*
Vocal Vortex is a karaoke bar downtown that is one of our guilty pleasures. None of us can really hold a note, but coming here always guarantees a good night out. Apart from game nights and parties at Miles’s house, it’s the only real part of college culture Ilet myself indulge in that isn’t academic. I like getting dressed up with my friends and using my fake ID for its intended use.
After a round of shots, the girls and I stand near the back of the crowded room so we can snag the karaoke machine when it’s free.
Even though I’ve been with them since I came back from Evan’s house, it feels like there’s never enough time to catch up since they’ve spent so much of their time fussing over me.
I push every weird feeling I’ve had aside and commit to spending time with my best friends. We drink and dance and drink some more until we’re tumbling over each other, laughing and singing along to pop classics blaring from the speakers. I’ve missed this feeling. Being carefree and surrounded by the people who truly know me.
Kennedy throws her arm around my shoulder, and I drop mine around her waist to steady her. “You never told us how things went with Evan at his house? You were there for a whole week.”
I feel a blush creep up on my cheeks, and I’m not so sure I can blame it all on the alcohol. “It was nice,” I say to them.
Wren raises an eyebrow. “Nice?”
“Yeah. He played piano for me, cookedsomuch food, and we had lots of sex. It was great.”
“Yousleptwith him?!” Kennedy yells in my ear, and I wince, pulling away from her slightly.
“I thought I told you that already.”
“No, you absolutely didnottell us that already,” Wren shouts. “I think we would’ve remembered.”
I shrug, feigning nonchalance. Kennedy grins, wiggling her eyebrows at me. “Was it good?”
“Obviously,” I admit, and this time IknowI’m blushing.
Sex with Evan wasn’t like what I thought it would be. It was hot and wonderful and perfect. It was sweet words whisperedsoftly into my neck and large hands splayed across my stomach. It was intense eyes staring up at me from between my legs, a desperate, pained expression on his face. It was my fingers in his hair and raking down his back until I left marks. It was him and it was me. It wasus. And I wanted it to last forever.
“I can’t believe this is happening in my timeline. Right in front of my eyes,” Wren says, practically bouncing as she squeezes my hands.
“You guys said it yourself; this rivalry thing was bound to blow over. And it has.”
Kennedy smirks. “And you blew him.”
“Yep,” I say, holding my chin up. The pride only lasts for a second until I think about all the other moments in between. The way he showered me after the first time we hooked up. The way he cooked every meal for me and made sure I was comfortable. Our legs intertwined on the piano bench while he’d play soft melodies that would almost put me to sleep. I’d hear him whispering gentle words to me during the night.
I shiver at the thought. “I actually think I mightlikehim. It’s terrifying.”
“But exciting,” Wren counters.
“Still terrifying.”
I shake my head, trying to dance and sing away those feelings for the rest of the night. I need to chill. I’ve done casual before. In the past, all I’ve done is casual. But I don’t want that with Evan. I don’t want to see other people or just have sex with him. I want this tomeansomething, and I want to be careful with him. I don’t want to rush through things and only text him when I want to hook up with him. I want him to be there for me like he has been these last few weeks. I want to listen to him play piano and let him feed me and hold me.
It’s scary to want someone like this. But it also reminds me that my world didn’t end on Christmas Day. The earth is stillturning. My life is still going on, and there is still so much more that I want to keep working for.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: EVAN
“I canfeelyou fidgeting from here.”
I glare at Scarlett through my phone screen, refreshing the emails on my laptop for the hundredth time this hour. “I’m not,” I grumble.
“You absolutely are,” Scarlett laughs, and the sound rushes toward me like she’s here in the room. “You need to relax.”
“I’m trying.”
I can hear Miles snickering from the living room and I try to tune him out.
