James’s breath caressed the most sensitive areas of my skin. The sensation dulled my senses like I was still dreaming.
I realized that I was distracted because suddenly the girls disappeared, and I heard a voice call them from downstairs. They vanished just like they’d appeared out of nowhere.
“Who were those brats?” I asked.
James broke our embrace then turned to me indifferently. “My cousins.”
I turned over on the mattress, trying with all my strength to not stare at his half-naked body. But soon I heard an annoying buzz.
“Do you have family here?”
“So what?”
Unlike me, James didn’t seem disturbed in the slightest by what had just happened. He stood up, and I tried to resist, but the curiosity was eating away at me.
I quickly stared at his silhouette as he hunched toward his leather jacket on the seat. His broad, bare chest was a band of muscles that linked with each other until they got to his narrower waist. My eyes carved every line of his torso until it reached his tight-fitting boxers, surrounding his solid backside. There wasn’t a single part of his body that didn’t look like the result of intense workouts and a healthy diet. The total opposite of me, I ended up thinking. I felt my cheeks itch again, so I looked up at his hands. I saw him take something out of his pocket and bring it to his pouty lips. Looking at it better, it totally looked like a joint.
“Isn’t your dad downstairs?” I asked, slightly agitated.
“So?”
“Oh my god.”
With my brain still cloudy, I tried to make sense of what had happened the night before. I watched James walk over to the window, open it, and lean away from me on the windowsill.
When he turned around and I met his blue eyes, I relived the sensation of our bodies pressed against each other. That morning, but most of all, last night. Did he really say all that stuff, or was it just my imagination?
James smoked without batting an eye, while I looked at the state I was in. If he was half naked, I wasn’t any less. Now I remembered perfectly.
We’d slept together, he’d hugged me, but the most unmistakable thing had happened just before. Or rather, it didn’t happen, but I’d wanted it to happen so much. I’d wanted him to kiss me.
I shut my eyes to chase away that inconvenient thought, and William came to mind. I’d danced with him and made out with Tiffany.
This wasn’t who I was.
James looked down at me like I was an alien as I stared into space, thinking over everything I’d done wrong in the past twelve hours.
“What are you looking at?” I asked shyly, when I noticed his eyes fixated on me.
“What do you think? Your phone’s been vibrating for half an hour,” he snapped, pointing at something on the nightstand.
Here was the worst part of all: my mom. I’d slept somewhere else and hadn’t let her know.
Maybe I could escape to Siberia. I could start thinking about the names I’d give the bears I’d be living with.
“Eighteen calls?!” I exclaimed, shocked.
I scrolled through the threatening messages with my heart in my mouth.
Mom:June, this time you’d better have a more than valid excuse. Besides the last one from that morning
Mom:WHY ISN’T MY DAUGHTER IN HER BED?!
The all caps would only exacerbate my already enduring headache.
And if I was worked up before, right now my throat was doing somersaults that reached up to my lips with a strangled gesture.
I started panicking. I was out of breath, and my head was completely confused.
