When I woke up, it was to a pounding headache and a mouth that felt filled with cotton balls. Ugh. Remind me never to drink again. I opened my eyes, squinting against the too bright sunshine of early morning. I sat up in bed, careful not to move too quickly, lest I upset my tumultuous stomach. As I swung my legs over the side of the bed, I glanced down, surprised to see Luke curled up on the floor, snoring softly.
A soft smile spread across my lips. In sleep, Luke's face was perfectly relaxed, and it made him look softer. Younger. More like the boy I had known in high school, instead of the man he had grown into since starting college.
A knock sounded at the door, and I stood, running my fingers through my tangled hair in a half-hearted effort to tame the unruly mess.
"Faye?"
I recognized Dylan's voice on the other side of the door, and I frowned, wondering what he could possibly want. We hadn't spoken since that day I'd confronted him at his apartment, almost a week ago now. He had never bothered to apologize, and I had nothing left to say to him. So why was he even here?
Pulling the door open, I crossed my arms across my chest, glaring at Dylan imperiously. "What do you want?" I demanded.
Dylan took a step back, looking startled that I was still so angry at him, although I wasn't sure why he would have expected anything different. He was still being a jerk, and I wasn't letting him off the hook anytime soon. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay," Dylan said sheepishly. "Madison texted me last night saying you'd had a bit too much to drink and she was bringing you home. I wanted to check up on you and see how you were feeling this morning. Figured I'd make sure you didn't need anything."
"I'm fine," I said irritably.
"Really?" Dylan pressed, taking a step closer to me and hovering like he wanted to hug me, but didn't dare to initiate contact. "Because it's not like you to drink and go to parties. I'm worried about you."
"Is everything all right here?" Luke asked, hovering behind me. The glare he shot Dylan was menacing, but I was more distracted by the fact that Luke wasn't wearing a shirt, and his hair was messily tousled from sleep.
Dylan stiffened, looking between Luke and me. "What is Luke doing here?" he asked carefully.
I shrugged. "I don't see how that's any of your business."
Dylan bristled at that, puffing out his chest in an effort to make himself bigger than Luke, which was futile. The cousins were similarly built and evenly matched, so no amount of posturing on Dylan's part would intimidate Luke. "It's my business because you're my best friend, and I care about you, Lilly," Dylan said.
"I'm your best friend? Really? How can you say that, after the way you practically shoved me out of your life to jump into bed with Avery?" I could barely contain my anger with him. Dylan had really hurt me, and as far as I was concerned, that meant he had forfeited the right to be protective of me.
"I didn't jump into bed with Avery," Dylan said. "Don't make assumptions about my relationship with Avery. I don't hang out with her to hurt you. Honestly, Lilly, I didn't realize I had to get approval from you before dating a girl."
I shrugged. "You don't," I told him. "Just like I don't have to get approval from you before inviting a boy over."
Luke pulled his t-shirt over his head, then leaned down and gave me a quick peck on the cheek. "I've got to get going," he told me. "I've got a long drive ahead of me back to school, and I can't afford to get a late start. I'll be home next month for Thanksgiving. We should meet up."
I smiled, glad that I had rekindled my friendship with Luke. He was really doing a great job at distracting me from Ben and Dylan. "I'd like that," I replied shyly.
Noticing the way Dylan was posturing, Luke crossed his arms over his chest, glaring at Dylan. "On second thought, I'm going to stick around for a while. I suggest you leave Lilly alone," he said, his tone menacing. "She doesn't seem happy to see you here, and she's right. It's none of your business what she's up to. You're not her boyfriend."
"No, but I am her friend, and I don't want to see her get hurt again."
"The only one here hurting her is you," Luke said. "I think Lilly has made her feelings on that perfectly clear."
Dylan ran his hand through his hair, looking frustrated. "What are your intentions with Lilly?" he asked. "I don't want to see her fall for you again, so that you can break her heart. The last time you broke up with her, she was crushed. She didn't even look at another guy for almost a year, and she almost didn't date Ben at all because she didn't want to risk getting hurt again. So forgive me if I'm skeptical that you're going to do a serious, committed, long-term relationship with her."
"Lilly and I haven't discussed our relationship yet, and when we do, that will be a discussion between the two of us, not one that includes you," Luke said. "And I never meant to hurt Lilly. In fact, she's the one who broke up with me, not the other way around. I had planned on keeping up a long-distance relationship, and she ended things. Who knows? Maybe that was the best thing at the time. But now that we're hanging out again, I'm remembering all of the reasons we were great together. So forgive me if I want to spend more time with a great girl. It's none of your business."
"Faye, come on," Dylan implored me. "You just got out of a relationship. Don't throw yourself at the first guy to offer to take you home."
"First of all, I'm not throwing myself at anyone," I snapped. "And Luke isn't some guy I just met. We're old friends. There is absolutely nothing wrong with us hanging out. Heck, if we want to get back together, that's absolutely none of your business. If you want the right to have an opinion on my life, then you need to pull your head out of your butt and stop acting like a complete prick."
Dylan took a step toward me, grabbing my hand. "I'm not trying to be a prick. What did I do, aside from dating Avery? I don't know what you think I did to break you and Ben up, but you have to believe me. I had no part of that."
"Let me see your phone," I told him.
"What?"
"Give. Me. Your. Phone," I repeated, holding out my hand expectantly.
With a sigh, Dylan reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone, unlocking it for me.
I pulled up his text messages and scrolled through the history until I found Ben's name. Looking through the messages he and Ben had exchanged, I quickly found the photo that Ben had received, and held the phone up to Dylan's face.
"Let me just refresh your memory, then," I told him, shoving the photo in his face. "Based on this photo, Ben thought I was flirting with another guy, and it made him reevaluate how serious I was about our relationship. He thought I was keeping Will a secret from him because I had some romantic feelings for him or something. Now, you're seriously going to stand there and lie to my face and say you had nothing to do with this?"
Dylan's eyes went wide. "I swear, I didn't..." He shook his head, his face pale, and his mouth drawing down into a frown. "I promise you, I never sent that photo."
"Oh yeah?" I challenged. "And, what, you're phone just spontaneously sent it to Ben all on its own? Why do you even have a photo like that? Are you following me?"
"No, of course not," he protested. "You should know me better than that. I would never deliberately hurt you, Lilly. We've always been friends. Please, you have to trust me."
"Trust you," I repeated. "You want me to trust you? What have you done to deserve my trust? You've been a pretty lousy friend lately. Where have you been while I'm struggling to keep peace with the world's worst roommate, upset over breaking up with my boyfriend, and just generally overwhelmed with all of the changes in my life? I've needed a friend, and you were nowhere to be seen. No, worse, actually, you were contributing to my problems by dating literally the only girl on campus that I have a problem with."
"Lilly, I never sent that photo," Dylan repeated. "Avery must have sent it from my phone. She's seriously upset about that stupid prank you pulled on her."
I rolled my eyes. "Is that supposed to make me feel better? I should forgive you, because you didn't do it, your girlfriend did? News flash, Dylan, I warned you Avery was bad news. You're the one who decided to go behind my back and date her anyways. So forgive me if I'm holding you accountable for your role in breaking me and Ben up, because knowingly or not, you were involved. And who knows, maybe we would have broken up eventually, because we were already struggling with the long distance relationship thing, but it's the principle of it. You want me to trust you, but you have literally not given me a reason to believe a word you say. Now, I think you need to go," I said, shoving him away from the door.
"Faye, please, let's just talk about this," he begged.
"We have nothing left to talk about," I said coldly. "You need to leave me alone. I'm not interested in being friends with someone who doesn't have my back when I need them."
Dylan moved forward like he planned to push his way into the room, but Luke blocked his entrance, glaring at his cousin with an intensity that startled me. The two had always been friendly rivals, but they didn't look so friendly at the moment. "Lillian has asked you to leave," he said. "Be a gentleman and do as she says."
Dylan glowered, but with Luke standing there, there wasn't much he could do. With a nod, Dylan sighed and backed away from the door. "If you change your mind, call me," he said softly. "For what it's worth, I really am sorry."
I watched him walk down the hallway, my emotions conflicted. I was still angry with Dylan, but knowing that it was Avery who sent the text message to Ben softened my anger a little. Dylan was still an insensitive jerk for dating Avery, but he hadn't back stabbed me as badly as I had originally thought. Part of me missed our friendship, and wanted to forgive him. But the thought of being friends with a guy who was dating my worst enemy and didn't see the problem with it bothered me. Sure, Dylan wasn't all bad, but that didn't mean he hadn't hurt me.
"Are you okay?" Luke asked. "You're awfully quiet."
I shrugged. "Am I wrong for turning Dylan away? I know he was just trying to look out for me, but I'm still so angry with him for choosing my roommate over me."
Luke shook his head. "I don't know enough about the situation to judge, and I've never met your roommate. But if him being with her hurts you, then you shouldn't apologize for keeping him at arms length. Dylan's a big boy. He makes his own decisions, and he needs to deal with the consequences of those decisions, whether he likes them or not."
"Thanks, Luke," I told him. "For getting me home safe last night, and...everything."
Luke grinned. "It was my please, Lillian," he said, pressing a soft kiss against my cheek. "I'll see you again over Thanksgiving break."
My heart lurched as he swaggered out the door, my stomach filling with butterflies at the thought of seeing him again. Thanksgiving couldn't come soon enough.