After a year and a half of trying to move on from the what-ifs, the tides have pulled Alexandra Rivera and Zachariah Kim back together again.
*****
In the h...
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My brain felt like it was going to pound out of my skull.
Sunlight trickled in through the crack in the curtains and even though it wasn't much, it was enough to wake me up. I rubbed my eyes and felt the scratch of morning gunk flake off. It took a few minutes to open my eyes, but once I did, I took in my surroundings knowing the memories of last night would flood back to me as soon as I did.
We were lying down in the living room with a thick blanket on top of us, a floor mattress beneath us, and a fort of pillows surrounding us. I remembered stumbling into the room and clumsily forming everything before passing out. He didn't even have time to say goodnight. Just before I fell asleep, I felt him press a chaste kiss on my forehead.
When I let my head roll to the side, I watched as Zachariah let out a sputter of noise before rolling over onto his side away from me, away from the sunlight pouring in.
My breath was mintier than I expected. I must have managed to pull myself together enough to brush my teeth before leaving the bathroom. I suspected he had something to do with that. He always took care of me.
As quietly as I could, I slipped the blanket off my body and shimmied out of the fort, noting a pillow had been placed between us.
To my luck, Katerina was waking up right when I walked into the hallway. She didn't notice me at first, so I made my swift attack and pushed her into the bathroom, ignoring her yelps as I closed the door behind me.
"I thought you were an intruder," she cried, hand pressed to her chest.
"Zach and I made out last night."
Katerina choked on her spit. I slapped her back just to make sure she was functioning. She looked a lot like how I felt last night while I was throwing up in the toilet.
"Oh shit."
I nodded. "Oh shit."
Oh shit didn't begin to encapsulate the events of last night, but that was the closest any of us could manage. I wasn't sure if I would ever be able to make sense of what happened.
She stared back at me while I sunk to the ground, resting my elbows on my knees and my head between my hands. I thought maybe a good night's sleep would help alleviate some of whatever I'd been feeling last night, but I could still feel him all over me as if we were always just one entity. I was right; nothing was ever going to be the same, and a twisted part of me enjoyed that. I couldn't ever imagine going back to what had happened before the kiss. It was like night and day.
"I don't even know what to say," she gawked.
"Me neither," I sighed. After a few moments, she sat down on the toilet. "I feel gross and sticky."
She raised a brow at me. "Are you sure you two only made out 'cause—"
"Yes," I interrupted her before she jumped to any conclusions. "We made out and I almost threw up on his shoes. And then I built the pillow fort in the living room and passed out. That's all that happened."
