Page 138 of The Addict

“Ok, ok, so speaking of the Thornes—you HAVE to come to my house right away! I need to win Serenity over!” he bellowed.

“Serenity?” That seemed hard to believe.

Silas pushed himself up on his elbows, his facial expressions changing instantly. “What?”

My eyes widened and I covered the phone with one hand, realizing my fuck up in mentioning his sister’s name aloud. “I mistook what he said.” It was a lousy attempt at a save, but it was all I could think of.

Silas studied me with a glare.

I went back to the phone, trying my hardest not to look like a damn culprit. Of course my best friend would want my help with Silas’s sister. Of all the fish in the sea, he’d want the one with a shark for a brother.

“Hello? H-HELLO!” Alex was wailing into the phone.

“Uh, yeah?”

“Are you coming? Did you hear me? Serenity is here. I invited her over to watch movies, but she still thinks I’m your boyfriend, so I won’t get to do anything! YOU HAVE TO FIX THAT!”

“I’ll see what I can do.” I finally surrendered to the blubbering of my best friend.

“YES! I LOVE YOU Noah!” he exclaimed.

“Yeah, yeah.”

When I set down the phone, I noticed that Silas was still staring at me.

“You’re going, aren’t you?”

I sat up, running my fingers through my tangled bed hair. “Yeah. He needs my help setting up some party stuff for these chicks he invited over.”

If looks could kill, Silas’s would have me six feet buried in dirt already.

“Why was my sister brought up in this conversation?”

I should’ve known he wasn’t going to let that one go at all. I was torn. Silas was…well I didn’t know what to call him, but he was my something. More than a friend but not a boyfriend. What do you call that? A fuck buddy? I had known Silas longer, but even so, I couldn’t abandon bro code with Alex. So, I lied.

“Oh, uh, he had told me he wished Serenity was one of them. He wants her to go to the party.”

Silas made a face. “Ugh. I don’t want to know about his lust towards my sister.”

I chuckled.

“But I have heard her mention his name before. I tutor my friend “Alex” she says.” Silas pronounced Alex’s name like it put a bad aftertaste in his mouth. I couldn’t help but think how ecstatic Alex would actually be if he knew Serenity acknowledged his existence beyond school. And to her brother no less.

I was oddly amused. Great, now I had something to keep from Alex, too. Fair is fair.

I turned away from Silas, throwing my legs over the side of the bed and closing up my pants.

“Don’t go for that,” Silas said angrily. He took me by the shoulders and pulled, so that I was on my back looking up at his upside down form.

“I owe him one,” I whispered.

“Yeah? You owe me like, a hundred,” he insinuated, leaning down to kiss me. “We can count that as one.” Silas’s nose grazed my chin as he pressed his mouth to mine for a second time. “Two,” he counted with a sigh.

My eyes fluttered closed. If I looked at him any longer, I wouldn’t be able to leave at all.

“Only ninety eight more to go,” he hummed into my ear. “That should give us about an hour longer.”

“I can’t.”