23 | Cool it, Cowboy.
I curl tighter into my sheets, the mattress too warm around me but I don't feel like getting up or out of bed today. I guess it's only lucky that it's one of the only days I don't have any classes because I'm not even sure I would go if I did.
Asher dropped me off late last night and the party was still raging, drunk university kids strewn across my lawn like ornaments. Nobody had even noticed when I walked him inside and up the stairs to my bedroom, and I doubt they noticed when he left this morning.
There's a rustling outside my door, the faint sound of my brother whispering before a knock is heard. I stare at the wood for a few seconds before getting up and slipping closer as another knocks follows the first.
"Ivy?" Leon whispers and I'm not sure if he's trying to be quiet because he still thinks I'm asleep at ten in the morning, he's being quiet for the guests that no doubt still linger around or if he has a hangover.
Probably all three.
I open the door wide, blinking at the sight of my brother, dressed and awake and looking . . . not hungover and then I look at the girl beside him.
My stomach drops when I stare between Charlotte and Leon, wondering if she's already told him about Asher and me.
"Can I come in?" I once again look at Charlotte before looking to my brother and he lifts a hand to rub his neck, clearing his throat.
"I'm going to go; um do something else."
He shifts around and rushes down the stairs, the sound of plates and glasses knocking together following his departure and I look at Charlotte feeling unwelcome in my own home with her staring at me like she is.
"Ivy? Can I come in?"
"Yeah." I clear my throat and step back, letting her in before shutting the door behind her. She moves to the bed and takes a seat, folding her legs under her before looking to me.
"I'm sorry." We say at the same time and my eyes feel heavy with tears as i walk closer and sit beside her.
"You don't have to apologies." She says, fiddling with her fingers in her lap. "I do."
"Charlie-"
"I took my anger out on you, and I shouldn't have." She shakes her head, turning to stare at me, tears filling her eyes. "I wasn't really angry at you, I'm angry at myself."
"Why?" I say softly, slowly, seeing the fight in her eyes on whether she flees or stays.
It takes her a second to reply, "I've been lying to you, and I've been angry with myself for it and I didn't know how to tell you the truth so instead I just pushed you away and then when I found out about you and Asher, I just-" she lets out a breath.
"It was easier to be angry then to tell you the truth. "
"You know you can tell me anything?" I say quietly, "Nothing you tell me is going to make my think less of you or hate you."
She looks away, her shoulders rising in a shrug. "Promise me you'll let me say it all, and then we'll talk."
I nod, "promise."
At one of the parties a few weeks back, you know the one when you went home early and I-" she pauses, "I guess I know why you may have left now.
" She looks to, I look away before looking back and she grins, the smile not exactly reaching her eyes before she takes a deep breath.
"I got drunk, played beer pong with the hockey team and then-"
I don't say anything, letting her work through her thoughts.
"One thing led to another and I went home with one of them, slept with him."
My eyes widen slightly but I don't move or say anything.
"It was a mistake and I regretted it almost instantly, and I told him so. Told him it couldn't happen again." She looks to me in earnest, "And it hasn't, but I was so ashamed I kept it from you."
I blink, taking in the words before looking back at my best friend. She looks at me, eyes wide, cheeks flushed with embarrassment, but she doesn't say anything else, waiting for me to reply.
"Who was it?" I say but I have a feeling I already know.
Charlotte looks away, staring at my bedroom door before she sighs. "Leon."
"You gave your virginity to my brother?" I say in shock, even if I did expect his name.
"You gave yours to Dain."
Touche.
"And you've been sleeping with my brother."
I cringe, "We haven't actually slept together yet."
"What the hell have you been doing?"
I turn to stare at her, but she cringes, "Don't answer that."
A ringing sound cuts through the conversation, my phone lighting up with a call.
"Answer that, it's safer."
I shake my head and pick up the phone, swiping to answer the call, Asher low timbre slipping through the speaker.
"Is Charlotte there? I haven't been able to find her."
"She is." I reply, and Charlie looks to me, raising a brow.
"Please tell me she's playing nice."
I smile, "She's not a dog."
He grumbles something under his breath.
"Everything's fine, we're talking." I say when Charlie's eyes widen, her fear for her brother finding out she slept with his best friend flitting across her face.
A fear I know all too well.
"Your interrupting girl time, Asher, piss off." Charlotte says, taking the phone from me and putting it on speaker.
"You're interrupting my call with my girlfriend."
'Girlfriend' Charlotte mouths the word, looking at me with a raised brow but I can only feel the heat of a blush on my cheeks.
"She was my friend first, so no matter what, you will always be second best to me."
"Charlotte-"
"Cool it, Cowboy." Charlotte interrupts, "She'll call you later."
She hangs up the phone and throws it backwards on my bed. "You're his girlfriend now?"
"Apparently."
"He didn't ask you, neanderthal." She rolls her eyes. "God, boys are stupid." She moves to settle under my sheets but pauses. "There aren't . . . juices here are there?" Her nose wrinkles, lip turning up.
I shaker my head, "He stayed over last night but all we did was sleep."
"Good," she continues to tuck herself into my bed and pats the spot beside her, "Now catch me up on everything, except the juicy details and by the way I will hate you forever for taking that best friend right away from me."
"Ditto." I mutter and slip in beside her while she laughs awkwardly. "Hey, at least I'm not dating your brother."
"Do you want to?"
She shakes her head, "No. Sleeping with him was a mistake and one I'm not likely to repeat again."
"So that's why you've been acting weird."
"Uh, Uh, Uh, this catch-up time is for you, not me. I told you everything, it was all shirt lived, yours is months in the making."
"Everything was short lived?" I prod with a smirk.
"Do you really want to know?"
I shake my head with a shiver, "No."
"Then get talking about yourself, from the beginning. I need to know how my brother got you to like him back."
"Wait, you knew he liked me?"
She blinks back at me. "You didn't, you never wondered why team meeting were always held at your place instead of ours even though Asher is the captain and mum would have loved to host?"
"I didn't pay that much attention. I didn't see him like that, he was just Asher, your brother."
"You know he had the opportunity to go to another school, on a full ride scholarship but he chose Halliwell after you and your brother chose it, even though it was only a half scholarship.
He claimed it was to be close to home, but I knew he was lying.
" She shrugs when she sees that I had no idea.
"God, you really were in your own little head.
" She laughs as she shakes her head, "And then you went and slept with the one person Asher hates more than our father. "
"I didn't know they hated each other. I knew our school were rivals."
"If you had been paying attention, you would know that Dain and Asher have a reigning rivalry just between them two after Dain broke Asher's collarbone in a game two years ago, pummeled him against the plexiglass."
"That's how he was injured?"
She nods, "It's also how your brother got suspended for two weeks, because he returned the favour."
"What caused the rivalry?"
"You really don't know?"
"Know what?"
"Harlowe started it because she was bored, would manipulate Dain to do it while she tried to nurse Asher back to health each time he was injured. It's a game to her. She's a raging bitch and Dain is her loyal lap dog."
"Do you think she knew about Asher liking me?"
"She dated him for a few months, the girl would be dumb to have not noticed and even if I don't like her, I can't claim she's stupid."
"And Dain does everything she asks?"
Charlie nods.
"You know Dain was the one that approached me, asked me on a date and complimented me.
He would take me for breakfast, bring me coffees in the library when he knew I would be studying.
" The more I think about it the more it makes sense.
"Do you think they planned it, for Dain to sweettalk his way into my life, for me to sleep with him, for Asher to find out, for it to be posted on that stupid site, all because Asher liked me and Harlowe is obsessed with him.
" I blink a few times and look at Charlie.
"Do you think she was trying to get Aser to hate me, or stop liking me by having me sleep with someone he hates. "
"Probably, I wouldn't put it past her. She's quite conniving."
"Well, it backfired so I hope she enjoys her sad excuse for a life with Dain Chambers.
And I hope she never orgasms again, although I guess that's hardly a hope when Shes dating Dain.
The guy couldn't cause an orgasm if it was a big red button that said, 'push here'.
" I say snarkily, looking at Charlie as she grins like a cheshire cat.
"Well, I agree, wholeheartedly." She laughs low under her breathe, "And what site are you talking about?
" She says worriedly and I realize she didn't know about the site either.
My stomach drops at the possibility that her encounter with my brother could be splashed all over it just like my life was.
I grab my phone and pull up the site, inputting Justins name but the site declines entry.
I furrow my brow. "It's a stupid ranking site for the two hockey teams to win a pissing contest. points are gathered with sexual acts. Its dumb and disgusting."
"And your name is on there?"
"Dain." Is all I say, and she nods. I try Justin's name again, but it doesn't work. "Argh."
'What's wrong?"
The login is the name of the person who tops the leaderboard, Justin was the login yesterday but it's not working."
"Just hockey players?" Charlie says as she brings up her own phone and looks up all the names of our teams' players.
"And Dains school." I supply.
"We'll go through all the names until it opens, one of them has to be at the top."
So, we do, entering every name until only two remain and my stomach is filled with a riot of nerves.
"Asher." Charlie says her head whipping to mine. "He wouldn't." But she doesn't sound convinced.
"People lie on here all the time to gain points," I say weakly but I type in his name, each tap of my finger on the keyboard like a drumbeat of doom.
I hesitate before pressing enter, my heart dropping to my stomach for the slightest second before the word 'Denied' comes up and I breathe out the breath I didn't know I was holding.
"It's not Asher." I look to the side at Charlie, "Who is left?"
She chews her lip. "Leon."
I close my eyes, before staring back at the pain in her eyes. "Leon wouldn't have submitted anything, he wouldn't do that to you."
She doesn't answer and I input his name, the site opening up instantly and Leons team photo right at the top of the leaderboard, Justin dropped back one and Asher still number seven.
"How do you see the entries?" She says softly and I move to the drop-down menu, repeating the same actions I took yesterday to find the search bar.
"Search my name."
I do and no result is found. I feel more then hear Charlie let out a breath.
"Search party and Leons name."
I do.
A list of entries pops up, each one longer than the other, some girls going into details that I don't bother to read but Charlie skims them, her mouth tightening with each new sentence.
"Charlie?"
She doesn't say anything.
"People lie on here all the time, anyone can submit anything, we could submit something, and it'll get approved. There's no fact checking."
"But some of it could be true?"
I nod.
"Charlie. This doesn't mean that what you did with Leon-"
"It was a mistake, I told you that." She shrugs off my concerns.
"Sleeping with Leon was nothing more than a mistake and you have to promise to me that you will never tell Asher about it, okay?
I know now that you're his girlfriend-not-girlfriend, you have certain obligation to be truthful to him and whatnot but just don't tell him that. "
I nod, "Okay. I promise. I won't tell Asher about it all. Never, not unless you tell him."
She looks to me and smiles but the action doesn't reach her eyes. "Now, tell me, how did everything start?"