Striptease

Hurt

[Everleigh]

"So, Mikayla–"

Charlie began to say as my stomach bottomed out, how badly was he going to chew out my best friend for ratting me out unintentionally?

Probably not too bad because, ya know, he's a nice guy but I have a feeling there was gonna be some anger directed towards me later after our date ended.

And I fully deserved it.

I wasn't even denying that which is a first for me.

"--When exactly did you two discuss and plan for this upcoming bake sale? Recently, I assume?"

Mikayla wearily eyed Charlie as she took a longer drink from her wine glass this time, Ryan shifting around in his seat nervously as if he was the one about to be lectured instead of me or my best friend.

Yeah, fat chance of that happening.

Though I'd much rather have Charlie chew his ass out than mine on the car ride home.

"Uh…Yeah? We've been planning to participate in this sale since we got the news that Teresa was placed on the shortlist for next fall's semester. I thought you knew about it."

Acid churned in my stomach as my friend unknowingly threw me under the bus for not mentioning any of this to Charlie beforehand but it's not like I was planning on keeping it a secret forever.

I just wanted a few more days to gather my thoughts before I dropped this bombshell on him but apparently, the universe and God had other plans in mind, mainly ones that involve Kayla spilling the beans a bit too early on.

Now I had to backpedal my way out of this situation before it escalated to the point where I couldn't control what would happen next.

"Are you sure you're right though, Kay? Maybe we hadn't thought about participating until very recently?"

I tried to hint to my friend to stop her rambling before these circumstances got out of hand, my eyes wide as I tried to telepathically communicate to her to get her to stop talking, but she only frowned with confusion marring her stunning features.

"What are you talkin' about, Eve? We just discussed this awhile back–"

Realization dawned upon her sweet features before she gave a nervous smile to our group, her attentive gaze dropping down to her wine glass as she remained silent for the rest of the double dinner date.

And after it ended, when Charlie started bringing me back to my apartment where the babysitter I hired to watch Teresa for the evening was since the babysitter couldn't afford the drive to Charlie's apartment which I found to be sympathetic towards, his expensive penthouse was a bit more into the city then my lower end apartment complex was, I couldn't help but fidget with my fingertips as I started out the passenger window at the dark night starry filled sky.

They twinkled like gems in the sky, those precious stars.

Hell, they shined more lightness down onto the people of this planet then the lightness I couldn't manage to bring into the darkening mood inside the sports car.

Silence creeped in between us, wedged itself like a roadblock or an immovable barrier that neither of us wanted to address aloud.

Fuck, I'd rather get hit by a train and then ran over by a cement truck at this point.

It wasn't just that the silence was awkward, it was that it was unwanted as Mikayla's words had been earlier.

I still wanted to smack some sense into my friend's brain but I couldn't blame her for bringing it up, it was my own dumb fault for never mentioning it to Charlie.