The Truths We Told

by Blair, E. K.

  “I’m so sorry,” my mom responds gently.

  “It’s cool.” He takes another bite. “This shit’s good.”

  “Oh, umm . . . thank you.”

  My dad pipes in and echoes the compliment, saying, “All her shit is good,” slipping in the curse word as a way of telling my mom to loosen up.

  Not that my mom should have a reason to be uptight around Trent, after all, she’s married to a man who is just like him.

  My dad grabs a roll from the basket before asking, “What are you majoring in, Trent?”

  “Business finance.”

  “Oh wow,” my mother responds. “Do you know what you want to do after you graduate?”

  “Not a damn clue,” he admits. “I just figured it would be the best thing to get my degree in since numbers come easy for me.”

  “Audrina, are you excited to leave for England?” I ask, wanting to take the focus off Trent for a while.

  Once she starts talking about the upcoming school year, she can’t stop, and the conversation stays focused on her until the plates are empty and my mom is bringing out a decadent strawberry crème cake—my favorite.

  Once we’re full and the table has been cleared, my dad tosses his napkin and calls out to my mom, who’s in the kitchen washing dishes with my sister, “Honey, can I get a cup of coffee?”

  “Oh no,” is the next thing we hear before she walks into the dining room. “We’re completely out.”

  “You’re slacking, woman,” he teases, and she gives him a playful sneer.

  “I’ll run up to the store because we’re going to need some for the morning.”

  “Mom, I’ll go.”

  “Are you sure?”

  I turn to Trent, and he agrees, “Yeah, we’ll run and grab some.”

  “Thank you so much.”

  “Where are you going?” Audrina hollers from the kitchen.

  “We’re going to the store to get coffee.”

  “I want to come.”

  She emerges from the kitchen and tosses the dishtowel she’s holding to my mom.

  “What do you need to get?”

  She looks at my mom, and says, “Cereal. All you have in the pantry is old people fiber stuff.”

  My mom rolls her eyes while my father tosses a few bills onto the table, which Audrina snatches up with a perky, “Thanks!”

  We head outside, get into the Jeep, and I toss my purse into the back seat with my sister.

  “Hey, you have any lip gloss or lip balm?” she asks.

  “I should have something in my purse.”

  “God, this thing is huge,” she complains while I give Trent directions to the store.

  “Did you have fun surfing with my dad today?”

  Trent glances at me with a smile. “It was good. He’s chill. It’s hard to imagine him as a cop.”

  I laugh. “Oh, I have stories.”

  We go on talking, and when we make it to the store, I reach into the back seat to grab my purse, take one look at what my sister is holding, and freak out. “Oh, shit!”

  My sister startles as she chews a gummy from the bag she found in my purse. “What?”

  I swipe it from her hand as Trent parks. “Why are you eating these?”

  “What’s your problem?” she snaps. “I’ll buy you another bag.”

  “Relax,” Trent tells me, and when I hold the bag up to show him what I’m talking about, his lips break into a devious smile. “Dude.”

  Turning back to Audrina, I ask, “How many of these did you eat?”

  “I don’t know, I wasn’t keeping count,” she scoffs. “Geez, what’s the big deal?”

  “Oh my god.” I drop my head in my palms before adding, “I’m so dead.”

  “Anyone care to clue me in?”

  Trent turns to my sister while I try not to hyperventilate and tells her, “Those are edibles.”

  “What do you mean?”

  My hands fall from my face, and I blurt out, “It’s pot!”

  “It’s what?”

  I turn to face her. “It’s pot. What you just ate were marijuana gummies.”

  Her jaw drops. “What the hell are you doing with marijuana?”

  “I bought them yesterday and forgot to take them out of my purse.”

  “Wait!” She holds out her hand to stop me from saying anything else. “You do drugs?”

  Rolling my eyes, I groan, “No, I don’t do drugs; I do pot.”

  She looks at Trent and then back to me, utterly shocked. “When did you start using pot?” Trent bursts into laughter, and I slap his arm. “Do you do this too?”

  “Uh, yeah,” he tells her.

  “How long have you been doing this?” she asks me, totally stunned.

  “Since high school.”

  “I can’t believe I never knew this about you.”

  “It isn’t like I go around broadcasting it, and in case you forgot, our dad is a cop, so you better not say a word.”

  She sits still for a second. “Well, I don’t feel anything.”

  “Dude”—Trent chuckles—“you will.”

  “What’s going to happen?”

  “You’re gonna be fucking lit,” he tells her.

  “How many did you eat?”

  She shrugs. “I don’t know . . . four, maybe five.”

  “Holy shit, girl.”

  “Oh my god, Trent. What are we going to do?”

  “Is that bad?”

  “I take one to get high and two to get blasted,” I tell her. “So, yeah, in about thirty minutes, you’re going to be stoned out of your ever-loving mind.”

  “You girls stay here. I’m running in to grab the coffee and cereal so we can get home before that shit hits her.”

  When Trent hops out of the Jeep, she leans forward, and I can see the panic in her eyes. “Am I going to, like, overdose or something?”

  “It’s pot, not heroin.”

  “Well, I don’t know!”

  “You’ll be fine. Honestly, you’re going to have a pretty epic high.”

  “What does it feel like?”

  “For sure, you’re going to be paranoid, but you’ll mostly be giddy and talking nonsense. But please, for the love of all that’s holy, don’t get loud because Mom and Dad will kill me if they find out about this.”

  After a few minutes, Trent comes out of the store with a whole lot more than coffee and a box of cereal.

  “What’s all this?” I ask when he gets into the driver’s seat.

  He hands Audrina the bags and she starts digging through them when he says, “Food for her munchies. I figured having this on hand would keep her from raiding the kitchen.” He then looks at my sister through the rearview mirror and tells her, “Hide that shit in Kate’s purse.”

  “This is all junk and loaded with carbs,” she whines.

  “You’re not going to care about carbs in a couple hours,” he teases before asking, “Are there any gummies left?”

  “No!” I bark. “You are not getting high tonight.”

  “Dude, you know how painful it’s going to be having to watch your sister have the fucking time of her life tonight and not join in.”

  Grabbing the nearly empty bag, I open his glove compartment and shove it in.

  “When we get home, go straight to your room,” I tell her.

  “You don’t think that’s going to look suspicious?”

  I shrug. “If Mom asks, just tell her you started your period and you’re going to lie down for the night.”

  Trent makes an ick face. “Ugh, fucking gross.”

  “Don’t be such a dude.”

  “Can’t help it. But fine, go with that lady shit, and then tell them that we’re all going to hang out in her room and watch a movie, which will explain all the damn snacks if they happen to see them.”

  Once we’re home, no one questions our cover story, and we tell my parents good night before heading upstairs to Audrina’s bedroom.

  Trent sits at her desk while my
sister and I settle on her bed. As I start fishing all the snacks out of my purse and stacking them on her nightstand, I catch Trent watching my sister. He motions his head for me to look at her. When I do, I find she’s staring off into nothing. Hell, she isn’t even blinking.

  Knowing that she’s never been high before and with how much she took, I’m worried about her paranoia, and I’m cautious not to rattle her. The last thing I want is her freaking out.

  “Audrina.” My voice is soft, and her response is way delayed.

  “Yeah?”

  “How’re you feeling?”

  She blinks a few times, and when she finally turns her head in my direction, she asks, “Do you think it’s happening?”

  Trent busts out laughing. “You make it sound like the apocalypse is upon us.”

  “You think that’s a real thing?” she asks him, and there’s no doubt her high is setting in. “I mean, it’s in the bible, right? So, it must be legit.”

  He smiles at her, and I shake my head, silently begging him not to egg her on. He ignores me. “You want to know what I question?”

  “Huh?”

  “The zombie apocalypse.”

  Her whole face drops, and I roll my eyes.

  She flops down on to her stomach and asks, “You believe that could happen?”

  He shrugs as he rocks back in the chair. “Depends on whether you believe in zombies or not.”

  “You know what I wonder about?” she starts. “Okay, so, you know how some dogs will just eat their toys. You know, like how they eat all the stuffing out of the . . . you know those things,” she says, motioning nonsense with her hands. “You know what I’m talking about? The soft things . . .”

  Trent’s brows furrow in confusion.

  “Come on! You know what I’m talking about.”

  “You mean a plush toy?” I ask.

  “Yes!”

  She then falls silent as we wait for her to finish this very random thought, but there’s a total loss in her eyes.

  “Go on,” Trent encourages.

  “Wait. What was I talking about?” She takes another long pause as she retraces her thoughts. “Oh! Yeah, so okay, you know how some dogs eat the stuffing out of the toys?” she repeats, and Trent nods. “What if—” A fit of giggles cuts her words off, and Trent couldn’t possibly be enjoying this more as he watches her with a huge grin on his face. “What if—” Another round of giggles hits her, and the girl can barely breathe around them, which has me laughing too. She snorts and then pops up on her knees as if she’s finally gotten control of herself, but clearly, she hasn’t. “What if, when they poop, it floats out of their butt like little cotton ball clouds?”

  She then completely loses it, cracking herself up and toppling over onto her side. She’s so loud I have to cover her mouth with my hand.

  “Shh, you’re being so loud.” Next thing I know, she licks my hand. I pull it away from her and wipe my palm on her bed. “Eww.”

  “What did she do?”

  “She licked me.”

  “You taste salty,” she says in all seriousness before flopping onto her back and looking at Trent from upside down. She locks her gaze to his for a long while and then questions, “Are your eyes two different colors?”

  “No, you’re just fucking blasted.”

  “I like you,” she quips, and I shake my head at him when he shoots her a wink. “I think Katerina likes you too,” she adds, enunciating my full name with a thick accent.

  “Katerina?”

  “No one actually calls me that,” I tell him.

  “She totally likes you,” she continues. “Even though she won’t tell me.”

  “You think so?”

  “Oh, yeah,” she says, dragging out the words dramatically.

  “Can we not talk about this,” I mumble, but Trent shuts me down when he asks her, “What all has she said about me?”

  “Nothing. She’s being super secretive,” she says, whispering the last two words in exaggeration.

  “Has she brought home guys like me in the past?”

  Again, I shake my head at him, but he’s getting so much joy out of this that I let it go.

  Audrina rolls on to her tummy with an enthusiastic, “No! The girl is practically a virgin when it comes to guys.”

  “Audrina!” I scold, but all she does is laugh.

  “It’s true, you went out with some dude for, what, a month in high school. And then there was that dork you brought home for Thanksgiving a couple of years ago; although, he did have a sexy car.”

  Trent’s eyes shift to mine. He knows she’s talking about Caleb.

  “I knew it wouldn’t last when he said grace before we ate,” she adds, and I want to die of embarrassment.

  “He did what?”

  “Yep,” she says. “It’s true. I mean, he was cute and all, but he was weird. I don’t know. Something about him.”

  “Okay,” I butt in. “Can we talk about something else?”

  “Let’s talk about Trent,” she says before turning to face me as if he isn’t even in the room.

  “No.”

  “Oh, come on.”

  “Yeah, Kate. Let’s talk about Trent,” he jokes.

  “We’re not talking about Trent.”

  She then crawls over to where I’m sitting against the headboard, lies across my lap, and gazes up at the ceiling. It’s quiet for about five seconds before she’s laughing again. Lord only knows what’s going through her head, but she’s having the time of her life, and I’m forced to muffle her giggles once again.

  This goes on for a couple of hours before she passes out like a rock. It’s a little after eleven when Trent and I step into the hall and close her door behind us.

  “I never thought it would end,” he whispers as we walk down the dark hall to my room.

  “I’m just glad she finally fell asleep.”

  “Dude, I can’t believe she murdered all that food.”

  Trent follows me into my room and shuts the door.

  “You can’t be in here.”

  “Says who?”

  I tilt my head and perch my hands on my hips.

  “The rule was I couldn’t sleep in here.”

  “Exactly.”

  He strides over to me with a smirk. “I’m not planning to go to sleep yet,” he taunts before pushing me back onto the bed.

  I stifle a giggle as he climbs over me and starts dropping kisses down my neck. Holding his head in my hands, I grip fistfuls of his hair as his tongue drags along my collarbone. He sends a shiver up my spine while he teases the hem of my shirt before slowly dragging the fabric up and over my bra. His head dips down, and he kisses my stomach.

  In the darkness of the room, I close my eyes and get lost in him. His hair tickles along my flesh, and when his hand slides to my breast, he tugs the fabric and exposes me. It’s the first time he’s seen me like this, and I grow nervous, not because I don’t trust him but because I’ve known him for so long that it’s still weird for him to see me this way.

  I watch as he takes me into his mouth, and when he begins to gently suck, I let go of a breathy moan as I arch into him. His tongue drags along my sensitive skin, and I feel him growing hard against me. I’m nowhere near ready for this to end, but we can’t be doing this with my parents downstairs.

  Pushing against his head, he comes up to me and presses his lips to mine, urging my mouth open. Without a word, he takes my unspoken signal and lowers my shirt as he continues to kiss me deeply. His hips grind between my legs, and the pressure sends a rush of tingles through my core.

  “Trent,” I whisper against his lips.

  “Fuck, you feel so good.”

  Shit, even his voice is turning me on.

  He has my body in knots, and I swear if he grinds against me again, I might just explode.

  “We have to stop,” I tell him, and he drops his head into the curve of my neck. “We can’t do this here.”

  He releases a heavy sigh, and I feel g
uilty for stopping him.

  We’ve been taking things slow over these past two months, and I’m sure this is the longest this boy has gone without sex. He’s only brought it up once, and that was after he got back from his trip a couple of weeks ago. I explained to him that I wasn’t ready, and he understood, but it isn’t making this any easier.

  Heartbreak sucks and I’m scared to be that intimately vulnerable with another person again.

  He tries to lighten the mood by pulling back and rubbing his dick, joking, “If I sneeze, I’m going to blow a batch right here.”

  He wants me to laugh, but I can’t. Pushing myself off the bed, I sit up, and he can tell I’m bothered.

  “You okay?”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “For what?”

  “I promise, I want to give you more, I just—”

  “You think I’m upset?” he asks. “Babe, it’s fine.”

  “I know you can’t be fine.”

  Running his fingers through my hair, he assures, “I’m fine,” before nodding to his right arm and teasing, “My muscles have never been this jacked in my life.”

  And this time, I can’t contain my giggle despite feeling like I’m letting him down.

  “Seriously, though. You don’t need to worry about anything. It isn’t like I expected to get in your pants and hit it with your parents downstairs.”

  I drop my head on to his chest, and he plants a kiss in my hair. With a heavy breath, I lift my chin and look into his eyes. He makes me nervous in a way that gets me all tongue-tied, and I wish I could find the words to tell him what it is he’s doing to my heart.

  “You’re so fucking beautiful,” he whispers before giving me a kiss that’s so slow, so tender, it borders on torture. He parts his mouth from mine all too soon and drags his hand lightly along the side of my face. “I’ll see you in the morning.” He then walks out of the room and shuts the door behind him.

  I drop to my back, breathless and completely falling in love, I just wish I could find a way to tell him. Fear has a funny way of silencing a person, so I lie here in the dead of night with his taste in my mouth and a thousand unspoken words dancing on my tongue.

  TRENT