Collins managed to cry the entire thirty minute ride back home, mascara coating her cheeks and snot dripping onto her red top.
Initially, I'd tried to console her, but it was pointless. I'd never seen her this way - the sobs wracking her entire small body. Behind her wall of sarcasm and artificial indifference, she really loved Trinity.
"Come on." I held her hand as we walked slowly up the front steps and back into the empty house. My parents wouldn't be back for a few more hours. Every year they stayed and danced the night away, closing down the event in each other's arms.
"We need to get some ice on your face." I coaxed, but Collins slumped down dramatically in the entryway.
"Fuck my face. No one cares about my stupid ugly face." She howled, fresh tears washing her cheeks but I ignored her, kicking off my heels and walked barefoot into the kitchen.
"You aren't ugly, Col. You're beautiful, and lots of people care about that gorgeous face..."
"Oh yeah? Like who?" She shot back as I removed a bag of peas from the freezer.
"What about that hot guy you were dancing with?"
"Ew! He smelled like grandma's gin cabinet and Abercrombie Fierce."
I giggled as I tripped over my forgotten shoes on my way back to her. I still felt the electric buzz from the champagne despite the dramatic series of events that followed.
"Well, Mister Abercrombie is still more action than I got tonight..." I held up the bag to her face and she winced.
"Sorry I got myself punched and screwed up your night with Eli." She took over holding the bag against her already bruising right eye.
"It's okay. I think you might've been right." I sighed, crossing and uncrossing my legs on the white wood floor.
"Right about what?"
"About being in too deep. At least deeper than he is, but I guess that's nothing new..." She reached out her small free hand to hold mine.
"Quit beating yourself up. You have a big heart. You just need to find someone to fill it up all the way." Somehow Collins' drunken knowledge made sense. We sat there holding hands for several moments until she groaned and grabbed her head a little.
"Okay, okay Rocky. Let's get you up to bed." I half dragged, half walked Collins to her bedroom, helping her out of her clothes and used one of her makeup wipes to wash off the black from her cheeks, making sure to take extra care around her new shiner.
"Thanks, sis." She whispered, crawling backwards into the bed and it felt like something had shifted between us. Like we had reached an understanding that had long eluded us.
"Don't mention it." I yawned, walking backwards from her room, feeling my own tiredness setting in. It had to be close to two in the morning by now, and the walk down the long corridor to my room seemed to take forever.
I pushed the door to my bedroom open and my hand flew to my face. "Jesus, Eli!" I gasped. "You scared the living shit out of me!"
He smiled widely from his position seated on the edge of my bed. His black and white tuxedo looked more rumpled than at the event, but it didn't make him any less appealing. If anything, it made him look sexier, in a fresh to fuck kind of way. I swallowed against the lust lodged in my throat.
"How...How did you get in here?!"
"The window." He shrugged, shoving his large hands into his pockets. All of my earlier uncertainty wavered when he was this close.
YOU ARE READING
The Sweetest Summer
Romance**COMPLETE** Elijah West was everything, and I was just...Avery Adams. The tomboy, the girl next door, the friend zone occupant. The girl who somehow grew up while he was gone filming his television show. But this summer he's back, and the sparks a...
