I had slept with Daniel.

Let me repeat: Daniel and I had spent the night. In. The. Same. Bed.

OH LORD BABY JESUS.

My mind was a whirlpool of emotions as I pranced home. I was so confused, yet at the same time, it felt so right. Kind of.

After a thirty minute walk from Daniel's, I finally reached my house. Opening the front door, I stumbled onto a random topless guy in front of Oliver's open fridge, chugging milk straight from the carton. An attractive topless guy, might I add. This was too much for my brain to handle. I mean, I was encountering too many shirtless hotties in a short span of time. So I blanked and simply stood there, staring at this fine stranger with my brows raised. He turned around with a start and blushed, but shrugged it off by simply mumbling, "It was nearly empty anyways."

Who the hell was this?

Just as I was opening my mouth to speak, Oliver strutted into the kitchen wearing a kimono and threw a t-shirt at the hot milk man.

"You. Leave." He dismissed him with a hand wave.

Then, he turned to face me and pointed at the chair. "You. Sit."

Mr. Bossypants.

As soon as the guy left, Oliver walked around the kitchen counter, pulled out a pan and said, "You have one second to tell me where you were last night whilst I make pancakes. Spill." He picked up a bowl, cracked two eggs and began beating them like there was no tomorrow.

"I'll tell you as soon as you stop torturing those innocent eggs."

"No me toques los huevos*," he retorted. "Why didn't you text me last night?"

("Don't fuck with me.")

"Yeah about that..." I ran my hand through my hair as I searched for an explanation. "Sorry for being AWOL. The roads were cut and I-"

"What are you going on about?" Oliver asked as he added the mix onto the pan.

"The roads were cut because of the storm," I gave him the 'duh' look. "Why do you think I didn't come home last night?"

He flipped a pancake with one hand whilst eyeing me with a hand on his hip. God, he was too sassy sometimes. "Honey, the roads wouldn't be closed off even if it there was a zombie apocalypse. Are you for real?"

I processed the information for a second, and then it clicked. That fucker.

"¡MALDITO CABRÓN!" I shrieked. Oliver started howling with laughter in the background.

("MOTHERFUCKER!")

"He lied to me!" I whined. "That bastard lied to my face!"

"Yeah yeah, poor you," Oliver dismissed my outburst, with fake pity as he sat in front of me, slapping the pancakes onto the table. "So, was he good?" he winked, placing his chin onto his hand.

"Good? What do you mean?' I asked with confusion, causing him to roll his eyes.

"Oh come on! You spent the night at a random guy's house and expect me to believe- wait, do I know him?"

I bit my lower lip with hesitation, "I stayed at Daniel's." As soon as I said his name, Oliver jolted out of his seat and began to jump around, squealing, as he clapped his hands.

"Oh my god! My baby had some Greek God action last night!" He wiped a fake tear. "Wow, I taught you so well."

"Oh piss off!" I scoffed as I pulled him down to his seat. "Nothing happened."

"Nothing?" He asked as he titled his head to the side.

"I swear." I looked up to him and saw him squinting his eyes. "What?"

"There's something you're not telling me," he guessed, causing me to sigh.

"I..." I cringed "kinda left without saying goodbye." That was it. Oliver squealed and hugged me as though I achieved something in life. "Ok, ok! Calm down. Geez!"

"How do expect me to calm down when you spent the night at Mount Olympus with Zeus' company?" I rolled my eyes at his cheesy comment.

"Ok, that's enough." I got up and headed to my room. "I'm going for a run, and I expect you to have calmed down by the time I get back." I changed into my workout clothes, grabbed my phone with my headphones and headed outside, hoping to clear my head.

***

"I'm Slim Shady, yes I'm the real Shady

All you other Slim Shadys are just imitating

So won't the real Slim Shady please stand up

Please stand up, please stand up?"

I could feel my legs burning as the song played, and that only spurred me on. Going for a run was always a good idea when my mind was all over the place. Deep in my own thoughts as I headed back, I noticed a figure sitting on my front steps.

It was Lori.

"Hey Lori, what's up?" I gasped, approaching her, but as soon as she lifted her face to look at me, I stopped dead in my tracks. She was crying. Not in a cute way though, it was more of a puffy-eyed, mascara-running blubber.

"Oh my god!" I exclaimed worriedly, "are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Sort of," she mumbled.

"No you're not!" I confirmed, "what happened?"

"Jack and I had a fight." I frowned. "It just, it wasn't those petty little fights that we have, you know? This was a major argument."

"May I ask why you guys were fighting?" I asked with caution.

"University," she answered. "We were just talking about our lives after high school. He wants to go to some college here, to stay closer to me, but I refused. I want him to succeed and go to a good college in North Carolina. Heck! He could even get into Duke!"

I gulped, "What did he have to say about that?"

"He said that whatever he does doesn't seem to make me happy!" She bursted into tears again. "I mean can you believe that?"

I frowned, "Maybe planning so much ahead stresses him out a little. You should cut him some slack. I mean, he loves you and he's trying to find the best solution for you both."

"I think you're right!" She sniffed. "I'm going to give him some space."

She rested her head onto my shoulder and let out a huge sigh. Even though I've known Lori in a short amount of time, seeing her like this breaks my heart. So, I decided to think about ways to cheer her up, even if I had to make a complete fool of myself. And because I'm a fucking genius, I had the best idea for her.

"Let's bring all the girls here and watch movies, your treat." I glanced down at her.

"I don't want to be a burden Astrid-" she complained as she wiped her nose with the back of her hand. Ew.

"First of all, you're my friend, not a burden" I affirmed. "Second of all, you deserve to have fun, so, movie night it is!"

I texted the girls explaining Lori's situation and asked them to come by the house with food. Thirty minutes later, the bell rung and three girls appeared in my room with giant bags of food.

"I got into the car as soon as I read the message. You poor thing!" Stephanie hugged Lori, who was lying on my bed. The rest of the girls cuddled beside her.

"I'm ok guys," Lori whispered. "I'm just giving him some time to think." The girls nodded, understanding.

"Well," Gigi leaped out of the bed and began rummaging through the bags, the picked up five Ben & Jerry's with spoons and threw them to us. "I've got the ice creams and three movie options." She lifted them up: Annabelle, Hercules the Disney movie and You Again?

All of us except Chelsea wanted to watch Annabelle, so, after fifteen minutes of persuasion, Chelsea finally gave in. We were in the middle of an intense scene, when my bedroom door opened. Gigi paused the film and light footsteps coming down the stairs were heard.

"Didn't Oliver leave five minutes ago?" Stephanie whispered as she grabbed me by my arm.

"Maybe he's back," Gigi hoped whilst Lori and Chelsea agreed.

The footsteps stopped and an eerie silence filled the room. I felt a knot in my stomach and I looked up.

Dear Lord, I may have made some shitty mistakes in the past but please, let me live...

"BOO!" The Oliver screamed as he turned the lights of my room on. The girls and I screamed and jumped out of the bed with our hands clutched to our chests with fear, whilst my cousin was laughing his ass off.

The piece of shit.

"You jackass!" Gigi screamed as she charged towards him, but Stephanie grabbed her by the waist and pulled her back.

"Ok ok, calm your tits," Oliver rolled his eyes. "I just came by to give Astrid her phone." He lifted my phone up causing me to sigh and reach my arm out for the phone.

Once my phone was in my hand, I froze to Oliver's next words: "Who's Donald by the way?"

I quickly unblocked my phone and went through my messages, only to see a message from Daniel.

leaving without saying goodbye? My, Astrid, where are your manners?

"Holy crap." Gigi gaped as she read my message from my shoulder. "What does he mean by 'leaving without saying goodbye'?"

"Yeah, Astrid. What does that mean?" Oliver sneered.

I swear I'm going to kill that fucker.

"You. Shut. Your. Mouth." I spat at Oliver, causing him to tilt his head to the side with a sly grin on his face.

"Oh I'm not saying anything." He raised his hands as an act of innocence.

"Astrid," the girls asked. "Where were you last night?"

I felt cornered. Looking up, I saw Oliver leaning on a wall laughing his ass off. I swear to god I will rip his...

"Astrid!" Chelsea called me out. "Where were you last night?"

I gulped and looked at each and everyone of them. They looked intrigued, concerned and excited.

"I was at Daniel's," I mumbled.

"I'm sorry what?" Stephanie asked.

"I was at Daniel's!" I exclaimed.

Oh dear lord. I covered my face.

The girls screamed and jumped around me, and I pulled my hands away from my face, incredulous. Oliver joined them, causing his kimono to reveal things that shouldn't ever be revealed. Groaning, I covered my eyes and threw myself on the bed as the girls continued with the hysterics. Talk about a sugar high.

"Guys, enough!" I whined.

"Oh no we're not done!" Gigi squealed as she continued to jump around.

"It's not that big of a deal!"

They all stopped. "What do you mean it's 'not that big of a deal'?" Lori complained, imitating a horrid English accent.

"Ok, first of all, what the hell was that?" I cringed at her accent. "Second of all, nothing happened! We shared the same bed-"

"YOU DID WHAT?" Oh no.

"Please tell me you did not just say that," Gigi pleaded, but I bit my lip confirming my answer.

"Ok! Ok. We shared the same bed but that's it!" I gave them a stern look.

"Nothing?" Lori inquired as I shook my head.

"Besides," I ran a hand through my fhair, "I left whilst he was showering."

There was a collective gasp and then silence. Stephanie broke it, "oh boy! He doesn't know what he's up against."

"Ok," Lori spoke, grinning. "This has definitely cheered me up."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~