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“Stop saying it’s your fault.”
“Well, it was.” I shrugged. “I interrupted you, not the other way around.”
“Just stop it,” he barked.
“Stop what?”
“Stop doing that.” His hands clenched into fists. “Stop acting like it was just some big whoops.”
“It was definitely that,” I replied dryly.
“I saw your face, Nova,” he said quietly.
“Surprise mixed withoh shit?”
“Not quite,” he ground out.
“Listen,” I said, taking a step forward. It may have been the hardest step I’d ever taken. I didn’t want to be any closer to him. I didn’t even want to be in the same room as him.
And the crazy thing was, I wasn’t even angry. I had no right to be angry. We were best friends who occasionally fucked around. We’d made no promises. There had never once been a conversation where we’d agreed not to sleep with other people.
I was just disappointed that he’d even wanted to. I could get over that—but not when he was standing there looking like he was waiting for me to lose it.
“Let’s go back outside and celebrate, yeah?”
“We need to talk about this—” he argued.
“Hey, sister,” Bird called, stomping down the hallway. “You’re missin’ your own celebration!”
“There’s nothing to talk about,” I told Rumi quietly.
“Come on,” Bird ordered, peeking under Rumi’s upraised arm. “You’re takin’ forever to plug in your phone.”
“We’re coming,” I replied. I pushed past Rumi and tried to hide the shudder as our bodies brushed against each other, but I was pretty sure Rumi saw everything.
“Thanks, Firebird,” I whispered, throwing my arm over his shoulder.
“Welcome,” my little brother whispered back. “Not sure how long I can hold him off though.”
As soon as we were back outside, I breathed a sigh of relief when Rumi started making excuses to leave.
“You guys are all goin’ to the party tomorrow, right?” he asked, standing next to his motorcycle.
“We’ll be there,” Nana replied. “Not sure how we’ll all make it there, though—” She glanced at me. “Since me and Bird are goin’ early to help set up and Nova can’t take her car.”
“What’s wrong with your car?” Rumi asked.
“Door flew open when she was on the road,” Pop replied gruffly. “She damn near fell out.”
“It wasn’t that bad,” I murmured.
“It was, too,” Bird scoffed. “You’re lucky I have reflexes like a cat and pulled you back in.”
“Pulled you back in?” Rumi said sharply.
“It wasn’t that bad,” I repeated, glaring at Bird. “Drama queen.”
“Maybe if you hadn’t been driving so fast—”
