Page 31 of Forbidden Fruit

"Hey, apple?"

She turns to me, curiosity and sadness dancing in her eyes. I cup her jaw, tilting her head back to look at me. The little vixen smiles for show, but it doesn't meet her eyes.

I lean over, my jaw hovering just above her ear. "I already ordered Teacher's Pet. Goodnight, Miss Hamilton."

She climbs out of the car and doesn't look back, making me consider just how much I've fucked up.

Chapter Twenty

Olivia

Theweekpassedbyin a blur. I didn’t go to the gym. I didn’t want to risk seeing Tomas. I wasn’t ready. He wasn’t ready. I made the decision to text Alexandria and see if she could use Thursday through the weekend to tour the campus. Mia’s been nothing short of amazing, but I need my best friend.

Grumbling my way into the kitchen, I thank the higher powers for the auto-brew function. I hiss when I miss the mug and a few blazing drops land on my thumb. I'm pretty sure I'm still drunk. To be honest, I'm not even sure I have both eyes open. The kitchen counter is still littered with our wine glasses, the empty bottles, and the five corks from the previous night. Mia hasn't made a sound. Alexandria is passed out, face down on the living room floor, hair sprawled around her like a golden crown. She’s making sporadic groans, and I know she feels my pain.

Just seeing Lex gives me such a warm feeling of nostalgia and sense of home. We've been inseparable since I found her in a similar position her freshman year of high school at a St. Patrick's Day party. Although she's officially here to see the campus, she's unofficially here to see me. Bennington is already a shoe-in, and there's already a paper somewhere securing her spot as our roommate next year. It's a needed distraction from the situation with Tomas.

Triggering an aggressive case of the spins, I bend down to pick up the red marker from last night's shenanigans. My two closest friends, and too much wine, I spilled every juicy detail about DeLuca and me. They barely had to prompt me, but I figured if they had to suffer through me spiraling about my mortifying experience as a smut-loving linebacker, they deserved to know it all. After I finished my confession like a devout Catholic, drunken Mia suddenly leaped up, uncharacteristically clumsy and tripping over herself. She spilled an entire glass of Merlot on our plush, white area rug in the process. She returned with a marker and a printed out calendar to cross out the days as if it was going to make them move faster, like it even fucking mattered that the end of the semester was tangible. I was convinced it didn’t.

"You're thinking about getting fucked, aren't you?" Matt's taunt breaks the daydream, him and Mia both wearing amused, knowing expressions.

I wasn’t, but I play along with Hercules. He doesn’t need to be burdened with my bullshit. "It's good for hangovers, I hear." I lift my mug in salute, knowing they'll probably get coffee and fight their own hangovers in a similar manner.

"Hey sleeping beauty!" Matt shouts from the kitchen to Lex's direction.

She briefly lifts her head, mutters something incoherent, and promptly smacks her forehead to the floor so hard I wonder if she should be on concussion protocol.

"Matt, I believe I've known you long enough to tell you this now. Sincerely, please, shut the fuck up." I say sweetly before taking a long sip of coffee.

Mia cackles like a demon from hell. "I knew Mia having new roomies would turn her against me,” Matt grumbles.

"Anyway, sorry we interrupted your fantasy. Do future you a solid and go plug your vibrator in so it doesn't die later tonight."

I open my mouth to argue, but I don’t have it in me. "Noted."

"What's on the docket for today?" Mia sits with her steaming coffee.

"Besides survival? Not a clue." I put my head to the mug, hoping it will soothe the pain.

"Ibuprofen," Lex says, suddenly resurrected from the dead, only to return to her previous slumber a second later.

"You ladies need brunch," Matt says definitively. He pauses, then claps his hands like a frustrated high school gym teacher. "Hustle. Get your asses up. I said brunch, damnit."

Even Lex rises at his call to action, although she looks pallid as she trudges to the bathroom. Mia watches her walk away, a curious look on her face. When I turn to face her, she looks away quickly, but not before I can see the rose hue creeping on her cheeks.

We reconvene in the living room less than an hour later, all looking markedly better. Lex getting the most improved award amongst us. We grab an Uber, piling on top of each other in a black SUV and head downtown. The restaurant is buzzing, college students wall-to-wall along with sports enthusiasts rowdy at the bar. We lean against the wooden beam across from the hostess station. The place is charming. It's a mix of modern and rustic, trendy decor. Wooden beams support a high-vaulted ceiling and large windows that reach almost as high. Twinkle lights are scattered throughout, creating a soft, romantic ambiance.

I could imagine coming here with DeLuca. The thought catches me off guard. Sure, things have been complicated, albeit coming to a head, the tension no longer able to be ignored by either of us. I could envision a relationship and a future with someone like DeLuca, but DeLuca himself is almost twice my age. I'm nineteen. I'm not even sure what I could even offer him beyond the physical tension we have.

"This is not a great place for my head." Mia groans next to me, hands pressed to her temples.

Lex and I nod in agreement.

"Follow me." The waitress looks like she's still in high school, grimacing as if this is as painful as our hangovers. Usually, Matt is enough to convert the unfriendliest of people into the friendliest, but this girl seems immune.

Graciously, she seems to spare us and picks a somewhat secluded corner. The noise is considerably quieter and my head marginally stops throbbing. I feel the masculine arm around me, and my first utterly unreasonable thought is that DeLuca found me. DeLuca always finds me. Lex's complexion pales further than when she first woke up. The smell of sandalwood and leather fills my nose, and everything I've consumed in the past twenty-four hours threatens to reappear.

"What the fuck?" I rear, removing myself from his grasp.

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