Those four words had to be the most dreaded combination of the English language. They had the ability to make you frantically think of every bad thing you could have possibly done in your life in a fraction of a second. They also usually heralded the beginning of a conversation no one wanted to be a part of. Especially me.
Personally, I believed the phrase ‘we need to talk’ should be banished forever.
All these thoughts processed in record time while I tried—without much success—to prepare for what was coming. Based on the sympathetic look Connor had given me and the expression on Teagan’s face, this wouldn’t be good. Out of instinct, I glanced around for a way to escape.
Teagan cleared his throat to get my attention. “So, about last night…” He paused and scratched the back of his head. “What exactly was that?”
I tilted my head and looked at him. “What?”
“Well, for one, you went out,” he said like he couldn’t believe I did something so crazy. “And two, you came home drunk.”
I sat back slightly and cut my eyes at him with a frown. He had a tone. There was no need for a ‘tone.’ I wasn’t a child, and he had that scolding, disappointed voice going. Given that I still felt like death had not abandoned me, his behavior was not appreciated.
“Look,” I said, then stopped to swallow as my stomach began to roll again. “You and Connor both act like I did some terrible, horrible thing last night. All I did was go to a party.” I glanced up and looked him in the eyes. “I’ve heard the stories, so it’s not like I’m not aware you know what a party is.”
He flushed and opened his mouth to respond. He promptly closed it when he caught the look I aimed at him. With a frustrated sigh, he ran a hand through his hair. I could tell he was struggling to not say something. Normally this would have been amusing. Today, it was not.
“Okay, can I just say something here?” he demanded.
I gazed at him in silence for a moment before I finally nodded. “Yeah, go ahead.”
“Aislinn, I love you. If you’re acting out to get my attention, then stop. You have it. There is no need for this.”
My jaw loosened and my mouth dropped open in shock. Had he really just said that? Had he just accused me of acting like a child wanting someone to notice them? I shook my head in disbelief. This was not happening, no way.
“Are you serious?” I burst out, finally finding my voice. “What?” This definitely needed an explanation.
“I get it, okay? I haven’t been around much. I’ll fix that, I promise,” he stated calmly.
I squinted my eyes as I thought over what he said, debating how best to proceed. Snapping out the first thought that popped into my head—which consisted of calling him an ass—wasn’t the best way to go, as tempting as it was. “Is that what you really think?” I asked in a quiet voice.
“Isn’t it?” he responded as he crossed his arms over his chest. I might have taken a moment to enjoy the view of his gray Henley shirt stretching to accentuate his biceps and shoulders. Then I remembered he was treading in dangerous waters.
“No. It’s not that. What is it with you two?” I exclaimed in annoyance. First Connor, now my boyfriend…
Teagan frowned at me. “What are you talking about?”
I flopped back onto the bed. “You and my brother. Both of you are acting like I’m a child screaming to be noticed.” I scowled at the ceiling. “I’m not a child and I’m not trying to get anyone’s attention, Teagan, just so you know.”
“I never said you were a child, sweetheart,” he replied.
“You don’t have to,” I muttered. The implication was quite clear.
“Look, there is obviously something going on here.” He raised a hand and scrubbed his face. “Let’s figure out what it is so we can fix it, okay?”
“Why are you so convinced something is going on?” I demanded as I glanced down along the bed at him.
He rubbed the back of his neck and blew out a breath. “Because,” he said tiredly, “you came home with Caldwell.”
Well, that made me pause. I shifted so I was braced up on my elbows and studied him. Upon my closer inspection I could see the dark circles under his eyes, and his hair was messed up from shoving his hands through it repeatedly. In short, he looked stressed out and rough. It took some of the self-righteous wind from my sails. I swallowed the words I’d been about to blurt out. Instead, I gave him a sad smile.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “There’s nothing going on, baby. I promise. I just went to a party.” I sighed. “You weren’t home, and I’m tired of always sitting around alone. I don’t want to be that kind of girlfriend,” I explained.
Teagan blew out a breath and made his way around the bed to stand beside me. I watched him silently study me for a long moment. Impatient, I was about to ask him what he was thinking when he lowered himself to the bed next to me. We rolled to face each other and I reached out to touch his cheek.
“I love you,” I whispered.
“I love you too.”
I stared into his eyes for a second, then something odd occurred to me. “Did you tell me not to throw up on you last night?”
Teagan muffled a laugh. “Yes.” He tapped my nose with the tip of a finger. “You were projectile-vomiting. The only thing left was for your head to spin around,” he mused.
Ugh! His movie reference wasn’t lost on me. “But you’d have loved me anyway if I had?”
“Yes.” He gave me a soft smile. “I’ll always love you. I did, however, make you brush your teeth before I carried you back to bed.”
I gave him a mock glare. “So your love is conditional,” I said with false indignation.
“When it involves vomit, absolutely.” He grinned at me, and then leaned forward to nuzzle my nose with his. “But for morning breath, I’ll make an exception,” he muttered just before he captured my lips with his.
***
I slammed my book shut and gave it a dirty look. I was so over finding derivatives in calculus. I glanced over and saw Annie didn’t look much better off. I decided at that point if this was how I felt at mid-terms, finals were going to kill me.
“It’s official,” Annie announced. “Chemistry is trying to kill me.”
I laughed and stood up from the floor. She and I had been studying for the past four hours. “Well, you brought it on yourself, Miss Honors Classes,” I teased. “No one to blame but yourself.”
She glared. “I hate you.”
“Nah,” I said with a laugh. “I’m pretty sure it’s the periodic table you hate.”
“That too,” she agreed. She flopped back onto the floor with a deep sigh. “I can’t wait for next semester to be over and I’m done with the subject,” she said, making a dramatic slashing gesture with her hand.
I snickered at her antics and prepared to tease her some more when a knock sounded on our door. A glance at Annie revealed she was just as surprised. Looking at the clock, I frowned at the late hour. Both dread and curiosity started to build in the pit of my stomach.
I walked to the door and paused with my hand on the knob. “Who is it?” I called through the door. There was the sound of shuffling on the other side and then silence again. I was about to turn back when I heard a heavy sigh.
“Hey, it’s Dana. Could I speak with Annie?”
Ugh, Dana. Great.
I turned at the low groan behind me and found Annie sprawled back on the floor. Her arm was draped dramatically over her eyes as she clenched a fist. Her jaw was tight and lips thinned into a line, obviously unhappy about this visitor.
“What do I tell her?” I whispered. Dana was a clingy pain-in-the-ass and I knew Annie had been trying to avoid her.
Annie rolled her head toward me but kept her face covered. “Maybe if I lie real still, she’ll pass on by,” she whispered back.
Almost as if she heard, Dana knocked at the door again. “C’mon, Ash. I need to talk to Annie.” Her voice had taken on a decided whine.
“Jesus,” Annie grumbled. “Let her in. Otherwise she’ll be out there all night and wake up the whole floor.”
I rolled my eyes with an aggravated sigh. I didn’t like Dana. She was a nosy gossip who had tried to pry into my relationship with Teagan more than once. That little bit could have been tolerated, but she didn’t know when to quit. Despite my repeated avoidance, she kept prodding and prying.
That just pissed me off.
I shot Annie a dirty look she couldn’t see but must have felt because she waved a hand with a grunt. With a sound of disgust, I turned back to the door and scowled. I’d rather wake up with my lips stapled to my forehead than open that door. However, seeing that my roommate was of no help, I reached out and turned the knob.
I barely had a chance to crack open the door before Dana shoved it open. I stumbled back as she barged in, stopping myself from falling onto my ass by grabbing the door. Not even sparing me a sideways glance, Dana rushed to where Annie lay on the floor.
“Nice to see you too,” I muttered from where I clung to the door.
“Oh, yeah, hi,” she tossed my way absently.
I shot her a dirty look she blithely ignored.
“I’m all right, by the way. You know, in case you were wondering,” I added. When she continued to ignore me, I threw my hands up in defeat. “Unbelievable.”
Annie shifted from her spot on the floor and sat up. “What do you want, Dana?”
“I have my chem mid-term tomorrow. I’m going to fail. You gotta help me!” she announced dramatically.
Both Annie and I looked at her in shock. In synch, we turned and glanced at the clock together. It was after one in the morning. I opened my mouth to tell her she’d lost her mind when Annie beat me to it.
“Two things, Dana,” she said. “One, I don’t gotta do anything, especially this late at night.” Dana went to say something and Annie held up a hand, stopping her before she could start. “Two, I can’t teach you the whole first half of the semester in the next couple of hours. You should have asked me for help weeks ago.”
“I did!” she burst out.
Annie shook her head. “No, you didn’t. You came over claiming to need help with English comp, but all you did was bug Ash about her boyfriend.”
“What? No, I didn’t.”
I nodded. “Yeah, you did. And you got pissy when I wouldn’t tell you any details,” I confirmed. Dana’s face turned red as she looked back at me. I met her eyes with a level stare in return. With a huff, she turned back to Annie.
“So, you won’t help me?” she whined.
Annie shook her head. “I can’t, I’m sorry. I have some notes you can borrow,” she offered. With a shrug, she added, “That’s all I can do, sweetie. You waited too late.”
“Seriously, you’re just going to leave me hanging?” Dana looked like she was on the verge of tears and I felt kind of bad for her. That was, until she turned to me with a glare. “Why are you so smug?” she demanded.
“Huh?” I asked in surprise, “I’m just standing here!”
A calculating look entered her eyes, and for some reason it made me nervous. A feeling of foreboding started to steal over me.
“I guess we can’t all be so lucky to have an older boyfriend to tell us what to do, huh?” She snorted. “But then, do you really have a boyfriend who tells you everything?”
I narrowed my eyes. “What are you talking about?”
“Where is Teeg tonight?” she asked suddenly.
Puzzled, I replied, “He’s at a study group.”
“Where?”
I looked at her in exasperation “Why?”
“Just tell me where,” she countered.
I threw my hands up in annoyance. “At the student center. Now, why?”
A self-satisfied smirk spread across her face. “You know, I live over at Arboretum Corners,” she said. I stiffened as I recognized the name. “I’ve seen Teeg around there a lot lately, with a blonde.”
Okay, this was nothing big. The Arboretum happened to be where Lauren lived. But I was getting fed up with the cryptic innuendos. “Your point?”
“My point, Ash,” she said with a smug tone, “is that just before I came here, I saw Teeg leaving.” She paused for dramatic effect. “Guess the study group moved,” she mused. “It’s weird, though. There were no lights on in the apartment he left, and his clothes were a mess.” She shrugged dismissively. “I dunno.”
Explanation. There was an explanation. The room was suddenly shifting. I could feel myself breaking out into a sweat.
“Dana?” Annie said in a low voice.
“Yeah?”
“Get out.”
“But—” she started to protest.
“Get out.” Annie advanced toward the door, grabbing Dana by the elbow and dragging her along the way.
“Hey!” she yelped as she stumbled behind my enraged roommate. “What the…? Let me go!”
“Oh, I’ll let you go,” Annie snarled. “Just as soon as you’re out of this room.” With that, she shoved her into the hall and slammed the door shut. Everything happened so fast I hadn’t even closed the door yet. We could hear Dana sputtering indignantly through the solid door. It would have been funny if my head hadn’t been spinning. I stared at the closed door in frozen confusion.
“Ash, honey? You okay?” Annie’s voice was somewhere beside me. Weird, she sounded far away…
I shook my head, trying to make sense of what I’d just heard. None of it made any sense. Less than an hour ago Teagan had sent a text that his study group was running late. An insidious little thought wormed its way into the front of my whirling thoughts.
Had Teagan lied to me?