☆

"HEY BRAD," AMARA GREETED as she stepped into the living room. He raised a hand in reply from where he was laying on the couch, and she made her way into the kitchen to drop her purse on the counter. The house was eerily quiet, an unusual occurrence. She glanced around hopelessly.

"He's upstairs," Brad called to her, she smiled over at him in thanks and walked towards them. Even the second floor of the house was silent—granted, it was late—but that never stopped anything before. It was so weird.

When she reached the entrance to Lip's room, she hesitated before knocking on it lightly. There was no response, but she pulled it open anyway, and stood at the door when she saw his back turned to her, seemingly asleep. Amara kicked off her shoes and climbed onto the bed next to him, surprised when he rolled over onto his other side to face her.

He tentatively reached out to brush the pad of his thumb against her cheek before allowing his hand to drop to her waist. She pressed closer to him and looked up curiously. "The hearing didn't go good?"

Lip shook his head, absentmindedly rubbing his arm up and down her side. "No. Youens is in jail."

She frowned and leaned forward to softly kiss him. "I'm sorry."

"Nah, don't be. Not your fault."

"Still am."

He flipped onto his back while Amara raised herself up onto her elbows, watching him. The moonlight was shining through the curtains drawn up on the window, pouring color onto his bare chest inside of the dark room, she couldn't look away. Lip sighed. "I've been fighting off the urge to have a drink all day."

"Well you didn't, did you?"

"No."

"Good," she shuffled closer. "I'm proud of you."

"It's all I can think about. And this shit isn't helping distract me either. I mean, Youens didn't even seem to care about his court hearing. He got drunk. He said he chose booze a long time ago."

She pursed her lips. "You can't save someone who doesn't want to be saved, Lip."

He looked up to her. "You saved me."

Her heart soared, but she shook her head. "Only because you allowed me to. Even then it was tough. And I barely did shit, that was all you."

He scrubbed a palm over his eyes. "Cami won't take Brad back, which is understandable, but I walked downstairs this morning to see him crying on the floor. In his underwear."

Amara covered her snort with a cough. Lip smirked at her—and she laughed even harder. "That's a sight for sore eyes."

"I don't know how long I can keep this up. I mean, I'm struggling to stay sober myself. I can't hold them up, too."

"No one is asking you to. Besides, the only person who can make a person stay sober is themself. The blame doesn't fall on you if they relapse, Lip."

"But what if I did?" He questioned, fiddling with the covers. "You'd blame yourself, wouldn't you?"

Amara exhaled. "Yeah. Yeah, I guess I would."

"It's a Catch-22."

She kicked his leg. "I don't think that's how it works."

He nudged hers back. "I still need a distraction."

Her mouth tugged into a grin, and she rolled over so that she was straddling him. His hands came up to grip her waist. "How's this for a distraction?"

Lip squeezed his eyes shut when she began to grind onto him, and his response came out completely breathless. "Yeah, that's pretty good. I think it's working."

"You think?" She repeated, bending forward to trail slow kisses down his bare stomach. "Guess I need to try harder."

He groaned and held her hips tighter. "F-fuck, you're doing good enough just without trying."

"Yeah?" Amara straightened. "Then get these clothes off me."

Lip wasted no time doing just that, and soon their bodies were pushed flush against one another's as she continued with the same pace she'd started with. She could feel his hard dick inside of her, it filled her insides with pleasure, and her mouth with moans that she did her best to stifle. She could already feel the orgasm building, and Lip moving his hands up to play with her breasts was only making it climb faster. He toyed with them, brushing his fingertips over her nipples, struggling to maintain his own groans of ecstasy.

Her thighs quaked when he arched up, pushing deeper inside of her, and the cry that came from her mouth was barely audible over the one that sounded from Lip. "Just like that, baby," he whined. Amara came at the demand.

She collapsed back onto the mattress once they were done, panting like a dog as they both stared up at the ceiling. "Jesus Christ."

"Don't think you should say that right after I left my load inside you," he replied, smirking widely.

Amara rolled her eyes and smacked him on the stomach. "I hate the way you talk after sex. It's like your ego is the size of Walmart."

"It's always the size of Walmart," he wrapped his arm around her stomach and pulled her to him. "You're perfect, you know."

She glanced over her shoulder at him. "Yeah, I know."

He tugged a strand of her hair. "Now who's the one with the ego as big as Walmart?"

☆

"He's still out there," Silvia said, peering through the window. Amara glanced up from the pot of sauce she was stirring. "It's getting embarrassing."

"Tell me about it," she responded. "Like a really bad eighties cliche movie. Margot, come get your bitch to leave!"

"He is not my bitch," Margot scoffed, stepping into the kitchen. "I'll take a frying pan to his head. Will that make you both feel better?"

"Rapunzel is a badass, and it worked for her. I say do it."

Margot reached into a cabinet to grab one, and walked out the door a moment later. Amara shared a look with Silvia once yelling sounded from outside, and she ducked her head with a snicker. "What're you working on?" She asked, watching her sister scribble onto some paper.

"Flirt drawing my way into this guy's heart."

Amara raised a brow. "Yeah? Who?"

"Guy from work. He's a historical fiction type beat but uh... He likes reading so it's a start."

"Oh," Amara returned to cooking. "I was full on expecting you to say Carl."

"Carl?!" Silvia choked. "Fuck no. Besides he's with that Kassidi chick."

Amara blinked. "Who?"

Silvia waved her off. "Doesn't matter. I don't care."

"Mhm, sure you don't."

"I know you are not giving me that look. You haven't even told me who you're sleeping with!"

"I haven't told anyone that."

"Not even Fiona?"

Amara paused. "You know it's kind of sad that my only friend is, like, five years older than me."

"You did have other ones. From college?"

"Nah, they're too busy doing each other to worry about me. Only took them a year and a half. Mandy's gone. Ian is doing God knows what. And James is off living in Alaska with his dying grandfather."

"What about Lip?"

She tried not to let her expression flicker. "What about him?"

"Oh, don't tell me you think you're being subtle."

"Huh?"

"He's practically all over you anytime you two are together. You might have everyone else fooled, but not me. I've been waiting for you to tell me what's going on for ages."

"Fine," she huffed. "It's weird. We're just like... Friends with benefits?"

"Wow," Silvia nodded her head in approval. "Nice. Don't get knocked up."

Amara glared at her. "Shut up and finish your love drawing."

☆