Chapter 678
“Why are you so freaked out by your Uncle Aaron? Did you, like, do something sketchy to him or what?” I teased Lena as she slowed the wheelchair down. She didn’t answer. I tilted my head back to look up at her. “Oh my God, you did do something!”
“Can we not talk about this?” Lena muttered, which, let’s be real, was as good as a confession.
I tapped her hand on the wheelchair handles. “Wait—lemme guess. You couldn’t resist his hotness and crossed some kind of line?”
She smacked me lightly on the head. “Shut up! He’s my uncle!”
“Then why do you get all flustered whenever he’s around?” I pressed. I mean, Lena wasn’t exactly the type to get rattled easily.
“Fine. Once, I accidentally walked in on him showering, okay?”
I froze, then smacked her hand. “No way! Where? How much did you see? Wait—did you see, like, everything?”
“Can we please drop it?” she said, eyes squeezed shut like that’d make me stop.
“What do you think?” I shot back, grinning like a maniac.
Lena let out a dramatic sigh, clearly giving up. “It was at his bathroom. And… yeah, I saw everything.”
My jaw hit the floor. “No way! That’s next-level awkward. Don’t tell me you were drunk and wandered in?”
“No,” she snapped, shaking her head. “I was visiting my grandma’s house. Nobody else was home, and I was all sweaty, so I went upstairs to use the guest room. I opened the bathroom door, and… yeah.”
She trailed off, clearly hoping that’d be the end of it. But nope, not on my watch.
“Wait a sec,” I said, squinting. “Didn’t you hear, like, the water running or something?”
Lena let out another long sigh, like just thinking about it was draining. “I had my headphones on, okay? I didn’t hear anything. I took my clothes off, opened the door, and just walked right in…”
“Wait, wait,” I cut her off. “Are you saying you walked in naked? So not only did you see all of him, but he saw all of you too?”
Her face went bright red, and the tiny nod she gave was all the confirmation I needed. I lost it. Like, full-on laughter.
“Ugh, stop laughing!” Lena smacked me on the head.
When I finally caught my breath, I said, “Look, this is basically a tie. You both saw each other naked, so it cancels out. No need to be embarrassed.”
“Embarrassed? I lost on both ends!” Lena huffed.
I grinned. “I don’t know… You got the full VIP view of your ridiculously hot uncle. Sounds like a win to me.”
Lena didn’t respond, but I couldn’t resist pushing further. “You know, I always thought Nate was your first. Turns out Uncle Aaron beat him to it.”
“Will you stop?” Lena smacked me again.
“Fine, fine,” I said. “But seriously, what happened next? Like, after the big… reveal, how did you even react?”
I knew I was being awful, but I couldn’t help myself.
“Nope. Not going there. End of story,” Lena said firmly.
“Aw, c’mon,” I teased. “Don’t tell me Aaron tackled you right then and there.”
“He did NOT!” Lena snapped.
“I don’t believe you. There’s more to this, isn’t there? Either he tackled you, or you tackled him…” My thoughts ventured into smutty fiction territory.
Lena swatted at me again.
We kept bickering the entire way back to the viewing area, giggling like idiots. When we finally arrived, most of the audience had already settled into their seats. My assigned spot? Smack-dab in the front row, sandwiched between Wayne and Cole on one side, and Jace and Ron on the other. Absolutely not. No way.
Without hesitation, I veered to the back and plopped down next to Lena instead.
“I swear, ever since you broke up with Jace, you’ve been collecting admirers like Pokémon cards,” Lena said, grinning.
She wasn’t exactly loud, but apparently loud enough for Jace—sitting just ahead of us—to hear. His jaw tightened like he was grinding his teeth into dust.
I nudged her, whispering, “Can you not? I’ve put Jace behind me, remember?”
“Alright, alright, I’ll behave,” Lena said, but the sly look in her eye? Total liar.