"OMG yesssssss," he replied, thinking I was just shocked from happiness, but it was quite the opposite.
I was furious. Stressed. I can't believe he just said that. I couldn't even get the words out of my mouth. Jeremy seemed not to notice my sudden breakdown and continued his story.
"He kissed me and all the feelings I thought were nonexistent came back to me again, and I don't know what to do, because of Brandy, you know."
"Slow down, wait, wait, wait." I started pacing back and forth, hands in my hair. Did they kiss? Leo and Jeremy kissed? This couldn't be happening to me. "When did you two kiss?"
"In the car, when you and Lily made us leave. I got in and was almost crying. And he was sooooo gentle, and romantic."
No no no no no no.
"He told me that no one deserves to make me cry, and that he was going to punch whoever made me feel like that in the face."
Stop. Stop. Stop.
"I told him to go fuck himself, and he kissed me. And it was the best kiss ever. And then after the kiss, I unbuttoned his pants and?—"
I didn't let him finish this sentence because I wouldn't be able to control my fury. My mind was racing, trying to calculate damage, trying to figure out if this was salvageable. "At least all that happened after you left the house, right?"
"Nope, right in front of Oliver's house. It's like we couldn't wait any longer."
Fuck.
The blood drained from my face. They did more than just kiss right in front of Oliver's house where anyone could have seen them. Where Oliver could have seen them. Where someone with a camera could have captured everything. "Did anyone happen to see you there?"
"I don't know. And I don't care. What's wrong with you? I'm telling you the most romantic thing that ever happened to me, and you're acting all weird."
Of course, he didn't understand. How could he? He was blissful and in the clouds tonight, unable to see the consequences of his actions. But it wasn't his fault. It was mine for being so negligent. For not making sure they left before going to Lily like a lovesick puppy.
Oh my god. Lily was going to be so mad when she found out.
I decided to take a breath and calm down a bit for the sake of my friendship with Jeremy. At this point, he didn't know what his actions had brought, and I wasn't being fair to him. After taking a few deep breaths, I said, "Sorry, I just panicked. You know Leo has a girlfriend, and I was making sure you didn’t ruin everything."
"Well, I just really hope we ruined everything."
I was unable to even respond to that statement. If only heknew what it would really mean to have everything ruined, he'd wish he'd never let Leo kiss him.
Jeremy continued talking nonstop about all the details of what happened, and I was more and more horrified. If it had just been a kiss, maybe no one would’ve been able to make something about it. But no, the two of them had to let things go too far in the backseat of a freaking car. Seriously, what goes through teenagers’ heads?
I know I couldn't judge him because I had practically done the same thing in Oliver's bathroom with Lily, but at least I wasn't being targeted by a crazy guy who wanted my girlfriend.
But Jeremy wasn't to blame, so I did the most sensible thing I could and listened to everything and supported him. At least for tonight, I decided to be a good friend.
An hour later, we left. He kept talking about a lot of other things that had been happening in his life while I drove him home, but I was distracted the entire time.
All I could think was that if someone had seen them, we were doomed.
I just hoped that this time everything had turned out all right.
My parents’ house was dark when I arrived, which meant my parents had probably already retreated to their separate corners for the night, another silent battle in their ongoing war.
I opened the door quietly, not wanting to alert anyone to my late return. But as I passed Aria's room, I heard a soft, muffled sound of crying. I knocked gently on her door before opening it.
"Ari?"
She was curled up on her bed, her pillow clutched to her chest, tears streaming down her face. She looked so small, so young, so breakable. My chest tightened at the scene.
"What happened?" I asked, crossing the room to sit beside her.
