FIFTEEN #4
Thankfully, he let me go, and I made my way to the kitchen to get a drink. As I was filling a red Solo cup with water, I felt a presence.
“Hey, go steady on that,” the voice joked.
Placing the cap back on the bottle of Evian, I turned, my glare already in place.
It was Aaron. “Are you OK? That didn’t look like it went well,” he said with a pained expression.
I moved away from the counter and stepped outside, and he followed. “It’s just Kieran, being Kieran. He’s drunk.”
When I reached the opposite side of the pool, I scanned the crowded water.
Kieran had already recovered. He was leaning in close to that pretty black girl I saw on campus, the one from Weston’s party—Nancy.
Her fingers trailed down Kieran’s forearm, and a sharp, hot spike of jealousy shot straight through my ribs. I wanted to snap her fingers off.
Aaron stepped into my space, cradling a cold beer against his chest. He followed my stare.
“I must say, he’d started earlier tonight.
When I got here, Kieran was holding a half-empty bottle of vodka.
He doesn’t usually drink like that at his own parties.
Likes to keep a level head; it’s what the host usually does. Why is he giving you grief?”
“That’s just Kieran for you.”
“He throws this party every year, you know. Same day, like clockwork. Do you know why?”
“I have no idea,” I choked out, not saying anything about Adam. My throat burned with threatened tears. One minute, Kieran was kissing me, and the next, he was flirting with that floozy.
Floozy? Come on, Amelie. I was gradually learning more street lingo from Jessa, but I couldn't pull it off as well as she could. Jessa had probably come out of the womb cursing.
Kieran bent his head to catch whatever Nancy was whispering. Then, his gaze shifted. Our eyes locked across the water. He flashed a daring, brief smirk—until he noticed who I was standing with, and his expression darkened.
Aaron chuckled, deliberately turning his back to block Kieran from my view. “Well, judging by the death stare I just got, I've officially ruined his night. Fuck him anyway. You’re your own person, Amelie.”
I tried to nod, desperately trying to drown out my anxiety about Adam. If he walked back onto the estate right now and saw his new space turned into a chaotic rave, he would lose it. Adam was like me; we’d been sheltered when we were prisoners in our own home, and we both hated the unexpected.
I forced myself to focus on Aaron instead. He was talking about his sister again. He was good-looking, sweet, and genuinely cared about his family. He deserved my attention more than the Kieran Rooks of this world.
We spoke about the holidays, which seemed to be taking forever to come. Northridge, being an independent school, didn’t follow the usual October half-term break that state schools did, and the October holiday took place in November.
After around twenty minutes, Aaron excused himself and said he should get back to his friends.
I recognised the group of boys who were motioning towards him as being part of the basketball team and the girls they were with.
Before he jogged away, he asked me if I’d like to drive to the coast with him the following day.
I explained that I was visiting my sister, so he suggested Monday evening after school. I agreed and gave him my phone number.
But for the next hour, my phone felt like a brick in my pocket. I checked the screen every two minutes, drafting and deleting texts to Adam and praying Kieran would come over and speak with me.
Whilst standing in a group of girls I didn’t know that well and pretending to listen, I typed in a message to my brother.
ME: Are you coming back here tonight?
I was getting tired and really wanted to go to my room, but I knew I needed to be there in case Adam turned up. I messaged Sophie, knowing she would be getting ready for bed and told her I’d call her in the morning.
And then, I froze as I spotted Kieran walking towards the bi-folding doors and into the kitchen, his hand resting flat against the small of Nancy's back.
They headed straight toward the stairs. My heart physically cracked.
Was he taking her to his bedroom? To share the same sheets where he had given me my first kiss?
Panic shot through me, desperation exploding in my chest. I wanted to run after them and say something, scream at him to stop.
His actions had hurt me, and I didn’t know how to cope with the torrent of new feelings crashing against my breastplate.
In that shattering second, the truth hit me. This wasn't some innocent, manageable crush I was experiencing. I had genuine feelings for him, dared I even say, love? How could that be? How could I have fallen for Kieran Rook, the one boy who appeared to have no regard for my feelings at all?
Misery rushed through my gut, and then, to make matters worse, I saw the lights of Adam’s truck as he pulled into the parking space at the back of the pool house.
Using Jessa’s go-to words… Fuck my life!