I took a sip from the wine glass as the music blared through the apartment. My eyes were locked on Bash as we stared at each other from across the room, Carter's arm around my waist. This was starting to feel wrong. It was supposed to be a temporary thing but now we were coming to the end of Christmas break. It had been 3 months of hiding and lying to everyone we knew.
Th girls were starting to ask questions about Carter like if we were getting serious. I could only dodge them for so long. This was going to be messy. I put my hand on Carter's and pulled him from me, leaning up to his ear.
"Is she here yet?" He looked down at me and nodded his head. "Go."
"Are you sure about this? We don't have to if you guys want to stay hidden still." My eyes locked back on Bash's.
"I don't want to anymore." I smiled lightly at him and he returned it. I looked back at Carter who kissed me sweetly on the cheek.
"Thanks for this. It means a lot. I've had fun."
"Go on. Go get her." I slapped his arm playfully, keeping my voice low in the barely occupied kitchen. I watched him walk away as the girls came back into the room, with the boys on their waists. I sat up on the counter, drink in hand.
"Where's Carter going?"
"Oh we just broke up." Bash's eyes widened. I didn't tell him this was happening tonight, Carter and I.
"Wait what?" Pop's dropped Hudson's hand as she stepped closer.
"Some other girl he's been crushing on for years apparently."
"Are you okay?" Rory stood to the side with Everett not sure what to do. I wasn't really giving them anything to go with, it was like a normal conversation.
"Yeah I'm fine. It wasn't anything special anyway." I looked up at Bash, making sure the others caught us staring at each other. "Just a rebound." I said barely above a whisper and watched as Sebastian's shoulders rose with a single laugh, the smile barely visible on his lips but it was there I could see it.
"Okay I think we need to talk." Poppy grabbed my hand and pulled me off the counter, dragging me through the party to one of the bedrooms that wasn't occupied. She pushed me into the room and slammed the door closed behind herself, locking it quickly so we wouldn't be disturbed.
"What's wrong Pop's."
"Don't what's wrong me." She stood opposite me a few feet away with her arms crossed angrily over her chest. "What's the real reason you and Carter broke up?"
"Poppy."
"Are you with Sebastian yes or no?"
"Yes."
"Did you lie to me about you and Carter being a real thing?" I'd never seen her this angry. I didn't think she was capable of the anger she had in her eyes right now.
"Yes." She threw her head back and spun around, unlocking the door and storming out. She was beyond pissed off. I followed after her "Poppy, wait. Please let me."
"Go to hell Elora." She grabbed her bag from the side and walked out of the apartment.
I threw my head back taking a deep breath.
"She didn't look happy." Sebastian spoke above me. I turned and looked up at him.
"Can you take me home please?" He nodded.
"Just let me grab your things, my cars downstairs if you want to wait for me down there. I'll be like 5 minutes." I nodded quickly following in the steps Poppy had taken.
The air was cold out here on the street. The early January breeze, hitting my sober skin like pin pricks. I walked down slightly watching the girl sat on the floor smoking her cigarettes. I sat down beside her and she looked at me, rolling her eyes before looking away.
"You're pissing me off Elora. Go away." She held out a cigarette for me to take and gave me her lighter. She was pissed off but she didn't want me to leave. That's why she was offering it to me.
"I'm sorry Pops. We didn't want to say anything out of fear of it ending again and us going through the whole cycle again. It wasn't fair on you guys."
"Lying to me isn't fair either."
"I know. I didn't want to but what was I supposed to do? If I'd have told you the truth and carried on with everything anyway and we ended, it would have been so awkward. I wouldn't be able to hang with you and Hudson or the group. Neither would he. Neither of us would be able to come to these parties just in case. We'd both have to get new friends. We wanted to know it was going to work before we told anyone. That's why I ended it with Carter tonight. He does have another girl, that wasn't a lie. Apparently I made her notice him." She looked at me unimpressed.
"I love him Pops." I took a long drag on the cigarette as she watched me. Her face becoming more relaxed now. "I told him over Christmas at his house. This isn't just a fling, there is something between us and we're both done fighting it now."
"Okay fine I forgive you. You're buying breakfast tomorrow though."
"Oh absolutely. What do you want?" I laid my head on her shoulder and breathed the smoke out as far as I could.
"Most expensive thing on the menu."
"Yeah I deserve that."
"You deserve a lot more than that for lying to me."
"I know." I gave her a half smile before looking up to my side as Bash stood by his car. "I'm going home. Do you want us to drop you off?"
"No I'll leave you two alone. I should probably go back to my boyfriend. He's going to be confused as to where I vanished off to."
"Doesn't take much to confuse Hudson though does it?" I pulled her up and we walked back towards Bash, throwing our cigarette butts to the floor before we reached him.
