Caroline was furious, pacing around my room with a tension in her jaw.
"How could you?" She spat.
"How could I what?" I said dryly, the events of the day had started to settle and I fought the urge to yawn.
She huffed as though holding in all of her anger.
"You went out with him?" She said, the sound muffled as it passed through her gritted teeth.
Out of everything I had told her once up in my room away from Aden who had almost but been pushed in the car by Josh to leave because of a extremely angry Caroline, of course that was all she had heard me say.
"It wasn't a date. Our families are best friends, I had to have dinner with them‐"
She interjected, "And him, and in that fucking dress!" She shouted waving her hands around to exaggerate my dress.
What did she mean in "that dress"? She sounded disgusted as if I was parading around in lingerie.

"You knew all along how I felt about him,  and you lied to me!" She yelled, pacing around mumbling furiously.
"It's not like we're dating," I argued trying to calm her.
"But he and I are!" She yelled, I winced her voice echoing through my room and my ears.
I scoffed restraining myself from rolling my eyes and facing her wrath further. "One date doesn't mean you're 'dating'," I said, the words leaving my mouth before I could stop them.
Regret filled me instantly when she turned to look at me, a look of triumph all over her face.
"Is that why he booked a hotel, and is taking me out to dinner on Monday?" She smirked turning to pace again.
I felt as though she had knocked all of the wind out of me.
Just as quickly I regained it to say, "He asked you out because you're both after the same thing. A quick fuck, bragging rights and no strings attached to that," I said dryly. "But that's not really what you want, right Caroline?"

She raised a brow daring me to continue, her mouth slightly agape at the confidence - both her and I were surprised- that I had aqquired.
"You want a version of him that you've create in your head. You want to wear him like a trophy, but the thing is he's a person and so are you. You dont care about his feelings or about him, you want him so no one else can have that right. You don't care about who he really is as a person." I took a small breath, realising that I was admitting defeat to the feelings I had for Aden. "I've known him all my life Caroline, and I know you well enough to know you're both just going to use eachother. The only difference is, if there's an off chance that I'm wrong...well then you're the one who'll get hurt. Not him. You're in love with the idea of him-"
"Fuck you," Caroline muttered. I would have taken offence, but the way she had said it made me seize up, she was regarding me with sympathy. "You like him," she whispered.
I looked up at her but she never met my eyes and without another word, she left.
I sighed, if this was how she acted after I had a dinner with him, then how would she react if she found out we had kissed, several times now.
The kisses had meant nothing to Aden, but to Caroline...nothing was always something.

***

I gave myself a once over staring in the mirror, and between the dull complexion and sleep deprived bags under my eyes, I couldn't quite decided which was worse.
I hadn't slept well, after Caroline had stormed off Josh had tried to speak to me and tell me that it would be okay, but somehow I doubted that.
I had texted Aden and had tried to call him to clear the air but I guess between the eventful night we had shared and Caroline, he had had enough of me for the meantime.
I shook my hands through the messy ringlets of my hair, combing them into soft waves when the doorbell rang.
Tristan stood at the opened door waiting, tall and handsome.
I smiled at him, praying he'd find the perfect man to enhance his bright personality.
"Woah!" He said, he's eyes glazing over as he took me in.
"Calm down tiger, your future boyfriend will get offended," I laughed.
His smile was infectious and it made me smile too.
"Just because I like guys, doesn't mean I can't appreciate the view," he laughed.
"I'm in pjamas!" I laughed. "And you're not!" I accused.
"No," he agreed slowly. " But I am wearing a flannel and I feel like that is close enough, and I have pizza," he laughed, holding up the box in his hands and balancing bags of candy and chips on top.

I beamed staring at them with hungry eyes.
"And besides even if you're in pjamas, I've come to learn that you would look beautiful in a potato sack Rach," he said walking in.
I smiled, pausing to give him an awkward hug. He was stiff for a moment, caught off guard, before his free arm wound around me to squeeze me back.
I grabbed the bags of snacks from him, glad he had agreed to change our plans to a pjama and movie night instead. My argument with Caroline had put me on edge, paired with the want to call Aden again and the anxiety of having to be in a car had started to twist a mixture of anger, guilt and fear in me. I sighed in relief, now I only had two problems to try and ignore.
Aden.
I let my mind wonder to him, settling my mind on his bright eyes and soft lips. I shivered remembering how they had felt on mine. But all too quickly my mind reminded me of Caroline and like that the daydream faded, leaving me feeling annoyed.
If Aden wanted to fool around with Caroline because she was more his speed, then that was just fine.
Something in my gut churned and I swallowed down my bite of pizza.
Tristan and I had been through two horror movies as we lounged on my bed eating pizza, but the storylines had gone unnoticed as I spewed out the events of the past twenty-four hours without a breath.
Tristan chimed in a few times but for the most part he let me talk, it was nice not to be interrupted for once.
"Let me just say, Lyons is insane," Travis said after a few moments of quiet.
I propped up on my elbow to look at him, resting my cheek on my fist.
"Tell me something I don't know," I snickered, before falling back against the pillows.
"You're not his speed?" He repeated his brows furrowed. "What does that even mean?"
"In his mind, I was this innocent little virgin," I scoffed as Tristan's eyes widen and he swallowed down hard. "He still sees me as that kid he grew up with." I stared at the ceiling.
"Or do you think he was scared to mess up? And he's pushing this Caroline narrative to keep you at arms length?" He said.
I turned to face him unsure of what to say because I had never thought of that.
I shook my head. "No, I'm too vanilla-"
Tristan quirked a brow. "Now we both know, there's nothing vanilla about you babe."
I thought about Caroline. Was she really fighting with me over a boy? More surprisingly she was right about the way I felt about him.
Tristan watched me for a moment and smiled seeming to know where my guilt had led me.
"You and Caroline will be fine. She'll realise that her infatuation with him was just that," he laughed laying on his back too as we both stared up at the ceiling.
We talked for a long time and it felt nice just to talk to someone who was there to listen.

I couldn't remember when we had fallen asleep but the loud echo of the door bell had me scrambling to find my slippers. I rushed down to answer the door before the noise could wake up the whole house.
The door opened to familiar blue eyes and ruffled brown hair.
"Aden?" I said, surprised and happy to see him at the door. My heart fluttered.
He took in my appearance with a cocky smile.
"Why are you never dressed around me anymore?" He asked, his eyes lazily skimming over my body.
I resisted the urge to react.
"I-I must have overslept," I stuttered as he moved closer and suddenly I was lost in the scent of him.
"I'm sorry about what happened with Caroline yesterday," he whispered.
I nodded unsure I remembered how to speak when he was this close to me.
"Now get your butt upstairs and get ready for-"
"Shit Rach, we're late for school!"
Tristan called, interrupting Aden as he rushed down the stairs to stand by me, adjusting his shirt and smoothing his hair.
"Oh, hey man," Tristan said politely. I could hear the confusion of seeing Aden in his voice.
Aden's face fell, his eyes snapped across to Tristan before boring in to my face, a glimmer of hurt flashed in his eyes as I realised what this had looked like.

Authors Note:

Hey beautiful readers and writers!
I hope you like this chapter, I'll be uploading every week on Friday!

Okay so...I have this this thing where i keep calling 'Tristan' 'Travis' in some chapters hahah I'm so sorry for the confusion. They are the same person but for some reason when I write I call him two different names. Sorry again.

I hope you're enjoying the story.

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