Anything to Have You

But his face went blank, and he just nodded. “Right, no big deal.” He went back to putting his shoes on.

“Nattie,” shouted Brooke, clearly not concerned about waking the sleeping people, who were bound to be nursing brutal hangovers the second they were roused.

I reopened the door, thinking it was sketchy to have it shut.

“Yeah, coming!” I tried to whisper-shout.

“Aiden down there?”

I still felt guilty, but I reminded myself I had no reason to. Except that it still didn’t look good that I had slept in the same room as him. And that if anyone had seen us talking on the couch, they could make us both look bad.

“Yeah, he’s down here,” I replied.

“Is he with a girl?”

I swallowed. “Just me.”

“Thank God. Well, tell him to hurry his ass up, I’m starving.” I heard her depart from the top of the stairs.

I looked back to Aiden. “Hurry your ass up, Brooke is starving.”

“So I hear.”

“Hey, um...” I looked into the basement living room. I dropped my voice and moved in a little toward him. “Do you think maybe we should say you slept out there on that little couch?”

He looked where I was pointing. Justin lay passed out on one of the couches, but a love seat was empty.

“Looks like I got a terrible night’s sleep.” His tone had changed. Suddenly he sounded like hardened Aiden. The one I was used to hearing after he and Brooke fought. All curt responses and no joking. Had I made him mad? Was it my fault somehow? Had I creepily and stalkerishly climbed into bed with him?

“Do you...have my sweatshirt?” he asked, standing.

He remembered enough to know that I had worn it. Yeah...I would have to ask him for some clarification on the night’s happenings at a better time.

“Oh, yeah, it’s over here.”

I tossed it to him, quickly gathered my stuff and went upstairs to Brooke.

“Is he coming?”

“Yeah, he’s getting dressed.”

“Dressed? What, was he...naked?”

“No, no.” I laughed nervously. “Putting his shoes on and whatever.”

Reed came out of the hallway, wearing only dark, low-hanging jeans. It looked like he wasn’t even wearing boxers or anything. He rubbed his face and went over to the fridge. He pulled out a beer and popped it open.

I observed his body, which was covered in tattoos. They wrapped around his ribs, disappeared down his pants and laced his collarbone. He was so gross. I would never understand why I’d thought sleeping with him—or even touching him—was a good idea.

“Seriously? A beer right now?” Brooke asked with a sneer.

“Would you prefer to take a shot with me instead?”

She clicked her tongue and then grinned, trying, and succeeding, at being Dangerous, Sexy Brooke. “Maybe.”

He gestured at the counter. “Pour it up.”

Brooke gave a tilt of the head that said, Act like I won’t do it. She then walked over to the counter, poured two shots of whiskey and handed him one.

“No chaser?” he asked.

“Do I look like a pussy to you? Oh, wait, everything does.”

“Oh-ho!”

“Bottoms up, dickwad.”

In unison, they clanged the glasses together, tapped them on the counter and took them. Admittedly, they took them like champs. They set down the glasses, each glaring at the other, waiting for one to waver. Then he laughed and crossed his arms at her.

“Oh, my God, Reed. You are so beyond disgusting,” she said.

It was obvious to me, and probably to anyone else, that she didn’t actually find him disgusting, and that she was in fact pleased at his evident approval of her. What was happening to my best friend? Parties do weird things to people.

He leaned against the counter and looked at her with a smirk. “My disgustingness seems to work for me.”

She glared at him. “I have no idea how you ever get girls.”

“No? Maybe you should ask your bestie over there.”

I was startled at suddenly being involved in the conversation. I wanted to say something nasty back but I lacked the guts to actually do that. Luckily, I had Brooke as my mouthpiece.

“Hey, Reed, why don’t you go fuck yourself?”

He shrugged. “Got too many girls offering to do it for me.”

Megan and Bethany emerged at that moment, both wearing very few clothes and very funny expressions. They said hi and then started giggling by the pantry.

Brooke looked at Reed and cocked her head to the side and mouthed, No fucking way...

He held up three fingers and nodded.

She made a face that communicated all the ew now circulating through the room.

So, last weekend, I was watching Netflix and doing yoga by myself and falling asleep at ten at night. This weekend, I was blacking out, waking up in bed with my best friend’s boyfriend with hazy memories of making out with the school’s most eligible potential prom king, and a threesome had happened in the same house.

Lovely.

Thank God we hadn’t ended up snowed in. I didn’t know that I could have dealt with an entire weekend stuck with all these people plus the mystery of what had happened the night before.