As we sat there, I began to think about the night prior. I could remember bits and pieces but there were large gaps in my memory. How in the world could the events of the night before lead to me sleeping in his bed? It had happened once before, but that time he slept on the couch while I slept in his bed. This time we both slept in his bed.
Oh my God, did we…? No, we couldn’t have. Javier had gotten dumped last night—I remembered that much. By a girl, at that. He liked women, so no way did we do anything more than sleep in the bed.
And even if he did like men, there was no way he could like me.
But what if…?
Christ, what were these thoughts? This is my rival I was talking about.
Suddenly feeling sweaty I wiped my palms on my chest as I struggled to figure out how to casually bring up the topic. Icouldn’t exactly say, ‘Hey, did I throw myself onto you like a desperate idiot last night?’ or ‘Did we do things last night that you’re probably regretting right now and want to forget about?’
Those both felt like real possibilities because I knew better than most that shit happens when two people come back drunk from a party. I also knew drunk me would jump at the opportunity to have sex with my rival, as much as it pained me to admit.
"Why did we sleep together?" I sputtered.
Well, that wasn’t much better than what I had thought in my head.
Javi snorted but ultimately was not too phased by my improper word choices. “In the bed?”
"Yeah, why not have me sleep in the spare room? Or even the floor?"
“Oh, believe me. I tried,” he said with a low chuckle. “It didn’t work out.”
I cracked my knuckles. “Why not?”
“Because you refused to sleep anywhere but in my bed and cuddled up with me.”
My drunk self just had a knack for embarrassing me.
“You could’ve let me sleep on the floor,” I said as my head hung low, my voice barely above a whisper.
“I wouldn’t do that,” he stated firmly. "Plus, you were drunk out of your mind. I was trying not to wake my parents or siblings. Then once you started singing the National Anthem I just wanted you to go to sleep.”
Before I could reply the door flung open, thank goodness, and it made both of us jump. Javi instantly moved over to create distance between us, and I would be lying if I said that I didn’t already miss his body heat next to mine. Though, I should have been more focused on the fact that I was sitting next to my rival shirtless and pantless. Javi’s parents hadn’t known I was in theirhouse in the first place and I did not want to greet them half-naked.
Fortunately, the person who opened the door was not his parents, but his sister. Her eyes shot straight at her brother, either not registering or ignoring my presence next to him. “Alan says that you have to go get donuts because you didn’t go get them yesterday.”
Javier’s calm attitude turned tense. “Why can’t he go get them himself? It’s seven in the morning.”
“He says the earlier you buy them from the shop the better they taste,” Gabriela said with a lazy shrug. “He also said Milo and Roy asked for them, but let's be real: Alan wants them and is too lazy to go get them himself.”
Milo and Roy were Javier and Gabriela’s younger brothers. I knew that from hearing their mother yell at their names for wrestling each time I had been at their home. I had no clue who Alan was, but now I knew that he was too lazy to pick up his own pastries.
Gabriela’s eyes winded as she threw a hand over her mouth. “Eli? What are you doing here?”
I didn’t know how to respond, so I offered her a lopsided smile. Javier took it upon himself to respond to his sister. “He came here after the party.”
“Oh,” she mumbled, suddenly lost in thought. “Everyone will be happy to see you, Eli. Well, maybe not Alan, but that's because he hates good things in life.”
“Gabriela,” Javier warned. His sister smiled condescendingly.
“Who’s Alan?” I finally asked.
“Our stepdad. If you love having to wake up at the ass-crack of dawn to get donuts because you want them ‘warm and fresh,’ you’ll love him.”
Cutting the conversation short, Javi flicked his hand toward the door. “Okay, run along now. We’ll be down in a minute.”
“Don’t shoo me away like some pest.” Her hands flew to her hips sassily. “But fine, I’ll leave. You two make good decisions, yes?”
