Page 31 of One Night

I want the love story. The romance. Old-fashioned romance with letters and gestures. If Dylan doesn't go along with it, then I'll know it was never meant to be.

"What do you think?" Matt asks. "Did you make a decision?"

"Yeah." I take a deep breath and let it out. "I'm going to write him a letter."

Chapter Eight

Dylan

"I'm gonna grab a beer. You sure you don't want anything?" I ask, but both Kira and Austin are too busy making out on my couch to notice.

"No, we need to get going," Austin says as I walk past him.

From the kitchen I can hear Kira quietly talking to Austin. I know she's talking about me. She's been worried about me ever since Austin told me Amber has been in town this whole time, living with Kira. When I found out, I could've been mad at Kira but I understand why she kept it from me. She was just being a friend to Amber, who asked her not to tell me.

Austin didn't know about Amber until the night that he told me. It was a few weeks ago on a Friday night. Van and I were hanging out on the couch, watching a movie and drinking beer. Austin called and said he was on his way over. He sounded really upset. Turns out he'd had a huge fight with Kira. When he got to the house, he told us all about it. There were a lot of reasons why they were fighting but I didn't think they involved me until he looked directly at me and said, "She didn't tell me something. Something she should've told me as soon as she found out you and I are friends. And definitely after she heard your song."

"What does his song have to do with it?" Van asked.

Austin's eyes locked on mine. "Kira's roommate, and best friend, is Amber."

The room went silent. I was sure I'd heard him wrong. There was no way Amber was Kira's roommate. No freaking way. But Austin wouldn't lie about that. He knows how hard I tried to find her. All the hours I spent searching for her online. He wouldn't tell me he'd found her unless he had.

Van had no clue what was going on, his eyes moving between Austin and me. "I don't get it. We already know her friend's name is Amber. You've talked about her."

"He means MY Amber," I muttered, setting my beer bottle down on the coffee table.

"No shit?" Van jumped to the edge of the couch, spilling some of his beer. "Her roommate is THE Amber? I thought she moved to New York."

"It was a lie," Austin said. "Amber told Dylan she was moving to New York because she didn't want him to try to go out with her."

"Why?" I said under my breath, talking more to myself than to Austin. "Why wouldn't she want to go out with me? I thought we..."

I didn't finish my thought, but in my head, my thoughts were circling, wondering why she would do this. That night we shared...it was perfect. Why wouldn't she want to see me again?

"Van, can you give us a minute?" I heard Austin say.

"But I want to hear this."

"Then Dylan can tell you later."

I glanced at Van. "Go."

"I thought we were friends."

"We are," Austin said, "but sometimes your comments aren't very helpful."

"Whatever." He took his beer and went in the kitchen.

I felt bad telling Van to leave but he tends to make a joke out of everything and I wasn't in the mood. Not in the least. I was pissed. Confused. Shocked.

"So Kira just told you this?" I asked. "Why now?"

"Kira didn't tell me. Amber did. Amber thought I already knew and when she found out I didn't, she'd already said too much. So she told me."

"And she said she never wanted to see me again?" I leaned forward and stared at the floor, trying to filter through all the thoughts going through my head. "So that night meant nothing to her. It was just a one-night stand. And she must've hated it if she made up some elaborate story to make sure she'd never have to talk to me again."

"No. Dylan, that's not it at all. It's the opposite. I know this sounds crazy and I still don't understand it, but Amber told me she didn't want to see you again because she didn't want to ruin the memory of that night. She didn't want to date you, then have it not work out, and have it change how she remembers that night. Like I said, I don't understand it. Those were her words, not mine."

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