in Daven’s house. His mum had a late shift at the hospital, so he brought me back here when I couldn’t find you.”
I was a shitty friend; she’d probably been worried sick about me.
I winced. “Sorry about that, I went AWOL.”
“It’s okay. Daven’s friend said he saw Kale bring you upstairs, so I left with Daven because I knew you would be safe with him.”
Safe. Yeah.
“Yeah,” I murmured. “I was with Kale.”
“Wait,” she said, her voice suddenly more alert. “You were with Kale? Like with him?”
“Yeah,” I said, and burst into tears.
“Oh, babe, no,” Lavender whispered.
“It was perfect,” I cried, “but he just woke up and freaked out on me. He said he didn’t remember us having sex and that he saw me as a sister. He regrets having sex with me, Lav. He regrets me.”
“Where are you? I’m getting dressed and coming right over.”
I wiped my face and took a few deep breaths to calm myself down.
“No, it’s too early.” I sniffled. “Stay with Daven, I’m going to go ho-home. My dad will be gone to work, and my mum will be asleep. I’ll sneak in and get into bed, and when she wakes up, I’ll just say I came home early from your house.”
“Are you sure?” Lavender asked. “I don’t care about the time. I’ll come to you right now if you need me to.”
I heard a voice grumble, “Is she okay? Does she need me to pick her up?”
I was surprised that Daven was even the slightest bit concerned; he never usually showed any emotion of any kind towards me. We would either fight over his fights with Lavender or ignore one another. There was no in-between with us.
“She’s fine – go back to sleep.”
I jerked my head when I heard movement upstairs in the house, and I was terrified it was Kale coming down the stairs so he could go to his parents’ house. I did not want to see him, so I focused on my phone.
“I have to go, Lav.”
“I’ll swing by yours on my way home in a few hours, okay?”
I nodded. “’Kay.”
“Love you, babe. Hang in there,” Lavender said.
I sniffled. “I will. Love you too.”
I hung up and pocketed my phone. I hated wearing Kale’s fleece jumper, but I folded my arms together and snuggled into the heat that it offered me as I opened the hall door of the house and stepped outside into the freezing morning air.
My attire was a really bad fucking idea.
I felt my teeth chatter as I walked down the never-ending driveway of the party house and headed in the direction of the village. My house was only fifteen minutes away, and because I briskly walked the entire way, I got there pretty fast.
I took off Lavender’s wedged heels and held them in my hand as I walked up the driveway. I got my key out of my back pocket and held my breath as I approached the hall door. I put the key into the lock, turned it and gently nudged open the door. I silently stepped inside my house and carefully closed the door behind me, relocking it and then hanging the key on the rack.
I quickly entered the alarm code when the warning sound began to beep. Once that was done, I crept up the stairs and cursed God himself when that stupid loose floorboard next to my bedroom creaked as I stood on it.
I froze to the spot for a solid minute, and when I heard no movement coming from my parents’ room, I stepped off the stupid noisy floorboard and escaped into the safety of my bedroom, where I gently closed the door behind me. I tiptoed over to my dresser, opened the first drawer and shoved Lavender’s heels inside. I rid myself of her clothes and Kale’s jumper and shoved them into the drawer too.
I washed my face clean of make-up, and brushed my hair out before plaiting it back out of my face. I climbed into my bed, where I lay for ages, staring at the glow-up stickers on my ceiling, wondering if my entire night was a dream – or a nightmare.
“Lane, darling?” I heard my mother’s voice shout later that morning as I got out of the shower. I had scrubbed myself raw, trying to take away some of the pain I felt by replacing it with a physical one.
My mother had come into my room at ten in the morning to collect my dirty washing from my hamper,