03 - After Party Effect

Kassidy's POV

When I woke up the next morning, the first thing I did was grin at the ceiling like an idiot.

For about thirty seconds, I felt so warm, boneless, and stupidly happy, replaying the previous night in a loop that my brain seemed very committed to.

Eli Deering had kissed me. Eli Deering had stayed in my room. Eli FUCKING Deering, who had spent the better part of four years looking at me with nothing but disgust, had...

I sat up. Oh, my God!

Swiftly, I turned around and realised that the other side of the bed was empty. He had been gone long enough for the sheets to lose his warmth entirely. Which meant that he had made a deliberate, early exit, and that particular detail punctured my giddiness just a little.

Then I looked down at the sheets, and my face went completely hot.

"Oh no." I whispered.

There was a large, wet spot, unmistakably mine, right in the middle of the mattress. I stared at it for a full three seconds before the embarrassment came upon me. I covered my face with both hands.

"Oh my God," I said into my palms. "Oh my GOD."

I ripped the sheets off the bed in one aggressive motion, balled them up and shoved them into the corner. I didn't even want to look at them. Then I stood there in the middle of my room, sheetless and mortified, before grabbing my towel and escaping to the bathroom.

The shower helped me to think a little, ten minutes of talking myself back down to a reasonable state of mind. By the time I stepped out and got dressed, I had arranged my feelings into something manageable.

Last night had happened. 

And I could not, under any circumstances, tell Piper. The thought alone made my heart fill up with terror.

Piper was my best friend from middle school, my person, the girl who had never blamed me for the worst thing I had ever done in my life. If she found out I had slept with her brother, the brother who already hated me, I would lose her. I wasn't willing to lose her.

So, I would be normal. I would go downstairs, eat something, and be completely, totally normal.

I heard loud voices before I reached the kitchen, overlapping each other, something about a defensive play gone wrong. 

"...I'm just saying, if you drop your shoulder like that in an actual game..."

"I didn't DROP anything, Cole, you're describing it wrong...."

"I saw it with my own two eyes!"

"Your eyes are broken then!"

I stepped into the kitchen, and the argument stopped dead. Three boys and one girl turned to look at me with the unified attention of people who had not been expecting an audience. I stood in the doorway and looked back at them nervously.

One of the boys recovered first. He was tall, with warm brown skin and an easy face, and he looked at me with open appreciation. "Well, damn, she's pretty. Who are you?"

The redhead beside him slapped his chest without even looking at him. She looked at me instead, and the look she gave me was full of distaste and immediate dismissal, all in the span of about two seconds.

She had a red blowout that fell in thick waves past her shoulders and a face that could have stopped traffic. She reminded me of Marilyn Monroe, if Marilyn Monroe had red hair. She was stunning, and she clearly knew it, and she was looking at me like my presence in this kitchen was a personal inconvenience to her.

I told myself it meant nothing. She probably just didn't like new people.

The tallest boy in the room moved towards me first. He was broad with close-cropped hair and a calm, steady energy about him. "Sorry about Jay. And sorry about Celeste." He said, nodding toward the redhead. "I'm Marcus, and I play hockey."

"I could have introduced myself," Celeste said to no one in particular, and then went back to her phone.

"She could have, she just chose not to," Marcus replied. "Anyway, that's Jay, he also plays hockey. And that's Devon, basketball."

"I'm Kassidy." I introduced to the entire room. Then, because the opportunity was right there, I added, "And for the record, it's not every day someone calls me pretty, so I'll take it."

Jay grinned, and Devon raised his cup in a small salute. Marcus looked like he was trying not to laugh. Only Celeste kept a stony face and continued scrolling on her phone.

I was reaching for a bowl to eat cereal when I heard the back door, and then Eli was in the kitchen.

"Hey, guys!" He greeted the whole room. 

Celeste's whole posture changed the second he walked in. She straightened, tucked her hair behind one ear, and produced a smile I had not seen her use on anyone else in this kitchen.

I watched her press herself close to his arm as she said something that made him glance down at her.

"Eli," I called his name, but he kept talking to Celeste.

"Eli," I said again. Jay was saying something about the third period, and Eli responded.

"Eli!" I snapped, and the entire kitchen went quiet. "I would like to talk to you, please."

He looked at me then, with an irritated look. "So talk."

"Privately." I urged.

I saw Celeste roll her eyes, and Eli pushed off the counter and followed me out to the hallway. I turned to face him, keeping my voice low.

"Do you remember what happened last night?" I asked.

"Vividly." He nodded. "I remember having a great homecoming party."

I stared at him in surprise. Was he being willfully oblivious? "Are you being serious right now? You know exactly what I'm talking about, so stop playing dumb because it's not a good look on you, and I think we need to talk about what hap—"

"It was a mistake." He interrupted me quietly. "Last night was a terrible mistake. And if you think that one stupid night is going to change anything between us, you're wrong. I can barely stand you, Kassidy, and you know why. So don't make this into something it isn't."

I had always known why. It was Piper, it was what happened, it was the debt I had been carrying since I was sixteen years old and would apparently be carrying until one of us was dead. That was what he meant.

"Fine," I said. "Terrible mistake. Got it. It won't repeat itself," I said with a shaky voice. 

I walked back into the kitchen and left my cereal untouched on the counter.