“What?” I question, absolutely stunned with that revelation. I mean, there are definitely rumors at school, but there’s nothing to back it up. Though, what I just walked in on… that tells a different story. “What’s Noah got to do with it?”
“Noah’s protective,” she explains, “and Rivers is a bit of a ladies’ man.”
“Ahhh,” I say as understanding dawns, “Noah doesn’t want his best friend screwing over his sister.”
“That,” she says with a grin, “or he just doesn’t want his best friend screwing his sister at all.”
“And what do you think about that?”
She lets out a breath as a deep thoughtfulness comes over her. “I haven’t decided yet,” she tells me. “On one hand, being with Rivers would be exciting, and to be honest, I think I like him, but on the other hand…, I’d get hurt for sure. He’d get bored of me. I mean, you saw how easily he spoke of fucking Monica against the wall.”
“Has he cheated on girlfriends in the past?” I question.
She raises her eyebrows. “He’s never had a girlfriend before.”
A grin rips across my face. “Are you the exception?”
Tully shrugs her shoulders before leaning back on her hands “Who knows,” she says. “I’m down if I could guarantee he wouldn’t hurt me, but I’m not exactly sure I want to risk my heart to find out.”
“Hence the awkward sexual tension between the two of you.”
“Exactly.”
“Damn, that sucks,” I say, having experienced my own torment due to sexual tension with Jackson. Though that was one-sided and I ended up looking like a fool.
“Come on,” Tully says, jumping up from her bed and walking over to a stack of DVDs. “What are you in the mood for?”
I shrug my shoulder. “I don’t know. You pick,” I tell her, wondering how my day ended up with me watching a movie with a girl I’ve never talked to in my life, in the house of a boy who practically abducted me for the afternoon, with a group of people who I’m still stunned to be hanging out with.
“K,” she grumbles as she searches through her selection before smiling as she finds the one she wants. “‘Fifty Shades of Grey’, it is.”
“Ugh,” I groan. “Really?”
“Yes, really,” she defends. “What’s wrong with it?”
I shrug my shoulders again. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen it before, but isn’t it all about dirty sex?”
Excitement lifts her eyes. “So much dirty sex,” she tells me, “but it’s so much more than that. Did you ever read the books?”
“Can’t say that I have.”
“Oh, my god,” she groans, grabbing a little tablet looking thing and shoving it into my hands. “You’re missing out. Read it when you get home.”
“I don’t have a copy.”
“You do now,” she says, looking down at the device in my hands. “That’s my old Kindle, you can have that. Noah bought me a new one for my birthday last month, and I’ve kept the old one completely updated.”
I shake my head completely stunned. Is this girl for real? I just met her and she’s handing me a Kindle? “I can’t take this,” I tell her, trying to jam the Kindle back into her hands, “I only just met you.”
“Tough shit,” she smiles. “I’ll tell you what, I’ll write you a list of books that I want you to read and when you’re finished, I’ll take it back. Besides, I like you. I think I’ll keep you.”
I can’t help but groan, realizing she said pretty much the same thing that Noah had said earlier. “I’m warning you, I’m not a big reader.”
“And I’m warning you that once you get hooked on a good one, you won’t be able to stop. Now, quit making excuses. You’re taking it home and you’re going to read until your brain is fuzzy by Mr. Grey.”
I roll my eyes and tuck the Kindle under my arm, realizing that this isn’t something she’s about to cave on. “Fine,” I tell her. “But don’t be surprised if I don’t finish it.”
“Don’t be surprised if you do,” she shoots back at me before grabbing the box of popcorn off the bed and dragging me out of her room.
Something catches my eye in the hallway and I find my feet digging in as I stare up at the black and white photo frame on the wall. Inside the frame is a beautiful little girl staring back at me with bright eyes and a cheeky smile, one that reminds me of Noah. “Who’s this?” I question, not having seen a little girl running around the house earlier.
Tully’s face falls as shadows overtake her eyes. She lets out a heartbroken sigh. “That’s my little sister, Lily,” she explains, running her eyes over the frame and taking in the little girl within. “She’s not with us anymore.”
My eyes widen and I find myself pulling Tully into a tight hug as I recall the lily tattooed on Noah’s chest. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to bring up something hard.”