be.”
“I feel the same way.”
Our lips meet again but the sound of a car door slamming captures our attention and we both turn to look out the window. My neighbor Kelly gets out of her pink car and waves before walking toward her apartment.
“So, guess who I ran into at the student union today?” Xia says, lifting her purse from the floor.
“Who?”
“Felicia." She smirks.
“Oh shit. Did she say anything to you?”
“No, she just gave me a really dirty look.” She rolls her eyes. “Has she tried to contact you?”
“No,” I say, a little surprised now that I think about it. I figured she'd at least text by now. “She just sort of bowed out silently, I guess.”
“Yeah,” Xia says, reaching for the door.
I turn the ignition key and roll up the windows. “Oh, speaking of the student union, have you talked to your dad about Della, yet?”
Xia pulls her hand from the door and looks at me. “Well… not exactly. I sat my mother down and we talked. She admitted to feeling down and agreed to see a doctor. But if things don’t get better soon, I’ll have no choice but to ask Dad for help.”
I don’t trust him and I want to tell her that. But then my thoughts move to Ben and how he pleaded with me today to stay out of his fight. My urge to protect her is causing a war in my head, so instead of saying what I’m really thinking about him, I just nod. She goes quiet for a beat and moves as if she's about to get out of the car before stopping once again and smiling.
“You know what? We’ve got to figure out a way to tell our friends about us.” She nods toward the apartment.
“You're right. We should have some fun with it,” I say.
Her eyes brighten as a sly grin spreads across her lips. “What do you have in mind?”
I look from her to the door of the apartment. “Think we can convince them to play a little game?”
Cherry smiles brightly as she holds her hand up, flashing her new engagement ring with a broad smile. “Congratulations!” Xia squeals before wrapping her in a hug. I can't believe it. I can't believe I missed it.”
“I know!” Cherry smiles, her brown skin glowing. “He completely outdid himself, girl. He just told me to come to the park and I had no idea why. It was really weird. We hadn't been to that park since we started dating. And it was the cheesiest little date but it ended up being really sweet.”
“Aww,” Xia coos.
“He decked out the gazebo and… oh my God, I cried so hard. And you know I’m not a crier.”
King stands proudly listening to the girls’ conversation before walking over to Cherry and kissing her cheek.
“I'm just happy you said yes,” he says.
“You shouldn't have doubted it.” She smiles and look into his eyes.
“Oh, you guys, how much more of this mushy shit we gotta take?” Roman says from the table. A bright-eyed brunette giggles in his lap. Leslie, I think her name is. “Let's play some drinking games.”
Roman tosses a paper die in the air before catching it. On each of the six sides is the name of a popular game. Most are actual drinking games, but since we only knew about four, we added two regular games and turned them into drinking games.
“All right, you guys know the rules. We roll the die, then set the timer and play the game as fast as we can. If somebody messes up, we all drink. If the die rolls off the table, we all drink. Got it?”
“Got it,” we say in unison.
We start with a game of avalanche, followed by beer pong and quarters, and it isn't long before we're all feeling a buzz. The music plays softly through the living room as we laugh and cheer Roman on as he tries to bounce a ball into five cups before the timer expires. I look at Xia, who smiles up at me, and the urge to kiss her makes my mouth water. We're sitting next to each other and no one can see as I trail my hand from her knee to her upper thigh. She's looking at Roman’s girl dancing in the middle of the dining room. But when she feels my touch, she turns to me slowly.
“Stop it,” she mouths. “They’ll see and you’ll ruin it.”
“They aren’t watching,” I say, dipping my head down to her