Chapter 24
One Night Off
Kiki
The second I saw the BMW logo on the bumper, I knew we’d run into the reason why Paul and I couldn’t work. The way Jon was holding Emily like she needed protection made me swallow so hard, it felt like catching a cold.
Paul and I had watched the horror movie in complete silence. I’d peeked over at him a few times, but his eyes were solely focused on the screen. And when the movie ended, he offered me a ride home. A part of me wanted to bring up our almost-kiss, but another wasn’t ready to face that whatever this was between us, it was only to heal our bleeding hearts.
“Hey,” Paul said lightly as Emily and Jon came out of the BMW. “What were you up to, Emi?” His voice sounded plastered, put on, nothing like the mood he was in before.
“We went for a swim,” she said, just as lightly, ruffling her fingers through her damp hair. Her eyes suddenly widened as she noticed his wrapped-up knuckles. She opened her mouth but Jon beat her to it.
“What the fuck happened to his hands?” he said to me.
“You can talk to Kiki but not to me?” Paul shouted. I gasped when I saw his expression, just like in the Olive Garden parking lot. Emily hustled up to him but I was quicker and closer.
“Paul, not now.” I yanked at his wrist, forcing him to look at me. Now wasn’t the time for them to have this talk. Paul was way too brittle. He flinched but didn’t pull away, inhaling deeply instead. I let go of his wrist when I felt his pulse calm down again.
“Paul, what happened?” Emily asked, her face paler than my mother’s lab coat. But he didn’t say anything, just stared at the tree in the front yard.
“So um, Jon,” I said, “mind giving me a ride home?” I would’ve preferred Paul but there was something I wanted to discuss with him.
“I thought I was giving you a ride,” Paul grumbled.
“It’s okay. Jon has to go that direction anyway,” I said, giving Jon a significant look. “Right?”
He shrugged. “Sure.”
Emily avoided my eyes as I walked over to the passenger side of the BMW. Finals were coming up, and the last thing I needed was to get dragged into their mess as their mediator. But there was one person I couldn’t turn my back on.
“Thanks for tonight, Paul,” I said. “See you for studying?”
He nodded, but his eyes lingered on Emily before he disappeared into the house. I sighed. Maybe he didn’t deserve my attention either.
I sat down in the passenger seat. Ugh, it was damp. I perched on the edge and opened the window for a breeze.
“You need to talk to him, Jon,” Emily urged, standing in front of the car.
“I know,” Jon said. “It’s... difficult.”
“I know but...” She tugged at his shirt, pleading with her eyes. “Doesn’t it make it worse?”
Jon glanced at me for a moment. “Rule #3,” he said to Emily. “Okay?” Emily nodded.
Rule #3? What was that supposed to mean?
“And here’s rule #1.”
He leaned in, and I quickly stared down at my hands in my lap, not looking up until Jon had closed his car door. Emily’s shadow vanished through the front entrance of Paul’s house. She didn’t need to sneak through the garage, unlike some people.
Jon started the car and pulled out of the driveway. “What happened to his hands?” he asked again.
“You should ask him that,” I retorted, for the first time agreeing with Emily on something.
“I can’t,” he growled, and I rolled my eyes in return.
“Paul is a good person, and you’re supposed to be his best friend. How can you abandon him like that?”
Jon braked at a red light. “So, you two are what? Lovers? Buddies?”
I raised my brow. “Jealous?”
He snorted. “Kiki, fuck. If you two like each other, it would make things a lot easier.”
My heart contracted. I knew he was over me, but wanting me to date his best friend, or whatever Paul was to him now, didn’t sit right. I shivered and pulled up the window. “We’re just friends,” I said, because in the end nothing had happened between us. If you could call this night nothing.
“Too bad.” Jon sighed. It sounded like he meant it.
I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned back in the damp seat. After a few more eternal minutes, the car came to a halt in front of my place.
“Thanks for the ride,” I muttered and opened the car door.
“Kiki.” Jon’s voice pulled me back by the throat. I turned to him. “Have you, um, read the letter?”
“Does it make any difference?”
He held my eyes, nodding slightly. “I hope one day we can be friends. Just like them.”
I shook my head. If he seriously believed that, he wasn’t the same Jon I used to know. “You really think Emily and Paul are just friends?”
“No, they’re more than that.” His face was empty, impossible for me to read.
“And you’re okay with that?”
“Yeah. He’s important to her. Plus it looks like he’s into you, so it’ll all be solved soon.”
I let out an epic snort. “That’s your plan? To park your ex-girlfriend with your girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend to get him out of the way?”
He made no response.
Anger flushed into my ears. Jon was smart, and he knew I wasn’t stupid either. The fact that he was acting so blind made me lose all the patience I had left. “For fuck’s sake, Jon!” I threw my hands in the air. “She’s living with Paul, and judging by the look on her face tonight, she isn’t over him. Haven’t you noticed how much time they spend together? How close they are?”
Jon sighed. “Good thing you aren’t me, then, huh?”
I had no comeback for that one. I was walking in his shoes more than he knew. My heart fluttered just hearing Paul’s name in my mouth.
“Good night, Jon.”
I hurried into my house. When I closed the front door behind me, my mother yelled my name so loud, it made me jump. “Don’t tell me you’re seeing that boy again!”
“Mom, I’m not. He was just giving me a ride.”
“You were supposed to be home hours ago,” she said, pointing a finger at me. “What about your test on Tuesday?”
I inhaled, slipping myself back into good Kiki mode. “I forgot the time, Mom. I’ll go study now.”
I treaded up the stairs and got back to what I did best.