Hockey Romance: Falling For My Best Friend's Brother

3: The Morning After

LILY

I woke up with a sore and aching body. My whole body hurt, especially between my thighs, and for a minute, I just wanted to drift away to that painless and dreamless sleep until my hand hit a solid and warm object. A body.

I opened my eyes, squinted at the way too bright sunlight streaming in from the windows, before my eyes landed on the body. But it just wasn't any body.

It was Roland Fred. And he was still fast asleep.

I slapped my hands over my mouth as the memories from last night came flooding back: how we left the party to drink in his room, how we drank bottles of alcohol till we became tipsy and drunk, how we slept together.

How I gave my virginity to my best friend's older brother.

Last night, I knew I tried to convince myself that he was somebody else but deep down, I knew it was him and yet, I allowed the s*x to happen.

Bella was going to kill me if she ever found out that I allowed this to happen. Roland would never allow me to hear the end of it. He'd tease me endlessly about it. For someone who believed I was desperate for any guy to take my virginity, this was just going to prove him right.

I couldn't deal with that right now, so I snuck away before he could wake up. The house was quiet with different people passed out in the sitting room after drinking their asses off last night, and I was grateful that there was no one, especially Bella, around to ask me any questions.

I tiptoed upstairs and was almost by the guest room that doubled as my room whenever I was in their house when Bella’s voice stopped me.

“Where are you coming from?” My soul nearly tumbled out of my body. I faked a smile as I turned back to her, and I prayed to the gods that she wouldn't notice anything different about me.

“Just somewhere,” I lied stupidly, “I passed out in the sitting room last night. Just woke up.”

“No, Lily,” my brunette friend’s tone was final, “I checked the sitting room after everybody crashed last night. You were not there. You didn't sleep in your room either, and…” she looked at me up and down, a detective look in her eyes as she scanned my body from head to toe.

I stood awkwardly under her scrutiny, afraid that she'd find something that would sell me off. Her eyes zeroed in on my neck, and whatever she saw there made her eyes widen.

“Oh my God! “Lily,” she screamed excitedly, practically launching herself at me to hug me, “You did it.” You slept with someone. Omg!”

She continued to scream, and I had to cover her mouth with my palm before dragging her into her room. I locked the door securely behind us.

Bella was practically jumping up and down while looking at me with expectant and desperately curious eyes.

“Now tell me everything. Who is the guy? How did it go? Did you enjoy it? Did you have an orgasm? Are you guys dating now? Is it someone that I know? Just tell me every single thing without leaving a thing out, okay?” she demanded excitedly while my stomach sank to the pit of my stomach.

I couldn't tell how she'd react if she found out it was her brother, and I wasn't sure I could tell her it was Roland. Knowing Roland and how much she wanted my first experience to be special, she'd be enraged to know that it happened as a drunken mistake.

“Well, it was just one of those guys from… the… the…” I struggled to think of a lie while failing to meet her eyes, “...hockey club. We had a couple of drinks together last night. He showed interest in me, and I just decided to get it out of the way. I mean, who remains a virgin at almost 19?” I chuckled to diffuse the tension and then immediately tried to change the topic, “Are we still on for dinner tonight? I need to iron my gown.”

“You're deflecting, Lily. I know you. You'd never do something like that, and even if you impulsively decide to do it, you would be more than willing to share the details with me, but now, you're trying to change the topic when we should be going over every single detail of your first time together.”

I sighed, “Bella…”

“If he's from the hockey team, is it Ben?”

I shook my head.

“Karl?”

I shook my head and kept shaking it until she mentioned more than five names. Seeing that this would end with her finding out one way or the other, I allowed it to slip.

“It was Roland.”

“What?” Her mouth dropped open, and her eyes widened, “What?”

I sighed again as I looked away from her. Ever since I knew what s*x was and I started fantasizing about my first time with my first boyfriend, I never thought it'd play out like that. I've always believed that the morning after my first night, he'd bring my breakfast in bed and we'd make love again.

But here I was, being questioned by Bella, with tears burning my eyes.

“It was nothing serious. We drank together, and one thing led to another. It was a drunken mistake. It means nothing. Let's just pretend it never happened, okay?”

“What the f**k? No,” she shrank away from me as if I just scalded her with hot water, “I know how much you've looked forward to this. I know how special you wanted your first time to be. How could Roland steal that from you? How can he do that to you? How dare he treat you like one of the girls he sleeps with and then discard you? I need to confront him. He must be ready to take responsibility for this.”

“No, please, it's not worth it. Let's not blow it out of proportion, please,” I held out one hand to stop her and another to massage my lucky charm neck chain. My fingers touched nothing around my neck. It was bare. I ran to the mirror and confirmed that there was nothing around my neck.

“My chain, I must have left it in his room.”

“The more reason why we have to go to his room. He needs to apologize and take responsibility for last night, and we're also going to get your lucky charm neck chain back.”

“No oo, there's no need. I can always…”

I shouted, but Bella already marched out of the room, steps furious and desperate as if marching towards a war.