(Picture of Cassandra Santiago)
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"Holy shit. Did a vacuum sucked you on the neck or what?" Drew asks in pure mockery.
Another hectic week has passed and we are yet again, gathered at the dining table at Wayne's place for breakfast. Granted, the past two weeks has been physically demanding for me. Not that I was crazy about losing weight again, but Zac has been trying every single way to sneak into my bed late at night when everybody's asleep.
It's already weird that he has been staying over consecutively since the first time we slept together, but him leaving the room he shares with Carson to sleep in mine is a huge tell-tale sign for anyone who will barge in soon. Although, I can't say I'm complaining since both of us clearly enjoys fucking each other's brains out.
I stifle a laugh, not wanting to give myself away. Zac sits next to me on the bench, his hand resting on my thigh under the table while he uses his right hand to hold his fork. Everyday, he tries to touch me as often as he can even if it means risking to be caught in a room full of people.
"Yeah, this one's quite a sucker." Zac smirks and I almost gasp out loud. He squeezes my thigh slightly and I cross my ankles, preventing myself from kicking him in the shin.
This fucker gave me so many hickeys on my boobs last night that I look like as if I'm beaten and bruised. He's lucky I settled with just three on him.
Cass eyes the both of us curiously from where she's seated at the end of the table. I don't know why but this time, I kept our tryst a secret and didn't spill a word to neither girls. Perhaps because I don't even have a clue what I'm doing eitherâ other than fucking him, and I don't want to have to come up with excuses to back up my actions and for breaking my own goddamn rules.
These rules are the stupidest thing I've ever come up with.
I mean. Fuck. It is still a bad idea to be sleeping with a friend. I don't even want to deny that now I actually crave for his attention. I hate that I like it when he snuggles with me on bed, late at night, no sex and just watching silly videos. I hate that I enjoy it when he pulls me closer in the middle of the night and tangles his legs with mine. Oh, for fucks sake.
"Okay? And who's that? Because for all I know, you've been around us most of the time lately." Carson raises his brows.
Shit. Please have a good answer. Please have a good answer.
Zac simply shrugs, a sheepish grin plastered on his face. "Since when are you so interested in my sexual life?"
"It's probably Becca," Drew chimes in as he fetches himself the butter. Becca? Who's Becca?
"It's not. For god's sake I told you she's already seeing someone." Zac explains in annoyance.
The relationship between us is pretty much just physical and sexual. As much as we have gotten a lot closer intimately, I refrain from getting involved with his personal affairs. Such as his schedules and his commitments are his private matters that I shouldn't pry. The only times we see each other are usually when he decides to come over whenever he's free. Other than that, we barely ever exchange a text message or a phone call unless he asks me if I'm home.
I keep reminding myself that we're merely sleeping friends, and that I shouldn't be too bothered; but the thought of him sleeping with someone else aside from me makes my heart clench.
"Fine, fine." Drew raises his hands, his fork and knife still clutched in his palms, in mock surrender. "So, last game before Thanksgiving next week. All of you are coming to support me, right? Right?" Drew glances around us in a circle.
Whenever the soccer team has a game, the band will surely be there to play. Not that I've been going to see any of Drew's games, but occasionally when Cass and I have P.E at the stadiumâ we usually bump into them during their trainings.
"Not that I have a choice," Carson shrugs from next to Drew. "Y'know I already have AV stuffs to handle."
"Yes, and you will cheer for me while you're at it." Drew grins boyishly. "Wayne? Babes?" He turns to us.
"It's a no from me." My brother says, much to Drew's disappointment. They are the best of friends and rarely ever miss each other's event. "Duty calls, bro." He pats Drew's shoulder.
"Fuck off." He rolls his eyes and crosses his arms like a child. "Don't you think it has gone on too long with her now?"
That peaked my curiosity. Her? Who's her? For all I know, the only girls surrounding Wayne are the few sorority girls he sleeps with and Bianca the gymnast queen.
"Who?" I nosily interrupt their conversation.
Wayne looks at me but doesn't say a word. "Bianca, duh." Drew answers.
I've always known Wayne doesn't actually fancy Bianca, considering I've seen him give her the stink-eye a couple times now. Overall, she's just a really narcissistic and bitchy personâ which explains why almost everyone in our clique has some sort of beef with her.
Cass coughs and drinks a sip of her milk. "Please. Don't ruin my appetite."
"When are you ever going to be done with her, bro?" Drew rests his elbows on the table, staring intently at Wayne.
Wayne sighs. "Soon. She's been bugging me too much."
My mouth itches to open and add in its own comment. "Why are you even with her to begin with?" As if it was a wrong move, Zac squeezes my thigh again and I furrow my brows. There's more to it than it seems.
"Nothing much," Wayne stands up and grabs his dirty plate, leaving to the kitchen without answering my question. Everybody else stays quiet too, not knowing what to say after him dismissing me that way.
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"So, you're gonna come to the game, right?" Zac asks hopefully as we smoke at the backyard. While we're around the others, we maintain a conversation as normal as possible so that nobody will wonder why we're acting strange.
"I guess." I nudge Cass who's standing next to me, fiddling with her phone as usual. "You're coming too."
"I am?" She looks up and acknowledges me.
"Mm-hmm."
"Alright. It doesn't hurts for me to oogle some boys." She grins, showing off her perfect set of teeth.
Zac leaves us to ourselves after that and Cass immediately stuffs her phone in her pocket and whips around to me. "I'm offended you did not think it was necessary to tell me." She scowls at me.
My eyes widen at the fact that she caught on this quick, but have to go into defensive mode in case it isn't what I think it is. "What are you talking about?"
"Cut the crap," she rolls her eyes. "You." She points a finger at me accusingly. "And that." She redirects her index finger to the glass door.
"I don't know what you're talking about." I fake my innocence.
"Oh, really?" She smirks, taking a step towards me and I back myself against the wall. Fuck, this is weird. "Would you like to explain why his hand was on your thigh, Owens?" Cass whispers with a devillish smile on her face.
What? How? Was the two questions I wanted to ask but couldn't. Looking at her face, only one word keeps ringing in my mind. Run!
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I hear my bedroom door creak open and instantly already know who it might be. With me being tucked comfortably in my blanket and the comfort of a pitch black room, I refuse to sit up and acknowledge the presence until he comes over to my bed and spoons me.
"You know, Cass has already caught on to us when she dropped her fork on the floor this morning." I mutter to him groggily, having been woken up from my almost-asleep slumber.
This has been a regular occurenceâ him sneaking into my room once the lights goes off in the house and leaving as soon as the sun comes up. That did in fact ruin my perfect eight hours sleep cycle a lot, but somehow having someone to sleep with just makes it a lot better. Sometimes, we end up talking nonsense since we barely text at all, hence keeping all the things we have to say for pillow talks.
"That's good." His head rests in the crook of my neck, sniffing me. He claims he loves the smell of me (or my shampoo and soap, maybe) and always does this whenever he hasn't gotten close to me for awhile. "It's getting harder for me to not pull you over my lap each time we're on the couch."
What are we doing? What are we doing? What are we doing?
I fight off a smile that's creeping onto my face. Why am I happy he said that? Should I even be happy about it? What is it we both really want out of this? It's getting out of hand now that someone has caught up to our little secret.
"No, Zac." I turn to lie on my back, faintly making out his facial features in the dark. "This- this isn't good. I don't even know what we're doing anymore. It's confusing me."
"Shhh." He coos me, pecking me on my forehead the way he knows I adore. "I just want to hold you to sleep, okay?" He whispers it softly, one hand wrapping itself around my waist while the other lightly pats my bum in a rhythm meant to make me fall asleep.
Not wanting to lose anymore of my precious hours, I sleepily nod and cuddle up to him, resting my head on his chest while he continues to wait until I enter my dreamless sleep.
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A/n: sorry, relatively short chapter because I plan to split the next half in a new one. By the way, we have finally achieved 3k reads! 𥰠despite the fact that I've started this book since 4-5 months ago (yes, I know, it took me so long to write 20+ chapters), I'm still immensely grateful that we've gathered a steady stream of regular readers now camping for my every update. To that lot of you, thank you for giving me and this book a chance. I just want to say every single read and vote has made my day and you're the reason why. â¤ï¸