Afterglow

inflamed

"Come on, just take the shot!  Don't be a-"

"I'm taking the shot, okay?  Geez," I muttered out at Vera's insistence.  

We were all back at Lachlan's parent's house, and instead of populating the hot tub, I decided that I would've rather hung out in the downstairs recreational room, mainly because of the...activities I'd participated in at the hotel that had left me feeling more than a little sore in certain places. 

I could still remember the feeling of Lachlan stretching me and making me whole while-

"Katrina Randolph, are my eyes deceiving me?  Are you blushing?!"

"What?  No.  I don't blush.  My skin's too dark to even see a blush," I said confidently, although that false bravado came from the fact that I assumed I was still dark enough for that to be true, but living in upstate New York in the middle of winter was more than enough to sap the color from my skin that I'd achieved out in California. 

"No, I think you are!  And you can't stop staring at Lachlan.  I saw you two disappear at the hotel, so I'm honestly just giving you a hard time, but come on, just between us girls, did you guys make up?"

I rolled my eyes at Vera's playful words and threw back the scorching liquid, the heat drawing the fire from my inflamed cheeks at what she was hinting at. 

"If you already know the answer to that, why are you making me respond?  You obviously just want to humiliate me," I reminded her, wanting nothing more than to escape this conversation with Vera, Blythe, Sloane and Jenna while the guys were over on the other side of the basement playing beer pong for whatever reason I had no idea. 

Guys and games that had to do with balls, it was a macabre fascination, really. 

"Because, watching you all nervous over a guy is hilarious, and really cute.  Plus, I haven't been able to tease you for a month.  Which reminds me," she said, drawing us in by pausing. 

All of a sudden, her hand came out and punched me on the arm, causing a shoot of pain to go flashing through me. 

"Ow!  What was that for?"

Before I even had the words out, I knew exactly what that was for.  She gave me a meaningful look and I just rolled my eyes. 

"Okay, maybe I deserved that, but did you have to hit me so hard?"

My whine made the rest of the girls chuckle.  At least they'd all accepted Jenna's presence without argument, and they weren't as upset as I had expected at me.  Vera was more playful than outright angry, but I assumed they were just happy that I'd given up my vow of silence with them that she didn't want to push me away again. 

A strike of guilt shot me in the chest as I realized the lengths my best friend was going to in trying to keep her cool at how I'd acted and I was just going to leave right after this night and possibly never see her again.  

All to keep her safe, though.  I'd rather her hate me and my ghost forever than her be dead herself, because of me.  Well, at the hands of my evil birth father, but I'd still be guilty by association.  

If she'd never met me, she would never have been in danger, none of my friends or family would have, and that sinking realization put a damper on my good mood. 

That is, until Lachlan came sauntering over with a half smirk on his face and something in his hand that looked suspiciously like some ridiculously expensive bourbon. 

"Come on, let's drink this.  It's from my dad's secret stash and it's like over a hundred years old."

"Won't Dad be super pissed when he finds out you stole that?"