Sofia
I hear a tapping sound coming from somewhere, almost like a thud. It gradually becomes louder in my ear and it sounds like something is knocking against glass.
I open my eyes and notice it's coming from above my head, outside the window of the car. The car. Holy shit, did we fall asleep?
I jump up out of my slumber into a sitting position and squint my eyes. There is a figure outside the window. Not just any figure, but a man. A man in a police uniform. That can't be good.
"Adrian," I whisper, nudging him in the ribs.
I hear the tapping noise again and I realize it's the officer knocking against the window with his baton. I can clearly see it given that it's now light outside of the early morning. He doesn't look very pleased and I instantly gulp. We're in deep trouble.
"Fuck," I hear Adrian say behind me. He suddenly pulls me over his lap and behind him so that he's next to the window and lowers it.
"Everything okay, officer?" he asks, trying to play innocent.
"Would you mind stepping out of the vehicle, sir?"
"Stay here," Adrian tells me, getting out of the car barefoot.
"Both of you. The girl too," the officer orders.
Great. I consider putting on my boots but they are probably still soaked and will make me look like a floozy with the way I'm currently dressed, so I decide to skip the shoes as well.
Adrian helps me out of the car and keeps me a bit behind him. The officer looks at us both suspiciously and I notice his eyes wander at my outfit and down my legs. God, why did I have to wear these damn shorts? I must look so ridiculous too with Adrian's oversized sweatshirt and socks on me.
Adrian clears his throat loudly. "Can I help you, officer?"
He looks back at Adrian annoyed. "License and registration."
"Yes, sir." Adrian turns back towards the car and opens the door. He keeps me close to him as he retrieves his wallet and does the same thing while he gets the car documents from the glove department.
He hands them to the officer together with his driver's license. Estrada, his nametag says. He looks through them diligently in complete silence.
"Is this your vehicle?" he asks Adrian, obviously noting that the names don't match.
"It's hers," Adrian replies.
The officer nods and turns towards me. "I'm going to need to see your ID as well, sweetheart."
I pull it out of the front pocket of my shorts as I didn't even bring a purse, and hand it to him nervously. I really hope we don't get in trouble for this.
After a moment of studying it the officer looks at Adrian sternly. "Eighteen, huh? I was about to say she looked a little too young for you."
I've never been so happy to be eighteen in all my life and now I understand why Adrian had been so cautious to stay away from me when I was younger.
Adrian shakes his head at him. "We're just friends, officer."
I can't tell if he's just saying that to help our case or if he really means that. After last night, I thought things might be different.
The officer scoffs. "Wouldn't appear so with the way I found you, Mr. Carter."
Oh god. Please don't let my parents find out about this.
"We got caught in the rain last night. We decided not to drive home out of precaution and must have fallen asleep," Adrian tells him, his eyes somewhat narrowed. Well, at least that's the truth.
"Cute story," he replies, looking a little bored. He turns back towards me. "Are you aware that your registration has expired, Miss Durant?"
"Um, no officer."
He pulls out a notepad and starts scribbling away, checking the registration every now and then. Once he finishes, he peels the paper off the pad and hands it back to me together with the car documents and our IDs. I immediately see the bright yellow ticket on top with a hefty fine written on it. Dad is gonna kill me.
"I suggest you refrain from falling asleep in parking lots with all too eager boys, miss. It's reckless and dangerous," he reprimands me.
I nod at him but can't help but think about how wrong his assumption about Adrian is. He would never take advantage of me like that. He was even the one who had suggested we go home and I had wanted to stay.
"You have a nice day now," the officer says and turns around walking away, leaving me a bit stunned.
I turn towards Adrian and I've never seen him look angrier. He wordlessly opens the door to the passenger side and motions for me to get in. I jump inside and quickly put on my seatbelt. He sprints around the car and does the same, turning on the engine and exiting the parking lot, not even bothering to put his shoes on. Is that legal?
"You okay?" he finally asks me. "God, I wanted to rip his face off."
"My dad is going to kill me."
"I'm sorry, Sofia. Technically, he should be on top of that stuff, not you."
"I know, but still."
"Sofia, your dad can't find out about this," he says nervously.
"That's going to be difficult, given the ticket I just got."
"I get that, but he can't know that I was with you. He'll kick me out of the house. You saw the police officer. How do you think he's going to react?" Adrian's voice is laced with guilt and it sounds like he's really regretting what happened last night. I tell myself he's just trying to be rational about all this, but he's almost acting like a completely different person.
"Okay, we won't tell him," I assure him.
The alarm on my phone suddenly goes off, signaling that it's 7am. I reach for it in the cup holder and quickly shut it off.
"What about Nico? Has he called you? He can't know either."
I check my phone but the last message I have from him was from last night telling me to be safe. "No, nothing."
He breathes a sigh of relief. "Okay, so he's probably still asleep and hasn't noticed we're not back yet."
Adrian speeds up a bit as we reach our neighborhood. "Once we get home, I want you to go straight to your room as quietly as you can, okay? Mess up your bed and everything. We have to make it seem like you slept there."
"Okay," I gulp. I really don't want Adrian to get in trouble because of this. This is all my fault. At least Nico is the only person we have to deal with today. For once in my life, I'm actually really glad my parents aren't home at the moment. Adrian's right, I can't imagine what my dad would do if he found out about this.
We pull into our house and he drives into the garage very cautiously. I reach for my boots and shirt in the back before turning towards him. "Don't forget the rest of the stuff," I tell him before I slip out of the car.
I tip toe stealthily up the stairs towards the second floor. Once I reach the hallway, I peek down to make sure Nico isn't there and then make a quick dash towards my room and open the door. I take forever to close it, trying to prevent it from making a loud clicking sound and then lock it. Whew.
I hastily make my way towards the bathroom, dumping my clothes in my closet and turning on the shower. I find myself still rushing around like a crazy person and tell myself to calm down. I didn't get caught so I should start acting normal. Easier said than done.
I manage to get ready by the time I usually would and decide I should head out to the kitchen. Right before I leave, I look around to check that everything looks normal and spot my pristine looking bed. I almost forgot! I go to pull back the covers and shake them up a bit and even toss the pillows around. It feels like I just committed a crime of some sorts and am doing a really bad job at covering it up.
Sighing, I finally leave my room and put on my best poker face. Thankfully no one is there when I arrive, not even Carmen. Our breakfast is served though, so she's probably out doing something else.
I sit down in my usual seat and grab a banana. I peel it open and cut it into small slices, just to give me something to do.
"Hey, princess!" Nico suddenly says behind me and I almost fall off my chair.
"Dammit, Nico! You scared the shit out of me."
He laughs and takes a seat next to me. He's smiling from ear to ear so I can only imagine he had a good night.
"So? How'd it go?" I ask him before he has the chance to ask me anything.
"Really well, actually. I don't want to jinx it, but she already agreed to see me again. You and Adrian were awesome, by the way. She was really glad to you see guys."
"That's so great, Nico. I'm so happy for you," I say leaning in to hug him.
I think it catches him by surprise at first, but he hugs me back and then messes up my hair in typical Nico fashion.
"I'm sorry I gave you a hard time about your outfit last night. I shouldn't have gone off on you like that," he tells me.
I wave a hand dismissively at him. "Forget about it. You were probably right," I say thinking about Ruiz and what he told me. That and all the other problems my stupid outfit caused.
"Why? Did something happen?" he asks me concerned.
I squirm, thinking if I should keep this information to myself. Nico is in such a good mood I don't want to ruin it for him. Maybe I'll tell him after school so he doesn't get into trouble at soccer practice again.
"No, it's just that I don't usually dress that way so it felt kind of weird."
Adrian shows up at that moment and heads straight towards his seat next to Nico without looking in my direction. He doesn't appear one bit fazed and it's hard to believe he's the same guy I just spent the most incredible night of my life with. "Hey, bud. Go okay?"
"Yeah, man. I was just telling Sofia. I think we're gonna meet up again."
"I told you. You were freaking out over nothing."
I watch both boys scarf down their food, feeling relieved Nico hasn't asked us anything about last night. Usually we don't talk much in the mornings so hopefully it'll stay that way.
When we head towards the car, I silently pray that everything is in its place. I had almost suggested we take another car to school, but I couldn't come up with a reason for it and it would have probably raised even more suspicion. I quickly get in the backseat just in case, preventing Nico from sitting back here. Thankfully, he decides to drive so he won't have a chance to look around and stuff.
"Dude, it smells like a wet dog in here," Nico suddenly blurts, scrunching his nose.
Well, there goes that.
"Uh, yeah. I don't know if you noticed, but it was pouring last night," Adrian quickly answers from the passenger seat.
Nico turns the windows down as he drives out towards school. "So, what happened? You hook up with a girl in here or something?"
"Uhm, well not really."
"Not really? C'mon, man. It's a yes or no answer."
"Okay, fine. Yes, I did. Sorry, was gonna tell you about it later."
What? Yes? Why is he saying yes?
"I knew you were hiding something! Was it Clara? I saw you guys talking before I left."
I notice Adrian shaking his head and he hesitates before answering. "Yeah, it was Clara."
"Spill, dude. I thought you said you weren't interested in her, though."
"Yeah, well I guess things change. She just broke it off with her boyfriend and was practically begging for it."
Okay, I don't know if I can hear anymore of this conversation. It's clearly steered away from danger and towards guy talk and as much as I know Adrian is lying it still feels weird to hear him talk like that about girls.
I'm about to put my headphones on, when Nico suddenly punches Adrian in the arm. "Dude, watch it in front of Sofia. She doesn't have to hear about that."
"You just fucking asked me. I told you I would tell you later," he says in defense.
"Yeah well, too much information. How did she get home anyway if you were with Clara?"
Oh, god. Why does he have to choose now to worry about me all of a sudden? Plus, I hate when they talk about me like if I'm not even here. I'm a terrible liar though so I decide to keep my mouth shut.
"She took a taxi home," Adrian says quietly.
"Are you serious? What the fuck, Adrian? You promised you would look after her," Nico suddenly yells.
"I did. She wanted to go home. I offered to take her, but she didn't want to."
What? Oh my god, this lie is just getting more and more complicated. Why didn't he just say he took me home first or something? Even I could have come up with that. Plus, Nico is now on his case over supposedly not taking care of me when it was the complete opposite.
"Why the hell not? What did you do?" Nico asks him accusingly.
"Bro, calm down. I didn't do anything. She just wanted to go home. Nothing happened. She's fine, isn't she?" Adrian says pointing towards me.
Nico looks at me through the rearview mirror, as if suddenly remembering I'm in the back seat. "Princess, did you get home okay?"
"God, will you stop? Yes, I'm completely fine in case you haven't noticed."
"Well, did you at least have a good time last night? Why did you want to go home?" he presses.
I huff in my seat, thinking about the original reason I wanted to go home. I can't tell him about my spout of jealousy over Adrian or my run in with Ruiz. "It was okay. Nothing to write home about. I was just tired," I end up saying.
I see Adrian turn around in his seat to look at me and he seems a bit hurt. It's the first time he's looked at me directly since I left him in the car earlier. Why is he doing this now? He's going to blow the entire cover story he just came up with. I quickly avert my eyes from him and this time I do put on my headphones to avoid any further interrogations and block them both out.
I look out the window and sigh, thinking about the messed up morning I've had. The cop, the half-truths, the lies, the arguing ... Not at all what I was expecting after last night.
I knew it had to be too good to be true.