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Dedication: BlowMeAKiss for the cover! Thank you ❤️💜💙💚💛
Recap:
He rolls back onto his elbow, offering me a goofy, lope-sided smile. "Thank God, I'm so hungry, I was about to eat you."
My cheeks flame even more than they already are as he stands casually, extending his hand. I let him pull me to my feet, as I follow him out to the hallway. As we get to the stairs, he drops my hand. I dart to the bathroom, smoothing over my hair. My face is flushed.
As I walk into the kitchen a few moments later, Alec is already seated at the table, chatting to mum. I pull out my phone and quickly text Samara, asking her for her help.
These boys are going to get me into some serious trouble.
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"You and Alec, again?" Samara asks me, as she flips through one of my magazines, chewing her gum obnoxiously. "Really thought that was a one-time thing."
"Yeah, I did, too." I agree. "I know he isn't looking to date, he just wants to fool around. But I don't want to sleep with him, so..."
"Why not?" she shrugs. "I know the whole Miles thing has messed with your head, but Alec is a nice guy."
I stare at her, baffled. "He is a player. He has slept with plenty of girls. Once I give it up, he'll get bored and move on. I don't want my first time to be like that."
"Well, that's your choice."
"It is my choice," I argue, frowning. "I only want to do it with someone I'm dating. Who I love."
"Okay, okay, I get it." she replies, holding up her hands in a peace gesture.
I let out a huff. Samara frustrates me. She is so unemotional sometimes. It irks me that she doesn't care about things like that. She sleeps with people and then can see them next day and act like nothing happened.
I'm not wired like that. I'm far too emotional. I blame my mother's annoying genes for that.
"When does Kiarra get back? I miss her," I pout.
Our other best friend and the third member of our trio, Kiarra, has been travelling around Europe for almost two months now. She's gone for three. I miss her terribly. Even though her and Samara butt heads a lot, we are all very close. It feels weird not having her here. She would be more helpful in this situation. She would understand where I'm coming from and back me up. She always disagrees, on pretty much everything, that Samara says.
"Not for a while yet," she replies nonchalantly, continuing to browse through the magazine.
"I'm bored, can we go out?" I ask her, getting to my feet and peering out my window.
The sun is sinking into the horizon, leaving a chilling temperature and an orange haze in its wake.
"Let's go get food, I'm starving."
"You're always starving," I point out, sliding my feet into my Dr Martins.
I shrug my maroon coat over my shoulder, doing up the buttons quickly.
As I walk past Finn's bedroom, he stirrs quickly. "Hey, where are you two going?"
"We're going to get some food. Mum isn't home yet, so she'll probably eat left overs."
"Okay, I'm coming."
"Do you have to?" I whine, even though I don't really mind.
"Yep," came his reply.
By the time I got down to the kitchen and grab my keys, he appears, wearing jeans and a large, brown jacket.
"That looks warm," I sigh, staring at it enviously.
"It is, Samara, want to see?"
She giggles and I make a face at them.
"I'll drive." he says, taking my keys and tossing them back into the bowl.
"Suit yourself," I mutter.
We'll be using his petrol. Sucker.
As I got into the car, Samara having called shotgun, I notice that Finn is on the phone.
"Alright, I'll pick you up in five. Call Jai."
My insides squirm at the thought of seeing Alec. I barely saw him at school today. I spent most of my lunch, finishing my History assessment so I didn't have to do it tonight. I hardly saw anyone, actually.
As we pull up to Alec's house, I wipe my palms on my jeans. Samara is looking at me through the mirror reflection, a smirk on her face. I ignore her, gazing out the window.
"Evening," Alec's smooth voice greets as he dives into the car, sitting in the middle seat, his thigh brushing mine.
My heart rate spikes but I try to keep it cool. He gives me a flirtatious smile and I smile back, trying to appear unaffected.
"Sup," Finn says, not wasting any time, before heading over to Jai's.
Soon, everyone has piled into the car. Finn makes the decision on where to eat, even though he already hijacked my plans. I roll my eyes and don't complain. We pull up at the burger shack and my stomach howls with hunger.
I quickly text mum, telling her where we are, before shoving my phone into my jeans.
As we take a seat at our usual table, I try not to sit next to Alec. I don't want Finn to get suspicious. Alec doesn't get the memo. He slides in, throwing his arm behind me, resting it on the back of the seat.
Samara hides her smile behind her hand and I am tempted to kick them both in the shins. I am a bad liar, I don't want things to get heated over dinner, if Finn catches onto anything.
"So, who's pumped for the game this Friday?" Alec grins, looking around the table.
Finn and Jai both voice "hell yeah", before high-fiving, while Samara grins, nodding. I shrug. I have watched so many of Finn's games that I find it all a bit boring. I never admit it, but it's true. Many times, I've hung back and watched his practices as well, so I've seen enough football to last me a life time. I still go to support him, of course. It's always something to do on a Friday night as well, as most of the school goes to watch.
"Meeeee," he says in a girly voice, grabbing my arm and waving it over my head.
I yank my arm from his hand and roll my eyes theatrically. "Yeah, yeah."
We all order and moments later, drinks are placed in front of us. That's the thing I love most about the burger shack, except for their burgers of course. They have really friendly and fast service. It comes in handy when we're accompanied by hungry, teenage boys.
"Where's the party at this weekend?" Jai asks my brother expectantly.
"I think Wesley's throwing another one, because his parents are away. He'll hold a victory party after the game."
"Wow, so cocky," Samara laughs. "What if you don't win?"
"We will win," Jai interjects.
"Well, he will hold a party to help us get drunk after a loss," Finn shrugs. "Either way, we're partying hard after the game."
The bell dings softly as the entrance door to the burger shack opens. Silence falls across our table as Miles walks in. He hasn't noticed us yet. He goes over to the counter, telling the girl behind the register, his order number.
"I'll go grab it," she perkily replies.
He casually leans against the ice cream fridge. He is wearing the dark jeans that he wore to school, with a baggy, maroon sweater. His hair is ruffled, almost as though he had been asleep before coming here. A frown flickers across my face as I notice a cigarette tucked behind his ear.
Suddenly, his icy blue eyes are on mine. I shrink back into my seat out of instinct.
Out of nowhere, Finn gets to his feet and strolls towards Miles. We all wordlessly exchange confused looks, before watching the two.
Finn's back is tense as he speaks to him. Miles looks extremely unfazed by whatever Finn is saying, not having changed his position. I almost spit out my milkshake when Finn slaps his arm in a friendly kind of gesture, before returning back to the table. Miles thanks the girl as she hands him his meal. He gives us one more emotionless glance, before disappearing back through the door.
"What the hell, bro?" Alec is the first one to ask.
"What?"
"You just spoke to the arch enemy," Jai says, his eyebrows raised. "Are we not enemies with him anymore?"
"He's going through some shit and I said to him that things between us don't have to be." he gives a one-shoulder shrug, looking at me. "That's what you wanted, right?"
All eyes turn to me.
"Well, yeah. We shouldn't make things harder for him. Doesn't mean we have to be friends, or whatever." I mutter.
"I can't keep up," Samara frowns and Alec looks annoyed.
"But he was an asshole to you." he says to me, before turning to Finn. "He was an asshole to everyone. I don't even know why you were such good friends with him in the first place."
"Look, like Is said, we're not going back to how things used to be. I'm just making it clear that I'm not going to punch his head in, every time I see him."
"Your call, dude. I respect that." Jai smiles, taking a long slurp of his drink.
Jai is the most chill of the three, always opting for the civil option. He is often the voice of reason and always the one to end a fight.
"Yeah, well, I don't. You can count me out." Alec argues, leaning back.
"Alright then." Finn replies, not fazed.
Alec throws me an annoyed look, which I ignore. I'm thankful, when the food is placed down onto the table. We all eagerly begin to eat, the heavy discussion slowly ebbing away.
"Thank you," I silently mouth to Finn, before taking a bite of my burger.
He gives me a smile in return.
I'm glad things have been sorted. I can't help but wonder if things will go back to how they used to be.
But the real question is, do I want it to?
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Finn semi-made up with Miles. Is that a good idea, do you think? And why do you think Alec is so against it? Do you think he is worried about Miles getting close to Isobel?