Scandal, Jay Mirano [best affordable ebook reader .TXT] 📗

didn't look any different. I didn't feel any different (save for the pounding in my head, and the dry stickiness in my mouth). I pulled my hair away from my face, angling my head this way and that, narrowing my eyes at my reflection. Nope, I was definitely same old Tali. I didn't have a new glow, I didn't look older or more mature; I was just me.

I cast a look over my shoulder at Evan, still laying tangled in his blankets. Who knew Evan Winters snored? Definitely not the image I had built of him. Still, he looked kind of angelic when he slept, what with his tousled hair hanging over his face, his lips barely apart. 

I couldn't remember much from The Night Before, the night when I thought everything would change. I knew we'd done it; I knew as much from the subtle ache down below. I couldn't tell you how it was, though. Maybe that was a small blessing? Sahara, Tink and Peyton all seemed to have such horror stories about their first times. At least mine had been... Numbed.

Okay, that sounds really creepy. Still, I couldn't help but wonder if Evan had been intentionally trying to get me wasted. I mean, who does that many tequila shots without wanting to completely obliterate themselves?

I pushed the thought from my mind and turned my attention to the mirror again. Ugh, I looked like a wreck. My face was a mess of streaked mascara and blurred eyeliner. I found a box of tissues and set to work furiously scrubbing the makeup from my cheeks. I wouldn't want Evan to wake up and find me looking like the Bride of Frankenstein now would I?

I leaned back and peered at myself again. Okay, maybe I did look a little older. And wiser. If nothing else I at least felt like I'd become a woman, so surely that counts for something? My face was a little red from all the scrubbing, and my eyes were still puffy and blood-shot from the lack of sleep and the hangover, but there was a definite difference about me, even if it was small.

Evan wrapped his arms around my shoulders, smelling like sleep and stale smoke and sweat. I hadn't even heard him wake up; how self-absorbed is that? He buried his face in my hair, inhaling deeply. I could see those familiar dimples crease the corner of his mouth, and I involuntarily felt myself lean back against him. Damn, this boy had a helluva hold over me.

"How'd you sleep, beautiful?" He asked, kissing the top of my head.

"I don't know, how much sleep did we actually get?" I asked, trying to sound coy and seductive. In truth it was a pretty honest question―I had no idea how long we'd actually been... You know.

Evan laughed, that deep, hypnotic sound I loved so much. "I won't lie, I was a little out of it. Still, I had a pretty amazing time last night. You're pretty amazing."

I couldn't stop the warm blush that seeped into my cheeks. "So it wasn't... Awful?"

"Are you kidding? I loved every second with you."

Evan tenderly took me by the hand and pulled me to my feet. His eyes latched onto mine, big and blue and completely debilitating. I felt the breath woosh out of me. Why was it Evan was able to turn me into a drooling, swooning mess just by looking at me? Oh my god, those eyes―

Evan cut off my frantic stream of thoughts by pulling me in for a kiss. My brain emptied of every little word; everything in that moment existed solely of me, Evan and nothing else.

His hands moved along my back, eventually cupping my hips and pulling me closer to him. It's like our bodies were meant for eachother; they just seemed to fit together so perfectly. I could feel his warm skin against mine, inflaming the sudden knot of urgency that had formed at the pit of my stomach. Evan took me by the hand again, this time leading me back to his bed. And this time, I would remember everything.

***

I didn't want to go home. Even though Mom would probably still be passed out at this hour, even the slim chance of encountering her awake was enough to put a dampener on the elation that was surging through my veins. Instead, I asked Evan to drop me off at Sahara's. 

She was walking around with half her hair in foils when I got there, lips pursed as she peeled back one and checked that her regrowth had turned the desired shade of Bitch Blonde. She had on a pink tracksuit and still somehow managed to look glamorous. 

"You know, I'm thinking of dip-dying my hair," Sahara said when she heard her door open. "I'm getting kind of sick of the ombre look. Think I'd suit dip-dyed pink or red?"

"Pink of course," I said, throwing myself down on her lip-shaped beanbag. "Is there any other color you wear?"

"Good point," she said, replacing the foil and spinning around to face me. She leaned against her dresser and crossed her arms over her chest, an impish smile playing on her face. "So? Spill the beans kiddo, or I'll get it out of you by torture."

"I don't know what you're talking about," I said, mock-seriously. 

Sahara rushed over to me, dropping to her knees on front of the beanbag and shaking me by the shoulders. "Lieutenant Slutstorm this is a dire situation! Tell. Me. Everything."

"Let's just say you can't call me the baby of the group anymore," I smiled. "Things might have happened... Twice."

"Oh my god you horny little teenagers! So how was it? Amazing or awful or both?"

I bit my lip. "I can't really... Remember the first time?"

Sahara cocked an eyebrow at me. 

"We were really drunk, okay? Don't look at me like that."

"Ew, what a pervert. Getting a gal drunk so he can have his nasty little way with her."

I playfully hit her shoulder. "It wasn't like that. It was more to loosen up at first I think, but we both got a little out of... Control," I couldn't stop myself from grinning. "And then we did it again this morning and, I don't know. I think it was good? I mean, I didn't... You know... But Evan seemed to enjoy himself."

Sahara rocked back on her haunches and gave me a sideways look. "You know, for a guy as slutty as Evan Winters I would have thought he'd be a little better in the sack."

"Hey! Maybe he was, what do I know? Besides, it's never that great when you first start out."

"That is true. Although, the first time with me and Jesse, oh my god I―"

I waved my hands to cut her off. "Not again, please, not the Jesse story again!"

Sahara poked her tongue out at me and I made a love-heart symbol with my hands. Sahara really was the best person to talk about all this with. Tink always seemed a little judgemental, even though she was far from virginal, and Peyton, well. With Peyton I always got the feeling she was trying to one-up on all our stories, like she just always had to be more debauched than us.

For a moment I felt myself wondering what my life would have been like if Sahara hadn't taken me under her wing. I wasn't exactly popular before we became friends; far from it. I used to get called gnome-nose by the kids at school, and people would always vandalize pictures of me in school yearbooks by drawing a little red gnome hat on my head.

And then, for no reason other than that she felt like it, Sahara had stood up for me one day.

"Gnome-nose?"  She'd said, snorting. "I'd rather have a gnome-nose than your gigantic witch's hook, Sammy!"

"Why are you smiling at me like that, dorkface?" Sahara asked, breaking my little private reminiscing. "I swear, if you weren't with Evan I'd think you had a raging, lesbian boner for me."

"Oh, but I do," I purred, licking my lips at her. "I know you feel it too..."

Sahara shoved me backwards, laughing. She sighed, looking at me from beneath hooded lids. "I love you, Tali."

"Who's the lesbian now?"

Sahara grunted. We sat in silence for a few moments, before Sahara started shrieking. "Oh shit! My hair! Oh my god it's going to be so ruined!"

I watched Sahara as she rushed off into the bathroom, tugging at the foils in her hair. I decided life was perfect. I was certain it couldn't get any better than this. How wrong I was. Things were about to go from perfect, to utterly diabolical. 

Smoke Screen

 

 

The smoke was billowing up, plumes of dark cloud smudged against the star-speckled sky. It swirled and eddied in the wind, leaving gauzy, gray tendrils in all directions, stretched thin and transparent. It clung to our faces, to our hair, to our clothes, imprinting on us its choking, acrid scent. It hung above us like a canopy, mingling with the trees, wrapping around their branches. For days this area would smell like smoke.

The bonfire was stacked higher than I'd ever seen it, leaning precariously under the weight of old logs, splintered wood and dead grass. I could see a blistered, 'Go Weres' sign buckling in the heat, probably a discarded sign from Westerley's bleachers, now nothing more than a pile of smouldering sticks.

I lay stretched across the grass, wayward blades poking into the skin below my cut-off denim shorts. My head was nestled on Evan's chest, listening to his soft, drowsy breaths. His arm was wrapped around my middle, hand resting on my hip. Every now and then he'd laugh along with the group, his husky laughter ringing in my ears.

We'd been offically 'dating' for two weeks now. To be honest, I've been expecting to wake up any minute now, the whole thing just being some surreal, crazy dream. Me and Evan Winters, dating. Even now it made my mind spin. I tried to to think about it too long.

Sahara was dancing around the bonfire like some kind of crazed hippy. Her arms were flung high above her head, her body swaying with the low music playing. She had dip-dyed her hair after all, and the pink ends streamed out behind her like cotton candy. She paused in front of the T-shaped pile that mine and Evan's bodies made, hands on hips, bottom lip sticking out like a child who wasn't allowed a lollipop.

"Look what you've done to my girl, Evan," she said, pointing an accusatory finger in his direction. "She used to be fun; now she just lays around all loved-up and happy all the time."

I heard Evan chuckle, low and husky. "Your girl? Not to burst your bubble or anything sweets, but she's my girl."

I felt my stomach flip at his words. Me. Evan Winter's girl. "Uh, excuse me? I'm my own girl thank you very much. Feminism and all that," I got to my feet, brushing off strands of dried grass and dirt from my clothes. "But just to humor you Sahara, I'll do your weird hippy dancing thing with you."

"Ah, I love you!" She squealed, gripping me by the wrist and pulling me towards the fire, hair snapping in the breeze. I glanced back over my shoulder to see Evan rolled over on