Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
Aurora
Presley: Lunch, please tell me you can get away?
I glance up at the clock, weighing out the workload I have in front of me and how many hours I have left in the day. I don’t want to take anything home with me, instead wanting to soak in the tub with a bottle of wine and some soft music. I didn’t want to spend any of my night working.
Presley: Please!!!
Apparently, my cousin is desperate because she doesn’t even wait for my response before she starts firing one text after another.
Presley: I did something.
Presley: Bad!
Presley: Well, not bad. Actually it was REALLY good!
Presley: Bad as in I’m pretty sure it may backfire!
Me: Calm down nutcase! I will meet you at the café on the corner in thirty to forty.
She doesn’t respond and I spend the next half hour with my head down getting through everything I can before clocking out for lunch.
As I round the corner, I am not only met with Presley but with Luna, and Breanna as they are walking toward me from the other direction.
“She called us all in,” Bree says. “It’s gotta be bad, right?” Luna bites her lip like she is doing her best not to say what’s on her mind. When her eyes lock with mine she quickly looks away.
“Luna.” Reaching out, I take her hand and give it a little tug. “What do you know?”
“Nothing,” she says, only she still won’t look at me.
“Liar,” Bree interrupts, taking her other hand as the two of us play some crazy game of tug-o-war.
“Let her tell you.” She pulls her hands away. “And I am going to act like it’s the first time I am hearing it too.”
She hurries off, leaving Bree and I on the sidewalk staring after her.
“What in the hell is goin’ on?” I mumble, my stomach flipping around nervously. Did she finally off her insanely narcissistic, abusive ex and she needs help hiding the body?
“Only one way to find out.” Bree starts walking toward the café and I follow close behind. When we enter, we find both Luna and Presley already seated at a table in the far back corner.
Presley’s hair is all wadded up on the top of her head, and she’s wearing an oversized sweater and leggings with boots. She has no makeup on her face, and I know whatever it is she has to tell us it'll be bad.
After we all place our drink orders we lean in close and wait.
“I didn’t go home last night.” She is talking to all of us but looking straight at me. “We’d had all those shots and I was feeling really good. Not so good that I couldn’t think straight, but well enough that I’d forgotten I’d put my house key in the tiny pocket in the back of my wallet. So when it came time for me to find it, in my current state I’d thought I’d lost it or forgotten it at home.”
Presley then glances around as our waitress brings our drinks. I notice the look on Luna’s face, as if none of this is surprising, and in my mind, I’m already putting the entire story together.
“You stayed with Zac,” I stated, as I moved my attention back to Presley. She only nods her head, like she’s scared to say it aloud. “You are acting like you committed some kind of scandalous act.”
“I guess it could be considered scandalous.” It’s Luna that interjects and everyone redirects their attention to her. Until then I think she hadn’t figured out that she’d spoken the words aloud.
“You know!” Presley barks a little too loudly, gaining the attention of a few people around us. Uncaring, she continues on. “What did he tell you?”
Luna covers her mouth and tries not to laugh. She fails.
“He was making fun of me, wasn’t he? Oh my God! I’m mortified!”
“He was not making fun, he was torn, not sure you even remembered what happened.”
“Oh, I remember.” She widens her eyes and Bree and I sit silently observing their conversation. “In fact I am still feeling the aftereffects of exactly what happened!”
“Oh no,” Luna holds her hands up in surrender. “I refuse to hear the details as each one of those guys are like brothers to me and I do not need a play by play.”
“You had sex with Zac,” I interrupt as all three of them quickly shift their attention to me. Suddenly the smiles on their faces are replaced with those of concern which surprise me.
“Hello?” I hold up my hands, waving her on. “Carry on.”
When no one says a word I’m confused, then it hits me.
“You thought I’d be mad about this?” Luna and Bree worry their lips as Presley nods her head. “Does everyone think I have some hidden crush on Zac?”
When none of them respond my stomach feels like it bottoms out.
“Oh my god you all do!” Then another thought hits me. “Do Jace and the guys think so too? Like I’m sitting around harboring feelings for Zac, while pretending to be infatuated with Jace?”
“I just think all of us are a little confused about the connection the two of you share and just how it all has worked.”
“We’re friends.” This is insane. “We’ve only ever been friends. We watch movies, we make fun of people in those movies, we pig out on junk food and play cards. I force him to take me shopping and drink girly lattes.”
“That sounds like dating someone,” Luna interjects.
“You are all insane.” This time I am the one who raises my voice. “Zac and I have never been romantically involved. We do not feel that way about one another.” I feel nauseous as I remember back to when Jace hit Zac. “Zac is the female version of Bree for me.”
What on earth is wrong with these fools?
“All the things I’ve done with Zac are the same things I do with all of you. Does that mean I’m dating the three of you too?”
None of them answer me, so I continue.
“So if you and Zac had sex, if the two of you decided to bang each other’s brains out on the top of the Empire State Building on a live feed, I would not care.” I pick up my tea and down half the glass, then place it on the table far too hard.
“Are you sure,” Bree asks looking around and I realize I’ve gained a few annoyed looks with my reaction.
“I’m in love with Jace,” I confess, knowing they already know this but it’s the first time I’ve said it aloud. “I have been for a long time, hell probably from the beginning when he annoyed me to the point where I wanted to rip out his tongue and stomp on it. It’s always been him, and it pisses me off that I ever gave doubt to that. Zac understands that, but me being friends with him, that created doubt, didn’t it?”
“No,” Luna reaches out and places her hand over mine. “We have all known from the start you’ve cared for Jace, but I think we all thought maybe during the time you and Zac got close something may have happened and maybe the lines were blurred a little.”
“Those lines have always been very clear. Nothing has ever and will never happen with Zac. I love him like I love the rest of you, I am not attracted to him.”
I’m the reason for the conflict between Jace and Zac. I’ve known this, but I think it took this moment for the reality of that to truly hit me.