The Resurrection of Aubrey Miller (20 page)

My muscles finally relax and I remove the pillow from my face before I can suffocate myself. My heart pounds harder than ever before and my skin glistens all over. Kaeleb chuckles, releasing my legs and gliding upward until his chest settles against mine. I lay there, reveling in my bliss as our heavy breaths mingle and our hearts drum together. Staring into my eyes, Kaeleb’s lips turn upward into a sexy grin as he brings his mouth to mine.

“Hey! You guys in there?” Quinn yells, pounding on my door.

My eyes widen and a startled screech escapes my throat. I shoot straight up, accidentally throwing Kaeleb off my body and the sound of him hitting the floor causes us both to break into a fit of laughter. I swiftly pull my bra back into position and grab my tank, yanking it over my head. Snaking my panties and cargos off the edge of the bed, I quickly slide them on as Quinn continues beating on the door.

“I hear you in there, assholes!”

Our laughter bellows through the room. Kaeleb releases an extremely undignified snort from below me and I lean over to see his shoulders shaking as he tries to contain his humor. With a lazy smile on my face, I slip over the edge of the bed until my hands hit the floor. Crawling next to him, I lean to give him a quick kiss on the mouth just as Walter jumps up. He runs over to us with his tail wagging happily until he jumps and lands on Kaeleb’s chest. Kaeleb reaches over and snags a sock from the floor, finally managing to distract Walter with it just as Quinn shouts yet again.

“We’re leaving in a couple of hours to go to the club! You’re
coming
, right?”

Kaeleb opens his mouth and I slap him on the shoulder. “Shut up.”

He chuckles under his breath as he holds the sock out toward Walter, who jumps back and growls ferociously.

“
Yes
, Quinn! We will be accompanying you this evening!” I yell back.

“So, you’re definitely coming then?”

Kaeleb bursts into laughter and an involuntary smile crosses my face.

I just can’t help myself.

“We’ll be ready, Quinn! Go get dressed!” I shout, still trying to conceal my humor.

The sounds of her receding footsteps fill the hall. I glance at Kaeleb, who just grins back. Sitting up, he sets Walter to the side and pushes the hair out of my eyes. He leans into me and peers into my eyes as he states, “I’ll help you get lost any time, Sunshine. The only deal is you have to promise to come back. I never want to lose you again.”

His knuckles lightly brush my cheek before he places a gentle kiss on my lips, nipping at my bottom lip before backing away.

“I’m not going anywhere,” I respond, giving him a slight shake of my head.

Familiar words rush my mind and fear begins to prick my heart.

But as I look into Kaeleb’s unwavering eyes, he gives me the strength to push them aside, effectively ignoring the weight of Palmer’s earlier implications.

I’m
not
going anywhere

.

“Isn’t Josh going with us?” I ask Quinn, who clearly doesn’t hear me. I receive no answer other than her yelling “Shit!” from behind the bathroom door.

As we stand in the living room awaiting her arrival, Kaeleb glances at the ballet flats covering my feet. His lips twitch as he asks, “No Docs tonight?”

I narrow my eyes and smirk. “No. I got these on sale yesterday when I went shopping with Quinn.”

His mouth loses the struggle and a smile breaks across his face. “And the jeans as well?”

My eyes drift to the new jeans with the threaded designs on the back pockets that Quinn forced me to buy saying that I had “hella ass” while telling me that I “needed to show off my goods more”.

“Yes, the bra and panties that you saw earlier too, but you didn’t seem nearly as inquisitive about those.”

Kaeleb laughs under his breath. “Well, I was…distracted. I might need to see them again. You know, so they don’t feel left out.”

After straightening out my concert tee—because some things never change—I glance back up at him and grin. “Highly doubtful, but good try.”

He cocks his brow in return. “Oh, how I do enjoy a challenge.”

“Is that so?” I ask, my smile becoming wider.

He says nothing, but saunters over to me and loops his fingers inside the waistline of my jeans. Pulling me into his chest, he wraps his arms tightly around my shoulders and tenderly kisses my forehead.

With his white T-shirt fitting snugly across his chest and his worn dark blue jeans, he looks downright delectable. As usual. My hair tugging during our make-out session only enhanced his rugged sexiness. The tips of his hair are masterfully disheveled and I silently applaud my styling skills as I rake him over.

He lowers his head and brushes his mouth against mine. Just as my lips part, his tongue performs a shallow sweep and I moan as his taste floods my mouth. Quinn enters the room, clearing her throat and effectively breaking us apart.

Kaeleb winks at me before turning his attention to Quinn. His brows hit the night sky as he offers, “Wow, Quinn. You look amazing.”

She graciously accepts his compliment as she twirls around. Wearing a short, black, tube dress and killer heels that make her legs look a million miles long, she looks absolutely gorgeous. Her hair is up in a tight, sleek ponytail, giving her that sexified secretary look. She’s even donning thick-rimmed, black glasses that, oddly enough, pull the whole ensemble together.

“Thanks, Kaeleb,” she responds with a sheepish grin. He drapes his arm around her shoulder and kisses the top of her head, a gesture that I find incredibly endearing. I smile inwardly at their interaction, until my mind changes course.

“Hey, where’s Josh?” I ask,
again
.

Her face falls a bit. “He has plans, something with the guys. He just called me a couple of minutes ago.”

I fight the urge to shake my head in disgust. Over the last couple of weeks, Josh’s presence has been virtually non-existent, and there’s only so much hurt I can see on my friend’s face before I’m called to action.

Verbally and/or physically.

“Quinn,” Kaeleb says softly, his arm still over her shoulder. “Something’s off. I don’t trust him.”

She plasters on a fake smile before looking up at him and shaking her head. “No, he’s fine. I think he’s just stressed about midterms or something.”

“
Or something
…” I mutter, under my breath. Quinn shoots me a dirty look and I widen my eyes.

Stopping the argument before it starts, I snag my jacket off the back of the couch and shrug it on as I segue into a different topic. “Where are we going, anyway?”

Her face lights up and she quickly disengages from Kaeleb to grab her purse from the kitchen bar stool. “We’re going to BLUE!”

Kaeleb’s eyes shoot wide open and my head jerks back as I forcefully remark, “Quinn, that’s a twenty-one-and-up club. There’s no way we can get in there.”

She responds with a giggle, opening her purse and whipping out her wallet. She hands a laminated card to both of us. “Surprise!” she adds.

Flipping it in my hand, I look it over. With shock etched into my face, I glance to Kaeleb, whose expression is the mirror image of mine. My face pinches when I eye her excitement. “Quinn! These are fake I.D.s!”

She laughs, placing the wallet back inside her purse before hoisting it on her shoulder. “Don’t worry about it. They’ll get us in, that’s all that matters.”

Utterly astonished, I stare at the picture in the corner and recognize it immediately. It was
stolen
from last year’s student ID.

My hair is black with blue edges, my eyes are completely white with the exception of the black ellipses in the center, and my face is washed-out and grotesquely pale.

This is
Raven
. Not me.

“Quinn, I’m not going to be able to get in with this!” Shock and fear lace my tone as I bring my eyes to hers.

She waves at me dismissively. “Oh my God! Yes, you will. They don’t look at that shit anyway, just the date. You’ll be fine.” As she makes her way toward the front door, she grabs her coat off the back of the couch and throws it on as she walks.

Kaeleb and I, however, remain standing in place, both of us extremely hesitant to follow her.

The lack of footsteps must have clued her in, because she hastily whips around and crosses her arms over her chest. Tapping her foot anxiously, she looks up and moans to the ceiling.

“Come oooooon, guys!”

Bringing her eyes back to us, she folds her hands in a pleading gesture. “Pleeeeeeeease! I need to get out! I can’t study anymore!”

My mouth scrunches to the side as I look at Kaeleb. I watch his brows lift along with his shoulders as he answers, “I could get out for a while.”

I narrow my stare, but soon it soon relaxes with the realization that I really need to get out of here too.

Today was beyond stressful.

Quinn jumps up and down with our concessions as Kaeleb confidently strides over to me, circling his arm around my waist before we make our way out of the apartment.

Twenty minutes later we arrive at the club and pass through the entrance with no problem. Kaeleb and I grin excitedly at each other while Quinn makes a beeline to the bar and signals for the bartender.

Once she has his attention, she turns back to us for our order. “Um,” I deliberate. “I’ll take a Colorado Bulldog.”

Kaeleb jerks his head at the bartender. “Corona.”

Quinn orders herself an Appletini and three shots of Patron before throwing her credit card down on the bar. After the drinks arrive, she turns and hands us the shots. We all grin at each other before raising the glasses in our hands.

“To best friends!” Quinn shouts.

“To best friends!” we cheer back.

Licking the salt off the rim, we slam down the alcohol and bite down on the lime wedges. The soothing warmth of the liquid courses down my throat and my mouth spreads into a lazy grin.

After placing the shot glasses back on the bar, we finally find an open table and take our seats. “We’ll have to open a tab with a waitress. I closed up there,” Quinn states, tilting the green concoction toward her mouth.

Just as she finishes her sip, the bass from No Doubt’s
Just a Girl
thumps through the sound system and Quinn’s eyes shoot wide open. “OH MY GOD!” she screams at the top of her lungs. “I looooooove this band!”

“Me too!” I yell back.

And I do. I have their poster on my wall.

Of course.

She tips her drink and swallows it in one gulp, slamming the martini glass down when it’s gone. Wiping her mouth with the back of one hand, the other reaches forward to grab my arm from across the table. “Let’s dance!”

She wildly launches out of her chair and almost knocks over the table. Our drinks wobble with the force of her blow, but thankfully, nothing spills. Tearing my eyes away from the near disaster, I glance up just in time to see her press the bridge of her glasses back up on her nose as though nothing happened. She simply smiles back at me and I cast a sideways look to Kaeleb, who just grins as he reclines in his seat.

Crossing his ankle over his knee, he laughs and says, “Go tear it up, girls.”

I narrow my eyes, but he just jerks his head toward the dance floor. Before I can say anything, I’m forcefully yanked away and pulled to where bodies sway and bounce to the beats thrumming through the air. Quinn looks at me and smiles before seductively running her hands up her dress and swaying her hips. I can only grin back because I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing. But as the tempo builds and the bass pounds around us, I lose myself in the music and before I know it, I’ve kicked my shoes off and finally found the rhythm of the beats with my body.

Turning away from Quinn, my movements slow when I see Kaeleb still sitting at the table with a concrete scowl as he stares across the room. I follow his gaze until my eyes land on the source of his anger and my body freezes where I stand. The whole room disappears as I hone in on the sight in front of me.

Josh’s head rises from Sabrina’s neck as her leg unwraps from around his waist. She remains pressed against the wall behind her, but his arms soon cage her in as he lowers his face and kisses her deeply.

Once their lips meet, I jump into action. Snagging my shoes from the floor, I march past Kaeleb, who’s already rising from his seat and falls into step with me.

Quinn’s voice comes from behind us, but the only sound I can hear is the roaring in my ears. Still shamefully melded together, they don’t notice as we approach. With Quinn on my heels, she runs right into my back when I hastily stop only a foot from where they stand.

“What the—”

Quinn’s voice is replaced with a gasp, followed by a soft whimper. The pain in her tone slices right through the blaring music and the heartbeat in my ears, muting all the other sounds around me.

All I can hear now is her cries. Each one released further fuels my anger as I siphon them, pumping her agony into my heart and churning it into a fiery rage as it boils over inside of me.

Kaeleb reaches forward and grabs Josh by the collar, heaving him backward and easily tossing him to the floor. Sabrina stumbles, but soon rights herself as she takes in the three of us standing in front of her.