Hex

Chapter 18

Valeria stayed over that night. Danny slept on our couch. Danny, Bishop, Zane, and I stayed up until after midnight, waiting to see if she would leave. I had $5 on her staying, Danny had $5 on her leaving. Every hour that passed, we would quietly cheer that she was still here. I made sure to get my money from Danny, when we all finally considered the deal done.

"It's about damn time he sealed that deal." Zane said. "I would have had her the weekend she moved in."

"She moved in before us," Bishop reminded him.

Zane nodded and smirked. "Exactly."

"Ew, Zane, shut up," I said, throwing a pillow at his head and rolling my eyes.

"Just saying."

"When Finn said he'd never done the relationship thing before, was he for real? He's never had a girlfriend? Not even in high school?" I asked, suddenly remember what he had said outside.

"Never," Bishop shook his head.

"He's had one night stands though, I've made sure of that," Zane said, laughing. He laid back on the couch, arms crossed behind his head, before a thought dawned on him, and he snapped back up. "Vi, have you ever had a one night stand?"

I scrunched my nose up, knowing my answer would rile him up. "Noooo." I prepared myself for the onslaught of insults.

"Never? Not even one?" Zane asked. Bishop looked like he was trying to seem less interested than he actually was in my answer.

"Not even once."

"But, like, you've had sex right?" Zane asked, growing concerned.

"Yes, Zane, but remember my two years at college weren't anything like yours. I had a boyfriend for most of it, and my parents were basically trying to arrange a marriage between us. They were pissed when we broke up last year." I glanced at Bishop, wondering if he would answer Zane's question.

"Yeah, I've tried to get Bishop to indulge in our ways, but he's no good at it," Zane said, scowling at Bishop like it was a cardinal sin.

I caught Bishop looking at me, but when I caught his eye, he looked away. I slowly let my breath out. Maybe him caring extra about my answer was all in my head. "Well, now that you're done embarrassing me, I'm gonna go to bed. Goodnight," I said, before heading back to my room.

"Dude," Zane hissed. "Do something!" I halted outside my door, my ears perking up.

"Shut up, Zane," Bishop said. I bit my lip under a smile.

"What? I made you look good and everything! I was very well behaved." I let out a quiet giggle at that. I stayed for a couple of seconds longer, but they turned the Xbox on, so I knew their conversation was over.

I worked a lot the next few days, so I didn't see much of my friends, until Thursday, when we decided that an appropriate amount of time had passed and that we could try to have a rehearsal. I thought making music would be therapeutic for Finn. I was wrong.

He showed up drunk and angry, again. We tried to rehearse anyways, but it didn't last long. "So, this is definitely a bad time to tell you this, but I got you guys a gig for Saturday night," Danny said, after we had all abandoned our instruments.

"Finn?" Bishop asked, looking over at him. "You gonna feel up to it?"

"I'll be there," he muttered.

"Are you sure? We don't have to. No one would blame you," I said.

     "Yeah, it's not too late for me to cancel it," Danny said.