." I shove him out the door and close it.
"I don't even have anything to wear," I tell them desperate to not go.
"And before you say anything I'm not wearing a dress, a skirt, or anything that shows my legs," I tell them before they offer me one of their outfits.
They both roll their eyes, "wait here." Rebecca tells us.
Five minutes later she comes back with a yellow lace corset and a pair of jeans.
"You're kidding, right? No way in hell I'm wearing this."
"Let me tell you how this is going to go," Rebecca starts. "You're going to say no way in hell. Then you're going to reason with us to find you something more 'appropriate'. Then we're going to spend 20 minutes convincing you to wear it and then you'll finally cave. So how about we save all of us time and you just put it on." She finishes with a sweet smile.
I open my mouth and close it about two times before I finally give in.
I let out a grunt and change in the clothes. "I'm wearing my leather jacket," I tell them firmly. They look annoyed but don't complain.
"Are you going to do anything else?" She asks. I'm already wearing mascara and concealer. Not much more to do, and my hair is still straight from the other night. "Nah I'm good. I'll just throw on some lipgloss."
We start walking down the hallway leading to the stairs, passing Romans door I bang on it, "we're leaving." I say and keep walking.
We reach the end of the stairs and find Romans' parents watching a movie with Aria sleeping on one side of the couch.
"You guys going out?"
"Yeah hope that's okay," I reply.
"It's perfectly fine honey, go and have fun." I hear steps coming and soon after Roman and Jaden are with us in the living room.
"Are you sure you're okay with watching her? I don't have to go." Roman asks his parents.
"You deserve to have fun, go out and enjoy yourself."
We all say our goodbyes and head to the cars.
"Wait a damn minute Kailani Adrianna Knight, what the hell are you wearing?" Jaden stops me.
Uh oh, full name. This isn't good.
"Uh? Clothes." I reply in a duh tone.
"You're wearing a piece of fabric and jeans. That's not clothes." He replies.
"Well if you hadn't threatened to expose me I wouldn't have had to agree to come and these two," I gesture to the girls, "wouldn't have forced me to wear this. And for fricks sake I have a nice body and I'm gonna wear whatever the heck I want to." I bicker.
"Over. my. dead. body."
"That can be rearranged," I challenge.
Jaden and I may get along now but we had a rough patch when he was a Junior and I was in 8th grade. We fought constantly, both verbally and physically.
One time he threw a pillow at my face while I was making a salad so I threw a carrot at him. Granted I thought I had a knife in my hand but same thing.
Another time I brought a guy over for a project and this idiot scared him off so I threw a pizza slice at his face, it was the only thing within reaching distance.
Sadly he caught it and threw it back, not before he took the cheese off though, so when it hit me I got covered in sauce.
Fun times.
He steps toward accepting my challenge but Rebecca stands in the middle. "You two can murder each other later, right now we are leaving for this party. Same car arrangements as always." Rebecca demands.
This girl is like 5'5 but she will beat anyone's ass and will not hesitate to put someone in check. I smirk at Jaden and head to Romans' car. "Wanna repeat the pizza situation, Lani?" Jaden shouts before I get in the car. "Sure, maybe this time I won't have a carrot in my hand." I flip him off and get in the car.
"What the hell was that about?" Roman asks amused.
"Which part."
"The pizza and carrot part."
I let out a laugh before telling him the story, "Jaden and I got into a fight his Junior year and it lasted for like 4 months. One time I made fun of him because he got caught with a girl in his room and he threw a pillow at me. So I threw a carrot at him. Granted I was making a salad and I thought I had a knife in my hand but it was actually a carrot. Good thing though because It hit him straight in the face." I explain while trying to contain my laughter.
"You threw a knife at your brother?" He asks in disbelief.
"No no no, I thought I was throwing a knife. I threw a carrot." I say in a matter of factly.
He starts shaking his head and lets out a chuckle. "What? You're seriously going to tell me you and Rebecca never got into any fights?"
"Yeah like once every 4 months. And the worst we ever threw at each other as pillows." He says insinuating that me throwing a knife at Jaden was crazy.
If you have never chased your siblings with a knife then you weren't really siblings.
"You guys are weird."
"Says the one who tried to kill her brother." He replies.
"That's a bit dramatic. I'm sure he would've lived." Right? You can't die from one cut on your face right?
I hear a ding on my phone and see a text from Jaden.
J🤠🖕🏼: you win.
I always do. It has become traditional to apologize over text since we're both too stubborn to apologize in person.
We pull into the house a few minutes later and it already full swing. "Why did I agree to come?" I ask mainly to myself.
"Because your brother has some juicy shit on you." Roman replies for me.
I mean he's not wrong.
I let out a sigh and walk into the house. The thing is, I don't hate parties. Most people would despise them if they went through what I did. But many therapy sessions later I learned to not blame myself and to enjoy life.
But that doesn't mean I love parties either. Back in high school, they were fun because I was 'popular' so I always had someone to dance with, or if I wanted to smoke a joint I had friends for that too. If I wanted to play beer pong I had friends for that too. But now parties to me are a place to get the two b's, booze and banged. And I am not a fan of either.
I walk into the kitchen and bump into someone.
Now with my history, you would think I bumped into Roman, but no. This guy isn't as big as Roman. I look up and find a kind of attractive guy looking down at me. "My bad." I apologize.
"No big deal you're good." He flashes me a smile, "Andrew." He extends his hand for me to shake.
"Kailani" I reply with a smile and shake his hand. "You're not from here are you?"
"Is that a question or statement?" I ask
"Both." I like this guy
"I'm from Indio. It's a pretty small city." I tell him. I started sneaking into Coachella when I was 15, as much as I could, since it was so close, but trust me when the music festival isn't going on the city is pretty much dead. Not to mention is hot as hell.
"Figures I would've remembered you."
"Is that so?" I raise an eyebrow.
"It's hard to forget such a pretty face." He says with a cheeky smile.
"Flirting now, are we?" I ask
"Very much." Not gonna lie I'm intrigued by this guy, he's cute and he knows how to flirt. "Then walk with me, let talk." I smile. He agrees and we start walking around getting to know each other.
I spend the next two hours switching between the group and Andrew. He's fun, soon I find the twins and Jaden, "oh there's my friends. Wanna come this time?" I ask him.
"Lead the way." So far I've learned that he grew up here but he goes to college in Arizona, and that both of his parents are in marketing.
"Finally we get to meet the reason you've been wandering off all night," Rebecca says as soon as she sees me. She then shifts her attention to Andrew, "Drew fancy seeing you here, haven't seen you since the summer before college."
"Nice seeing you too Bec. Where's your other half?" He asks, I'm guessing referring to Roman. "She's with Ashley." Guess I was wrong. Makes sense since Kenzie is the only one missing. "I see you've met Kai. Don't be a dick to her." She says sternly.
I laugh, "don't worry Rebecca he's been very nice to me." They all start catching up but I mainly zone out of the conversation. I look down at my watch and see that it's 11:51, almost midnight. "You have your midnight kiss yet?" Rebecca asks.
"I have a clue." Jaden hints to Roman.
Ass.
I decided to tease a bit because it's fun, "Oh I have a list of guys lined up but honestly I can't choose. I think I'll just kiss them all." I answer as innocently as possible. Jaden visibly tenses, "I'm keeping an eye out on you all night." He says sternly.
It's honestly really funny when his mama bear side comes out. It's cute really.
I shake my head, "I'm going to the bathroom." I walk up the stairs looking for the bathroom, opening different doors. I walked in on at least 3 couples hooking up before I found a bathroom.
Like seriously lock the freaking door.
I'm about to shut the door but someone slips in before I can do so.
I get over the shock and notice it's Roman.
"What the hell?! You gave me a near damn heart attack asshole."
"So who are the guys?" He asks completely disregarding my question.
"What?" I ask confused.
He starts slowly walking closer, "the guys you're gonna kiss at midnight?"
"You think I was being serious? I was just messing with Jaden." I say chuckling.
But why does he care?
"But why do you care?" I ask with amusement. He runs his hands through his hair frustrated.
Hot-
No.
He lets out a frustrated grunt, "I don't. Just wanted to make sure you wouldn't kiss anyone." He says.
Sir?
"And what's it to you who I kiss?" I challenge.
He looks at me dead in the eyes and says, "don't challenge me Kai. You're not kissing anyone tonight." Ass. He's no one to tell me who I can and cant kiss. "I can kiss whoever the hell I want." I snap.
"Not tonight. Not when I'm around. Not if I can help it." He says firmly. I scoff in disbelief, "you know what, know that I think about it there's a lot of hot guys here tonight. I think I'll go find one seeing as I have 5 minutes till midnight." I walk past him and open the door but I don't make it out since he shut the door before I can leave.
When I turn around I find myself trapped between him with his hand on the door. "Don't challenge me Kai. I'll keep you in this room the rest of the night if I have to."
I want to kill him. "Why do you suddenly care?"
He gets a bit closer, still leaving space between us. "Because, the only one who will get near this lips," he runs his thumb through my lower lip, "is me."
I-
I have no idea what to say or do. I open my mouth hoping something will come out but nothing does.
Finally, I'm able to form some words but there not the ones I expected. "Stop. You where the one who doesn't want this to happen again, not that I want anything to."
Suddenly he puts on a smug smile and leans in closer. "You don't want it to?" He asks in a low voice. I shake my head not trusting my voice.
"You little liar." He says while raking his eyes down my body.
"Why?" The only thing I can ask
"Why what?" He responds.
"First you tell me nothing can happen, which I'm okay with. And then you do this." I say.
I sigh and shake his head. "I don't know. All I know is that I haven't been able to stop thinking about you, your kisses, your lips, your body, the moans you make when I kiss you." I feel the heat rushing to my cheeks when he says this. "And I'm guessing you haven't either."
I shake my head because, in all honesty, I haven't.
We stare into each other falling into a trance. I snap out of said trance when I hear the countdown start.
"10"
what does this mean?
"9"
what's going to happen?
"7"
do I even want something to happen?
"5"
I don't even know what I feel for him.
"3"
"2"
I look up at him
"1. Happy New Year!"
My lips are immediately engulfed with his. I give in quickly moving my lips with his.
I quickly realize what we're doing and break the kiss. "We can't keep doing this," I say
"Why not?" He asks.
"Because you don't want it to."
"I do."
"But-"
"We both like this, why does it have to stop" he suggests. If this was anyone else I would've already slapped them and left. But I find myself thinking about his offer
"Like friends with benefits?" I ask.
"Yeah." He says.
No.
Tell him to fuck off.
No.
"We need rules."
Not a no!
What did I just do?
"Rules?"
"Rules." I clarify.
He nods his head, "okay.."
"No sex." I blurt out.
Can I be normal for once?
His amusement becomes very clear as I slap my hand over my mouth.
"Got it."
"If anyone of us starts catching feeling we stop right away," I say. I'm 99% it'll be me to catch feeling first. It's just who I am
"Agreed." He nods his head.
God, I can't believe I agreed to this.
"And no one knows." I get teased enough as it is. If they find out we're friends with benefits I'll never hear the end of it.
"So you agree?" He asks amused.
"Just shut up and kiss me."
i don't know how but this chapter is freaking long. The best part is that I finished it in like four hours.
but i'm yeah....surprise fwb 🤠👏🏼
published 5•2•21
word count:3093