"So are you two a thing now?" asked Amber when I told her that Tyler would be driving us to Kevin's.

She was sitting at her desk, inspecting her forehead in a magnification mirror, tweezers perched to pluck any wayward hair that threatened her perfect eyebrows.

I was holding a long-sleeve, blue dress up to my body in the full-length mirror on the other side of the room, so I could see my own eyes grow wide at her question.

"What?" I asked.

"What are you?" she said in her typical, demanding tone. She spun around in her chair so she could pin me with her shrewd gaze. "Are you fuck-buddies, are you using him for his car or to buy you alcohol, are you dating, what?"

"I don't know," I said, my thoughts spinning wildly. "None of the above."

"How can it just be nothing?" Amber brandished the tweezers at me and pushed back the rolled-up bandana holding up her hair.

I shrugged and turned away from the mirror so she couldn't see my red cheeks. Placing the dress back in my closet, I began to absent-mindedly leaf through the other hangers. "We just hang out together; we've never really talked about it."

"So it wouldn't bother you if he was sleeping with someone else?"

My hand paused on a black dress.

Would it bother me? We weren't exclusive, so if he was sleeping around, technically I couldn't fault him. But even as I imagined him kissing another girl, a jealous hand twisted my stomach. I passed on the black dress and kept looking, though I wasn't seeing any of the clothes.

"No, I think it would bother me," I said.

"So why don't you do something about it?" she demanded. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her rise to her feet and place her fisted hands on her hips.

Being her friend was almost as scary as not being her friend.

"It's complicated," I said, slowly.

Truthfully it was; I valued being able to talk to Tyler openly, or at least more openly than to anyone else. If something were to go wrong and I lost him as a friend...

The kiss already had the potential to screw things up. Though it had only been a week, we hadn't talked about it or what it meant. I wasn't even sure what I wanted it to mean.

I could remember every detail of that moment in crystal clarity. The slight pressure of his hands on my back, pulling me just a bit closer to him. His lips, sweet from the apple, and soft at first in his hesitation. The sound of more apples falling to the ground like audible heartbeats. In that brief moment, nothing and no one else existed but the two of us.

Afterwards, despite my best attempts not to, I found myself comparing Danny and Tyler. Kissing Tyler had been sweet and comforting, like coming home after a long day. When Danny kissed me, it had been fearless, full of wild energy, like running through a lightning storm. But I couldn't decide which life was more like me. After all, how did you compare the living with the dead?

Something hit me hard in the back, catapulting me out of the memory; it was one of Amber's moccasins.

"Hey!" I snapped. "What was that for?"

"It's not complicated," said Amber. "Either you're just in it for the hook-up, and you don't care who else the other fucks, or you like him enough to make it exclusive. Figure out what you want and tell him. Because it'll save you a hell of a lot of pain down the road."

She grabbed her shower caddy from under her bed, towel slung over her shoulder, and waltzed down the hall towards the showers.

I supposed in her own aggressive way, Amber was right. It would be better to talk to Tyler about this, whatever it was, sooner rather than later. But did I even know what I wanted? I shook my head and turned back to my closet, this time focusing all of my attention on sorting through clothes.
________________________________________________________________

By the time we arrived at Kevin's apartment, the party was in fully swing. Black lights had been set up around the living room so those in white seemed to glow in the dark. A handful of people were lighting joints on the balcony and others were taking turns doing keg stands in the corner. Their chanting as someone neared forty-five seconds nearly drowned out the music until his head jerked up and he sprayed everyone with beer.

Amber spotted some people she knew and sauntered away, flask in hand like a shiny metal purse, hips swaying in a skin tight, black leather dress. Looking at her, you would think she owned the place.

"Want to grab a drink?" asked Tyler, his teeth a brilliant white in the black light. It was a Cheshire cat smile.

"Yeah, Vanessa stashed some bottles for us in the fridge so we wouldn't have to deal with the keg," I said, beckoning him towards the tiny kitchen. We wove our way through tightly packed bodies, narrowly avoiding a spilled drink in the process, and trying to bump into as few people as possible, but as I placed my hand on the fridge door someone grabbed my wrist.

"Ah, ah, ah," said Vanessa, spinning me around and wagging her finger at me. "There's an entry fee."

She was dressed in black jeans and a plunging V-neck red shirt that matched her lipstick. Her hair had been curled to catalog perfection; she was clearly feeling a lot better.

"So what do I owe you?" I shouted over the music.

"One fireball shot, one tequila shot, one Disaronno shot," she said, ticking them off on her fingers. "Then you can pound as many beers as you want. You too!" she added rounding on Tyler and poking him playfully in the chest.

"Van this is Tyler, Tyler this is my slightly drunk friend Vanessa," I said laughing.

"Oh, I've heard a lot about you," she said, giving Tyler a poorly disguised wink. I elbowed her in the stomach. "Either way, you still need the friendship stamp of approval," continued Vanessa. "And it starts with this!"

On cue, Kevin appeared by her side with four fireball shots cradled between his laced fingers.

"Round one," he said.

I took my glass, clinked with the others, and threw it back. Cinnamon flooded my mouth, burning my lips in a pleasant sort of way. It reminded me of when Van and I used to see how much Big Red we could cram into our mouth as kids.

Tyler made a face as he set his glass down. "I never did like cinnamon."

Vanessa didn't give me a chance to respond, shoving another shot glass into my hand. Tequila this time. She took my other hand and held it up to my mouth. "Round two."

I ran my tongue along the juncture between my thumb and forefinger so the salt would stick when Van unceremoniously upended the container over my hand. Most of it rained down on my feet and fell through the crisscrossed straps of my heels to stick between my toes like sand.

Vanessa pressed a lime into my hand. Salt, shot, lime. It hit the back of my throat wrong and I shuddered, wishing for a chaser. Fireball and tequila burned differently for a reason, and they weren't tastes meant to be mixed.

"Last one," said Kevin, passing out the final shot.

"Bottoms up!" cried Van. The Disaronno went down smoother, thick and sweet like syrup. I licked my lips again and blushed when I caught Tyler smirking at me.

"Now," said Van, pushing beer bottles into our hands and shoving us back towards the party. "Go have fun!"

"Sorry about her," I said when we came to a stop by the open door leading to the balcony. The cool night air washed over me in a pleasant way, tempering the burn of those last three shots. I took a sip of beer; my fingers were sticky from the lime and alcohol and stuck to the bottle.

"Don't be," said Tyler, "She seems like a good friend." He looked good in dark jeans and a button down blue shirt, standing casual but confident; the picture of ease. I moved a bit closer to him on the pretext of making room for the people coming in from outside.

"She's the best," I agreed. In my back pocket my phone buzzed with an incoming call. I rolled my eyes when I saw Chris's name and clicked ignore.

Tyler had rolled up his sleeves to cool off, far enough this time that I could see the tattoo on the inside of his arm. It was the outline of a butterfly, simple, black, and unadorned. I had a strange urge to laugh, but thought the better of it.

Instead, I began to ask, "What's the—?" and was cut off by my phone ringing again. I tapped the red ignore button.

"Sorry," I said, trying to keep calm.

"No worries, what were you saying?"

"I was going to ask—what the fuck?" I snapped, taking out my phone again.

"If you need to take it, it's cool."

"No—I," but even as I was going to turn my phone off a text appeared.

"I know you don't want to talk. I wouldn't ask if it wasn't important."

Part of me suspected it was a trick, but Chris wasn't the type of person to cry wolf. Besides he was taking care to be grammatically correct in his text, which was something he never did. Another call came through.

"I'm sorry, Tyler, just give me a sec," I said, stepping out onto the now vacated balcony. The air suddenly felt much colder as I swiped open the call.

"What the fuck do you want, Chris?" I hissed, my breath materializing before me like venom.

"Dash, we need to talk." I couldn't tell if he was intoxicated or not.

"I'm done talking," I snapped, pacing up and down the short stretch of railing.

"Where are you?"

"None of your fucking business."

Across the street drifted the sounds of another apartment party.

"Are you with that Tyler kid?" he demanded. He sounded almost breathless, like he was walking too fast but not yet running.

"Is that what this is all about?" I asked outraged. "Chris, we are not together. How I spend my time and who I spend it with does not concern you. And so help me if you show up here again, I will castrate you."

"Dash, you don't know him—"

"And you do?" I nearly shouted, digging my fingers into the railing, flecks of paint catching under my nails. My gaze swept the street and short yard below, making sure he hadn't shown up unannounced like last time.

"He isn't who you think he is—"

"And neither were you," I snapped, beyond furious now. "Don't call me again, Chris. I mean it."

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So do you think Amber is right? Will Dash make a move? What about her and Chris? Let me know what you think!

Also, a special shout-out and dedication to MulanJiang for the awesome new cover! What do you guys think of it?!

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