Part 21: M...my Javier

"What are you doing here?"

"I should be asking you that question. Last I heard you were having a test and I couldn't come over."

I looked up at him. A few minutes earlier Javier had glared at Dave who had responded with a silly wink. He had then taken my hand and led me to a secluded corner. He seemed to know his way around just perfectly.

"Forget that. I asked..."

"What do you mean forget that?" I cut his words short. "I wanted to visit my alleged boyfriend but..."

"Alleged boyfriend?" Javier asked.

"Yes, you are at a party after turning me away with an excuse of studying." I told him. "In the morning, I couldn't stay either because you had some strange guy on your bed whom you never told me about."

"I don't have to tell you about all my friends. It got nothing to do with you, Adey. You don't even know half of my oldest friends so how was I supposed to jump and introduce you to a friend I just made?"

"You..." I fell silent. He kind of had a point. Apart from a few computer nerds I had met at his place I didn't know anyone else. However, the fact that I knew less about him than I thought made me feel worse. For instance, I hadn't even known he went to the kind of parties that clubgoers threw.

"Doesn't change anything." I muttered. "You still lied to me and went out. You could have just told me you didn't feel like seeing me today."

"If I'd have said that, would you have passed going to a wild party with some stripper?"

"Stripper?" I double blinked. "Dave is not a stripper."

"Oh right. He just likes to sit half naked in expensive clubs serving rich women in the middle of the night."

"How'd you know that..."

"Here you are. When did you disappear?"

Javier pressed his eyelids together and turned his face upwards. I turned to look at the owner of the voice.

An auburn girl with a tiny waist and full chest. Also, she was merely a couple of inches shorter than Javier. She appeared to have a pretty close relationship with my boyfriend too. That was cool.

What wasn't cool was how my mind made them look like an ideal couple.

Her bright eyes finally found me and she appeared to have just noticed me there. "Awh..." she made a cute face, like she was admiring a newborn puppy. "You're so cute..."

"Hey, you're the girl that came in with Dave." She suddenly said glancing at Javier. "I was wondering who was lucky enough to get that sexy hunk. Must be how my Javier got to know you too."

I glanced at Javier. He was still staring at the ceiling as though begging it to collapse. I couldn't place the feelings I was experiencing at the moment so I decided to say something in hopes of triggering an intrinsic explanation. "M...my Javier?" I stammered.

"Not your Javier, her Javier." The voice sounded vaguely familiar but it wasn't the voice in my head.

"And you are...?" The girl asked.

"Dave's a friend. I'm her boyfriend."

Before I could fully turn to the owner of the voice, an arm snaked around my waist and I was engulfed by a thick scent such that for a moment, I felt like I was at the bank of the river in the middle of the woods.

"Ash!" I exclaimed in a low voice. I could place that scent anywhere.

"Should I kiss you to make it more real?" He brought his mouth down to my ear.

"I dare you." I told him through gritted teeth. "What are you even trying to do? Who asked you to..."

"I don't have to be asked. We had a fight, sweetheart, we didn't break up." Ash held my gaze.

"Adey?"

"El,"

"You made some friends I see." El glanced at Javier and the rest.

"We were just going to find Dave." Ash put in. "Adey and I, actually."

Ash winked at Javier. Before turning away, I thought I saw Javier's chest drop with relief.

"It's okay, Ash, you don't have to come along." I said when we rejoined everyone else.

With a simple shrug, he joined a near by group where he was welcomed as though the oldest friend.

"It was tense back there. Are you okay?" El brought his face down to stare into mine.

I felt my eyes water, nose clogging and chest burdened. I nodded. I was okay. I was just overthinking. But my mouth wasn't cooperating. "No." I heard myself say then my whole body malfunctioned and I was burying my face in his puffy chest.

"I got you." El kept saying until he pushed open the door to a bedroom

"The fuck..." Said a guy that was making out with some girl on the bed. "El?"

"It's an emergency, Leo." El told him.

"I think I'll get you later." The girl said heading for the door.

"Devyn's sister?" The shirtless Leo asked. "Who assaulted her?"

El said something I didn't catch because I had burried my face in his chest again while trying not to sniff.

"A princess shouldn't cry," Leo approached me. "Unless it's in private and this is private enough."

I heard myself giggle through my tears.

"See," Leo started. "She's alright."

"Definitely." El agreed.

"You guys are stupid." I informed them but I was laughing.

A little voice in my head added. 'Ash was right, screw my boyfriend.'