Smoked Success

21.

"Oh my fucking god!" He cusses, seeming shocked and angry. "You're Lacey, the girl at the bar yesterday?" He raises his middle finger, showing me his tattoo, also a zodiac sign, just his is Capricorn. Fuck, that's Ayden, the dude I had a one night stand with. I get it, one night stand, but what I don't get is these tattoos, why did we get them? Why did we look forward to twinning?

"Oh my god, are you my cousin?" I ask, in complete disgust. I cannot have slept with my cousin, no, disgusting, gross, too incest no. I can't fathom how inane I can get sometimes.

"Ayden darling, I'm sorry I'm late, but here I am." My aunt, Rose, appears. She's about nine years younger than my mother, but they're step sisters, so that doesn't really matter. "Oh, Jessica how rude of me, how are you?" Fuck, I just got busted, I'm going to die son, I love you mom. Ayden stares at me, very confused. This is exactly what I was afraid of this morning.

"I'm fine, Rose. So is that your long lost son?" I ask, scoffing. I'm so stressed I'll blurt out the weirdest shit now.

"I'm not your mother," She fakes a smile, and places her hand around his waist, "that's my fiance, Ayden." Oh my god, that's even worse than him being my cousin. He's probably ten years older than I am, what was I thinking? I cough a little, but then adjust it with champagne. I'm so disgusted, how dare I do this?

"So, Jessica, where are you from?" Ayden asks, emphasizing Jessica.

"Cheshire, United Kingdom." I reply, as sassy as I get. He laughs, but Rose cuts him off.

"Her father's British, but she never actually had time with him growing up. Since her mother didn't know her father's identity." She did know, she just didn't like to go around and tell everyone about it.

"Rose, one more word about my mother," I snap at her, taking a deep breath to calm myself down, I then decide not to continue my sentence. I don't need any other problem relating to my aunt, and her relationships.

"Mommy! Look at this dog!" Angelina appears next to Tyler, petting a dog. Great, my day's going to get faker, pretending to be happy for my daughter. I give her a smile, one that looks very fake.

"Like mother, like daughter." Rose rolls her eyes, and shaking her head. "I need to go to the bathroom, see y'all later." Glad she left. I cannot stand how much she keeps on mocking my mother, for her very old mistakes.

"We better not tell her about this." Ayden states, looking at my daughter. He doesn't say? Do people think I'm that naive? Like I'm not that vacuous to go tell Rose, oh hey I fucked your fiance, bye.

"You think?" I ask him sarcastically. "I'm so disgusted, why didn't you tell me when we were sober that you're engaged?" I really hope Tyler doesn't have a clue what we're saying.

"If I told you, you wouldn't sleep with me? Which was the whole goal of yesterday?" He narrows his eyes, ironic.

"You took advantage of me, because I was all alone at a bar. And then you throw me in the streets after you got what you wanted, so that lesbian bartender saves me and thinks I owe her sex?" I snap at him, tears falling down my eyes.

"If you look at it this way, it sounds horrible." Oh that bitch, what does Rose like about him? He took advantage of me and he doesn't feel a little glimpse of guilt.

"Fuck you anyway. Even though you both deserve to break up, I won't tell her shit, not about our matching zodiac signs tattoos, not about you leaving me in the streets, nothing happened." I assure him, holding that bottle of champagne and my cup. "Tyler, I'll go to my room, please watch Angelina, I owe you." I try not to sound sad, or desperate, or like I just had sex with my aunt's fiance.

"Sure." He smiles, looking just like my mother, but it does look fake. I go up and decide to call Andrew, I need to tell someone about this, someone who won't judge me. I know I can just call Carmel, but that poor lady has dealt with lots of stuff she could've just left me alone at. I really hope he's not busy, nor it's late to call, but I really need to spill this. He's my student, but he's still my friend, I hope I'm not naive on that one.

"Good evening I guess?" Andrew answers at the second beep, and he doesn't seem like he's sleeping or anything. His answer is so ironic though, it's such a horrible evening now.

"I'm so sorry I shouldn't have you're probably sleeping or with Rebecca, it's okay, I can call later." I blabber, still drinking.

"Wow wow wow, calm down. First of all, I was watching this soccer match, but my team's apparently loosing." He says, with a short laugh at the end. "Now what's up?"

"Okay, I trust you on this. I slept with my aunt's fiance, and I think that practically means I cheated on Smith." I summarize it, not so sound more paranoid than this. I know Andrew won't tell anyone, because I can tell them about that time he thought his mother was a stripper because she wore lingerie.

"First of all, how did you get to her fiance?" He questions. Fuck, that's going to be hard to explain.

"Drunk." I summarize it, hoping he won't ask for details. I will not tell him about my tattoo, unless he notices it then I'll have to tell him.

"That's awful, I'm not going to lie." He says. What I like about Andrew is the fact that he's honest no matter the cost of that. "I think you should tell Smith, not your aunt though. I really think he'd understand, since he has a long history of cheating." As sarcastic as that sounds, it doesn't comfort me.

"Smith has a long history of cheating?" I ask, not really understanding his point.

"I said has? I mean had. He cheated on this girl two years ago and everyone knew about it, that's why." He states, great knowing UCLA's history. "He probably won't repeat it. Anything else you need?"

"No, thank you so much, you made me feel better." I tell him, a little ironic, but he did what he had to do. "Goodbye, and goodnight." I hang up. I'll probably tell Smith when I'm back in LA, so it'll be better face to face. Now I should just drink it.

Today's my date with Smith, my first one after Christmas. I'm stressed, but it's better for the both of us, and I don't want a relationship depending on lies, not again. Christmas was nice, Andrew got me a wallet, a very nice one, it is expensive, since it's Valentino, sometimes I wish I thought more about the gifts I get people. He said he liked the fragrance, but it's shit compared to the wallet. I need to pay him back some way, one does not get their teacher such gifts. Angelina's with Carmel, they're both getting to know each other, and they seem to be bonding well. Apparently, Sasha's moving out with her boyfriend, meaning we need a new roommate to afford rent. I'm glad I got the car before Angelina came, the fees are so much, and I need that new person living with us. Tyler's been taking his drugs regularly, and he says he's fine, but I don't think he is. Smith appears, and I wave at him.

"Sorry for being late." He nervously says, sitting down.

"It's okay, I got here early." I smile at him, trying to not sound like I cheated on him.

"New year's is in two days, can you believe it? This year passed so fast." He states, looking at the menu.

"Very fast." I fake a smile, sipping on my wine.

"Jessica, haven't you noticed you've been drinking a lot this past week?" He asks, touching my hand. "It's only afternoon and you're drinking."

Whenever he called, I'd be drinking, I've got to admit.

"It's just wine, don't worry." I assure him, winking.

"Oh I will. You said you stopped smoking, but alcohol, just no." He remarks.

"I've got something I need to tell you." I blabber, not standing the killing silence, I'm not going to back out on this, not anymore, I should tell him, he deserves to know.