14
"Wow." April muttered.
Tahti looked surprised and she lifted her eyes to exchange looks with him. His eyes seemed to dig into her, searching for the truth within her despite the lies her eyes were portraying.
Her hand went down to pick her glass and he smiled as he reached to pick his.
"Boo." Jennie said with a thumb down.
"Did you plan this in advance? What does this make us look like?" Chris asked.
"You kissed by choice, that's all." Tahti said with a laugh
"Forget it. Let's go for a smoke." April suggested and Sol walked in as the gang rose to head out.
"Sol."
"You're smoking too?" Sol asked Jennie.
"Yeah, but who is Ralph? He just called you." Jennie replied as Sol took off her jacket.
"What?...Oh. Just someone I know."
She smiled and Sol guessed she was still drunk. "Someone you know? I thought I knew everyone you knew."
"You don't." Sol replied and wore her jacket over Jennie's shoulders. "It's cold outside."
"Thank you." Jennie said and headed out with the guys.
"What were you doing?" Tahti asked as Sol walked over to her.
"Taking a walk." She replied and turned to look around. "Your place is nice."
"My aunt used to live here." Tahti replied as she looked over the mess. It would take a while to clean it all up.
"Why did you make things so hard for yourself?" Sol asked with a pity look.
Tahti sighed. "I know, right?”
Jennie stared blankly into thin air as April was looking through her phone while they were outside.
"Sol is so beautiful up close. She's a goddess." Herley sighed.
"We get it, so just tell her. Please stop torturing us." April blurted and took a drag from her cigarette as Herley raked his fingers through his hair.
"Jennie, what type of guy does Sol like?" He asked and April wriggled on her seat as she leaned against Derek.
"He's driving me crazy."
"I don't want to tell you." Jennie replied with a gentle but stern look.
Herley was surprised. "What! Why don't want to tell me?...You said you'll help me."
"She can’t tell you cause she doesn't seem to know either." Derek said.
"There's no way. Who else will know, then?” Herley asked, he was not going to believe that he couldn’t get any useful information from Jennie
"Sol..." Jennie started and immediately had his whole attention captured as he turned to her. "Yes? Go on "
"...hates boring guys like you." She completed and April laughed.
"Come on. I'm nothing but fun. If you took the fun part out of me, I'd be a zombie, right?" He asked and she rolled her eyes and made to take another drag when Derek stopped her.
"Don't smoke so much."
After trying to put the house in a more meaningful state than the crew left it, Tahti and Sol stepped out to join the others. Tahti’s mind had frequently gone back to the kissing game they'd played while she and Sol were inside. That had been the reason behind inviting Demir over to her place anyways, she had hoped they would ignite something this night.
She turned to search for Demir who was no where to be spotted nearby. That was weird, he had followed them out.
"Where's Demir?" She asked before sitting next to April
"I don't know. Is he inside?" Herley asked.
“Don’t you think they would have seen him if he was inside?” April asked with a scoff.
"He must be on his phone. He's always calling someone." Jennie replied and she sighed, wanting to smoke again when her mind went to Adriana, who wasn't around as well.
"Come to think of it, I haven't seen Adriana either."
"Did those two leave together?" Derek frowned and April sat up immediately.
"Call them...Let's go find them."
"Where did he go?" Tahti mumbled as she kept looking around hoping to see his figure lingering in a corner
"What?" Sol asked and she turned to her.
"It's nothing."
"Can I borrow some sweatpants? I’m getting kind of cold out here."
"Sure, I'll get them."
"Thank you. Let me use your bathroom." Sol said and headed for her bathroom, while Tahti went over to her closet inside.
She had barely reached for the door of her closet when her ears picked the sound of laughter from inside and her hand froze.
Did she hear right? She wondered
"It tickles." She heard Jasmine say and she felt her heart ring in her ears. Another red flag, her head told her but her heart didn't want to believe it.
She was probably imagining things. There was no way Demir could fool around with a girl under her roof. That didn't make sense.
"That tickles." It came again.
Her hand moved faster than her head and she quietly grabbed the doorknob and turned it as gently as she could. She was only going to peep, not to interrupt them, she said to herself.
The door gave way quietly and she mildly pushed the door in, as slowly as she could and her eyes were greeted with an unexpected scene.
"It tickles." Jasmine blushed as he trailed a finger to her face and she turned to lock eyes with Tahti.
"Oh my God." She screamed, freaking Tahti out and pushing Chris as she raised her clothes to cover her half naked body. Tahti closed the door with a sigh and leaned against it at the other side.
Like seriously? She wondered.
"This is so embarrassing." Chris was saying to her, outside her house, a couple of minutes later and she was surprised when he took her hand in both of his.
"Listen, I know it's shameless of me but can you keep this a secret?"
"Please don't tell the others." Jasmine blinked and she turned to her. She had never pictured or imagined the duo together, and had been completely dumbfounded on seeing them fooling around in her closet back then.
She sighed. She wasn't the type who involved herself in other people's business anyway.
"Alright, I won't."
Chris heaved a sigh of relief. "Thank you so much." He said and lowered his hand to pick up Jasmine's. "I won't let go of her."
"Just go."
"I'm sorry." Jasmine apologized again.
"It's fine." She replied and Chris turned to her.
"Let's go."
She sighed again as they headed to join the others, before she handed the sweatpants to Sol, wondering how she could have thought he was Demir. She'd probably gone crazy.
The crew gave up on calling and trying to find Demir and Adriana. They were spent already and needed rest, so they all decided it was time to go home.
Tahti was almost nearing the entrance of her apartment complex when she sighted Demir kissing someone in the dark and her eyes widened in shock. Not wanting to be seen, she walked over to hide where she could see them as he pulled back from the girl.
"What?" Her eyes pricked up and she recognized the voice to be Adriana's. "Is that it?...Just tell me if you're not up for it."
"It's not like that...Go inside first. I need to make a call." He said and Tahti peeked out her head from her hiding place to see Adriana head in.
She bit her lip and waited till Adriana was out of sight before she walked out. She was just going to pretend she had seen nothing.
She was about to walk in when he reached out for her arm.
"It was just a game. I guess she wanted to try it." He said.
So he had seen her, she thought and she slipped her arm out of his hold.
"You don't need to explain."
"What about you? Didn't you want to try it?" He asked, a serious look on his face.
I want to, her mind cried out but she was going to let her head take charge. "Why would I?...Not at all." She replied as she tore her eyes off him.
"I wanted to do it with you." He softly said and she slowly returned her eyes to him.
"What?" She asked and he neared, finding it difficult to pull away from that sinful but hot gaze of his.
"I thought...you felt the same way." He whispered.
Leave now Tahti, her head warned but her heart was saying otherwise, as he leaned to close in on her.
His face was a couple of inches from hers when her head took charge again and she raised her hand to his chest, to stop him.
She just couldn't do this.
His expression was unreadable as she raised her eyes to his, but she guessed he felt embarrassed to have tried to kiss her.
"Sorry...I won't do it if you don’t want to." He said and she lowered her eyes to his lips. They looked like an invitation, one she would probably never get again so easily.
This was probably the reason April had suggested she invited over to her house.
She couldn't waste that opportunity.
She raised her thumb to run it over his lips, rubbing off any traces of Adriana's lips on his and he looked flummoxed as he raised his thumb to rub his lip.
She raised her arms to his shoulders and went up on tiptoe, and that easily, her mouth was against his. It was barely a kiss—just a quick, startling press of her lips.
He looked stunned as she pulled back from him and he snaked an arm around his waist as he yanked her against him and bent his head to kiss her, melting her into him as his fingers travelled in her hair and her mouth opened to his.
Just like that, she had opened the gates of hell on her own.
