The Legend of the Eight: The Charmed (Book 4)

25: I Lost My Mind (& My Shoes) Last Night

TWENTY-FIVE: I LOST MY MIND (& MY SHOES) LAST NIGHT
NOVEMBER 1
NICOLE BRADLEY

HEAD THROBBING, NICOLE WOKE UP Sunday morning with an uneasy stomach and a sour taste in her mouth. She was in a tee shirt three sizes too large and a dorm that looked nothing like her own. In the bed beside her slept Liam Heart and for a moment, Nicole panicked that she'd done something incredibly stupid. But then she saw a mound of blankets in the shape of Alex Hummel on the floor between them and she breathed. Slowly, the events of last night became clear and she remembered the Halloween party that Effie Salvatore and Georgia Mae threw in their dorm. Thanks to Effie's older (and legal) sister, Davina, drinks like spiked apple cider, pumpkin ale, and a special alcoholic Witch's Brew were passed around carelessly, explaining Nicole's hangover.

Nicole's jeans hung off the bedpost and she swiped them quickly to put them back on. She moved quickly and quietly to redress before either boy woke up and made it out the door without stirring them. In the hall, she exhaled a breath of relief. Then she ran to her room.

"I THINK I MESSED UP last night," Nicole confessed to Kate later. They were sitting in their room, drinking two large coffees and nursing sizable hangovers from the night before.

"Did you go up to Liam Heart and tell him you wanted him to take you back to your room and kiss you senseless because you're in love with him?" Kate asked, holding her head in pain.

"No but oddly enough, I did wake up next to him this morning," answered Nicole and a crease formed on her forehead from all of her frowning that morning. "Don't worry. Nothing happened. I was there because of Alex who slept on the floor, by the way."

"Then I don't get it. How did you mess up?"

"Because," said Nicole like it was obvious. "Alex slept on the floor. I slept in his bed and he slept on the floor. We've been dating for weeks now and yesterday was the perfect opportunity to finally just... Well, you know, do it."

Kate snorted through a laugh. "You just said do it."

Nicole rolled her turquoise eyes and sipped her latte. "You know what I mean. And we didn't do anything. There were a few drunken kisses but then... Nothing."

"Why are you upset about that?" Kate asked. "I thought you wanted it to be special. Drunk on Halloween is not special."

"There's a different between a girl's first time and her first time with someone new," Nicole said—more like grunted.

Kate lifted her head up only to immediately regret it. The blood rushed to it, setting off a new headache. "So what would last night have been for you? Your first time or your first time with someone new?"

Nicole sipped her coffee with a curious, telling smirk. The truth wasn't quite as juicy as her non-answer made it seem. Her first time was with Gray Jones—the older boy during her freshman year. It was a spring formal after-party and they didn't speak after it was over. She hadn't been with anyone else ever since.

"Well I've never had a first time with anyone," Kate revealed and Nicole was surprised.

"Not even Cam? You guys were together forever."

"I know," Kate said like she regretted it. "But it was always something we thought we'd get around to and then we broke up so it never happened. I guess that's a good thing, though. The breakup would've been messier if we had."

"And Liam?"

Kate shook her head. "He'd have to look at me to sleep with me. And he avoided me like the plague last night. It was humiliating. But I kept throwing myself at him because I'm pathetic and the sickest part of it all is that I know that and I still can't stop."