Before I Met You

7: "I'm Good Now."

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚂𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚗

 "𝙸'𝚖 𝙶𝚘𝚘𝚍 𝙽𝚘𝚠."

"WHERE THE FUCK have you been?" Dion seethes when we close the door behind us. He eyes me in fury before he looks over at Elena, his expression softening slightly. "I've called you like ten fucking times."

"Jesus, chill out." Rodney laughs with a mouthful of Cheetos. Him, Cameron and Amelia are in the living room with the movie paused. "You aren't his dad."

Rodney and Cameron don't know about my past. Only Dion, my parents and Elena know about it. I'm praying she doesn't open her mouth up to anyone. Not that she would, because then I'd tell her secret.

"Sorry." I mutter. "I'm fine."

"Where were you?" He presses.

I stand there frozen as I try to come up with an answer before Elena clears her throat and says, "I found him walking down by the campus library. He was pissed off, so we just went to the park and talked."

"Yeah." I nod. I hate feeling like I have to lie to Dion, but disappointing him would be worse than disappointing my parents.

He looks between the two of us for a couple of moments before he eventually lets out a frustrated sigh and runs his fingers through his hair. "Whatever." He mumbles. "Are you going to watch the movie with us or not?"

Elena nods meekly and goes into the living room to sit next to Amelia. Cameron gets up to talk to her and I feel ice coarse through my veins. Especially knowing what I know about her now, it's almost like an instinct to try and protect her.

"I think I just need to go to bed." I say. I'm still a little tipsy, and I have to get up early for class tomorrow anyways. The last thing I want to do is pumble Cameron's face in tonight.

I go to head up the staircase when Dion tugs on my arm. "Are you sure you're good?" He asks. "What happened earlier?"

I look at Elena in the living room then look back to him, for the first time of the night giving him a genuine smile. "I'm good now." I reply honestly. "I've just gotta take some space for a bit."

༺═──────────────═༻

"Next weekend is going to be fucking sick." Cameron grins. He grabs his duffel bag from the gym locker and starts to stuff his clothes inside of it. "I'm planning everything, Dion. Your birthday is going to be one to remember."

Running a brush through my hair, the ends fall down from not having gel in it and frame my face. I hate the way my hair looks if there's no gel in it. It gets on my nerves because the ends always get in my eyes if they aren't up like they normally are.

"You invited Amelia, right?" He asks him. "I want her to come. What are we doing anyways? Having a party?"

"You wish." Cameron smirks. "I'm so much more creative than that. Amelia's coming, but Elena has to come too apparently. She probably just wants to come to get some more of this dick again."

All of the guys minus Dion and I erupt into laughter and smack hands with him while I let my eyes roll. I want to tell him what she really had to say about their night, but then he'd want a reason and I told her I'd keep my mouth shut.

I would tease Dion about inviting Amelia to come, but the truth is that I haven't seen Elena in a week. As much as I know that I have to stay away from her, I haven't been able to stop thinking about what she's been up to or how she's been doing with staying sober. I wonder if she's in a better place than she was at that party.

"Yo!" Cameron throws a towel at me and I catch it quickly before I pass it back to him. "I said do you want me to invite anyone?"

"Like who?" I ask, annoyed.

"I heard Leila is back from her study abroad program." He smirks. "I know you two had a lot of fun our first semester here."

"You can invite whoever you want. It doesn't matter." I shrug.

I'd rather Leila not be there, but I can't decide who goes and who doesn't to Dion's birthday party. I shouldn't be focused on Elena anyways, I should be moving on with my life and go fuck a random college girl again like Jenny. Sleeping with Elena isn't a competition anymore to me. It'd be more like a privilege if anything after what she's shared with me about herself.

Everyone begins to gather their bags before we exit the locker room and head for our cars. Dion pulls me aside from the group and throws an arm over my shoulder.

"You don't have to go to this you know." He says. "If it's going to be too difficult then you can just stay home. I won't be mad."

"No, I want to go. It's your birthday. I can handle a couple of idiots like you. Someone has to drive your drunk asses home, right?"

"Guess so." He chuckles and unlocks his jeep. We both throw our bags into the back seat. "By the way, I told Amelia to tell Elena she had to come with."

"What?" I grab a protein bar out of my pocket and start to unwrap it. "Why would you do that?"

"Because I'm not an idiot."

I take a bite and let the chocolate taste take over my mouth for a couple of seconds before I decide to say, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Sure you don't." He nods. "Just feel free to thank me when you finally get into her pants."

𝙰𝚞𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚛'𝚜 𝙽𝚘𝚝𝚎

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