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“Hello?” I grumbled after picking up my phone without even looking to see who called. My voice was scratchy and raw, fresh from a good five hours of sleep. I tried to sit up in bed but an arm tightened around my waist, pulling me back down to the bed.
“Good morning!” Piper chirped, sounding like an over excited bird this early in the morning.
“Piper?” I asked, confused and disoriented. My voice did not get any better.
I looked down at Tristan who was still cuddled against me, his face so sweet and soft with sleep. His jawline had some overnight growth on it that I desperately wanted to run the palm of my hand against. He was so peaceful, so comfortable that I found myself just staring at him.
“What happened to you last night? Are you and Seth Ok?” She demanded, her voice losing the Disney-princess-sweetness she had woken me up with.
“Yeah, we’re fine,” I answered and hoped my morning voice disguised the fearful hitch. “Those guys were just friends of Seth’s grandpa.”
“Oh. Because they were seriously scary. Seth’s grandpa isn’t in the mob or anything is he? Maybe like a former hitman?” Piper laughed.
I forced myself to laugh too. “Yeah right, that’s why Seth transferred here. He and his grandpa were put in witness protection.” I tried to joke.
“Well you never know. Seth is so mysterious; he’s got to be hiding something!” Piper exclaimed dramatically.
“Pi, it’s not the mob. Trust me. My parents have known his grandpa their entire lives. Do Micah and Celina honestly look like they would know anyone with mob ties?” I tried for reason, knowing everything I said was technically not a lie, but not really the truth either.
“You never know,” she countered. “They don’t seem like they would run around with criminals…. But then again they don’t really seem like the kind of people to hang out with hillbillies either, so maybe you’re whole life is a lie. Maybe you’re in witness protection too and you just don’t know it!”
“That sounds about right,” I groaned. I finally sat up and smiled when Tristan shifted to curl his body around mine. “Is this why you called? You were worried my parents got the shake down?”
“Shake down? I don’t think you used that correctly,” Piper laughed loudly in the phone.
“It’s all part of my witness protection act. First I misuse the mob terminology to throw you off track, next I turn all CI on you and the DA is suddenly knocking at your door with a warrant,” I laughed.
“No more TNT dramas for you!” Piper demanded in between gasps for air as she laughed at me. “I’m taking away all basic cable privileges!”
“So Tristan’s a total douche,” Piper declared after our laughter had died down. I looked down at his sleeping form next to me and highly doubted that.
“What now?” I sighed. I couldn’t stop myself from brushing my fingers against his jawline, feeling the rough hair against the pads of my fingers. He let out a quiet sigh and pulled me tighter against his chest.
“He totally ruined the night after we left you guys last night. Bree was so excited to go on a date with him, but as soon as you and Seth left he just moped around and wouldn’t even talk to her. We dropped him off as soon as the movie was over, but then Bree was in a bad mood so then I felt bad…. She asked me to stay the night with her, and I couldn’t say no, especially after how Tristan treated her, so then my night with Lincoln was ruined.” Piper huffed angrily and I wanted to feel bad, or at least feel kind of bad for Bree, but I couldn’t help the happy little dance my heart did knowing that Tristan moped around after I left…. even if it was because he knew I was in mortal danger and for no other reason.
“He is just the most aggravating person ever!” Piper continued and for a minute I had no idea who she was talking about so I just listened. “It’s just like, we don’t want to sit here and arrange our lives around the fact that he won’t go after what he wants. You know? Maybe he doesn’t want to ruin the friendship, or I don’t know what the hell is wrong with him, maybe he’s just afraid, but you don’t deserve to be strung along. And Bree especially doesn’t deserve it.”
It took me a minute to get my head around what Piper was saying, and that she was defending Bree more than she was defending me until I realized what she was saying. But when then light bulb clicked I knew I had to control the damage.
“Piper, Tristan doesn’t like me,” I said adamantly and then regretted it immediately when he stirred next to me.
“Please don’t play this game with me, I had to listen to Bree talk about herself for eight hours straight. I’m not kidding, the girl talks in her sleep and she dreams about herself! I can’t take anymore self-denial this morning….” Piper whined, and I couldn’t help but laugh and feel a sick sense of relief that Piper still liked me better than Bree.
There was something wrong with me.
“Pi, I’m not in denial. Tristan and I have only ever been friends…. that’s all we can be otherwise the world just might explode,” I sighed and hated how sad I sounded. I looked down and Tristan was looking up at me, some emotion so volatile in his eyes that I couldn’t even distinguish it. “You know this better than anyone.”
Only she didn’t know it better than Tristan and I or that the world might actually explode.
“And I’ve always been fine with the whole destined to just be friends thing. That is until Tristan started ruining my dates with his big ol’ pining heart. I can’t take it anymore. Can’t you just make out with him so you both realize it would be like kissing your sibling and we can all go back to normal again?” Piper argued.
I looked down at Tristan who had smiled a little at Piper’s comment. She was talking so loud he could hear everything she was saying. He had slid his hands under his head and looked up at me with an eager expression, waggling his eyebrows. My eyes flickered down to his lips and I nearly forgot how to breathe.
“That is not going to happen, Pi,” but even I didn’t believe my overly breathy voice.
“Whatever,” she grumbled. “Just, next time you see him tell him he better get his crap together and stop emotionally tormenting my best friend or I’m going to castrate him.”
“I’m sure Bree is just fine,” I laughed.
“I’m not talking about Bree,” Piper sighed sadly.
“Bye, Pi,” I said absentmindedly, still transfixed in Tristan’s naughty gaze. His expression was so cocky and suggestive, that I suddenly felt I was being pulled into very dangerous territory.
“Bye, Stel,” she mumbled, but I was already clicking off the phone.
“What did Piper have to say?” Tristan asked in a deep voice that sent common sense far, far, far away.
“She said to stop leading Bree on,” I paraphrased. Tristan found that amusing, his lips twisting into a smirk.
“Mmm…. Is that all she said?” he asked. Suddenly he grabbed me around the waist and flipped me onto my back effortlessly so that he hovered over me. His green eyes had turned a deep forest green and when he licked his lips nervously I knew I was in trouble.
Still I couldn’t bring myself to move from underneath him.
“Oh, she said something about how you and I should just go ahead and make out so we realize it would be like kissing our sibling,” I said casually, tearing my eyes away from his to look away and pretend like it was no big deal.
“Maybe she’s right,” Tristan mumbled, pressing his body down to mine and nuzzling my ear with his nose. A gasp escaped my lips before I could stop it and my eyes fluttered closed without my permission. “Do you think kissing me would be like kissing your brother?” His voice was a hoarse whisper of desire and I found myself struggling to remember how to make words come out of my mouth.
I shook my head, turning my face back to his. He looked at me for a moment more, making a decision somewhere in the soul of his being that would forever alter the course of my life.
That would shatter me.
His lips were just a breath away from mine. My mouth parted just the tiniest bit, and Tristan moved into me just a fraction of an inch more.
“Stella, honey?” My mom called from the hallway and the realization that I was about to be in huge trouble hit me hard. I snapped back to reality but it was too late to push Tristan away. My mom pushed the door open and announced, “Stella, Jupiter’s wait-“
Tristan shot up off me, his eyes darting around the room looking everywhere but at my mother who stood in the doorway with her mouth dropped open.
“Morning, mom,” I squeaked. Her eyes shot back and forth between Tristan and me and I instinctively knew I was about to be grounded for the first time in my life.
“Good morning, Stella,” her tone had turned deadly serious and her pale blue eyes had turned to ice. “Good morning, Tristan. It’s awfully early to be paying Stella a visit, don’t you think?”
“Um, yes ma’am,” Tristan stuttered, his eyes falling on the window as a dead giveaway. I groaned. “I should uh, get back home anyway…. I have chores.”
“Then yes, please get back to your chores,” my mother demanded, each constant clipped.
Tristan moved to the window, in a hurry to get away from my mother. She realized what he was doing and her entire body snapped rigid with anger. “The door Tristan! Use the door!”
“Oh right,” Tristan blushed. He turned to me, before he made it all the way across the room. “Bye Stel-“
“Goodbye Tristan!” my mom cut him off before he could finish and he ducked around her like a puppy with his tail between his knees on his way out.
Yep, she defended the galaxy. She was kind of scary.
“Tristan!” I heard my dad exclaim from the kitchen. “What are you doing here?”
“Uh, just leaving,” Tristan barely replied and I heard the kitchen door open. “Bye Mr. Day.”
I shot out of bed, pulling on a sweatshirt over my running tank top and throwing my hair into a tight pony tail on the top of my head. I slipped into some snow boots that didn’t actually go with my athletic outfit, but were necessary for the day of training I face and grabbed my katana that still sat on the bedside table. My mom stood in the doorway watching every single one of my movements, her arms crossed and her foot tapping frantically on the wood floor.
“Does he sleep over often?” my mother asked, struggling for calm.
“No, mom, I swear, it was the first and only time. He just came over to see if I was alright…. We were hanging out with him and Piper before Aliah showed up and he could tell something was wrong. We fell asleep, it was innocent, I promise,” I begged her to understand, to believe that nothing happened.
Because nothing did happen.
The disappointment that was dragging my heart into the pit of my stomach reminded me exactly how much didn’t happen.
My mother’s eyes scrutinized my entire face while I struggled to hold my gaze up to hers. I really didn’t have anything to hide.