Best Kept Secret (Best Kept #1)

Chapter 16: Beautiful Mess

TRIGGER WARNING: There's talk about suicide. If you're not comfortable, please don't read this chapter.

Song: Unsteady by X Ambassadors

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I was awake before anyone the next morning. My head was throbbing, but I quietly moved out of Benji's embrace and out of his room. I closed his door behind me and I found the bathroom located next to Benji's room. Knowing how I felt, I probably looked the same too.

I splashed water on my face, lightly rubbing my fingers over my skin to wash away sleep. The pain in my head was slowly subsiding with the cool water against my skin. I raked my fingers through my messy hair and sighed. This is as good as it's going to get. And I really wanted to brush my teeth. A shower would be nice too. A nice hot shower. Now I'm just torturing myself.

I walked out of the bathroom and into the living room. There were cups scattered everywhere and then the mess I made in the kitchen last night. I'm glad I remember that. Well, I only remember parts. My feet moved to the kitchen and I looked under their sink to find a trash bag. The least I could do was try to clean up until Benji woke up.

Starting with the living room, I gathered trash and started throwing it into the trash bag and then moved into the kitchen to gather more trash. After collecting all the trash, I wiped down the surfaces in the kitchen and the coffee table in the living room. Once that was all cleaned up, I hand washed the dishes I had used last night and stacked them on the drying rack.

There were six cupcakes left over and I just sat them on top of the bar. Not sure how good they are, but they did taste pretty damn good last night.

When I finished cleaning up, I walked back into Benji's room and found my dress lying across the back of his desk chair. I changed in the bathroom and made my way back to Benji's room with his folded clothes. Instead of lying back down next to him, I walked back out into the living room to find my phone. It was still sitting on the bar where I had left it.

Barely had a charge on it, but I already had a missed call from my mom.

Shocker.

And when I didn't answer, I'm sure she called Mia. Since I didn't have a million and two other missed calls from her, I figured Mia said something convincing. It was almost ten and knowing her, she'll be calling again soon.

"I didn't know you spent the night."

I turned around to see Tyler. Shirtless, blue bed head Tyler. "Uh, yeah." I felt my cheeks heat because knowing Tyler, he's thinking of something totally different. "Get that idea out of your head."

Tyler grinned and tucked his hands into the front pockets of his black jeans. He had a tattoo on his side, a large one, which made it's way down to the top of his hip. It was hard to make out what it was and the last thing I wanted was Tyler to call me out for looking. "You know me so well."

I looked back down at my phone and decided to send a text to my Mia, letting her know I'd be home soon and then placed it back on the counter.

"How is he?" Tyler asked.

And it took me a second to realize he was asking about Benji. "He's going to have a massive headache when he wakes up."

Tyler laughed. "Headaches and hangovers aren't foreign in this apartment. Usually we stay out of each other's way. Especially Mason. He'll tear your arm off if you look at him funny."