The high of my first time didn't even last for a week.
It was a typical Tuesday afternoon when I went to the varsity locker room to surprise Keith with his favorite sports drink. The door was slightly ajar, and I could hear loud laughter echoing from inside.
"So, Soriano, how was the quiet girl?" a voice teased. It was Josh, the guy Keith thought I liked, the childhood friend who was supposedly gay. It was all a lie.
"Man, she was wild," Keith's voice replied, followed by a smug chuckle. "She looked so innocent, but she was practically begging for it. I told you I could get her into bed within a month."
"Damn. You actually won the bet. Here's your five grand, bro."
I stood frozen outside the door, the cold plastic bottle in my hand suddenly feeling like a block of ice. My heart stopped, but the tears I expected to fall never came. Instead, a strange, chilling clarity washed over me.
"I was just a prize. A check on a scorecard."
I didn't storm in. I didn't slap him, scream, or make a scene. I simply turned around, walked to the nearest trash bin, and threw the drink away.
That was the exact moment something inside me shifted. I realized that the romantic, fairytale version of love I had been daydreaming about was a lie. Love makes you weak. Love makes you vulnerable to being used.
But sex? Sex was different. It was just a physical sensation, a chemical reaction that felt good.
From that day on, I stopped giving my heart away. I treated physical intimacy exactly for what it was, a mutual transaction. If a man wanted my body, he could have it, but my heart remained locked away in a dark, impenetrable vault where no one could ever reach it again.
Present...
"I missed you, Saph," he whispered against my lips, pulling me into a deep, bruising kiss the exact moment we found a brief escape from the others.
*Ah. I missed him too.* I missed how Ghoth felt in my arms, and how easily he could make my head spin.
"Come to my room later," I breathed out as we broke apart, my voice laced with a promise. A simple kiss was never going to be enough for me, not when I knew exactly how good he was behind closed doors.
"Won't we get caught?" he murmured, his dark eyes searching mine. "Let's do it at my place instead. It's safer for you there."
"Hmm... fine. If that's the better option," I purred, leaning into him. "I missed you too, Ghoth."
I let my hand slide down, resting right over the fly of his trousers. My breath hitched. He was already rock hard, feeling like solid steel beneath my touch.
**Two days ago...**
A woman suddenly arrived at our doorstep. She was a complete stranger to me, yet she knew Dayesh, Khafa, Ghoth, and most of all, Lzith.
"I am Jauna," she introduced herself softly, her demeanor calm and gentle. "Lzith's mother."
*Ah. So this was the wife or rather, Dayesh's ex-wife.* I had to admit, she was quite beautiful.
I didn't bother asking her why she suddenly showed up. For all I knew, she was here to reconcile and play happy family again.
"Let me just prepare some food, and I'll call the two children," I told her, breaking the silence.
"Two children?" she asked, her brow furrowing in confusion. "Who is the other one?"
"The other boy is named Amon," I explained. "If you remember that shadow that used to follow Dayesh around... that's him."
A visible wave of relief washed over Jauna's face the moment I mentioned Amon. It was a fleeting reaction, but it didn't escape me.
**Today...**
Of course, Dayesh was stunned when he saw his ex-wife standing in his home. But true to his nature, he kept his guard up and deliberately avoided her gaze.
"There's a spare room upstairs. You can stay there for as long as you need," Dayesh said coldly, before turning his back on Jauna.
I could practically feel the thick, suffocating tension vibrating between them. To make matters even more interesting, Rosarie was there too, watching them closely. She was moving with a calculated quietness, her every action screaming that she wasn't about to just let Jauna walk back into Dayesh's life without a fight.
And I could tell she was just watching them, observing every single move.
Lzith was currently held by Jauna as she guided her toward the room Dayesh had pointed out. Dayesh, on the other hand, marched straight to his own bedroom and slammed the door shut behind him.
The loud, heavy thud echoed through the house, startling all of us. Left with no words, we could do nothing but exchange bewildered glances.
"Leave him be for now." A voice suddenly echoed directly inside my head. My eyes instantly darted toward the owl perched on the chair. I honestly had no idea why it was the first thing I looked at, but the mysterious message lingered in the air.
It took a few minutes for the shock to wear off, but eventually, we snapped out of it and drifted back to our respective tasks.
Khafa excused himself to take a bath, while Ghoth approached me to hand over some souvenirs he had brought back. Cleverly, he made sure to give some to Rosarie as well, a calculated move to ensure no one would suspect the secret intimacy brewing between us. Meanwhile, Amon sat quietly on the sofa, deliberately giving the reunited mother and daughter some space to bond.