Falling, Fallen | ✔️

17

~Ayla's POV~

I looked through my drawers and tried to find a pair of undergarments to put on when I got out of the shower the next morning. As I was looking I came across the black one piece bathing suit I owned, as I had never been confident enough to even try on a bikini.

Sure, it wasn't any different than wearing a bra and underwear, other than the fact that the bikini was made specifically for water, but it was different from the one piece bathing suit I always wore. It exposed much more skin and the thought of wearing something so exposing in front of others made me so anxious that I had never bothered with trying one on, or even really considering it. However, after Soren had seen me in my one piece at the resort and commented on how weird it seemed to him that I didn't wear a bikini, I was wondering if maybe he was right. I was twenty three, after all, and had never even tried on one before.

Grabbing a pair of underwear and a bra from the drawer, I vowed to myself that I would go shopping for a bikini today. It was only Sunday, after all, so I didn't have to go to work and I needed a new bathing suit anyway. The one I had now was a little bit old.

After I pulled on my undergarments I looked for an outfit in my closet, trying to figure out what I wanted to wear. I picked out a black dress and a pair of black flats, not feeling like wearing my boots today since I had worn them last night. Some days I just wanted to take it easy on my poor feet. I swiped on some deodorant and spritzed myself with a little perfume, grabbing a purse to bring with me.

Soren was in the kitchen when I headed downstairs, dumping some corn flakes into a bowl before he poured some milk in as well. He put his milk back in the fridge and glanced over at me when he heard the sound of my footsteps coming down the stairs, his blue eyes taking in the attire on my figure. I noticed him raise a brow, spooning some of the cereal into his mouth as he stared at me. "You heading out somewhere? What are you dressed up for?" He asked, sounding curious. I nodded my head, running a hand through my hair as I stopped on the other side of the island, looking at him from across it. "I'm going shopping." I told him simply, not bothering to tell him what I was shopping for.

He frowned at me and spooned another bunch of cereal into his mouth, swallowing it before he spoke. "You don't want me to come with you?" He asked, and I quickly shook my head, biting my cheek. I didn't exactly want him making comments or suggestions to me about what bikini I should get, not that I necessarily thought he would do that. I just didn't want to risk it.

I bid him goodbye and then left the house, not really waiting for a response before I left. I decided to drive to the mall, where I then headed into PacSun after a little while of just wandering around aimlessly, trying to figure out what store I wanted to go into. Thankfully they had no shortage of swimsuits, being that it was the middle of summer. It would honestly have probably been more of a struggle to find a store that wasn't currently stocked up on swimsuits.

Unfortunately, though, I began to realize as I was looking through all of the options that I was pretty picky about what bikini I liked. I ended up ruling out a whole section of bikinis just with a glance at them, deciding that none of those were what I was looking for even though I wasn't really sure what I was looking for in the first place. All I knew was I wanted to take a shot at wearing a bikini.

Right as I was about to give up and go try another store, my eyes caught a small stock of separate bikinis on a shelf and I curiously began to look at them. I immediately spotted one that I liked and, to my great surprise, they had it in my size, too. It seemed like places never had my size when it came to swimsuits, so this was pretty surprising to me. A lot of the time I had to buy my swimsuits online, but I had decided to shop in person for this because it was new and different for me. There were just so many options.

The bikini that caught my eye was a soft purple lavender color, with thin straps that went over the shoulders and long strings that tied together in the back. On the bottoms were strings that tied at the hips in cute bows that matched the bow between the breasts. It was cute and I actually liked the color, which was part of the reason I had taken so long to find one I liked. Normally I got all black when I bought a swimsuit but this time I wanted to try one that had color, though many of them proved to not be to my tastes. That was why I snatched this lavender colored one up, smiling happily to myself for being able to find one I liked.

After I paid it was put in a little bag for me, which swung in my grip as I left, ready to head back home.

**

There was a random car parked in front of Soren and I's house.

Now, obviously I had been here long enough to know that that wasn't his car, so I frowned in confusion as I parked beside it, wondering whose car that was. I looked at it out the window of the car, my brows furrowing as I tried to recall if I had seen it anywhere before—maybe it belonged to Mr. Maxwell? That was what I thought at first, but I quickly shut that thought down because I knew it wasn't the case. It just didn't seem like a car he would have. I mean, I highly doubted that Mr. Maxwell owned a light blue Mini Cooper.

I got out of my car and shut the door, pressing a button on the keys to be sure all the doors were locked before I headed inside. My footsteps were actually pretty quiet for once as I headed down the hallway, only because I had decided to wear my flats instead of my boots today. When I poked my head out from around the wall of the hall, my eyes just about bugged out of my head, I was so surprised.

Soren was just casually having sex with a girl on the couch, as if he didn't live with another person!

My jaw dropped and I took a quick step back, cutting them out of my sight. That man had absolutely no shame! All he had to do if he wanted to screw someone was head up the freaking stairs, and yet he had chosen the couch?! Not only was I being subjected to having to hear them when I came in, but I had to walk in on it, too! I was angry and annoyed—partly because he had been so inconsiderate about the fact that we now lived together and I definitely didn't want to walk in on him with another girl, but also because he had just kissed me last night and now he was having sex with someone.

Having had enough of this man's behavior, I stormed out from the hallway and over to them, not caring that the unfamiliar girl was naked or that I was going to be interrupting them. I knew he heard my heavy footsteps because he went to look over at me, but he didn't get that far.

I swung the PacSun bag in my hand at him, hitting him up against the head with the bag. I knew it didn't really hurt, being that it only had my bikini in it, but he flinched and then swung his head around to look at me with an annoyed glare. "The fuck?!" He scowled at me, and I just scowled right back. "You couldn't have taken this to your room, really?! It's right up the stairs!" I exclaimed, completely disregarding his anger with me. Right now, I was probably a hundred times more pissed and I knew that probably had something to do with the fact that I was jealous, but only a little.

He glared at me and the girl on his lap quickly shifted off of him, looking mortified at having been caught. I imagined she was probably very confused. Thankfully Soren made himself decent so I didn't have to see any of his nudity, giving me a dirty glare as he stood up from the couch. "You were the one who said you didn't care if I brought over girls if I was careful about it. Well, I was fucking careful." He snapped, and I clenched my hands into fists. "I also said to keep them out of my sight, and then I walk in on this? I wasn't even gone for that long!" I scoffed. I hadn't been gone for even two hours.

The girl was standing around uncomfortably, dressed back in her clothes as she looked between the two of us. I turned to her, ready to try to be as nice to her as possible so she could go. "Leave!" Soren snapped at her rudely, making my brows raise as I looked over at him. She didn't need to be told twice, and just rushed out.

"You're a dick." I said to him, rolling my eyes as I clutched my bag tighter. He just shrugged his shoulders and crossed his arms over his chest, looking very unamused. "And you interrupted when I was getting laid, so which of us is really worse?" He grunted, grumpily stomping his way up the stairs. Clearly, he was not happy that I had decided to come home before the two of them could finish.

I was annoyed, because I wasn't exactly happy that I had come home before then either.