Page 70 of After the Storm

“Oh no! Not a reason to go find Kat and ask her to dance with me,” Ares says sarcastically, turning on his heels to go find her, taking a moment to give Ravyn the finger on his way. We all erupt in laughter, but due to the volume of the music and surrounding people, we don’t draw any attention to ourselves. I watch tentatively to see if Roman will follow Ravyn’s direction and find some girl to dance with or if he’ll find a way to avoid it without giving our secret away.

“What are you waiting for, Roman? You heard me,” Ravyn tests, raising her eyebrow. I know now she’s testing us. She caught us the other night, and now she’s toying with us.

“Yeah, I heard you, guess I’ll see what I can find,” he says with a shrug. The words sting even though I know he’s only doing this to keep the secret I wanted to keep. I will myself to turn my attention back to the beer pong table because I know I can’t stomach watching him with someone else. I down the entirety of the beer in my cup. I watch the ball bounce back and forth for a few passes before feeling myself lifted off the ground and slugged over Roman’s shoulder.

“Hope you feel like dancing,” he says, yanking my dress down to cover my ass. I let out a squeal as he hauls me to the room where everyone is dancing or jumping around to music. There’s a warm feeling in my chest, like a pool of warm glistening honey is settling right at the center of my chest. The only word that comes to mind about how I feel when he throws me over his shoulder and takes me to dance is love. Choosing me over and over again. Choosing me even before I knew I was an option.

“I think I could manage one dance for you,” I say, wiggling around in his arms in an attempt to get back to the floor. He doesn’t budge, though, I don’t even gain an inch of ground until he sets me gently on the hardwood floor of whoever’s house this is.

“I thought you were going to dance with someone else,” I admit, rocking back and forth slightly to the music, not quite dancing but trying to fit in with the crowd around me who is.

“Why would I dance with anyone but you?” he asks, grabbing me by the arm and pulling me in closer to him. In near-perfect timing, some R&B song I’ve never heard starts playing. Rowdy college kids go from jumping around and screaming to a mix of grinding or slow dancing, depending on where you look. My arm is still in Roman’s grip, his body is so close I can feel him against my back. The beer I’ve had makes for a quick free fall into daydreams.

“I don’t know,” I breathe out. He lowers his mouth closer to my ear, and the hairs on my arms stand attention.

“Dance with me,” he commands, placing a gentle hand on one of my hips and the other keeping its place on my upper arm. He guides me with the lightest touch, holding me against him. My entire body is buzzing, glowing, and screaminghis.I try to match his pace, swaying slightly to the music. It feels off, though, I feel like we aren’t in sync. I look down behind my arm to see how he’s moving. I feel a chuckle vibrate in his chest behind me.

“You’re overthinking this,” he says against my hair.

“Yeah, if you haven’t noticed, I kind of do that with everything,” I reply. The song is already halfway over. The hand on my arm lowers to the other hip, and his grip tightens just slightly. Just enough to guide me with him and keep me at his pace.

“There’s no wrong way to do this, Auds. If you move with me and the music, you’re already doing it,” he adds. So I do what he says, and I listen to the song humming through the room. I look at couples around the room and take note of how they move together. Some look horribly unnatural, and some look like they shouldn’t be doing what they’re doing in public.

As I scan the room, I notice Ravyn is dancing with some girl who has red velvet colored hair down to her waist and more facial piercings than I can count. It doesn’t go unnoticed that they’re one of the couples who look like they could use some privacy.

I finally fall into a comfortable rhythm with the music and Roman. The next song that plays is also a slower R&B song, and I make note of being thankful that all that effort didn’t get wasted on twenty seconds of a song. Once I’m out of my head, I feel like I’m in a bubble alone with him. Like it’s only us left dancing in the room.

I turn around to face him, and the look on his face burns a hole right through me. His eyes are dark, pupils wide, and he’s beaming at me like he’s going to kiss me. Worst of all, I know that if he does, I’ll let him. His arm snakes around my back, pulling me flush against him. His eyes flick down to my lips, and my skin is on fire. He leans in slightly, and I know he’s going to kiss me.

I peek over his shoulder to see if anyone is watching us before I meet him halfway and kiss him in this crowded room. Except someone is watching us. Not just anyone, though, it’s Ares. It’s Ares, and his face is stone cold. My heart sinks to my feet when, instead of coming over to me, he snaps his eyes shut and turns the other way to walk out the back door.Fuck fuck fuck.

“Oh no,” I choke out, pulling myself from Roman’s grip. Confusion twists in his face.

“What’s wrong?” he asks, tipping his head like a puppy.

“Ares.” I run my fingers roughly through my hair. “He saw us. He knows,” I say, walking past him and heading for the door Ares walked through. Even the thick coastal air isn’t enough to sober me up for this. I’ve had way too much beer to be doing this.

I look left then right, and I don’t see him anywhere. I walk around the side of the house, and finally, I see him walking up the street by himself. I run after him, but I quickly find that running in heels isn’t as easy as it looks in movies. I have to slow to a jog in order to not faceplant before I catch up with him. Though, I do eventually. I grab his arm, turning him to face me, but he snatches it out of my grip.

“Don’t be mad,” I plead. It’s pathetic, really, it’s not like I’m in any place to be making demands.

“Don’t be mad?” he snaps, anger filling every inch of his face. We’ve been friends forever, so of course, he’s been mad at me before. Even yelled at me before, but never like this. “Don’t be mad, Audra? You’ve been sneaking around with my brother all summer!” he yells. I’m half tempted to turn and see if anyone else is outside to hear this, to see if we’re airing out our dirty laundry for an audience. I don’t, though. I keep my attention on Ares and on trying not to cry.

“It isn’t like that.”

“So tonight was the first time anything has happened?” he asks. I’m a coward and can’t even find the will to speak. All I do is shake my head. “That’s what I thought,” he says. I’m vaguely aware of the fact that sometime since I caught up with him, Roman also caught up with us, and he’s standing beside us.

“Please, don’t be mad. I was going to tell you,” I plead, and a single tear slips down my cheek.

“When?” he barks.

“I don’t know,” I admit, and the tears are flowing now. I should have told him sooner. I should have just been honest from the beginning. Lies always have a way of teaching lessons. This is my lesson to learn.

“You don’t know?” he questions, throwing two defeated hands in the air. It feels like all the air is sucked out of my lungs. I’m certain at this moment I’m going to lose my best friend. Ravyn and Katrina walk up to the other side of us, but no one says a word. Ares stands there looking just angry and red in the face, and I’m standing here, tears streaming down my face.

“Ares, why don’t you finish this tomorrow when you’ve had some sleep and sobered up some?” Katrina cuts in. Her voice is so soft and calm that it soothes the burn of this whole interaction a little.

“There’s nothing to talk about tomorrow,” he says, turning his back to me and starting to walk up the street. Ravyn and Katrina offer me sympathetic looks, but there’s nothing anyone can do. I don’t know what Roman is looking like because I can’t bear to look him in the eye right now.

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