Jourdan Mathews has a secret, and she knows she needs to take this one to the grave.
* * *
Her life was never complicated: a college student with a close family, good friends, and a plan for her future as a doctor. Had that night had never happened...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
These were good times.
I knew that in my bones as I looked around the outcropping of rocks at my friends who were spread out together, huddled in blankets as we all sipped wine, smoked a joint and watched the sun begin to set over the snow-covered peaks before us.
It's a beautiful Thursday evening, stilly chilly in the early February air, but nothing a pile of blankets and a thick jacket couldn't protect against as we all enjoyed the outdoors. And besides, I could never be cold wrapped up in Ryder's arms. His chest moves gently against my back, rising and falling as he keeps me tucked close, legs stretched out on either side of me beneath a heavy blanket.
"I don't even feel the cold." I hear him mutter, almost as though he can read my thoughts and I smile, turning my head slightly so I can look up at him. His cheeks are rosy, the end of his nose a bit red too despite what he says about not being able to feel the cold.
"Neither do I," I agree, smiling and he turns his head to grin at me.
"Remember the first time we sat here together?" He asks and I giggle.
"Of course, I do," I tease. "It wasn't really that long ago."
"Well, yeah, I know," he rolls his eyes playfully at me. "Obviously, but I was just thinking about it. Remembering everything I was thinking that night."
"Tell me more." I hum, turning my head again to look out at the view. A small smile finding my lips when I spot Bex and Noah together at the base of another grouping of rocks. They are laying together too, curled into an embrace.
Neither Andee nor I had pushed Bex for more info after New Year's Eve. All our suspicions and predictions were killing us, but we didn't say a word because we knew Bex would tell us more when she was ready and that pushing her would only cause drama.
All that waiting paid off two weeks ago, when the group was getting together for brunch one Sunday morning and Noah arrived with Bex at the restaurant. Even though Andee and I expected it, we could still barely contain ourselves when they approached our table, hand in hand, a smile the likes of which I'd never seen on Noah stretching across his face.
In all the years I'd known him, and Bex too for that matter, they were the last two people on the planet I ever expected to talk outside of our group, let alone form a relationship. Bex also hadn't expected it, when she'd told us the story later, she explained he sort of snuck up on her.
Apparently, they hooked up on Halloween, both on an ecstasy induced high, but Bex admitted to me that later she'd known it wasn't just the drugs that'd made their 2 am rendezvous so exciting. After that, they continued to hook up in secret, not wanting to spark questions over something that they both intended to be a one-time fling.
