Drake ✔️

Chapter 31

Drake

Shay and I stumble into the nearest spare bedroom, never breaking apart and worryingly never stopping to realise how stupid we're being in this moment. I just don't care. She looks fucking ridiculous in nothing but an oversized shirt and I didn't see her at all at the housewarming. Not until now, downstairs in the kitchen, listening in on Alisha's shockingly real display of her true colours. 

I guide her towards the bed as we continue kissing like our lives depend on it, not thinking clearly and not caring about the repercussions of my actions. And she lets me. She keeps her arms around my neck and I keep mine around her waist as the backs of her thighs hit the edge of the bed. She gasps from the contact, breaking the kiss for a second and allowing us both to catch our breath. 

We breathe heavily, our foreheads touching, and it feels like a much needed second of clarity in the midst of this moment of weakness. Seriously, what did we just talk about last night? We both want each other like crazy. But we both know better. This can't happen. 

Not without some answers first, at least. 

"You left the housewarming with Tristan. Why?" I demand as I continue catching my breath. Her breathing hasn't quite returned to normal either, but she manages to answer me. 

"We were both beat, both going to the same place." She says, leaning back from me and frowning a little. "I didn't see you at Penn's place. Not once. Where were you?"

"I had business to handle. I was around though." I answer vaguely, seeing no reason to get into my mid-party drive with Izaak. He and Maya have patched their shit up now, it doesn't even matter. "I didn't see you once either. Where were you?"

"I was around." She throws my words back at me quietly. We lock eyes, staring each other out for a few tense seconds, then we're dropping each other and backing away simultaneously, like we both only just realised how fucking tangled up in each other we were, and how wrong it was. 

"What the hell am I doing?" I say to myself as I swipe both hands over my head, pacing the room and wishing I could wind the clock back ten minutes and erase this shit. 

"Tell me about it." She agrees quietly as she readjusts the shirt she's wearing. It's a guys shirt, and my powers of deduction tell me it used to belong to River. Only guy she ever slept with, remember?

"So, what the fuck are we gonna do about Alisha and Jen?" She asks after clearing her throat. A fantastic attempt at brushing off what just happened between us. 

"We do nothing." I state firmly. The decision's already been made. "They can go fuck each other as far as I'm concerned. They ain't welcome over here, not anymore, and I'm gonna make sure my friends know that. As for Penn and Jax, we got nothing to worry about on that front. They only have eyes for each other, there's not a thing on god's green earth Jen could do to come between them."

"Right." Shay says softly, eyes wide. "Their love is air tight, and love is what moves the world, I've always thought."

"What'd you just say?" I query, completely baffled by that. Shay doesn't talk like that. Like, ever. She tips her lips into a slight smirk before she goes on. 

"It is the only thing which allows men and women to stand in a world where gravity always seems to want to pull them down - bring them low - and make them crawl."

Okay... is she high right now?

"It's a Stephen King quote." She clarifies with a small smile. "From his book The Stand. Thought it worked well here. Alisha and Jen are gravity; Penn and Jax are love."