HIS SCENT IS A MOON LIT LIE

Chapter Ten

Elara’s POV

I was mad.

And that word was an understatement.

I couldn’t understand what I felt. It was insistent, wild, and raging. Sometimes, it felt like I needed to do something, that insane urge when my body leaned towards a particular act.

But I found myself stopping most times, not knowing what it was about.

For three days, I refused to look into his room. But because it was hard to keep up with, I let myself cheat in the middle of the night, my feet edging towards the blinds. My eyes narrowed, searching into his room.

But each time, everything was silent in there. The desk had been moved away from the window, and from where I stood, I could see nothing. It was hard accepting it, that everything was only a figment of my imagination, and that whatever was between me and the neighbour…

“It was nothing,” Maya murmured like a chant. For the last three days, it had been the only words flowing from her lips. She was lying on my bed, her legs crossed mid-air, and her hands tossing my stuffed toy into the air.

Ethan had started a summer job at the mechanic's and could no longer hang out with us during the day.

“I know,” I sighed, pulling away from the window.

“I don’t think you have told yourself that enough for you to actually believe it,” Maya insisted, allowing the toy land in front of the adjoining door leading to the bathroom. “He is a d**k, like every other guy in school.”

Heat flared up in my chest, and for a second, I narrowed my eyes at Maya, my hands folded in fists by my side. It made me mad. The fact that she called him a d**k.

But I caught myself before I could inflict actual damage. It was strange.

Everything was strange.

Nothing had ever made me think of hurting Maya, and now…

She turned around on the bed, oblivious to the thoughts coursing through me. “We need to take Jordan off your mind,” Maya announced suddenly, pushing out of the bed. “And I have just the best way to make that happen.”

I shook my head slowly, coming to join her on the bed. “Maya, I….”

“Nope.” Once her feet touched the ground, she sauntered into my closet, the scent of apple bubble gum following her.

I pause at once, blinking.

“Did you change your scent?”

Maya angled her head, then smiled to herself as she leaned into the shelf. I couldn’t see what had brought such a wide grin to her face. “Change my scent?”

I tried to make it feel casual, shrugging and pushing myself further into the bed. “You smell of apple bubble gum.”

“Oh!” She called, her voice sounding muffled as her head disappeared from view. “My scent has always had that tinge in it, but it isn’t very pronounced. It is like an undertone.”

Maya had been using the same scent for years, but not once had I been able to pick it out like this. I closed my eyes and took another whiff.

“Jasmine,” I murmured. “And roses. There is a tinge of oud.”

I heard her return to the room, the scent getting stronger. “That’s impressive,” she murmured, a mischievous excitement etched in her tone. “But this… now this….”

My eyes fell open when the scent changed.

“Hell no!”

“Come on,” Maya grumbled. “You know it’s exactly what you need. You need to get Jordan out of your mind and this ….”

“My mom will never let me. You know how much she hates me going out past curfew.”

“Well,” she had a mischievous glint in her eyes as she threw herself on the bed beside me. “Who says your Mom has to know? And besides, she is out of town with Gabriel, right?”

“Maya!”

“You’ve had this dress since your last birthday, and you haven’t worn it out before,” my best friend whined. “The graduating class from senior year is throwing a party for themselves, and they were gracious enough to invite the whole school. You know, Elara, that I am missing it.”

“You can go without me.”

“Not happening either.”

“Urghhh!” I rolled my eyes, trying to pull the blanket over my body. But Maya wrestled it away from reach, and we ended up on the ground, squealing like little kids, our hair sticking all over the place.

“Okay!” I laughed, my breath coming out in a rage. “I’ll go with you, but you have to promise that we will leave there once it's midnight.”

“I promise, Elara.”

Her face was too stoic.

“Maya, I’m serious,” I muttered, getting back on my feet.

“I am too,” she chuckled. “We’ll be out of there before midnight.”

“And if I see you shoving your tongue down someone’s throat simply because Ethan doesn’t see you the way you see him, I am pulling you away from whoever it is.”

“Yes, captain!” Maya mock saluted, getting up too. “Now, go get dressed.”

In about an hour, we were jumping out through my window, our purses tossed ahead of us. The cool of the night teased our partially naked skin, and it made us giggle ever louder.

The party was a walkable distance from where I lived, so in no time, the pulsing music from the house spilled onto the lawn, ushering us in.

“Maya….”

“I know, right?” she squealed, pulling me along with her while I struggled to keep my dark velvet dress from riding dangerously up my thighs. “I can’t believe we are here!”

Red cups were pushed into our hands the minute we walked in through the doors. Maya already felt at home here, her head nodding along with the music, while my eyes scanned the crowd, looking for a familiar face.

“Elara!”

I whipped my head around, an easy smile on my face as Ethan rushed over to me, lifting me in the air like he always did. I giggled as he turned me around, my face in the air, the faint smell of liquor and sweat washing through me.

But it all ended when my eyes fell on the person behind him.