Page 39 of You Were Never Not Mine

I’m frowning. “Okay.”

“We drank all last night. All day today. We also…” She clears her throat and lifts her head, though she’s facing the wall and not me. “Had sex.”

I blink at the back of her head, which is snarled like a rat’s nest. “You had sex in front of Tim?” I worried she would do that and she proved me right.

“Not just with Rafe.” She’s still facing the wall, like she can’t look at me. “I had sex with…Tim. And then the two of them. Together.”

What? WHAT?! Is she for real right now?

“Elise…”

“I know,” she wails, finally turning to look at me. She’s already crying, tears streaming down her reddened face, her mascara running black little rivers across her skin. “I’m a whore. I stole your man!”

Oh. I didn’t even think that. I was too worried about the possibility she messed around with August. Not Tim. If she thinks she’s horrible, then I am too.

“You’re not a whore. And you definitely didn’t steal my man.” I crawl out of bed and go to her, pulling her into my arms. She starts sobbing into my sweatshirt, drenching it with her tears, and I just hold her, running my hand over her hair, trying to untangle it, but I give up because seriously. It’s a mess. “Tim and I aren’t together.”

“I know. He said the same thing.” Her shoulders shake and I wonder if she’s so upset over the fact that she feels guilty in regards to me or does it have to do with the fact that she had sex with two guys this weekend. At the same time.

Like seriously? She goes from a virgin to having a threesome all in the span of approximately forty-eight hours.

Elise pulls away slightly, her tear-filled gaze meeting mine. “Do you hate me?”

“Of course, I don’t hate you.” I brush her hair away from her face, hating how torn up she looks. I’m not worth her stress, especially after what I did with August. “I only like Tim as a friend anyway.”

She nods, her lower lip sticking out for a moment. “I had a feeling you’d say that. You didn’t seem that interested in him last night.”

I wasn’t, and I was hoping I wasn’t overly obvious, but it sounds like I was. “How was it?”

Elise frowns. “How was what?”

“Having sex with two guys at the same time?” I don’t know if I want to understand the exact logistics but I am curious.

“Oh.” She shifts away from me with a shrug. “It was all right.”

“All right? They basically held you captive in their dorm room and you can only describe it as all right? You make it sound underwhelming.”

“Well, at first, we were so drunk that I didn’t even know it was happening until it was? I was kissing Rafe on his bed and he had his hands on my boobs and then…Tim got on the bed behind me and put his hands on my stomach and the next thing I knew they’re all over me.” Elise covers her face. “I’m embarrassed.”

“I’m surprised you’re not traumatized.”

She drops her hands. “Why would you say that?”

“Because you were still a virgin Friday and now you’re having full-blown threesomes,” I point out.

Her laughter sounds uncomfortable. “Yeah. About that.”

“About what?”

“I lied to you.” Another sigh leaves her. “I wasn’t a virgin. I’ve been having sex since I was fifteen.”

My mouth hangs open for a moment and I snap it shut, irritated. I don’t like it when people lie to me. It’s why I gave August so much shit last night. It’s a true trigger of mine. “Why would you lie about that?”

“I don’t know! We were playing true confessions and when you said you were a virgin, it felt natural to say I was one too. I wanted to make you feel like you weren’t a freak of nature,” she explains.

“Gee thanks.” My tone is heavy on the sarcasm because come on. That was kind of rude. She basically just called me a freak of nature.

“I didn’t mean it like that. I’m sorry. More than anything, Ididn’t want to look like a total slut. My body count is…unusually high.” She ducks her head, seemingly embarrassed.

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