Discipline (22 page)

Oh my God, I knew where this was
heading.

“… like, right across the street from him.
Apparently, Sunday night, at like one in the morning — ”

Oh my God, oh my God.

“ — she heard a car driving down the street
so she looked out the window to see whose it was and whattayaknow,
it was Mr. Cole’s car. So now she’s staring out the window because
apparently that’s just what she does if she sees his car. And she
couldn’t see what was happening but she knew he was parked at this
point and he wasn’t going into his house just yet and she could
just
hear
, you know? She could hear that he was still
outside and he was with a
woman
.”

I swallowed hard. “How did she know he was
with someone? And that it was a woman?”

“Because. She could
hear
. And at one
point, the girl practically screamed. His. Name. In the middle of
the night. Outside. And it was Cara’s voice.”

No. No, it wasn’t.

“And then this is the good part, or the
second best part…” Kelsey actually covered her mouth for a moment,
blushing. “Oh my God, okay, so this is what everyone’s been talking
about apparently… so after she heard Cara totally
moan
, she
heard his footsteps go really fast to the front door and just slam
it shut, meaning it was about to be on. So hard.”

Oh. My. God.

“Oh God, I’m sorry I ruined your dreams!”
Kelsey giggled, pulling me into a big hug and planted a kiss on my
cheek. “But like, didn’t we all expect this? They were that couple,
they had to get back together. They’re like, grown up versions of
the prom king and prom queen. And — ” Kelsey jumped in the middle
of her speech. “ — oh! The best part: he’s amazing because
literally, people could hear Cara moaning from their own houses.
Isn’t that crazy? We always knew they were the hot couple but we
didn’t know it was…
that
hot. Like… the fact that he’s not a
gentleman in bed? You know? Oh my God, can you even imagine it?
Ugh, I guess that’s all we
can
do! Imagine.”

I could only stare at Kelsey, unable to
speak. My excitement was quickly coming crashing down as my mind
shifted into overdrive, trying to figure out what all this meant
for Aaron. What if Cara revealed that it hadn’t been her? She’d
hear about this eventually and interrogate him about whom it was
he’d slept with. Considering her history, I prayed this wouldn’t
spark more of her falsified stories, especially since they’d come
from anger this time around.

Snapping me out of my anxious state was my
phone, which made the seemingly loudest and most grating sound
against my dresser as it buzzed with several texts. Grateful for a
distraction, I grabbed it, hoping to find a message from Adriana,
maybe Em.

But the messages were all from Ben. They
didn’t come as a total shock me, but still, my heart sank into my
stomach as I read them.

Aaron Samuel Cole

DOB: March 7

Phone: (516) 555 − 1221

Address: 21 Maris Avenue. Woodhill, NY

SSN#: 919-08-1012

Woodhill Senior High Fall Schedule

Period 1-4: Room 108A

Period 5: Room 212B

Period 6: Lunchroom Duty

Period 7-9: Room 108A

CHAPTER
14

She’s asking who I was with. She heard.

Of course Cara had heard the story by now.
That her ex had been heard having sex with a woman — a woman
everyone assumed to be her. I stared at Aaron’s text as Adriana
read over my shoulder. She let out a breath.

“Perfect timing. Looks like the poor guy
needed a vacation from Woodhill.”

And from Ben, apparently. But I didn’t tell
the girls about Ben’s text for fear of putting a giant damper on
their Labor Day weekend. I kept the information to myself,
agonizing silently. I’d known that I’d done this — put Aaron on
Ben’s insane, vindictive radar — but I’d allowed myself forget
about it, to enjoy Aaron and foolishly hope that Ben would simply
forget everything. In a way, I still was. For the sake of the next
week, I told myself that Ben was simply trying to intimidate me.
That the messages meant nothing.

“Nina!” Adriana surprised me, suddenly
leaning over and sticking her face in mine. “Are you going to
sourpuss all weekend? Because you better not.”

“Is sourpuss a verb?”

“It didn’t have to be.”

“Ouch.” I cracked a grin.

“She smiled!” Linh squealed from the front
seat. “Get her to do it again!”

Em glanced at us through the rearview
mirror. “Quick, Ade, say more things to make her happy.”

Adriana snapped her fingers as she tried to
think. “Puppies. Unicorns. Puppies riding unicorns. Cupcakes. Also,
forget Aaron’s crazy ex — she’s probably telling everyone in town
that she was the person they heard moaning. She’s got too much
pride to admit that he got over her that quickly, especially if
she’s been telling everyone that they’re about to get back
together.”

I tilted my head and considered it. She had
a point about Cara. But that still left Ben to worry about. But for
the sake of the girls, I humored their car games and pretended that
everything was fine, telling myself I’d be damned if I let Ben ruin
my first real vacation in years.

“Wakey, wakey, we’re here!”

I’d fallen asleep at some point but woken up
to Adriana’s jubilant singing along with the sight of Em’s Chrysler
pulling into the driveway of the beautiful, oversized cottage that
we’d be calling home for the next week or so. Parked at the end of
the sprawling, manicured lawn were several other cars already,
including Harry and the kitchen guys’ gigantic cargo van and Mike
and Aaron’s borrowed Jeep.

“There are the boys!” Linh pointed, climbing
excitedly out of the front seat in her asymmetrical hem maxi dress.
I undid my seatbelt slowly as I watched her fly into Mike’s arms
the moment he emerged from the driver’s seat.

“
Damn
, girl,” Adriana exhaled as we
watched Aaron step out from the passenger side in the simple but
outrageously sexy combination of a white V-neck, khaki shorts and
aviator sunglasses. Somehow, the baseball cap topped it off to make
him look more effortlessly sexy than even Adriana could handle.
“Nina, get the worry off your face and go say hi to your gorgeous
man. I’ll kill you both if you spend this entire vacation thinking
about drama from home.”

“Alright, alright,” I managed a laugh as she
began to actually kick my ass out of the car with her sandaled
foot. I hopped out, eyes on Aaron as I felt the crisp Northeastern
breeze blow through my hair. Immediately, his gaze found me and to
my relief, he smiled wide.

“Hi,” I murmured, closing my eyes for a
second as he kissed my lips. “You okay?”

His hand cupped the back of my neck. “Why
wouldn’t I be?”

“Woodhill… hearing us.
Me
. Cara.
And…” I cut off, deciding to keep mum about Ben’s text for now. I
didn’t have the heart to tell Aaron just yet. There was too much of
an adorable twinkle in his eye.

“I forgot about that the second I saw you,”
he said with a little laugh, blinking as if just realizing it
himself that very second. “You look…” He stepped back to take a
full look at me in the gauzy dress I’d planned on wearing for him a
few days ago. It was thin, delicate and the color of a ripe
watermelon, with similarly mouthwatering effects, apparently. I
giggled as Aaron ran his hand along the side of my body, his eyes
taking me in. “Christ,” he laughed to himself quietly. “I can’t
wait to have the next three nights with you. This break couldn’t
have come at a better time.”

“That’s what I said! But get a room, you
two,” Adriana sang as she flounced past us with her neon overnight
bag. She giggled and threw a wink our way before disappearing into
the house with Em, just as Mike approached with Linh wrapped around
his midsection.

“My hero, Nina. It’s been too long since I
got to go somewhere with this guy and just hang out. It was never a
real vacation with Robo-Girlfriend.”

Linh squinted. “Who?”

“My ex,” Aaron laughed.

Mike groaned. “Literally none of us could
drink more than two beers if we were with her because God forbid
anyone looked too ruddy to take nice pictures. And there was no
relaxing on the beach or trying out some surf shack you just passed
by — we had to do exactly what she had on her nineteen-page
itinerary or she’d have a meltdown.” He pretended to shoot himself
in the temple as we headed into the house. “Best part: itinerary
always started at six in the morning, so you could count on her
hunting you down if you weren’t in your hotel room by 10PM.”

Linh’s feather lashes fluttered with
surprise. “We don’t go to sleep till about 6AM when we’re
here.”

“That’s what I’m talking about.” Mike
reached over Linh’s petite frame to hold a fist out to Aaron, who
laughed and pounded it. “Alright, I’m gonna stop talking about her
now. You shouldn’t have to think about her while you’re here. In
fact
.” Mike stopped in his tracks and held out his palm to
both Aaron and me. “You two. Phones. Put ‘em there.”

It was either a great idea or a terrible
one.

Aaron and I raised our eyebrows at him and
then each other, smiling before taking our cell phones and slapping
them into Mike’s palm. We watched as he quickly ran back to the
Jeep, tossing them both into the glove compartment before coming
back and draping one heavy arm around Aaron and the other around
me.

“No phones till the ride home. Break the
rule and you face a punishment that Linh and I have yet to decide
on. But trust me, she can think of something. She’s got a talent
for that.”

I laughed. “I don’t want to know what that
means, but okay.”

“Al
right
. Now here’s to finally
having a real fucking vacation.”

~

Throwing the curtains open, I looked out the
window at the massive backyard, crystal blue pool and brick terrace
complete with a fire pit. Grilling alongside Harry and Marco were
Aaron and Mike, all of them holding drinks and looking like some
unrealistically attractive billboard advertisement for beer.

“I like the view,” I remarked with a smile.
“Thank you, love.”

Though Adriana had drawn the straw to be the
one guest with her own bedroom, she’d forfeited the privilege and
given it to Aaron and me.

“I just didn’t want to have to go to the
bathroom in the middle of the night and find you guys doing it over
the sink,” she explained while helping me unpack my bag. “Because I
would still sit down and pee and it’d just be an awkward situation
for all of us,” she said before smirking and dangling something in
the corner of my eye. “By the way, I see what you’re doing here,
and I like it.”

I turned to see her holding my white crochet
dress in the air.

“Torture device?” she asked. “Honestly,
I
wanted to make out with you that night. I can only imagine
how much pain Aaron was in.”

I groaned and laughed as I recalled that
night. It already felt like so long ago. “God, I hated you that
night.”

“That’s because you had the evil of Benjamin
Kingdon still lingering in your body,” Adriana said, raising her
eyebrows as she pulled a lacy white bra out of my tote bag with her
pinky. “Speaking of that shitbrain…”

Please, let’s not
, I pleaded
silently.

“Has anyone seen him since I threw Dr.
Pepper on his crotch?”

“No,” I answered, realizing how foolish I’d
been to think that I could ever go a month without hearing from
Ben.

“That’s good.” Adriana pulled out the
matching panties to the bra she held. “Did
he
buy you
these?” she asked, biting back a devious smile. I glanced at the La
Perla set, tilting my head a bit.

“Huh. I left all the things he bought me at
his apartment… but that might be from him.” I stared, not even
realizing it until that second.

“Is it weird that I’m taking a lot of
pleasure in the fact that you’re going to fuck Aaron in this when
Ben bought it for you?” Adriana asked.

“I’m not fazed by anything you do or say at
this point, Ade.”

She threw her head back and laughed. “Good,
because I was just about to tell you that
this
,” she dangled
the lingerie set, “just got me crazy excited because I brought
something that looks almost exactly the same. And now I’m turned on
by either you or me or both.”

I snorted, trying to change the subject from
Ben. “Who were you going to wear it for? Harry?”

“I don’t know.” Adriana tossed the set
aside. “We’ll see. I kind of want to wear it for you so we can be
twinsies,” she giggled, taking a swig of her beer. “Anyway, hurry
up and put a bikini on. I want to get in that pool.” She paused.
“What are you staring at, silly?”

I blinked. I hadn’t even realized I’d been
staring at the triangle bikini that I had purchased for my vacation
with Ben, Dane and Dane’s girlfriend. I’d packed it knowing that
it’d been purchased with my own money and that I’d yet to wear it,
but looking at it gave me that dirty, crawling feeling on my skin
again.
Get over it
, I scolded myself.
Get him out of your
head
.

But I couldn’t. A clear image of Ben was
searing my mind along with the text filled with all of Aaron’s
personal information. Desperately, I wanted to know what Ben was up
to at that very second. Whether or not he was making good on his
stupid, annoying passive threats. I felt a sudden itch to run to
the Jeep, retrieve my phone and see if he’d sent me any other
messages.

But I didn’t.

“Sourpuss. Stop it.”

At Adriana’s insistence, I put on my
swimsuit and let her bring me out to the terrace, where Aaron
gravitated to me within a half second of spotting me. His eyes were
a crystal clear blue as he took me in, his lips soft and sweet as
they brushed against my forehead and then my mouth, his arm
wrapping loosely around my waist. He was relaxed,
happy
. And
he had his own issues to think about regarding a crazy ex.
The
least you can do for him is forget yours for a second.