Chapter fifteen| Straight lines

Chapter fifteen| Straight lines

I woke up to the sound of soft snoring next to my ear. The warm body curled against me brought me to my senses. Shocked, I opened my eyes and then relaxed at sight in front of me.

Cynthia's small lips were parted as she breathed, and her face was slack with relaxation. Her hair was a jumbled mess, forming a halo around her.

The clothes on my body reassured me as her arms tightened around me.

My eyes focused on every slight detail of her face. Her pale cheeks were a bit flushed as her makeup from last night was smudged. Her long eyelashes rested on her cheeks.

My attention turned towards the small black mole, barely a size of a dot, that rested on her cheek.

With her legs tangled with mine and arms wrapped around my waist, she was under the covers with me. Literally.

A few seconds later, an intense throbbing struck my brain, making me groan out loud.

Cynthia jolted up from her sleep with a start. Abandoning her in the bed, I ran towards the bathroom. I retched my guts out, puking all the contents of my stomach.

Finally done with gut vomiting, I flushed the toilet and gurgled with the mouthwash there. All the time, she was leaning against the bathroom door. Her eyes were curious and followed each step.

"Good morning," she said with a tilt of her head.

I nodded in response and turned towards her. "Good morning," I greeted, grimacing as the hangover fucked me on the inside.

She sighed and moved towards the bathroom vanity. Leaning down, she reached for a lower drawer. Pulling out a bottle of painkiller, she handed me two pills.

She gestured for me to follow her into the bedroom where she handed me a water bottle.

I gave her a grateful look and gulped the pills down. She silently stared at me for a few seconds and then made her way towards the bed.

Leaning back on her arms, she gave me a calculating look.

"Do you remember anything from last night? After I left you in the kitchen." She fixed her eyes on my face, searching for an answer.

"I remember talking to many people, socializing as you said, and playing a game," I said, shaking my head. "I played beer pong with Connor, but it was vodka instead of beer."

She laughed and threw her head back. "Let me guess. You lost." She got the words out in fits of laughter. I just huffed and rolled my eyes.

"After that, I remember little," I added as an afterthought.

She gave me a long look, staring straight in my eyes. "You don't remember rest?" Her voice was low, but it held a brief note of vulnerability.

I shook my head and scrunched my eyebrows together. "I did nothing stupid, right?"

A slow smile made its way across her face, with a mischievous look lighting her eyes up. "You called me sexy," she teased, making me blush.

I coughed awkwardly and averted my eyes. My eyes dropped to her dress from last night. It was now rumpled at many places and drooping dangerously low in the front.

Shaking out my wayward thoughts, I looked up to meet her eyes.

"I think I should leave," I said and made my way next to her. I pulled my shoes on and ran a hand through my hair.

She pursed her lips and nodded. Leaning forward, she placed a kiss on my cheeks. The touch was short, barely longer than a moment, but it was enough to get my heart racing.

I froze for a second as my heart thundered wildly.

She focused her gaze on the neon sign, avoiding my eyes at all costs.

"Yeah," I cleared my throat. "I should leave."

Hastily, I pushed her room door open and climbed down the stairs. I stopped short at the sight of the mess in front of me.

The entire room was a storm of cups and wrappers. The kitchen had the same mess littered everywhere.

Some girl was sleeping on the kitchen island, clutching a beer bottle close to her chest. I shook my head and typed a text for Cynthia.

Elias: 'Who is doing the cleaning?'

It took her a few minutes to respond. My phone pinged just as I closed my bedroom door behind me.

Cynthia: 'I am calling some cleaners. I can't clean the shit downstairs, including the pukes some people might have graciously left behind.'

I snickered at her text and looked towards my window. Pulling the curtains aside, I wasn't surprised to see her standing there with a smile.

Elias: 'They sound like horrible souvenirs.'

She snorted at my text and nodded. Waving me bye, she closed her curtains at the same time as me.

Stripping out of my clothes, I groaned as my stiff body ached. By now, the pills had started to take effect, subsidizing the throbbing in my head.

As the warm water cascaded down my body, the events from last night filled my mind.

I cupped her face and slanted my lips over hers. Her lips were small and tasted like raspberries. She didn't kiss me for a moment, but then her lips melted against mine.

Her hands found their way in my hair as mine curved around her waist, pulling her closer. Our lips moved at a bruising pace, with no tongues involved.

Deciding to rectify that, I traced her lower lip with my tongue. At my action, she froze, making me frown. I repeated my movement, making her push me away.

"We can't do this," she gasped, looking at me wide-eyed. "This is wrong, Eli." Her voice held a plea.

She was touching her lips that were now a bit swollen after my kiss.

It baffled my drunk self, not understanding her concern. "Why?" Confusion clear through my words.

She took a shuddering breath and calmed herself down. Her eyes shone under the room light, making them look glassy. "You are drunk, and you would never kiss me when you are sober." Her voice cracked a bit at the last part, making me feel bad.

"Don't feel bad. I still think you are sexy," I said with a pout on my face.

She gave a dry chuckle at my response and shook her head. "You are seriously out of your mind," she mumbled.

She grabbed my hands and led me to her bed. "Come on. You need to sleep it off."

I looked up at her and gave her a lopsided grin. "Only if you are in bed with me." I opened my arms and gestured for her to come in.

She rolled her eyes and took off her heels. Following her lead, I quickly kicked off my shoes. Trapping her in my arms, I was soon off to my dreamless sleep.

I lied to her because of my cowardice. All the events from last night were crystal clear in my mind, making my shoulders drop with guilt.

I don't know why I kissed her last night, but one thing that I was sure about was that I didn't regret it all. Wrapped in my towel, I made my way outside the bathroom. Steam billowed out around me, exiting the confines of the shower.

I dropped on my bed and closed my eyes. The images of our shared kiss filled my mind. Turning around, I groaned into my pillow.

My thoughts were haywire, stopping me from thinking rationally.

Pushing up from my bed, I got up to get into some clothes.

I connected the phone with the charger as the battery displayed 5%, even if I didn't use it at all.

My phone had multiple messages from Navya and Connor. I read through all of them from last night to the latest a few minutes ago.

Connor: 'Can I come over?'

The text from Connor had me confused. This wasn't the typical Connor thing. He never asked before showing up at my house.

I quickly asked him to come over and waited. My social media was blowing up with people tagging me in pictures. Truthfully, I couldn't even remember getting so many pictures clicked.

Most of them were horrid blurs with some random stranger.

My front door opened, and I heard my mother speaking to Connor. Heavy thumps of footsteps soon came over the stairs, seemingly slower than usual.

When my door was pushed open, I looked up with a casual smile, but the smile dropped as soon as I saw his face.

I was expecting a cheerful, and cocky face. Not a face with swollen red eyes and sad expression.

"What the fuck happened?" I asked with a shocked expression. He closed the door behind him and shrugged.

Unlike his usual self, he was oddly calm as he took a seat next to me. This worried me a lot.

"Dude, tell me what happened?" I repeated but kept his silence. His eyes held an odd glint as he kept staring at a blank space on the wall.

He sighed as he felt my persistent stare and gave me a look from the corner of his eyes. The rigidity of his shoulders dissipated, and he slumped forward.

"I need time. I can't talk about it now," he said with a somber tone, giving me a look before I could protest.

I pursed my lips but nodded in understanding.

It was already near noon, so we decided to eat something. My mom and dad had left for some of mom's client's lunch party, leaving Connor and I, alone.

I bit into the pizza as I tried to focus on the movie playing. But my complete attention was on my best friend. He was behaving too out of character.

I had texted Navya to come over and talk to him, but she ignored my text, leaving them on read. It gave me an inkling that they might have gotten into an argument.

I sighed loudly and turned my head towards him. This wasn't going to work. Forming my words carefully, I tried talking to him.

"What happened, Connor?" I whispered. Talking to him felt like I was talking to someone new. Someone unknown to me; someone who wasn't anything like my best friend.

He placed his pizza down but said nothing. "Something happened between you and Navya?" I coaxed after a few minutes. "If it is an argument, don't worry about it. You guys always make up a day later-"

His angry voice cut me off. "It isn't just an argument. Elias, We broke up." His voice cracked at the end.

My eyes grew wide as his words registered in my mind. "You guys broke up," I whispered, feeling a bit shocked.

Navya and Connor were inseparable after the first time they met. Throughout high school, they were in a tight-knit relationship. They were each other's every first, often making me feel like a damn third wheel when three of us were out.

They were the couple that was predicted to be the next high school sweethearts after Ansel Jones and Ryder Simpson.

So, the news of their breakup was an enormous shock for me.

"Are you sure?" I asked, still in a daze.

He gave a dry chuckle as tears leaked from his eyes. "I think I am sure if we broke up or not."

His jaw clenched with anger, and his eyes spat angry fires. But the tears on his cheeks were an accurate portrayal of his sadness.

I scooted closer to him.

"How?" My voice was a weak whisper as I rubbed his back comfortingly.

He silently sobbed for a minute. I thought he didn't want to talk about it, so I kept quiet.

"She never loved me, Elias. She told me she never loved me." His voice was hoarse as he croaked those words out.

After that, a heavy pause followed. My stomach clenched, and for a moment, I stopped breathing.

"Navya was always interested in both girls and boys. She was always a bisexual," he explained further.

"She was a bi?" I asked, confused. This was something new for me.

He nodded and leaned back. "Navya was in the closet, but she told me that when we started our relationship. I never had a problem with it. It was fine with me. But-"

His breath shuddered at the next words. "But last night she realized that she wasn't interested in guys anymore. So, she broke up with me, dumping me after three years of our relationship. Telling me she never loved me when I did so much."