Chapter 4
Everly
Three months ago
His lips on my neck are as soft as I imagined.
How is this my life right now? His breath warms my skin, cool from the wet trail his kisses leave below my ear.
Hearing him whisper my name is like the gift I never knew I wanted.
But why me? This doesn't make sense. It can’t be real.
He isn’t real. Mitchell Owens, my current book boyfriend, has consumed my thoughts since I first cracked the pages.
I lift my arm to stroke his cheek. It’s almost too heavy to lift and feels thick, like my head, but his face is smooth at the top and rough with whiskers at the bottom.
I curve my fingers into the scruff. My arm flops to the bed like it’s weighted.
I want to keep touching him, but I can’t make my arm cooperate.
It takes effort to part my lips and say his name. “Chase,” I sigh. Chase? Not Chase. Mitch! Mitch Owens, my book boyfriend from Sunset Creek. Again, I call his name, louder this time. “Chase?” Why Chase anyway? He’s with Kendall.
Chase and Kendall are the couple. The super couple.
The cutest couple. The couple goals of OV.
Everyone wants to be them, even me sometimes.
They’ve been together since before any of the crew started dating—right around their freshman year at OVH, when I was still a kid.
Almost every one of the crew is coupled up now.
But those two set the bar. They were the first to make it official.
The first to go all the way. And now, as college seniors, the first to move in together.
All stories I’ve heard from my older sister, Olivia, one of their best friends.
If they’re the perfect couple, why me? And why now?
Why would Chase ruin everything he has with Kendall to make out with me?
My brain knows something is off. But I can’t sort it out.
My head feels muddy, murky, like pond water.
“Chase,” I whine. Whine? I don’t whine.
“Chase,” I repeat more forcefully. “Chase!” I’m yelling now. Why am I yelling at him?
“What are you doing? WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?”
I open my eyes, not realizing they were closed in the first place, and see light coming from a gap in the door.
The hall light. Chase and Kendall’s hallway light.
I’m in their room. I’m in their bed. The party.
The shots. My buzz. Then everything got spinny.
Kendall. Kendall helped me walk to the bathroom.
She helped me lie down on her bed. Their bed!
That’s the last thing I remember until now.
Am I dreaming? Am I yelling at Chase? No!
Kendall was yelling at Chase. And she still is.
More like an angry whisper. I can’t make out the words.
I struggle to sit up as my head swirls. As soon as I move, the whispers stop.
A shadow approaches me in the backdrop of the hallway light.As it moves closer, I can see it’s Kendall.
“You need to get up.” Kendall grabs my arm and yanks me to my feet.
I sway for a second before my equilibrium catches up and steadies me.
“This is how you repay my kindness? Trying to hook up with Chase? Get out, Evvie. We’re done. You’re done.” She’s half dragging half walking me toward the door and the lighted hallway.
The house is quiet now. The party must be over.
I hear her words, and I understand them perfectly.
They just don’t make sense. I hooked up with Chase?
I would never hook up with Chase. I would never betray Kendall like that.
I’ve never even kissed a guy. I certainly wouldn’t go after someone else’s and wouldn’t even consider one almost three years older than me.
I try to piece it all together as Kendall marches me through their house, grabbing my shoes and bag and thrusting them into my chest. I wrap my arm around them so they don’t tumble to the floor.
Once we reach the front door, she opens it and pushes me over the threshold and onto the porch.
The cool night air hits my face like a splash of ice water and the frigid wood of the porch stings my bare feet. Both wake me up enough to grasp my situation. I turn ready to explain myself to Kendall, to get her to understand, to understand it myself, but the door slams in my face.
With the cold seeping into my bones now, I dash across the wet grass to my car and climb into the driver’s seat. I don’t know how long I sit there watching my breath vaporize in front of me, trying to make sense of the last few minutes and piece together the hours leading up to it.
I jump at the tap on my window. Chase is bent over waving at me, his breath heavy and fogging up the window between our faces. I press the start button to unlock the window and roll it down. He nervously smiles at me. It registers through my fuzzy brain that I’ve never seen him look timid before.
“I’m going to make this right, Evvie. I promise. She’ll calm down once I explain.” He smiles reassuringly, like he just solved everything with those three sentences.
“Explain what? What the hell happened? Why is she so pissed? I wasn’t even that drunk.
And I’d never try to hook up with you.” I recall snippets of Kendall encouraging me to sleep off my slurred state so I could drive home later.
Beyond that, it’s fuzzy. Like an out of focus picture.
I could almost see it, make out what it is, but I’m not quite sure.
The only thing I am sure of—I didn’t come on to Chase. That’s just not who I am, drunk or not.