Page 41 of Casualties

We lay in comfortable silence, until the heavy breaths of deep sleep come from the beautiful girl with her head on my chest.The rise and fall of her body lying on me is about to lull me to sleep as well.Not to mention it’s late as fuck.With everything Morgan and I have to accomplish on this new project for Denny, I should probably crash, too.I need to head up to my room, but I love the way her body molds to mine.I've never been one for cuddling, but with Ainsley, it feels right.

I close my eyes and fall asleep to the sound of her deep breaths against my chest.We may be in a dream state right now, but what I wouldn’t give to make this a reality.

SEVENTEEN

ACE

“What.The.Fuck?”I jolt awake to see Morgan hovering over me on the couch—but not just me.Ainsley is lying at my side with her arms wrapped around my torso and her head on my chest.Fuck!No, this was not supposed to happen.I knew I should have gone upstairs to my room when she fell asleep.

I shift myself from Ainsley’s hold, and that seems to wake her up.As her eyes flutter open, she sees Morgan looking down at us, pissed off and confused.Her back stiffens as she jolts up.I try to do the same to get off the couch.

“Man, it’s not what it looks like.I swear.”My breathing is erratic, not only from being startled awake by my best friend, but at the compromised position he found us in.Ainsley hasn’t said a word, frozen in place.Thank fuck she had the right idea to put her sweats back on before falling asleep.

Morgan runs his hand roughly through his hair.“Really?It doesn’t look like you were cuddled up on the couch with my baby sister all night?”He lets out a huff, waiting for one of us to respond.This snaps Ainsley out of her daze; I see the annoyance on her face.

“I’m not a baby, Morgan!Stop calling me that!”Probably the wrong thing for her to say first.I know I need to run damage control and fix this before he explodes on both of us and says something he can’t come back from.What I'm about to say will be opening a wound for Ainsley that hasn’t fully closed.I hope she knows I'm only saying it to get us out of the situation we’re in.

Please forgive me for this, princess.

“Dude, this is Ainsley we're talking about.Your little sister.We watched the rest of the movie last night, and must have fallen asleep.I've never andwouldneverthink of her like that.She's like a sister to me.”The words pouring out of my mouth taste like acid.I feel gross telling him I think of her like a sister, when everything we did and said last night couldn't be further from that.My gaze remains on Morgan; I can’t risk looking at Ainsley and seeing the same look she gave me last night after finally telling me why she's been so hell-bent on staying away from me.I see Morgan look back and forth from me to Ainsley, judging if what I am saying is true.

“Well?”He's looking at Ainsley for confirmation.As much as this hurts the both of us, I need her to back me up.We agreed nothing could come from last night, she knows this is the only option.

“Well what?”Her voice comes out more quiet than a few minutes ago.“You heard him.We fell asleep; it was an accident, and nothing more.”I can feel her staring at me, and I make the mistake of looking into her eyes.She understands this needs to happen, but it doesn’t make it any less painful for either of us.

I don’t think we one hundred percent sold Morgan, but he must get some sort of relief from our explanation.Shaking his head side to side, he lets out a huge sigh of relief.“Jesus!I almost thought I had to fuck up my best friend.”He means it.The level of protectiveness we both have for Ainsley is crazy.All the trust between us would evaporate if he found out what really happened.Our fate is sealed; we can be nothing more than friends.

EIGHTEEN

AINSLEY

I feel like I've been hit with a sledgehammer right to the gut.Déjà vu crashes into me, and it takes everything in me to stop my eyes from welling up with tears.I know why he said it, it was the only explanation he could give to get Morgan off our backs.The sting of his words didn’t burn any less knowing that.

My brother may not be fully convinced—he'll be keeping a closer eye on us now that he has his suspicions—but at least he somewhat bought it.Enough to not rain hell on Ace.I swear I’m not a selfish girl.As much as I want Ace, the demise of their friendship would kill me just as much as it would kill him.

Footsteps prance down the stairs.Looking up, I see Cass at the bottom of the staircase, looking confused at the uncomfortable situation she walked in on.“Hey guys...What am I missing?”She raises one eyebrow, but we all shrug her off.I chime in first.

“Nope, nothing at all.How'd you sleep, party girl?”I walk over to her, placing my arm around her shoulders.

“Ha, funny.I slept—“ Cass pauses like she's lost in thought, but quickly recovers.

“Fine,” she says while moving us toward the kitchen.She's been so off lately; I know I'm worrying too much about her.I tell myself it will be fine.This is my level-headed best friend—if something was seriously going on, she would tell me.

My phone dings from the side table.I walk over to pick it up, seeing I have a few texts and a missed call from Jackson.Going to the texts first, I see the first one is an apology for how last night went.The second text, he asks if we can meet up to talk.The third text says he's going to call me.Damn.I’m not even mad about last night.Yeah, it was annoying having to deal with an irate Tetherball Tara, but not a huge deal.Jackson and I just recently started talking, so I have no right to be upset.With everything Ace and I said and did last night, how could I?

I exit out of the text, and tap my finger on the missed calls and see he left a voicemail.God, the only people that ever leave me voicemails are my parents.I press play, not realizing it’s on speaker until it’s too late.Jackson’s voice carries through the house.I quickly try to take it off the speakerphone, but my screen goes black.

“Hey, Toots.I texted you a few times.Look, I’m sorry for last night.I am not with Tara.The way she acted was crazy.I hope you aren’t mad.Um, you think we can meet up today for lunch?I can pick you up from your dorm.Call or text back when you get this.‘Kay, bye.”

The voicemail ends and I can feel three sets of eyes staring at me.Looking at Cass first, she has a huge grin on her face.She knows I didn’t do that on purpose with the frantic way I was trying to stop it from playing, but she shines her proud mama bear smile at me.Morgan is the next one I glance at, and he surprisingly doesn’t look as mad as I thought he'd be.Once my eyes find Ace’s, I know what he's thinking, and he better mask it quickly.We barely convinced Morgan nothing happened; if he keeps looking at me like that, it will be for nothing.

Morgan snaps my attention back to him.“Okay baby sister, here’s the deal.If you are going to continue to be friends with that jackass, there needs to be ground rules.”Wow, does this mean Morgan would be okay with Jackson and I dating?I know that won’t be the case for the man standing behind him, scowling at the back of my brother’s head.

“Dude, you can’t be serious!I thought we were trying to stop that from happening.”I know Ace is trying everything he can to not sound as pissed off as he is.The man just told me he was in love with me last night, I’m sure he's raging inside.Morgan turns to face him.

“Yeah man, I know, but she's going to talk to him regardless of what we tell her.He’s a dick, but also might really like her.He’ll need to know that if he does anything to her, I'll rearrange his face so badly that not even the best plastic surgeon his daddy hires could fix it.”Morgan’s threat is heard loud and clear.For God’s sake, these two are ridiculous.

Ace huffs in annoyance, but knows he can’t say more without sounding alarm bells to my brother.Cassie laughs out loud.“You both are insane.I'm so happy I don’t have to deal with the likes of you two when it comes to my love life.”Shaking her head side to side, her joy is quickly interrupted by Morgan.