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ME: Things are good. This test is going to be a tough one, though. I’ll talk to you tomorrow, okay?
I didn’t wait for her to respond. I’d already been avoiding reading Micah’s text, the little indicator light blinking at me, so I turned my phone off and tried to focus on what was important. The information I needed to memorize for my exam. The words that were blurring together when I stared at the pages in front of me.
Had I waited five seconds, I would have seen her reply.
PIPER: Well, my parents decided to come home early, so I’m headed back in an hour or so. I just need to pack. I’ll see you soon. We can talk more when I get there.
She’s here now, and after what she walked in on, talking is not an option. It’s a necessity.
Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, I knock on Piper’s door. She calls out for me to come in, and I hesitate for a brief second, praying for strength, before turning the handle.
“Hey,” I say, standing in the doorway as I watch Piper move around her room, unpacking the oversized suitcase I helped her stuff full a week ago.
She brought home all her sheets and blankets to wash—a few of mine, too—along with most of her wardrobe. In the time it took me to get up the nerve to come talk to her, she managed to make her bed and put away her clothes.
“Is he still here?” she asks, her back to me as she hangs up two dresses I don’t recognize. More than likely new purchases. She always comes home with a few new things courtesy of her parents. Unlike me, who hasn’t been home except once since leaving for college and all I came back with was a kink in my neck from sleeping on the pullout sofa without a pillow because I forgot to bring mine with me.
“He left.”
“Was that who I think it was?” Her voice is hesitant as she stares into her open closet, her hands resting on the handles to pull the doors closed.
“That depends on who you think you saw... but more than likely, yes.”
Piper and I don’t make a lot of time to go to parties. We hang out here or at Kendall and Lo’s apartment. That doesn’t mean she wouldn’t recognize Micah. They’ve met before, probably the same few times I met him, and his striking good looks make him hard to forget. Not to mention his larger-than-life personality. His charming smile. Or the way every female’s eyes tend to follow him around the room.
“Micah Graham. The youngest of the Graham brothers. How did that happen?”
“It’s a long story,” I start, preparing to launch into all the sordid details the way I did with Kendall, but her words stop me.
“It was bound to happen.”
It was? Because I sure as hell didn’t see it coming!
“Me, walking in on one of your one-night things. Sorry if I broke up the party before it got started.”
Wait. What?
Piper thinks she interrupted a one-night stand. Before it could happen. Why wouldn’t she?
I mean, she knows how I feel about my studies. She’s aware that I find a guy once or twice a year to clean the bats out of my cave, to fill my needs. And that it’s just for the night. No strings attached. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised she thinks the same about finding Micah, naked, in my room.
“Probably shouldn’t have picked someone tied to our group, though,” she continues, finally turning to face me. “Especially since Lo is dating Finn. Things could get awkward. Not to mention, isn’t he some sort of womanizer?”
Fuck my life.
This conversation isn’t going the way I expected it to. I need a diversion. Something that will take the focus off of me.
Even if only for a moment while I contemplate how to guide it back on track.
“Did you know Declan and Kendall are a thing now?” I ask, leaning against the doorjamb, attempting to act casual when I want to jump out of my own skin.
“Really? Since when?” She raises her eyebrow in surprise, but it falls just as quickly, a wicked smile slowly spreading across her face.
“A while, I guess. They made it obvious this past weekend.”
“Hmm. I wonder how that happened?”
“We’ll have to ask when we go over there on Monday.”
