The Things We Hide

Six

'How'd it go?' Sasha's text read the next morning. I swear I could feel her impatience through the typed words.

'Answer me!' The next one arrived immediately after checking my phone. She'd sent the first one last night, but my focus was on other things. I laughed to myself, imagining her on her phone, no doubt waiting for me to respond.

'Great.' I texted knowing that would send her over the edge. Her text bubble showed immediately. Before her reply came through, I left our chat and checked the rest of the messages I missed last night.

I had one from Eli, and the one from Liam.

Eli's text read, 'I had a great time last night, hope we get to do it again.' Followed by the winking emoji.

A smile pulled at my lips, as I remembered last night. I'd never been just completely enthralled in the presence of another that I lose track of time. It wasn't like me to just break the rules. But Eli...something about him was different.

'I hope so too.'

My phone vibrated with a notification, it was Sasha.

I took a look at the first line of her text, 'Girl if you don't answer me with a play by play-'

I'll look at the rest later.

'Hey, I'm sorry about last night, can't wait for our date tonight though.' I read Liam's, my face forming into a frown. He doesn't know about my date with Eli. He wouldn't have been so easy going about it as Eli was about my date with him. Just then, a thought crosses my mind. I didn't think about Liam, or his confession the entire time I was Eli. That was new for me, refreshing too. For the longest Liam was the guy that plagued my mind day in and day out, but now...

"I want to be more than friends." I remembered his confession. I'd imagine that moment a thousand times over the last few years. My world would stop and it'd only be us two. But last night, his confession didn't hit me nearly as hard as I thought it would. Maybe It was the electric buzz of energy distorting my focus, maybe it was the situation we were in prior to his confession. Did he only say that because he didn't like that way Eli showed interest in me?

The continuous vibration of my phone shook me from my thoughts.

"Hello?" I answered, not bothering to check the caller ID. "Great?" A voice bellowed through the phone, "Great?"

Sasha.

"What do you want to know?" I asked, letting out a chuckle. "Oh no ma'am, you are certainly not going to tell me about your first date over the phone."

I heard footsteps on the stairs, and then a knock on my door. Before I got the chance to welcome the person in, Sasha walked through, phone plastered to her ear.

"Who let you in?" I joked.

"Your dad." She shrugged, taking a seat on the edge of my bed, "He's pissed by the way, something about you not coming home until well after one o'clock in the morning."

Shock widened my expression, "He knows?" I cried, keeping my voice low. How is that possible? I made sure to tell Kory not to make any noise when he was unlocking the back door. Another thing to owe him for.

"Yea, to be honest, I'm lucky he even let me in here. I'm also surprised you're still breathing." She looked back at the door, now ajar, then back to me, "So, what kept you out so long?" She asked, her eyebrows raising in suspicion. "It's not what you think, believe me." I told her. "We just talked, he took me out for dinner. After that, we got some ice cream, and walked around town, talking."