Chapter Thirteen
The Cheat
I woke to fingers gently running up and down my spine, confused to where I was. Thoughts of the previous night slammed into me and I feigned sleep as I tried to pull myself together. I had slept with Logan and in one night, changed everything about us.
His breath tickled my ear as he spoke, “Wake up sleepy head.”
I stayed still for a few moments before stretching and rolling over to look at him. I had never seen him look so happy, his skin was practically glowing and his perfect blue eyes were sparkling. I gave him a weak smile as he brushed his lips across mine.
“Morning beautiful, did you sleep well?”
I nodded as I rolled back over and glanced at the clock. “It’s not even eight A.M. yet, why did you wake me up?”
He stood and I quickly looked away from his nakedness as he pulled a pair of boxers on.
He laughed as watched me, “Don’t act all shy on me now,” he bent down and kissed me deeply, “Last night was incredible, the best night of my life.”
He pulled back and grabbed some jeans and a shirt out of his closet.
“I thought we could go grab some breakfast, but you can go back to sleep if you want to.”
I sat up and grabbed my head as pain shot through it. “Ouch, holy hangover.”
He laughed as he grabbed me a couple Tylenol and handed them to me with a glass of water. “Here take these, they’ll help.”
I quickly swallowed them as I started searching his room for my clothes. I pulled my bra and thong back on and was fighting with my jeans when my phone started ringing from the desk beside Logan. He picked it up and after glancing at the screen, answered it with a smug look on his face.
“Hello?” he was silent for a moment, “This is Logan, Chloe is busy.”
I gave him a questioning look bur he just smiled at me.
“Hold on a minute, she’s putting her clothes on.”
My eyes widened in surprise over him telling someone that.
He walked across the room and handed my phone to me, “It’s for you.”
“Well duh, it is my phone,” I held the phone up to my ear, “Hello?” Silence followed and I thought whoever it was had hung up. “Hello? Is anyone there?”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt anything, I just wanted to see how you were feeling this morning, you were a bit drunk last night.”
My heart stopped as I heard Drake’s voice. That’s why Logan had made sure to mention I was getting dressed with him there. I cleared my throat before sending a glare toward Logan, “I’m alright, just a headache. Logan gave me some pills to help me though.”
He was silent for a moment before he spoke, “Did you sleep with him Chloe?”
I glanced up at Logan and noticed him watching me closely.
“Does it matter?”
“No it doesn’t, but for some reason I want to know.”
I sighed and rubbed my throbbing temples, “Yes.”
I heard him take a deep breath before speaking, “I’d better go, I’ll talk to you later.”
I sat my phone on the bed and pulled my shirt over my head, avoiding Logan’s gaze.
“What was that about?”
I picked up my purse and threw it over my shoulder. “Nothing, he just wanted to see how I was feeling after drinking so much last night.”
“Does he make it a habit to call you so early in the morning?”
I turned to glare at him, “No he doesn’t. Is this how we’re going to be now? You jealous over every male friend I have?”
He walked across the room and pulled me into a hug. “No, he just makes me nervous. And we really haven’t talked about where we’re going to go from here. I don’t know if you feel like last night was a mistake or not, if you want me.”
I pulled back as I cupped his cheek in my hand, “Last night wasn’t a mistake Logan. I assumed you knew that. I want to give this a try and see where it takes us.”
A huge smile spread across his face, “I want that too, you have no idea how much.” He pulled me to him and kissed me roughly.
“I need to take a shower before we get some breakfast. Meet me downstairs in an hour?”
He nodded as I closed the door and walked to my room.
I took longer in the shower than necessary as I tried to wash away all my mixed emotions. Drake had no right to call me and act like that. He had pushed me away, had told me to go to Logan, and that’s what I had done. My decision was made, and I wasn’t about to change it now. I would get over him as I focused my attention on Logan. It was only fair to Logan that we started our relationship without any conflicting emotions on my part and that’s what I intended to do. If it meant losing the friendship that I had with Drake, then so be it, he wasn’t a priority any longer.
I dressed quickly and met Logan by his car. He pulled me tight against him and kissed me deeply. It felt nice, but none of the fireworks I saw when Drake kissed me appeared. I pushed the thoughts away as I pulled back and smiled up at him. “What was that for?”
He smacked me lightly on my bottom before walking to the driver’s side and getting in. I slid in next to him and fastened my seatbelt. “I just wanted to kiss you. There’s so many times I’ve held back, and now I have every intention of kissing you as much as possible.”
I smiled at his sweet words and I leaned across the console to give him a peck on the cheek.
“Ok, what was that for?”
I giggled as he pulled out, “Because you’re so sweet. I could get used to this whole romantic side of you.”
“You’d better get used to it, because you’re going to be seeing a whole lot of it.”
After breakfast, Logan and I spent the morning out shopping at the local mall and watching a movie. We stopped by my work on our way home to grab some coffee. When Vanessa saw us, her eyes widened as she took a long look at Logan. “Who’s your friend Chloe, and where have you been hiding him?”
Logan’s face broke out in a huge smile as I introduced him as my boyfriend.
“What the hell woman? You’re friends with Drake and now you come walking in here with this guy? I think I officially hate you.”
I laughed as we paid for our drinks and left.
We went back to Logan’s room and spent the rest of the day in bed together, cuddling and kissing. I could tell Logan wanted more, but he didn’t push and I appreciated his thoughtfulness. I told him so as we lay tangled in his sheets.
“I won’t push you Chloe, you know that. Last night was amazing, but I understand why you’re holding back.” He kissed my head as I snuggled deeper into his chest and slept.
Logan and I walked into class the next morning together, holding hands. He slapped Drake on the back as he took his seat. “Morning Drake, beautiful day isn’t it?” He pulled me to him and kissed me full on the lips.
I felt my face warm as I looked over at Drake, who was staring at us with cold indifference.
“Yeah, I guess it is.”
I pulled my eyes away from him and cornered Logan with a glare.
“What?” he asked with an innocent smile.
“You know, if you wanted to mark your territory, all you had to do was pee on my leg.”
He laughed as he leaned back in his chair, “Good idea, I’ll have to remember that for next time.”
I rolled my eyes as I started pulling things out of my bag. Drake ignored us for the rest of class, and disappeared as soon as class ended. He was nowhere to be seen at lunch either. By the time I arrived at work that evening, I was getting seriously pissed at him for ignoring me. If he didn’t want anything to do with me, that was fine. But he didn’t have to be a jerk about it. My night quickly went from bad to worse. I was so focused on being mad at Drake, I constantly messed up drink orders until Vanessa forced me to run register.
“What is wrong with you tonight?” she asked as I threw yet another messed up order in the garbage and walked up to the register to start taking orders.
“Nothing.”
She waited until I finished punching in a customer’s order before starting in on me again. “Obviously something is bothering you since you’ve destroyed every drink you’ve made tonight and you almost broke the register you were pushing buttons so hard.”
“Honest, it’s nothing. Just a bad day.”
She rolled her eyes but let it go. I managed to get through the rest of the night without breaking the machine or ripping any annoying customer’s heads off and breathed a sigh of relief as we closed up and I walked to my car. My relief was short lived when I saw someone leaning against my car. I approached slowly and pulled a can of pepper spray out of my bag. “Can I help you?”
My body relaxed as the figure turned and I saw it was Drake. He grinned as I approached and leaned back onto my door.
“You scared the f*ck out of me!” I yelled as I reached the car.
He glanced down at the pepper spray in my hand and smirked, “Were you really going to pepper spray me?”
“It crossed my mind. Now move or I will,” I said as I tried to shove him away from my door. He refused to budge.
“What’s got your panties in a bunch tonight? Trouble in paradise already?”
“No, not that it’s any of your business, now move!” He just gave me a smile, not moving an inch. I threw my hands in the air, “Why are you here?”
“Can’t I just come visit you at work?”
I glanced at my phone, “You do realize it’s after midnight and we’re standing in a dark parking lot right?”
“Come with me, I want to go for a drive.”
I shook my head. “I need to get home, just tell me what you want.”
He pushed himself off my car to stand in front of me, lifting his hand to brush it down my cheek, “Please?”
I sucked in a ragged breath at the contact and stepped away, “I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”
“I’ll keep my hands to myself, promise.”
I bit my lip as I debated. Finally, I nodded and we made our way across the lot to his car. We were silent as he drove down the Mileground and merged onto the interstate.
“Where are we going?” I asked as we weaved through traffic.
“Someplace I go when I need to think, or to write music, depending on my mood.”
I stayed silent as he took an exit and pulled onto a side road I hadn’t even noticed. After a few minutes of silence I glanced over at him. “I thought we already had this discussion. I do not want to go deep into the West Virginia wilderness to be murdered.”
He grinned, “I’m not going to murder you, we’ll be there in a minute.”
The trees began to thin until they opened up into a clearing. He pulled up to an embankment and shut off the car. My breath caught as I started out at a lake in front of us. “Where are we?”
He got out of the car and grabbed a blanket out of the backseat, throwing it over the hood of the car. He jumped up on the hood and turned to grin at me. “This is my secret place and this,” he gestured at the water in front of me, “is the Cheat Lake. Now get out here.”
I stepped out of the car and sat down next to him. “It’s beautiful.”
And it was. The moon was shining brightly, reflecting off the surface. There weren’t any lights for miles around and the whole scene brought about a sense of peace in me. I scooted up so I could rest my back on the windshield and looked at him as he spoke. “Yeah it is. I like to just come out here and get away from everything.”
We sat in silence for a few minutes, both enjoying the view and the peace that came with it. “Why did you bring me out here Drake?” I asked softly.
He turned to me and gave me a small smile, “I don’t know. I couldn’t sleep and I decided to come out here. How I ended up in that parking lot I’ll never know.”
I reached over and gave his hand a small squeeze before pulling away. “Why did you ignore me all day? And don’t say you didn’t, I know when someone is purposely avoiding me.”
He slid back and settled down next to me, staring up at the moon. The ring in his lip caught the moonlight and I had to force myself to look away from his full lips.
“I was avoiding you, I won’t lie.”
I sat in silence as I waited for him to continue.
“You threw me for a loop yesterday morning. I told you to be with Logan, but I didn’t think you’d dive into it like that.”
I sat up and glared at him, “So you’re avoiding me because I had sex with someone? That’s just stupid, if our roles were reversed, I’d never be able to talk to you again with all the women you’re with.”
“You’re different. I have no morals, you’re better than that.”
“So now I’m a slut for sleeping with one guy? You’re such a f*cking hypocrite!”
I started to slide down the hood to get away from him, but he caught my arm and pulled me back. “That’s not what I meant. I know you’re not a slut, I just didn’t expect you to go have sex with someone without even being in a relationship with them.”
I sat fuming, speechless.
“Don’t be mad at me Chloe, I’m just looking out for you.”
“I’m not mad Drake, I’m livid. None of this is your business so I wish you’d just butt out!”
He sat up as he grabbed my face and pulled me to him, our noses almost touching. “You’ll always me my business Chloe, I care a lot about you.” He released me and slumped back down against the windshield as I sat speechless, staring at him. “So are you guys together now or was it just a one-time thing?”
I smacked him in the stomach and he laughed.
“What? I’m just asking.”
“Yeah, we’re together now.”
He nodded as he turned his attention back to the water, “I’m happy for you then,” he sat up and slid down the hood, holding his hand out to me, “I’d better get you home, it’s late.”
I took his hand and let him help me down. Once I was safely on the ground, he released me and grabbed the blanket. He threw it in the backseat as I opened my door and slid silently into the car. Drake got in and started the car, taking us back to the interstate and my car. We were still silent as he pulled his car next to mine.
I glanced back at him as I opened the door, “We good?”
He gave me a sad smile, “Yeah Chloe, we’re good.”
I turned and pulled him into a tight hug, shocking him. He was stiff at first, but he relaxed and hugged me back. “I’m glad Drake. You’re important to me and I don’t want to lose you.”
He kissed me lightly on the cheek as I pulled away and got out. “You won’t lose me Chloe. I’ll see you tomorrow ok?”
I smiled as I got in my car and drove home, feeling lighter than I had all day.