*Poppy's POV*
Chas raced her way upstairs to find Chase, and I wondered what she could have possibly wanted to see him about. I swayed lightly to the music, unsure of what was happening in my drunken state, until Robbie came up and tapped me lightly on the shoulder. “Poppy, have you heard?” he asked.
“Robbie! I’m a girl! I do not have one of those!” I cried in outrage, at what I thought he had said.
“What? No, Poppy, I said have you heard, about Chase and Chas,” he tried again.
“What about Chrissy? She got that new boob job but everyone found that out weeks ago,” I replied, as I still did not fully understand what he had asked.
“Oh my God Poppy, can’t you hear?” he sighed, exasperated. “Chastity and Chase, they’re together!” he shouted, so loudly, I could never have mistaken it for anything. The remaining alcohol in my system drained out of me and my light, carefree expression turned into a scowl.
“That little bitch!” I shouted at the top of my lungs. “How long has this been going on?” I demanded. Robbie didn’t answer, shocked by my sudden fury. “How long Robbie!” I yelled in his face.
“Ah, uh, a week or so?” he responded, timidly. I shrieked in annoyance, Robbie probably just thought I was mad that she hadn’t told me. I was furious, though, not because she hadn’t told me, no I could have handled that, or even if it had been anyone else, anyone but Chase. Sure, she didn’t know that I liked him, and I definitely hid my feelings pretty well, but I couldn’t help but be jealous that Chastity had gotten him first. “Poppy, are you okay?” Robbie asked, obviously scared by my rage.
“Where is she?” I growled.
“Uhh, I’m not sure, probably with Chase in his room,” he stumbled. My eyes narrowed, luckily I knew they weren’t doing anything, Chas was as pure as a frickin’ flower, she wasn’t about to give that up to anyone, not even Chase. I left Robbie standing there, and raced up the steps. Nate was sitting on the floor outside of Chase’s room, where I assumed he and Chas were.
“Hey,” Nate said as he stood up to meet me. “What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Nate, I know you don’t care,” I managed to get out. “We’ve been doing this long enough to know we don’t need to start like that anymore.”
“I just thought we might want to change it up a bit,” he said, an amused expression rising onto his face, the same one that came up every time we did this.
“Then change it,” I said and gestured to him, “you start this time.” He grabbed my wrist, pulled me into the guest bedroom and trailed kisses down my neck. I soon got tired of his teasing, however, and took his face up in my hands. “Too slow,” I breathed, before I pulled his lips to mine. We kissed hungrily and fell back onto the bed. His hand trailed up my thigh and fiddled with the hem of my skirt. I broke away from his kisses to take a breath and he went back to my neck.
You know,” he breathed, “one of these days, I’m going to stop letting you get away with this.”
“But we both know,” I said as I pulled his shirt over his head, “that day isn’t today.” I pulled his face back to mine and trailed my hands across his flat stomach. We kissed a little while longer before I realized that we couldn’t stay here forever. “Nate,” I mumbled, overwhelmed by his kisses. “Nate, we have to go,” he pulled away and nodded.
“We’ll finish up later then?” he asked as he got up from the bed and picked his shirt up from the ground.
“Later,” I said, not quite focused. “They have to be done in that room by now right?”
“Why does that matter?” he asked and sat back down on the edge of the bed next to me.
“Well you were sitting out there, wouldn’t they be suspicious if all of a sudden you were gone?” I said, as I covered up my actual thoughts. To be honest, I had contemplated barging into that room and ripping Chas’s hair out, but I knew that I couldn’t have done that without Nate getting suspicious. After all, without Nate, I would have been alone a long time ago.
“I guess that’s true, but we could always leave them to do what they want,” he said. He tried to kiss me again but I pushed him away.
“Okay, so you go wait outside the door and I’ll be downstairs, got it?” I said and avoided the hurt look on his face.
“Sure,” he sighed and gave up. I immediately felt bad, but I couldn’t be bothered with comforting Nate right then, there was plenty of time for that later. I stood up from the bed and straightened my hair in the mirror before Nate stood up and followed me out of the room. The guilt of leaving Nate like that pained me so much, that I stopped him outside the door and kissed him once more.
“That was for later,” I said before I walked away from him and down the steps. Not long after I reached the bottom, Chastity dragged Chase down the steps in search for me. The temporary happiness that Nate had graced me with evaporated at the sight of them together. I had to fight the scowl that threatened to appear on my face with a sickening fake smile. I took a deep breath and prepared myself to act like nothing was wrong.
“Poppy, how do I- “ Chas started. I looked from her face to their intertwined hands.
“Well, I can’t say I’m surprised,” ‘more like infuriated,’ I thought to myself.
“You aren’t? Because Robbie and Nate were like shocked speechless,” she said, bewildered. I, of course, wasn’t surprised that Nate and Robbie acted that way; nobody thought anything of Chas and Chase ever getting together.
“No, I totally saw it coming,” I flashed another fake smile towards her.
“Oh, well that’s a relief,” she said, obviously relieved that I, apparently, wasn’t mad at her. Chase shot her a look that I recognized all too well from when Nate wanted some and I winked at them.
“Well don’t let me keep you two apart, go on, get some,” I said and pushed the two of them together. Chas’s face turned a deep red color and I backed away from the two of them. Once they were talking in hushed voices in a corner I allowed the scowl to fall back onto my face. Once I had time to think to myself, I couldn’t stop brainstorming ways to get him away from her.
‘What kind of friend are you if you can’t keep away from your best friend’s boyfriend?’ a voice inside of me asked.
‘I liked him first!’ I responded adamantly.
‘But why do you need Chase? All you have to do is say the words and you’ll have Nate wrapped around your pinky finger,’ the voice replied.
‘He already is,’ I countered.
‘Then it isn’t fair to lead him on like this,’ I was getting annoyed with the voice in my head.
‘Just go back to where you came from,’ I answered before pushing it to the back of my mind. I walked over to where Nate was leaning against the wall and gently poked him in the side. “Hey,” I said and leaned up against him. H gave me a once over and analyzed how I was feeling.
“Wanna talk about it?” he asked, Thrown off guard, I simply stared at him. “Poppy, no matter what happens when we’re alone, we’re friends first, don’t be afraid to tell me what’s bugging you.”
For a minute there, I contemplated telling him, after all, it was a no strings attached deal that we had. Instead, I settled for a simple, “I can’t.”
“Then I’ll just have to make you,” he responded coyly.
“What do you- “ but my sentence was cut short as Nate lightly kissed my shoulder. A shiver rolled through me as he found my neck and started sucking gently. “Stop it,” I groaned and fought the urge to turn around and suck his face off right then and there, but he would have assumed he had won, so I stayed rooted to the spot. I let out a hiss when he bit into my neck, and tried to give me a hickey. “N-Nate, Nate goddamnit stop!” He chuckled lightly at my flustered expression.
“Your face is redder than your hair,” he commented. “So will you tell me now?”
“No,” I replied adamantly. I stared straight ahead and my eyes found Chase whispering in Chastity’s ear. She pulled away from him and started shouting at him. He just leaned back and laughed at her expression. I had to admit they were a cute couple, as much as it displeased me to think about it, and I could steadily feel the scowl form on my face. Just then, Chas looked away from Chase and met my eyes. I turned my head as fast as I could back to Nate who had seen the whole thing.
“Are you two fighting or something?” Nate asked, concerned.
“Not, exactly,” I trailed off, as I didn’t want him to know about my feelings for Chase. I would have died if anyone found out about them, especially Chase and Chastity.
“Then what is it?” he asked again.
I craned my neck around to look at him and answered, “haven’t we gone over this?”
“And I thought I could catch you off guard,” he replied.
“That won’t be so easy,” I said, unable to think of a better response. Truth be told, Nate had started to weaken my resolve, and I was at a loss.
“Isn’t that what you said to me two years ago when I told you I could get you to be my girlfriend?” he responded, thinking he had won.
“But I’m not your girlfriend yet,” I maintained my upper hand and unlatched Nate’s arms from around my waist before he could say anything else.
“Come on Poppy! I was only messing around!” he called after me, but I was far past hearing when a brilliant idea popped into my head. I had a secret weapon that neither Chas nor Chase knew about. I mentally reminded myself to thank Nate for the reminder. I turned back around and rushed back to Nate.
His eyes widened in amusement and smiled at his success when I said, “so about that girlfriend offer….”