Page 7 of One Night

I swallowed a laugh and typed again.

Cat Fact 160: Cat whiskers are the same width as their bodies.

Daryl Hall

Wait, is that true?

Hell if I know, but now I have random cat facts rolling around in my head. If I have to suffer, so do you.

My eyes darted around my bedroom. Despite knowing I was alone, the mere fact I was texting Sylvie King gave me anxiety. If her brothers knew, they’d be pissed. Hell, ifmysiblings knew, they would be hard-pressed to understand it.

Daryl Hall

OK, give me another one. Fair’s fair.

Cat Fact 161: A cat butthole in your face is a gesture of friendship.

As soon as my fingers flew over the send button I wanted to reach through the phone and undo it. I pressed my thumb into my eye socket.

I just texted the wordbuttholeto Sylvie King.

Daryl Hall

A little soon for me to be showing you my butthole, don’t you think?

More than a little shocked, I stared at her response. The image of her perfectly round ass in the air flashed through my mind, and I stifled a groan.

Almost immediately, a slew of texts came pinging through.

Daryl Hall

Oh my god.

Please don’t read that.

It was a joke. A bad one.

I’m going to go crawl into a hole and die now.

I chuckled, feeling her embarrassment expand with every rapid-fire text.

All good. I laughed.

And pictured you naked.

Daryl Hall

You? Laugh? I didn’t know that was possible.

Stranger things have happened. Just look at us.

My words sank in, and I knew them to be undoubtedly true. I could never be friends with Sylvie, not really. The feud was a tie that bound the entire town together, and a genuine friendship between a Sullivan and a King would cause an uproar. Thatthought alone caused a ripple of irritation to roll down my back and put me in an even shittier mood.

Daryl Hall

True. I have to go, but this has been...interesting. Maybe we could do this again sometime. What do you say, Oates?

I’ll let you know if I remember any more cat facts. ’Night, Hall.

---