t w e n t y o n e
Fucking hell.
Those two words have been playing on an endless loop in my mind for the past twenty-four hours.
So much so, I barely got any sleep because of it.
I shouldn't have accused Lilac of stealing those files and I definitely shouldn't have kissed her.
Sure, she's a tenacious little brat who doesn't know when to give up or shut up, but she's not a thief.
So why did I think that she was?
Maybe it was out of fear that someone close to me would go behind my back and betray my trust?
To me, that's a hell of a lot worse than it being someone whom I barely know.
In light of yesterday's events, however, I now know that that is not the case.
Someone close to me did go behind my back.
And now no one is safe.
Not even my family.
"Hey, boss. I think I found something!" Damien's voice sounded from the doorway, and I all but scowled at the interruption.
"What is it?" I replied dryly.
"Man, what is up with you all today? First Lilac, now you. Did something happen while I was gone?" His question made me wince, as the subject matter transported me back to yesterday morning.
The way her chest heaved against mine as I tightened my grip around her neck.
"No," I said while rubbing my eyes. "Tell me what you found."
It took everything within me to focus on his next statement.
The intoxicating scent of her Marc Jacobs perfume.
Damien handed me a hard drive. "James gave me a copy of last month's security footage, and you won't believe what's on it!"
The wild look in her eyes after I fisted her hair and—
"I need—" I paused two words into my sentence, cringing as my voice came out louder than expected. I inhaled deeply, taking a moment to stabilize my breathing before continuing, "I need you to give me a moment," I finished shakily.
Damien nodded, eyeing me weirdly before he left the room. "Sure thing, boss."
I was painfully aware that I crossed a line yesterday and that Lilac was completely within her rights to quit.
The problem was that now more than ever, I didn't want her to.
I rubbed my temples, groaning softly.
I need to focus.
"Damien!" I yelled while bobbing back and forth in my chair. "Get your ass back in here!"
The movement caused one of my pens to roll off my desk, and I instantly reached down to pick it up, grunting at the sound of him stepping back into my office. Since I had no reason to believe that someone other than Damien had entered the room, I began to apologize to him as I grabbed my pen.
"Look, I'm sorry for snapping at you, it's just that—" The rest of my apology went unsaid after I raised my head to look at the door. A small sigh escaped my lips the second I laid eyes on her.
So much for staying focused.
"Damien went to the bathroom." Her voice was so low, I had to lean forward to hear her properly. "But, I wanted to ask if I could get off early today. Veronica wants to go out tonight, and she told me to come over at three-thirty."
We haven't said two words to each other since yesterday morning, and I'd be lying if I said I was looking forward to breaking the ice with her.
Now that I've gotten a taste of what it's like to be near her, I want more. And that's never a good thing.
"Come here," I commanded while scooting my chair away from my desk.
Any hint of the overly confident woman I saw yesterday was gone. In her place stood a timid girl who looked to be scared shitless.
Dammit.
Lilac slowly made her way toward me, and as soon as she was within reaching distance, I gently grabbed her hand. Since I was manspreading, I pulled her forward so that she could stand between my legs before I gestured for her to lean down by tugging on her wrist.
She immediately complied, holding onto the armrests on either side of me for support.
I knew that if I didn't do something with my hands, I'd end up doing something rash like pulling her onto my lap, so I set out to distract myself by reaching up to push a fallen piece of hair out of her face.
"I don't want you to think that I'm trying to control you when I say this, but I don't think that you should go out with Veronica tonight," I told her. "Now that I know there's a mole amongst us, I don't want you two running around the city by yourselves."
Her expression remained hopeful as she asked, "Can't Damien or another one of your bodyguards go with us?"
I shook my head, dropping my hand away from her face. "Everybody I have is working around the clock to find the person who took those files. I can't rest until I know who did it."
She smiled weakly, and a fresh wave of guilt smacked me in the face.
"Of course," she murmured in agreement. "I totally understand."
Wanting to make it up to her somehow, I quickly suggested, "Why don't you ask Veronica to come over here? She can spend the night, and you two can do whatever it is that girls do at sleepovers."
This time the smile I got in return was genuine. "You mean, have fun?"
I grunted. "Yeah, that."
She nodded her head in approval, snickering to herself. "Okay."
I was so shocked at how quickly she agreed that I sat up straight in my chair. "Okay?"
In doing this, I only managed to bring us closer together, and in the blink of an eye, the mood turned from playful to tense.
I figured something like this might happen if the opportunity presented itself, and wouldn't you know it?
I was right.
Like a moth to a fucking flame, we were drawn to each other, and I knew from our encounter yesterday that neither of us had the willpower to stay away.
We found ourselves leaning in to close the space between us, and without thinking, my hand snaked around Lilac's waist as she tilted her head to meet my lips at an angle.
She ended up stalling the kiss, choosing instead to brush her lips against mine as she whispered the words, "You heard me," against my lips.
My grip on her waist tightened, but before either of us could solidify the kiss by adding pressure, Damien's voice rang out from the hallway.
"Ayo, did you call me?"
Lilac and I jumped apart just seconds before he entered the room.
He stopped at the sight of her, and his brows furrowed together at the awkward distance between us. "Hey, buttercup. What are you doing in here?"
"Nothing!" she replied quickly. His confusion grew even more after she rushed past him. "Anyways, I'll leave you all to it!"
A brief silence settled over the room in the wake of her absence, and when Damien opened his mouth to question me, I immediately silenced him with my eyes.
I knew that I couldn't keep him in the dark forever, but right now, we had more pressing matters to attend to.
Shaking his head, he walked over and gestured for me to plug the hard drive into my laptop. Once the video loaded, I hit play.
Damien pressed his palm into the surface of my desk as he leaned over my shoulder. We had been reviewing the footage for a few seconds now, and nothing out of the ordinary stood out to me.
"Just wait," he said, quelling my agitation.
I opened my mouth to say something, only to shut it just as quickly after a familiar figure stepped into frame. Since the camera is set up outside my front door, the angle was perfect.
I paused the video and zoomed in on the person's face.
Damien clapped his hand on my shoulder, making his relief known. "We got 'em, boss."
My breathing became jagged as I stared at the image in front of me.
"That motherfucker."
??————- ? ————-??
Veronica rang the doorbell three times in a row, alerting the entire household that she had arrived.
"Hi, my love!" she squealed, pulling me into a hug.
"Hi!" I wheezed, struggling in vain to escape her death grip.
After we pulled apart, we ran up to my room.
Once Veronica dropped her stuff off, we headed back downstairs to set up camp in the family room since we both agreed that Kyle's movie theater room was too claustrophobic.
Veronica danced around the ottoman, clearly excited for tonight's activities. I watched in amusement before I turned my attention back to the TV.
"Show or movie?"
"Show first," she said while flopping down onto the couch next to me. "We can switch to a movie when it gets dark out."
I nodded and began to scroll through Netflix until I found the show I was looking for.
"How many times do you think we've seen this?" she mused after I clicked play.
"At least ten times," I laughed. "But we have to get ready for season five."
"We do, don't we?" she agreed. Her head came to rest on my shoulder, and I instantly adjusted my position so she could snuggle into my side.
A smile made its way onto my face when the title screen for our favorite show, The Magicians, appeared on the TV a few minutes later.
??————- ? ————-??
Several hours passed before we finished season one.
Prior to starting our next movie, we decided to change into our pajamas and eat the pizza I ordered.
While we ate, we caught each other up on everything that's happened in the past month.
"But, enough about me," Veronica declared after she finished off her side of the pizza. The look on her face made me nervous. It was almost as if she knew I was hiding something from her. "What's been going on with you?"
I shifted around on the couch.
Every part of me was dreading telling her about yesterday's events.
"I mean there's nothing to tell, really," I began. "I um, I quit my job, kissed Kyle, and decided that I'm going back to school," I rattled off in a rush. "And that's just everything that happened yesterday."
Veronica's eyes widened at my news.
After a beat or two of silence, she finally spoke up.
"I know," she confessed, blinking slowly.
"What?"
"I mean, about you kissing Kyle," she clarified. "The other two things are new to me."
I set my plate down on the TV tray next to me before I focused my attention on her. "How did you find out?"
She grinned. "I was going about my business in the lobby when I saw you two get off the elevator. I was going to come over and say hi, but when I saw the state that your clothes and hair were in, I decided against it."
I suppressed a groan at this.
"Everything about you two screamed, 'we just got done fooling around,'" she continued after taking a sip of her Pepsi.
"Great," I muttered sarcastically. "If you noticed, I'm sure everyone else did too."
Veronica dismissed my response with the roll of her eyes. "Fuck them. I want details!"
And so, I spent the next twenty minutes explaining the story to her. By the time we finished talking, it was almost eight-thirty.
When it came time to pick a movie, we found ourselves on opposite sides.
"Just one, please!" I begged, giving Veronica my best puppy dog eyes.
She shook her head. "Absolutely not. You know I don't do horror movies."
"This one's only an hour and thirty. We can watch whatever you want afterward," I promised.
She considered my offer for a moment before she finally agreed. "Fine."
I wasted no time selecting my movie of choice, The Boy.
"Hell no! It's scary and it has children in it. Are you trying to give me a heart attack tonight?"
"Aww, boohoo. I'm going to go make us some popcorn while you think of all the reasons why you love me," I told her while heading out into the hall.
"Bitch!" she called out after me.
I smiled, shaking my head to myself as I made a move to turn the corner. Not realizing that someone else was doing the same, I found myself slamming into something so hard that the momentum of the crash nearly knocked me over.
Kyle reached out to steady me, apologizing profusely. "Sorry, sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."
He paused, giving me time to catch my breath. "Although it is starting to become one of my new favorite pastimes."
"Yeah, well, if I die from a heart attack, I'll make sure to leave a note informing the police that you inadvertently murdered me," I retorted.
An awkward silence suddenly wedged its way between us as we stared at each other.
The reality of our situation was apparent; however, neither of us knew what to say or do about it.
I mean, we almost kissed.
Again.
And if someone were to ask me if I regretted it, my answer would be a resounding hell no.
God, I needed to get out of here.
"Sooo, any plans for tonight?" This conversation needed to be over, quickly.
"Ehh, nothing too interesting. Planning a murder takes way more time than I thought it would." He spoke so casually, I didn't think twice to nod my head in agreement—not at all comprehending the words that just came out of his mouth.
Wait.
"What?"
He laughed at my horrified expression.
"Damien and I found out who took the files," he explained. "Now, it's only a matter of time before I take the bastard down."
"Oh, who was it?" I was still kind of bitter that he accused me of doing it, especially since he hasn't apologized for his mistake yet.
"It was—" he started to tell me, only he didn't get far as Veronica yelled over him from the family room.
"Did you get lost on your way to the kitchen because I don't hear my shit popping!"
"Jesus," I muttered in disbelief.
"Let me not take up any more of your time," Kyle said, stifling a laugh at Veronica's outburst. "I'll catch you up later."
I shot him an apologetic smile before I moved around him and continued my journey to the kitchen. After grabbing a crap ton of snacks, I made my way back to the family room.
I set Veronica's bowl of popcorn in her lap, holding mine close to my chest as I plopped down next to her.
"Took you long enough," she grumbled while opening a Hostess cupcake.
I pressed play on the title screen. "Yeah, well, I ran into Kyle in the hall. He was giving me an update on the file thief situation when you so rudely interrupted us."
"Bullshit," she snorted. "You all were probably gazing into each other's eyes—" Her voice got increasingly louder as she progressed through her sentence, and I knew that Kyle could hear her from whatever hallway he was wandering down.
"Would you keep it down!" I hissed, slapping my hand over her mouth. "What happened between us was a one-time thing. A moment of weakness, if you will."
"It's not going to happen again," I concluded, attempting to reassure both her and myself.
"Okay, sis," she replied in a sing-song voice. "Whatever you say."
I frowned at her comment, but before I could say anything more, she changed the subject.
As the movie began to unfold, my mind continued to replay the moment Kyle kissed me. No matter how hard I tried to erase the memory from my mind, it stayed put.
After The Boy, we turned on Pulp Fiction.
A snore snapped me from my thoughts, and I looked to my right to see Veronica passed out with a Snickers bar dangling from her hand.
We were barely an hour into the movie.
Rolling my eyes at her sleeping figure, I turned my attention back to the TV, stuffing a handful of popcorn in my mouth as nostalgic music began to spill out of the speakers.
A few seconds later, a crash sounded from somewhere outside, causing me to jump in my seat.
I set my bowl down and turned to look at Veronica.
She stirred in her sleep, shifting onto her side before letting out another snore.
Figures.
Even though I didn't want to, I slowly stood up and tiptoed toward the hallway to investigate.
If this were anybody else, I would be shaking my head in disappointment. Everybody knows that this is how people die in horror movies.
The lights were turned off in every room except the kitchen.
This did nothing to calm my nerves since it was so dark outside I could see my reflection in the window when I passed by it.
When I entered the kitchen, nothing seemed to be out of place. I wasn't sure where the noise originated from, but it sounded like it came from somewhere in the backyard.
Shrugging it off, I turned to head back to the family room, only to pause in place after a faint rustling sound pricked my ears.
I glanced at the sliding door that leads out to the patio, and when the noise failed to stop, I squeezed my eyes shut, willing it to be a figment of my imagination.
A rustle followed by another crash sounded just a few feet away from the door, and this time, I let out a scream.
Not even two seconds later, Kyle came running into the kitchen.
"What's wrong?" His eyes immediately scanned my body for any apparent injuries.
My heart melted as his face visibly relaxed when he realized that I was okay.
"Then why—" The rest of his sentence died on his lips after something fell to the ground outside.
We both turned to look at the patio door, and my eyes widened as Kyle made a move to go and open it.
"Are you crazy!" I whisper-shouted. I grabbed his arm to stop him from moving. "Someone could be trying to kill us!"
He held his finger up to his lips before he unlocked and opened the door in one fluid motion. The moment he did, a hooded figure came stumbling into the light, falling to the floor after tripping over Kyle's outstretched foot.
"What the hell?" I exclaimed.
The figure turned to look up at us, and my mouth fell open the second I caught sight of his face.
"How nice of you to drop in," Kyle smirked while shutting and locking the door. "I knew you'd fall for that text."
I stood frozen in place, blinking rapidly as I tried to think of what to say.
After a moment of silence, I gave up and resorted to uttering the name of the boy lying on the ground in front of me:
"Quinn?"