Gray stared into space, unblinking, frozen. First. That was her first. He was her first kiss.
He whipped his head around to look at her as slipped out before he grabbed her hand, linking their fingers together. Then he, too, leaned close to her ear to whisper, “If it makes you feel much better, you’re my first love.”
Gray knew what his appearance was like when he stepped out and into curious eyes. swollen Lips, disheveled hair, rumpled clothes. He didn't care. He merely gave everyone a dazed smirk.
“So,” Laura broke the silence. “Does that mean you guys…?” She quirked an eyebrow.
Gray grinned, bent down and captured Violeta’s lips in a short kiss in front of everyone. When he pulled away, he winked at Laura. “What do you think?”
Violeta couldn’t breathe. Cheeks flushed from embarrassment, she buried her face in Gray’s shoulder. After the heat in the close confines of the closet, each breath was cool, the air sliding across her burning skin and bringing the tiniest bit of relief.
But even as she did, she caught sight of Josh…. and his positively broken-hearted expression. Guilt flooded her system.
Gray chuckled, wrapping her arms around his girlfriend as she hid her face in his shoulder in embarrassment. Adorable. She was so goddamn adorable. Gray lead her to his place in the circle, sat down and pulled her into his lap, arms wrapped around her waist. He rested his chin on her shoulder.
"Well, now that you have a girlfriend," Laura started. "Don't forget about me, otherwise I'll haunt you for the rest of your life."
Gray grinned at her. "How can I forget my self-proclaimed wing woman slash best friend?"
Laura huffed, crossing her arms. "Ungrateful prick."
Gray nuzzled Violeta's neck, eyes closed. Laura watched with an unknown expression on her features before a small smile broke out on her lips. Her friend was happy. That made her happy, too, but when she saw the broken expression on Josh's face, her heart dropped.
Violeta’s breath hitched. She was—She was in his lap. She was in Gray’s lap. Without realizing, she pressed herself against him, and when she opened he eyes and glanced bashfully at her friends, they were grinning from ear to ear.
But when her eyes darted back to Josh, her heart squeezed in pain. I’m sorry, she mouthed, but e merely blinked and turned his head away.
Laura tilted her head to the side. She was so bent on helping her friend that she didn't realize how it would hurt another person. And now it would make Violeta so guilty. She sighed. To please one person, you had to make another suffer. It always worked like that.
Meanwhile, Gray tightened his hold on her.
"I'm sorry," he murmured in her ear. "About Josh."
The game continued around them, but Violeta barely payed attention. She merely stayed curled up in Gray’s lap, shutting her eyes so she didn’t have to look at the second heart she’d broken this month.
“It’s okay…” she whispered, intertwining their fingers. “He—He’ll get over it. Right?”
"Maybe," Gray answered honestly, squeezing her hand, paying no attention to the game. Some guy was tied up with another one, another was having his hair braided by a girl, but Gray paid no attention. "Just remember that it isn't your fault. He'll realize that soon enough, and though I hate saying this, you might need to talk to him."
“I don’t want to think about that right now…” Violeta admitted quietly, turning her head in order to nuzzle his neck. “I—I stopped breaking your heart, but it broke his…. I guess I just do everything wrong…”
"No," Gray shook his head, kissing her on the cheek. God, he was actually kissing her. Was this really real? "It's not your fault. You can't keep everyone happy, Vy. You need to know that."
“I can try…” Violeta jumped a little when Gray kissed her cheek—she still wasn’t used to this new reality. She opened her eyes again… and met Rae’s from across the circle. Rae wiggles her eyebrows, and Violeta went pink.
Laura stretched from her place, a yawn breaking out from her lips.
“Well then,” she almost rubbed her sleepy eyes until she remembered she was wearing lenses. “I think I’m going to call it a day.”
Gray turned to look at her, cheek pressed against his girlfriend’s.
“It’s late out,” he furrowed his eyebrows. “Vy and I can go with you.”
Laura merely waved him off. “It’ll be fine. I’ll be fine. Thanks for the lovely party and fun surprises~”
With the memory of her incident fresh in mind, Violeta shook her head. “Don’t go out alone, Laura…”
But, to everyone’s surprise, it was Josh who spoke up. “I can walk you home..” he offered quietly.
Laura blinked at Josh, tilting her head to the side. The disaster of a lipstick on his lips and on his cheek made her crack a smile.
“Will you?” She fingered her hair. “That would be nice.”
He nodded softly and returned his gaze to the floor as he stood, not daring to look at Violeta.
She swallowed, plagued with guilt and shame.
Gray tightened his hold on her as if to say it wasn’t her fault. He would need time.
Laura walked towards him, her eyes twinkling with mischief. She lifted a finger to his chin and pulled his face up to look into his eyes.
“Hi there,” she purred, purposefully trying to put his attention on her and not the couple. “Is the floor that much better looking than I am?”
But Josh merely pulled away and pushed his hands into his pockets, inclining his head towards the door. “Let’s go..” he said quietly, dropping his focus back to the floor.
Meanwhile, Rae and Lillian were padding over to the new couple, twin grins gracing their lips. “Hey, lovebirds.”
Laura stared at Josh before shaking her head, probably a bit taken aback. Nobody had ever refused her stare like that. Especially not when she was being seductive.
“Okay, let’s go,” she said softly, swinging her handbag over her shoulder.
Gray grinned back at Violeta’s friends.
“Hello, there,” he greeted back. “Something tells me you guys had something to do with us getting selected.”
A smile tugged at Violeta’s lips as her friends kneeled down in front of them. Rae offered them a guilty smirk and a one-shouldered shrug. “Mayyyyybe…. We definitely didn’t have Laura in on it, too…. Definitely didn’t rig the game, or anything…”
Lillian snorted. “Oh, this is great. We’ve got so much to tease Violeta about now..”
Violeta made a tiny squeaking nose and hid her face in Gray’s shoulder.
Josh was careful to stick close to her side as they exited into the crisp night air, but he stayed silent, the heartbroken expression never leaving his face.
"Hey, be nice to my girlfriend," Gray said, but his voice itself was teasing. He hugged Violeta tighter. "And instead of being upset with you, I'm going to thank you. You definitely helped. A lot."
Laura peeked at Josh, biting down on her lip before she stopped.
"I'm sorry," she said quietly. "Not about losing Violeta. Just about getting your heart broken. God, I sound awful. I'm sorry."
Girlfriend.
Violeta’s heart pattered helplessly. I’m a girlfriend. I have a boyfriend.
Lillian wagged a finger at Gray. “We’ve got to lay down some rules, pretty boy. No unprotected sex. No making her uncomfortable. If she needs tampons, you go buy her tampons. Are we clear?”
Josh gave a tiny little shrug, folding his arms against his stomach. “It’s—It’s fine..” he murmured, “I should’ve known better.”
“Well, we’re going to take things slow so you don’t need to worry about unsafe sex,” Gray nuzzled her neck again. “I’m going to make she she’s never uncomfortable. Whatever Vy needs, I will buy. Including tampons. And chocolate and ice cream if she wants it.”
Laura tilted her head as she looked at Josh, a faint smile on her features as the faint light illuminated his face.
“I think I did a pretty good job with the lipstick,” she said instead of replying to what he said. She didn’t want to go home. Not yet. If Josh hadn’t been with her, she probably would have headed to a park. “Do you want to wipe it off, though? I smeared some on your cheek, too.”
“That’s probably a good idea,” Josh admitted, rubbing at the nape of his neck. “And, ah, not to sound creepy, but… where do you live? I should probably know where I’m walking you to…”
Violeta, bright red in the face, leaned forward to smack Lillian across the shoulder. “Lillian!” she exclaimed, horrified. “Control yourself!”
Lillian and Rae both burst out laughing. “God,” the latter giggled, “I can’t wait to tell Sadie and Irene that our Violeta made out with Grayson Jules.”
“I think I have some baby wipes in my bag,” Laura mumbled as she stopped, rummaging through her bag. “And I sort of live ten minutes from here, but you don’t have to walk me all the way through.”
When she finally found the wipes, she smiled in triumph. “Okay, look at me. I’m going to try to wipe it off.”
Gray grinned at the girls.
“Whoa, easy there, Vy. Don’t get so aggressive,” he chuckled. “Remind me to not tease her too much. I wouldn’t want to get smacked across the shoulder like Lillian here.”
“If you teased me,” Violeta muttered, “I’d probably be too flustered to do much.”
Lillian snorted loudly, rubbing at her shoulder. “Ouch. Oh—And her so you two know.” She gave the couple a pointed look. “I’m sleeping over at Irene’s tonight. Use the empty dorm wisely. Don’t make a mess. Don’t touch my cream puffs.”
Josh complied, standing as still as he could. “Do you need any more light? I could use my phone flashlight..”
“Thanks for the offer, Lillian,” Gray said drily, kissing Violeta’s cheek again. If Gray’s head wasn’t too deep in the gutter, then he knew what Lillian meant. “But I think we won’t need that. Your cream puffs would be safe.”
It wasn’t like he didn’t want to use the opportunity. He really did want to, but Violets wanted to take this slow. And since it was her first time, he did, too. And he didn’t even know her boundaries yet. Maybe after this party, they could talk and he’d know where to touch and where to keep his hands and mouth away.
Laura shook her head and stepped forward, the wet wipe twisted in her hand.
“I’m good,” she murmured as she leaned up and lightly dabbed at his cheek, eyes furrowed in concentration. As she tried to remove the lipstick from his cheek, she stuck her tongue out a little, unaware of what she was doing. She rubbed it a but harder against his skin before she hummed in satisfaction, turning her attention to his lips—
And froze. What was she doing? Laura herself didn’t know what she was doing. Flirting shamelessly was what she did best. Using her body to her advantage, seducing both men and women whenever she wanted… but she didn’t think this was right. This boy liked someone else and here she was, up in his personal space. Sure, she liked to see that blush on his features but there were some limits. She hoped she hadn’t crossed his.
