Only Fools

Chapter Twenty Five

The sound of a car stopping in front of me vaguely registers in my mind. I tighten my coat around me as I take a shaky breath.

"You called for a knight in shining armor?" the driver asks jokingly as they make their way towards me. I sniffle a bit as I wipe my eyes with the palms of my hands before looking up at the girl.

"Hey, Margot," I greet her with an attempt at a small smile which I'm sure failed. Concern instantly overtakes Margot's face at my words.

"My house or yours?" she asks me, causing a confused expression to overtake my face.

"I'm staying with you tonight either way. So where are we going?"

"My house is fine. If that's alright with you, that is...." I trail off.

"Of course it is. Now get in the car. You look like you're freezing your ass off," Margot says before walking over to her car and opening the passenger side door for me. I say a small thank you as I get up from my spot on the bench and pull up the bottom of my dress so that it doesn't trail in the freshly fallen snow. As soon as I slide into the passenger seat, Margot closes the door behind me and proceeds to scurry around to get in, shivering the entire time because of the cold.

"Aspen. Are-"

"I'm sorry. Can we stay silent at least for the car ride?" I ask of her.

"Of course," Margot says before then complying with my request, the only sound soon to be heard is the crunching of the snow on the road as it meets the wheels of her car.

And so without trying to put too much thought into what happened tonight, I try to think back to what made me believe tonight would go any differently, the only other thing my brain will apparently justify thinking about right now.

Ivy flirted with me. She asked me out. She fucking came out as not straight to me.

....She tried to kiss me.

Did I seriously misread all of that completely? The flirting was no different than normal. Ivy flirts with people sometimes and I've learned to understand that. She often means to just be friendly and it comes off as more.

Her asking me out as a "date" for tonight was most likely just friendly. Date was probably meant to be received in quotation marks and I miscalculated the situation.

Ivy coming out could've been completely coincidental. She's my best friend and tells me anything and everything. It might not be anything past that.

But the kiss. Would she really have tried to kiss me if she didn't mean it? You try to kiss someone because there's emotion involved.

And yet.... she also kissed Jax. And she did that sober. He wasn't meant to just be a drunken mistake.

Tears burn in my eyes and I have to force the thoughts out of my head. As my fists clench in my lap, my sadness shifts into anger, something that I didn't want to happen. I don't want to be angry at Ivy. I never want to be angry with her if I can help it, especially over something like this. I realize that she can't control her feelings.

And yet my jaw stays clenched as my tears sting when they slowly fall from my eyes and down my face.

"Hey, Aspen. We're here," Margot says softly, probably having noticed the return of the tears in my eyes. I nod my head and proceed to get out of her car without saying anything, and hurry to open the front door so we can get away from the freezing weather. Margot quickly follows in behind me and closes the door carefully, most likely assuming that my family is asleep somewhere in the house. Though as I think about it, I have no clue where my family is at the moment. I know my dad told me his work schedule for the night but I was too excited for the gala to truly pay attention. Then there's a 50/50 chance that Alex is either at a friend's house or upstairs, and I quite honestly can't be bothered enough to figure it out.