AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Six
*
Aslan
*
(Heart in Vietnamese: Trái tim)
“NEE...ARE YOU HOME? OH, CRAP! SORRY.”
Nerida launched out of my arms, pushing me away as she dove under the water, her body rippling with crimson and sunlight as she swam to the other end of the pool and grabbed her towel from one of the boulders.
My ribs still ached from Jack’s kicks and parts of me remained stiff with healing, but the cut on my lip and temple had thankfully knitted together enough that swimming felt good instead of stinging.
“Zara?” Neri leaped out of the pool, raining droplets everywhere as she quickly snapped her towel around her blood-red bikini—the same bikini she’d worn when we’d slept together for the first time on Low Isles.
Quit it.
Remembering fucking Neri on that beach definitely did not help deflate my erection.
The erection Neri summoned by kissing me when she should’ve been practicing her breath hold.
“Hi, Neri.” Zara hunched her shoulders.
Wringing out her hair, Neri blinked as if she couldn’t believe her eyes. “Wh-what are you doing here?”
Zara folded deeper into herself, her blonde hair catching bright sunshine, her sunglasses huge and round, hiding most of her face. “I-I didn’t mean to interrupt.” She threw me a look, standing stiff and furious in the pool. “Hi, Aslan.”
If I had a knife, I’d probably throw it at her. “Zara,” I snapped.
She flinched and looked away.
Neri marched bravely toward her ex-best-friend who stood on the threshold of the garden, her hands wrapped firmly around the handlebars of Neri’s bike.
The bike that Neri had been clinging to, fighting nausea and the aftermath of rape, when I’d found her at the party. The bike she’d completely forgotten about as I’d yelled at her for being drunk, then taken her to The Fluke, not knowing what she’d just endured.
She’d replaced her phone from losing it that night but had never mentioned going back to get her bike, almost as if the thought of returning to where Ethan had hurt her wasn’t worth it.
“You came to return my bike?” Neri asked.
Zara tucked loose blonde hair behind her ear nervously. “I figured it was about time I gave it back. It’s just been sitting in our garage, and Joel said—” She winced and cut herself off. “Anyway, here you go.” Yanking Neri’s lost phone from her pocket, she held it out. “This too. I found it under our couch. I know your password, so I took the liberty to ensure it hadn’t been tampered with and then I shut it down. It’s been safe in my bedside drawer ever since.”
“I wondered where that’d gone.” Neri stepped closer and accepted the phone. “You...didn’t read any messages or anything?”
Zara flicked me a guilty glance before shaking her head. “No. I mean...I saw one from Aslan, but I didn’t invade your privacy. I’m sorry I didn’t bring it back sooner. I just...I couldn’t face you.”
I’d always thought Zara was pretty in a wholesome Australian girl kind of way but after what she let happen? After she’d been in the same house while Neri was raped and didn’t hear her screaming...
Fuck, now I couldn’t stand to look at her.
My hands fisted as Neri put the phone into the drink holder of her bike then wheeled it from Zara’s grasp. “Thanks.” Pushing it to the side of the house, she rested it against the cream-painted bricks, then turned back to face her frenemy. Crossing her arms over her towel-wrapped chest, she tipped up her chin. “Anything else?”
I’d never been prouder.
Her body language said ‘fuck off’ and I was beyond fucking grateful that seeing Zara hadn’t regressed her to what’d happened the last time they were together.
Awkward silence fell between the two girls as Zara shoved her hands into her denim short-shorts, her floaty flower top dancing in the muggy breeze. “I, eh...how have you been?”
