(THE DAY AFTER)

I wake up with an enormous headache, I basically drag myself out of bed to go downstairs. The house is completely trashed.

Cups, chips, clothes, bottles even underwear are on the floor. The cold air hits my back as I walk over to the kitchen where I see Liam making himself a cup of coffee.

He technically puts five scoops of sugar and half of the creamer into his coffee.

I clear my throat slightly before I speak, "Make two of those please,"

I take a seat at one of the chairs in the kitchen, wiping a hand over my face as I groan in distress.

He turns to look at me and chuckles. "A migraine, huh?"

I nod.

"Had to be worth it for the night you had," he says gesturing towards my neck.

I furrow my brows a bit and get up to look in the mirror in the open space next to the kitchen.

A big red bite mark and a few hickeys run down the left side of my neck, I touch them a bit to feel the sore spots.

Jesus Christ Aurora.

"I didn't know Addison got down like that," he says, handing me a cup of coffee.

"It wasn't Addison," I tell her taking a sip of the black bitterness.

His brows are knitted together and he takes a seat on the couch, which is a big mess. "I thought after that kiss surely," he chuckles.

"It was Aurora," I say.

He spits out the coffee and his jaw drops while his eyes open wide.

"You had sex with Aurora," he says, basically screaming.

"No, I didn't," I tell him in a low tone.

"Then unless she's a fucking leech why the hell would you have hickeys,"

"I'm not telling you anything because your mouth hangs open more than Lia's legs," I say, slightly shocked at my words.

He laughs and I'm not sure at which, my expression or my statement.

"Clearly it was good enough because," he pauses, "Shit I never get those marks," he says, squinting his eyes a bit as he stares.

I take another sip of the coffee as I look around the house trying to change the topic, "When are your parents coming back?"

"In maybe two hours," he says calmly.

My head snaps in his direction in disbelief, "Are you fucking joking?"

He shakes his head then his face falters as he takes a look around, "Fuck!"

We spent the next two hours, picking up trash, scrubbing floors, cleaning bathrooms, and bedrooms, and putting back everything in order.

Unlike yesterday it was only the two of us doing anything so we were panicking and rushing to do everything.

When we were finished the house was squeaky clean but we were still worried we'd miss something.

When his parents came home, they were pleased to find a clean house but his sister was a bit more skeptical.

"You just happened to clean the entire house because you felt energetic?" She asks.

"Precisely," I tell her.

Her eyes look me up and down before she shakes her head, "I see through you guys," she says before walking up to her room.

When Liam and I go back to his room, we play some split screen Call Of Duty. But he's a cheater and keeps looking at my screen to see my position.

"Dude you suck at this," he laughs.

At the same time, my phone chimes and I notice a few messages from my aunt. I forgot to tell her I was going to be staying at Liam's.

I send her a quick video after telling Liam to be child-friendly then we return to the game.

"So like seriously, what did you guys do?" He asks.

I roll my eyes for the fifth time today after his fifth time asking. And I give him the same reply.

"I'm not telling you, so give it up,"

He groans loudly in annoyance," I'm the only guy you trust yet you don't trust me enough to know what you guys did,"

"You've told me about other girls," he says, nudging my shoulder slightly allowing me to headshot snipe his character.

"That's not even fair," he mutters.

"If you would pay attention it would've been," I chuckle.

He shakes his head at my remarks, "I'm honestly a little shocked she didn't stay over,"

"It's not like that," I tell him, my fingers moving a bit harsher on the controller, "I think she kind of regrets it,"

He glances at me, "Yeah, regret it and leave marks like that totally makes sense,"

I sigh as I click the buttons, "I don't know nor do I care,"

"Do you like her?" He asks.

"Nope,"

He snickers, when I glance at him he has a smirk on his lips which he tries to play off.

"What?" I ask.

He shakes his head, "Nothing, don't forget we're going to the carnival tonight,"

I roll my eyes, I don't want to go but I know I have no other choice. It's Liam.

⋅───⊱༺ ♰ ༻⊰───⋅

To my surprise, Addison along with Lia and Connor accompanied us to the carnival since they were also Addison's friends.

The idea honestly annoyed me but I chose to ignore their presence, it seems like marks made Lia stay away since she walked up to me with an open mouth and then closed it when she looked at my neck.

Lia and Connor decided to take the Ferris wheel while Liam walked off with a girl from school.

"Okay, so you won't tell me what demons you fought last night?" Addison says as we stop to get corn dogs.

I chuckle a bit and shake my head, "You won't die if you don't know,"

"Oh but it hurts that you'd cheat on me like that," she jokes, "I mean after our kiss and all,"

I smile softly at her remarks. If I were thinking the same way I'd usually think, I could have a lot of fun with Addison.

She's pretty, interested in me and extremely nice but I'd like to keep her as a friend. She seems to give good advice every now and then. I've also never had a female friend since our little group disbanded.

"I'm just messing with you," she laughs, knocking my shoulder a bit with her hand.

"I know," I tell her as we collect the corndogs. I take five dollars out of my wallet and pay for them and she mutters a small 'thanks' which I nod to in response.

"I also met someone that night, don't worry I was totally wasted that's what has me so interested, he sat down and talked to me about books," She says, practically squealing.

"I was basically wasted and he talked to me about books, do you know the amount of boys who would do that?" She asks but I know it's rhetorical so I wait.

"None,"

"So you've met a decent boy for once?" I inquire and she nods.

"I think I'm gonna keep an eye on him," she says.

The rest of the night, we talk about this new mysterious boy who has caught her eye.

⋅───⊱༺ ♰ ༻⊰───⋅

When I get home my aunt is on my ass, not only about staying at Liam's and going to the carnival without telling her but the hickeys on my neck.

"What damn girl did you sleep with yesterday?" She asks.

"I didn't sleep with anyone, can people stop asking me that," I say, grabbing a bottle of water.

"It's just a few mosquito bites, I fell asleep outside by the pool," I tell her. "We were hanging out until sunrise and we can't remember falling asleep,"

I tell her the rehearsed lie on the way here, I wore a hoodie so she didn't see the bite mark unless I would have a lot of explaining to do.

"I find that hard to believe," James chimes in.

I fight the urge to roll my eyes, he should be helping me he was a teenager once who probably did worse.

"Okay so mosquitos are so attracted to you huh, explain this now," she says as she slams the pills on the counter.

I internally say fuck as I see the bottle filled to the brim. With this entire situation I had forgotten to take out a few so it wouldn't be too obvious I haven't been taking my pills.

"I haven't been needing them," I tell her and I can physically see the steam flow from her ears.

"Yes, you do," she tells me as she places them on my chest before I take them. "Just—you better do good in that test," she warns me.

Then is when I remember I have to go to Aurora's house tomorrow. I want to verbally curse but I leave it to my mind.

"Yeah of course, B+ at least," I tell her with a smile.

I quickly head up to my room, hoping James doesn't say anything that'll somehow make me say anything that would incriminate me.

When I reach my room I search my phone only to realise I don't even have her current number. I sigh as my mind begins the overthinking process.

What if she doesn't want me to come over after what happened?

What if she acts as if nothing happened, that'd piss me off even more.

Or what if I go and we end up doing mo—wait no I actually have to study for this exam.

I take a deep breath, I wish I could take a smoke break right now. Clear my head and stop me from thinking about her. Her body against mine, the beat in my heart so loud I could hear it through my own ears.

She was right there, in my arms. Right there I could've told her, come clean about this whole thing. Yet I didn't.

I lean back in my chair, spinning back and forth repeatedly. I take up her old notebook from my desk and flip through the thin pages, her handwriting is neat, she highlights keywords in a bright pink highlighter and even has some sticky notes for extra points.

Maybe drowning myself in work will sound out the thoughts in my head.

⋅───⊱༺ ♰ ༻⊰───⋅

𝗼𝗼. ⁞ 𝐀𝐒𝐇 𝐖𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄𝐒 !

Hey guys, chapter eighteen is completed, right now I'm wondering if I should post the next chapter on Saturday because why not? I greatly do hope that you liked this chapter. Chapter nineteen is coming soon.

Don't forget to comment your feedback and vote.