Downpour

“Excuse me.” I said softly passing by Tayden. He was leaning against the counter watching me. Earlier, before the dinner, I’d tried to talk to him about keeping our little one night stand a secret from Rain, but he simply waved off having a conversation with me, said something about the party, and Rain, then walked out the room.

I hadn’t had the courage since that moment to corner him and ask him what the hell his problem was. Sure, I’d been the one ignoring him for the past couple of days, but he hadn’t made any move to talk to me either.

I washed off plates, putting food down the garbage disposal, and flipping the switch. I loaded the dishwasher and made sure there was soap to clean them before turning that on too.

I flipped off the garbage disposal, and washed out the sink, before wiping my hands with one of our brand new dish towels. I placed it beside the sink and turned around, basically running into Tayden’s chest.

His strong arms firmly wrapped around me before I could bounce off of him. He let me go when I was steady and he looked me in the eyes. I instantly shifted my eyes away from his, a slight blush creeping up. God, why did he have to do this to me? And more importantly, why did he have to be my best friends cousin?

He could have been any other guy in the world and Rain wouldn’t have said a single thing. But no, he had to be related to the one person I was closest with. So no doubt, us ever being together would totally gross her out. He was like a brother to her, and I was like a sister. It’d be like incest in her eyes.

“You wanted to talk to me about something earlier?” I backed away from him, leaning on the other side of the counter folding my arms across myself, as if my stance would protect me.

“Did you tell Rain about…um…what happened?” He rolled his eyes and stood up straighter, towering over my small frame.

“Do you think I’m stupid? Rain would probably kill me, no scratch that, she’d kill us if she knew we’d been…together.” I unfolded my hands going to put them in my front pockets, before I realized I was wearing tights therefore I had no pockets, and I resulted in crossing my arms again.

Tayden laughed at my obviously nervous manner, his blue eyes dancing across my face, then down my body. When he realized he was checking me out while I was bluntly staring at him, his eyes snapped back to my face and a blush rose onto his neck. He cleared his throat glancing towards Rain’s room.

The door had been closed for a while, and we hadn’t heard any commotion from inside, so my assumption was that she was knocked out.

“Do you think we should ever tell her?” As we made eye contact my heart skipped a beat. Shit. This was not good.

“I don’t know Bay, do you think Rain will ever be okay with that?” he let out a low sexy laugh and I swallowed shrugging. Why was I letting him get to me like this? Why did he even have this type of effect on me? I’d known him all my life, as if he were my own brother, so why was I so attracted to him?

Thinking about it, I could tell you exactly why I was so smitten by the boy standing in front of me. It was the way his smile was slightly crooked even though he’d had braces. The way he scrunched up his face if he didn’t like the taste of something he’d tried, and the fact that he’d try just about everything once. How he’d take time out of his own day to help someone who might not return the favor. The little scar just above his eyebrow, and how I only knew about it because I was the one that gave it to him when I was thirteen and playing with my brothers hockey stick, and just happened to whack him in the head with it. It was the fact that I’d probably attended every single one of his birthdays, minus the one for his twenty-first birthday where his friends, including Patrick, brought him out to a strip club.

The fact was, I knew him inside and out, now more literally than ever. And it seemed that nothing about him truly bothered me to the point that I’d ever have to point it out. Sure, I sometimes did point it out just to pick on him, but that was a different story completely.

“You’re so cute when you’re thinking.” His words broke my train of thought. As what he said processed in my mind he took a step closer, and then another, and then another. Until his body was almost touching mine.

He lifted up his hand, then put it back down, obviously unsure of what he really wanted to do. He backed up and leaned against the counter again.

“Can we make a promise?” he looked anywhere but at me after I spoke those words.
“A promise not to tell Rain?” his jaw clenched. His words sounded like venom. What was his problem?

“Yes.” I said just as rude as he had. I stood up straighter, staring holes into the side of his face. He looked at me then, and when our eyes connected he was off the side of the counter, and I was pressed firmly between his body and the counter.

His lips were on mine just as suddenly, and his hands were on either side of my face. His kiss was so intoxicating I found myself kissing back, and running my hand up the back of his neck and through the short strands of his hair.

He kissed me hungrily, his hands now leaving the sides of my face to wonder down to my hips. He picked me up and placed me on the counter, sliding between my legs and placing sweet, affectionate kisses down the side of my neck. I wrapped my legs around his waist, pulling him closer, silently begging him to continue attacking my neck with his lips.

I’m almost positive he would have if my phone wouldn’t have started vibrating. It was sitting on the counter he had been leaning on. His lips suddenly retracted from my skin like I was poisonous and he backed away, his eyes kind of in a daze, as if it hadn’t been him kissing me at all. His breathing was heavy and he turned away from me and the ringing phone and made his way to the fridge, pulling out a water bottle and gulping it down.

I slid off the counter and picked up my phone, pressing the talk button, “Hello?”

I hadn’t bothered to look at the caller ID, so caught up in what had just happened between Tayden and I after we just promised to keep our mistake away from Rain. “Sweetie, it’s me.” My mother’s voice was soft and low.

“Hey Mom…Do you need something?” I asked glancing at Tayden, his eyes staring at the floor.

“Did I happen to leave my cardigan there? I know I put it on the couch when we arrived, but I cannot find it here and can’t for the life of me remember if I picked it up or not.” I walked out the kitchen and sure enough the light blue cardigan sat on the back of the couch.

“It’s right here, I’ll just put it in my room and give it to you tomorrow or something. Okay?” my eyes wondered into the tiny bit of kitchen I could see from here. I heard movement, but I couldn’t see a thing.

“Thank you sweetheart, and thank you for supper. It was absolutely delicious. I’m going to bed now, goodnight. I love you.” I walked into the kitchen and saw Tayden rummaging through our freezer. My face squished up with confusion.

“Goodnight Mom, I love you too.” I clicked the end button and put the phone back on the counter. “What on Earth are you looking for?”

“Well I was looking for ice cream, but since you don’t seem to have any. I guess nothing.” He sighed and closed the freezer turning back to me. I stared at his lips, if you looked close enough you could see they were slightly darker than usual probably from all his forceful kissing.

“Tayden…” I started. He raised his hand.

“Please don’t. I know.” He ran a hand through his hair, making it stick up in random places sexily. I’ve just been extremely stressed, and you wouldn’t understand. But, God why am I telling you this?” he groaned and sat down on a stool, lowering his face to the counter.
I walked closer to him, before placing my hand lightly on his back. “Because you know I’ll listen.” He glanced sideways at me and I mustered up a small smile. This conversation was getting deeper and deeper by the second, going into uncharted territory. Which, was extremely dangerous.

“You always listen.” I smiled and pretended to be extremely flattered trying to lighten the mood. I laughed at myself after. “I love when you do that.” I went to speak but he cut me off,

“Shh. Just let me do this first.” He walked up to me again, pressing his lips to mine once more. Except this time he wrapped his arms around me and lifted me up. Instincts had me wrap my arms and legs around him as I gave into his sweet kisses.

Before I could even register what was happening, my back was pressed against a wall. He put me down and pulled off his shirt, clinging to it until he had guided me into my bedroom once more. He dropped the shirt and reached his hands towards mine.

This time I knew it was different than before, but yet still the same. It wasn’t the alcohol doing it this time, it was all him.

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As soon as he was finished we laid there panting. I grasped my sheets and pulled them to my face trying to hide my smile. I looked over at Tayden, and he had a goofy grin on his face. But that suddenly all changed and he shot up, looking around the floor for his boxers.

“Shit…Shit. Shit. Shit.” I pulled the sheet tighter around me as he muttered more curse words.

“Tayden…” I trailed off, not knowing exactly what he was doing and where I wanted to go with my sentence.

“Look Baylin, this is gonna sound…well, horrible. I know, I did this, I know it’s all me, I’m a jackass. Whatever. But this can never happen again, okay? I won’t tell Rain, but we’ve gotta go on like nothing’s happened? It shouldn’t have happened the first time, and I was stupid for making it happen the second. You’re beautiful, okay? This just won’t work…” he trailed off snatching his pants and pulling them up.

I nodded numbly, not sure what to think. “Okay…” I let slip out my mouth. He smiled a kind of sad smile, then slipped his shirt over his head. I laid back, not wanting to move and curled into my sheets.

“I’ll see myself out. Goodnight.” I didn’t reply, I just watched him stand there. And as soon as he realized I wasn’t going to reply, he shut my door quietly and not long after I heard the front door shut as well. I pulled my pillow against me and buried my head in it. Only then realizing it smelled exactly like Tayden.

I tried to blink them back, but they came on full force. I wiped my eyes, trying to keep my face clear. But I finally just gave up and quietly cried myself to sleep.