Chapter 13: Chapter 13

: Confess

→Narrator: Asa

"What the hell are you two doing?!"

To his credit, Amir didn't jump away from me.

I peeked around the wall of strong muscle and found a very alarmed, very confused Lola, standing in the hallway, looking at us like we had sprouted new heads.

I tried to calm myself. Maybe she hadn't seen us kiss yet.

"She was having a panic attack and I was trying to help out." Amir said stoically finally retracting himself from me, turning to face her nonchalantly and shoving his hands in his trousers.

"You were trying to help her out by sucking out the remaining breath in her lungs?"

I choked on my saliva. "You saw?"

"Of course I saw! I've been standing here for five fucking minutes, shocked out of my mind." She turned to Amir. "I can't believe you, Amir. Kam trusts you the most! Doesn't this go against your bro code or whatever?"

Amir's eyes flashed. "Don't talk about what you don't understand, Lola."

Lola flinched, shocked by Amir's cold reprimanding. She lowered her gaze. "Whatever. We've finished packing. We're ready to go."

When she left, Amir exhaled a frustrated breath, running a tired hand through his thick black hair. But when he turned to me, I was taken aback by the softness in his eyes. "Are you okay?"

Am I?

All my feelings and emotions were a mangled mix. I didn't even know what to feel anymore... I needed space.

He touched my cheek, making me look up at him. "I don't regret it, Asa." And placed a soft, gentle kiss on my lips before walking away.

I blinked once... Twice... Still struggling to comprehend what was going on.

Amir likes... Me?

Is this a big fat joke?

But he's Kam's best friend!

Kam ..... Oh God, Kam!

My heartbeat accelerated as guilt pounded in my veins.

I had kissed Amir behind Kam's back.

The reality slammed into me like a two hundred pound sledgehammer.

I walked out in a daze.

Stepping into the light, I found everyone playing and laughing among themselves. Amir sat away from the rest of the group in his usual, reserved manner, typing something on his phone.

And then, I saw Kam.

He was talking with Jemi and Jemi said something that made him double over in laughter. Loud bursts of air, stemming from his stomach, tearing his lungs and escaping his mouth. I admired the way he held his stomach while laughing, like he couldn't contain the laughter, chocolate brown hair, falling over his forehead.

Kam.

I suddenly felt sick.

Why had I kissed Amir?

He suddenly looked up and found me staring at me and for a moment, all of universe seemed to stop and watch the two of us.

And then he said something distractedly to Jemi, still looking at me and he was walking towards me and my feet wouldn't move.

"Asa."

He was upon me.

He took my hand and stared at them, as if marvelling at the complexity.

"This is not how I wanted to apologize and nothing is going as planned, but will you ride with us?"

"Us?" I whispered.

"Yeah." A sour expression marred his beautiful face. "Amir is coming along too. Know what?" He brightened up, leaning towards me and whispering in my ear. I shivered when his lips brushed my ear. "Let's ditch him when he's not looking."

He leaned away, grinning, those magnificent dimples, popping out.

"Uhh..." I licked my lips nervously.

The last thing I wanted to do was get trapped in an enclosed space for four hours with the two boys, especially with how confused and torn up I was feeling.

"Hell no, golden boy." Kosi suddenly materialized behind me. "I brought my own ride for a reason. My best friend stays with me. You can have her when we get to Offshore."

Kam opened his mouth to say something but Kosi pinched his lips. "Zip it, siren. I'm not listening to your seductive crap. You're not bribing me this time around."

"Come on, Kosi," he protested, when she let go. "Not even for a Stella McCartney gift card?"

"No way, lover boy." She placed her hands in her hips in her usual sassy attitude. "Come on, Asa. It's you, me and Lola on this ride. A total girls' trip and you can't tap out, ya hear?"

"Thanks, Kosi." I breathed when we were away from him.

"Don't know what you're thanking me for, Asa but you're welcome."

Jordan suddenly started honking impatiently, leaning out of his massive black G-wagon. "C'mon bitches! Are we doing this or not?! Offshore won't wait for us, ya know?!"

Everyone piled into the cars.

Osahon went with Dave.

Jemi hopped into Jordan's truck.

And Amir slipped in with Kam.

I slid into the backseat of Kosi's lambo, strapping myself to the seat while Lola avoided me coldly, keeping her gaze out the window.

"What's up with you, Lola?" Kosi asked as her engine purred to life.

"Why don't you ask your best friend?" Lola glanced icily at me.

"Asa..." Her voice was laced with warning. "What did you do?"

I wringed my fingers worriedly. "I uhh... I kissed Amir," I whispered.

"Motherfuck!" Kosi slammed her feet on the brake mistakenly as the car screeched to a halt, sending us reeling forward. "Tell me that's not true, Asa."

I avoided her gaze in the rearview mirror and twisted my charm bracelet awkwardly.

There was silence for a moment.

"So, umm... How was it?" She asked, easing back into the road.

"How was what?"

"The kiss, genius. Amir, is he a good kisser."

"Jeezus, Kosi, are you serious? Tell me you're shitting me." Lola cried out.

"I shit you not, sistuh. I'm really curious."

"Well, save that curiosity for later until Asa explains why she did it."

I pressed the heel of my hand to my throbbing temple. "Can we talk about this when we reach the villa. I swear, I'm having a killer headache right now."

"Fine by me." Lola shrugged, "but first of all, you gotta confess to me that you're not stringing Kam along. That you're not with him 'cause of his money."

I looked at her, shocked and hurt. "I can't believe you'd think that about me, Lola."

"You can't blame me, Asa. I thought I knew you, not until I saw you and Amir shoving your tongues down each other's throats."

I looked away from her, suddenly growing cold and detached. "I confess to you that I'm not stringing Kam along. That I'm not with him because of his money."

"You know how confessions work right?" She raised an accusing eyebrow at me. "You lie, you get the consequences."

"Whatever." I rolled my eyes, not ready to deal with shit right now.

"Lola, I won't seat back and watch you call my bestfriend a gold digger. I've known her way longer than you have, so I suggest you calm yo' tits and wait until she explains shit before you start judging her. We're friends here and there's no bad blood. And Asa, you too. You've got a lot of 'splaining to do, like, how dare you kiss Amir before me?!" She pouted at me from the rearview mirror. "So y'all sit back and enjoy the fucking ride. In the mean time, I'm not letting anyone ruin this trip for me. My first offshore adventure is going to be fucking lit! Ya hear, Bitches?!"

I laughed, soaking in Kosi's enthusiasm and Lola's face softened.

"You're right, Kosi." She turned to me, a repentant look in her eyes. "I'm sorry for judging so harshly and jumping to conclusions, Asa... You're a great person and I'm very sorry."

She reached out and squeezed my hand and I smiled back at her.

"Woohoo! That's what I'm talking about!" Kosi yelled at the top of her voice as we zipped passed the freeway at top speed. "This calls for some Davido celebration!"

She turned up her radio as Davido's Risky, filled the entire car.

It was a popular song and soon, we all started singing at the top of our voices to Risky on repeat.

When we reached the chorus, we all raised our voices, laughing at how horrible we sounded.

Midway through, I smiled to myself, glad I had friends to laugh and goof off with and forget my confusion, even if it's just for a little while.

⊱⋅ ──────────── ⋅⊰

→