On His Knees by Tabatha Kiss
Chapter 58
Jenna
October
Heidi raises her champagne flute. “To crippling debt!”
Drew and I follow her lead, sitting taller on our living room couch. “To crippling debt!” we repeat.
We all take a sip from our flutes. My party hasn’t officially started yet, but I honestly threw on my good time dress the moment I read the letter.
Ms. Abrams,
We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted into Chicago North University Medical School.
Yes, I expected it all along.
No, I don’t care.
I’m going to party, anyway.
Go, me! Go!
Drew’s phone vibrates in his pocket. He instantly reaches for it, offering an apologetic glance before rising and stepping away to take the call. “Hey, Nora,” he answers in a low, rough voice. “Yeah, I’m at home with a fever.” He looks back at us with a smile.
“He’s playing hooky this afternoon,” Heidi explains.
“Oh.” I chuckle. “Bad boy.”
“It’s for a good cause.” She raises her flute to me. “Friends only get into their first choice medical school once and it must be celebrated.”
“Eh, only choice.”
“Still.”
I smile. “Well, I appreciate him taking the risk for little old me.”
“Of course!”
“Who else is coming?”
“Corey and Wilder are on their way over. Devin can’t make it, but Ellie is coming, and she’s bringing a cake.”
I twitch with excitement. “I get cake?”
“Of course you get cake!” Heidi laughs. “Harvey is in Vancouver getting panties thrown at his head, but he sends his love.”
“Yeah, he already blew me up with congratulations. Said he’d dedicate Lady Bone to me tonight at his show.”
She swoons. “I’m so glad we know him.”
“Being friends with a rockstar certainly has its perks.”
“Other than that...” Heidi winces, indicating that my impromptu party will be a bit on the small side.
Not that I mind, truthfully. I prefer intimate get-togethers with my closest friends more and more nowadays.
I wave a hand. “It’s fine. It is... 3 p.m. on a Wednesday, to be fair.”
“But!” Heidi points a finger upward. “There should be Halloween parties every night down Greek Row next week. Just choose one and we’ll crash it.”
“Sounds perfect.” I nod as Drew wanders back to the couch. “Did the billionairess buy it?” I ask him.
“Uh, no,” he says, then laughs. “But she’s letting me get away with it, so she must be in a good mood.”
“Hey, don’t get in trouble on my account.”
He picks up his glass off the coffee table. “Trouble shrouble. You’re worth it.”
“Aww, shucks,” I say as we both take sips from our flutes.
“Seth?” Heidi asks him.
Drew shakes his head. “Not coming.”
My stomach clenches.
“He’s not?” I ask.
“He’s at the hotel until nine, but he wishes you luck... in rehab?” Drew tilts his head. “I think he misunderstood what I was telling him.”
“No, that’s just Seth being an ass,” I say. “As usual.”
“I’m sure he was just joking,” Heidi says.
“Well, not a huge loss,” I lie. “The last thing I want at my party is a bunch of snarky Sethisms.” Another lie. “We don’t need him.”
What’s one more?
“Maybe he’ll stop by after — assuming he doesn’t have a secret date with his mystery girl,” she adds with a snort. “Again.”
Ah, yes. Seth’s mysterious girl of mystery.
Whoever could she possibly be?
“Heidi,”Drew playfully warns.
“Couldn’t you just... sneak a peek?”
“I promised not to get involved.”
“Yeah, but—”
“Seth is doing his own thing. He asked for space and I respect that request. It’s what friends do.”
“He hasn’t told you anything about her?” I ask, playing dumb. “At all?”
“Nope,” he answers. “But it has to be getting serious. Seth’s mood has gone through the roof lately. I haven’t seen him smile this much in a long time.”
Oh, really?
I hold my lips in a firm line as I glance at my phone.
No new messages. No missed calls.
“Dude friendships are so foreign to me,” Heidi says. “Whenever Jenna hooks up with a new guy, I get more details than I know what to do with.”
“Size,” I say.
“Color.”
“Shape.”
“Frequency.”
“Frequency?” Drew asks.
“Number of times they do it,” she explains. “Number of climaxes. Quality of each climax on a one-to-ten scale.”
“No data is off-limits,” I say.
Drew sits back. “Forget I asked. Wait...” He furrows his brow at Heidi. “You don’t tell her that stuff about us, do you?”
“Of course not!” she says.
I sneer with disappointment. “Not anymore.”
“Anymore?” he asks nervously.
“In the beginning, she was very open with the deets but as soon as you two were in love or whatever, suddenly it was inappropriate to talk about.” I roll my eyes. “But those first few times?” I flash a wink. “You had some moves, my friend. Well done.”
He gawks at Heidi. She twitches with hesitation.
“She’s just messing with you!” she says.
“She’s right,” I say with a nod. “I’m only kidding.”
The doorbell rings.
“I’ll get it!” Heidi hops off the couch to get away from this conversation.
I smirk at Drew. “Fireworks,” I whisper as I raise my flute to him.
He glares some more.
“Congratulations!”
I flinch as Wilder attacks me from the side with a vicious hug, nearly making me drop my champagne.
“I’m so proud of you, babe!” she says, giving me a few quick shakes.
I laugh. “Thank you.”
“Ugh, I can’t believe you’re all grown up!” Wilder releases me and steps around to plop down beside me on the couch. “It seems like only yesterday...”
I sigh at Heidi. “Oh, boy...”
“—when this petite, adorable girl wandered up the stairs of the Beta Kappa house in a pair of little pink shorts and tiny jelly shoes.”
“I’m feeling very infantilized right now,” I mutter.
Heidi laughs.
Drew appears beside us and offers her a flute of champagne. “Madam,” he says.
“Oh, thank you so much, Mr. Rose.” Wilder takes the glass. “Such a gentleman.”
“Where’s Corey?” he asks.
“Oh, he’s swinging by Ellie’s place to pick her up. I came from campus.”
He takes a bow before rejoining Heidi on the couch.
“Now, where was I?” Wilder muses. “Oh, yes! Pledge night!”
“Hey, let’s skip ahead!” I say.
She pouts before flashing a wide smile. “And now, today, that little bombshell in a leopard print bikini covered in whipped cream and Kahlua has been accepted into medical school.”
“And she’ll live happily ever after,” I say, raising my glass. “Just as the prophecy foretold.”
“Amen.”
Wilder clinks hers with mine, and we take a sip.
Drew shakes his head, confused. “What the hell goes on in the Beta Kappa house?”
Heidi shrugs her shoulders, just as lost as he is.
“Nothing a few outsiders like you need worry about,” Wilder says as she glances around. “Speaking of, where’s Seth?”
“Working,” Heidi answers.
“Working-working or hooking up with his mystery girl working?”
Damn. Wilder’s good.
“Working-working... we think?” Heidi answers with a raised brow.
She planted a seed that he could be with his mystery girl right this second. He’s not, of course. She knows that. I know that.
But they don’t.
“He usually works on Wednesdays, though,” Drew says, not eager to doubt him.
“Yeah, at a hotel,” Wilder hints. “I’m not saying what I’m saying, but if I were sayin’...” She takes a sip from her flute as Heidi and Drew ponder a little more.
She’s as good at this secret fling thing as I am. Hell, maybe even better.
Beta Kappa forever.
“Y’all know it’s probably a dude, right?” I quip.
They laugh as the doorbell rings again.
“I’ll get it,” I say as I rise, happily leaving them to their gossip.
Ellie bounces excitedly as I approach the door, carefully holding a rectangular tray in her hands. Corey hops up the porch stairs behind her with a pack of beer and a full arm of shopping bags.
“Congratulations!” Ellie shrieks as I open the door.
“Thank you!” I step to the side, letting them in.
“Got room in the fridge, Doc?” Corey asks.
“I’m sure we do,” I say, waving him toward the kitchen.
He walks in. “Hey, Stampy!” he greets Heidi as he passes her.
Ellie presents the tray. “I baked you something...”
“Yay! It’s a...” I pause as I study the... shape of the cake through the transparent lid. “A blood-filled penis?”
“It’s a blood-filled syringe!”
“Oh!”I tilt my head, seeing it. “Yeah. I... guess that’s what it could be.”
“Okay. Full disclosure.” She leans in. “I used my penis-shaped cake pan to make it, but I had to improvise a little.”
I laugh. “Well, urology just so happens to be on my short list of specialties, so it works either way.”
She giggles. “Kismet!”
“I love it so much. Thanks for coming, Ellie.”
“Wouldn’t miss it!”
She winks at me before passing by to join the others, who’ve all abandoned the couches in favor of snacks in the kitchen.
I pause, feeling the cool autumn breeze in the open doorway. I take the quiet moment to breathe as I pull my phone from my pocket again.
No missed calls. No new messages.
“Still haven’t told her, huh?”
I flinch and spin around to find myself face-to-face with Wilder. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I say, keeping my voice down as I kick the door shut.
“Yes...” She narrows her eyes. “It’s a mystery.”
I exhale, discreetly checking for listening ears. “He and I are just... taking it slow.”
“Uh-huh.”
“We don’t want to over-complicate it. Okay?” I shrug. “We’ll tell people when we’re ready.”
Wilder hums to herself. “Gee, this sounds awfully familiar…”
“Oh—” I roll my eyes. “Come on. It’s not the same thing.”
“It’s kinda the same thing.”
“You made out with your best friend’s boyfriend like five minutes after they broke up. This is not the same thing.”
She pauses, looking down.
I wince. “Wilder, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to say that.”
“No, that’s… what I did.”
“I know we need to tell her sooner or later, it’s just...”
“You don’t want to mess it up?” she says. “Your friendship. Their friendship. Your new and exciting relationship that no one else could possibly understand?”
“Yes.”
“Yeah, I know.” She cants her head. “It’s all very familiar.”
I swallow hard.
“My advice?” she continues. “Sooner, not later. You might get lucky and maybe your best friend will be okay with it.”
“You and Ellie are fine.”
“We are now. But it took a long time for us to get that way again. Don’t make the same mistake I did, Jenna. It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt.”
“No one’s getting hurt over me and Seth.”
“Someone always gets hurt over you and Seth, and it’s usually Heidi. You two could barely stand to be in the same room before, what’s it going to be like when you break up?”
“Whenwe break up?”
“What, are you in love? Are you two endgame now?”
I pause, stuck on how to respond to that.
“No,” I say, “I just…”
“Hey, babe,” Corey sticks his head out from the kitchen, “you want a nut or part of the shaft?” he asks Wilder.
“It’s not a penis!” Ellie whines behind him amid a roar of laughter.
Wilder grins. “Just the tip, baby.”
“Yeaaaah, babe.”
He leaves, and she turns back to me.
“Are you two endgame?” I ask her, genuinely curious.
She winces uncomfortably. “I think so.”
I nod. “Hm.”