Page 94 of HER SISTER

"She's a past fling?" Arielle questioned back to me, which instantly earned a silent nod of acknowledgment from me.

It didn't even take me a minute to vaguely fill Arielle in.

Along with Damon who seemed to be scrolling through his phone while us girls handled our business.

However, it was clear that he picked up enough when he said, "Yeah, Mili's in deep shit."

"Should we leave?" Arielle suddenly asked, clearly not wanting to overstep.

Automatically I shook my head, "No-no, I'm just going to ask her about it," I assured her.

Mya hummed, "Yeah, ask her about it," she reiterated, clearly knowing me well enough to know that something would go down.

But I was hoping for the opposite of that.

Hoping that the text behind Mili's phone password left me somewhat at peace.

"I really am going to ask her about it," I assured her.

Even if I felt like I wanted to scream and cry at the same time.

Mya sighed, "Just don't start with accusations—even I know my sister good enough to know she wouldn't go for that wanna-be Tumblr girl."

And while her statement made me want to laugh, I couldn't find the energy to.

There were just so many open-ended questions running through my head.

But even I knew Mya was right.

I can't accuse her.

I don't even know the full story.

"Yeah, healthy relationships don't pair well with accusations," Arielle added as she turned around to the cabinets.

And as she grabbed a bottle of wine to hand to Mya to open, I found myself saying, "Pour me a glass."

Arielle silently grabbed an extra wine glass—meanwhile, my best friend was giving me a look of disapproval.

"You need to trust her, Ana," Mya reminded me as she screwed the bottle open.

Arielle pursed her lips, "Yeah, innocent until proven guilty—" she nudged Damon, "—Right babe?"

Damon nodded as he focused on the game on his phone, it seemed like a race car game with the way he was leaning from right to left, "Nah, I don't know—if I saw some ex in your phone, I would feel a type of way."

Mya nodded as she poured the glasses of wine, "And that's valid, but you would trust that Ari wouldn't do that right?" she clarified.

Damon nodded a few times as he leaned back to the left, "No-yeah of course, I'm just saying that Ana can feel a type of way about seeing the text," he said as Mya handed me one of the glasses, "Just take the advice and don't go accusing," he added.

I let out a troubled sigh as I brought the wine glass to my lips, easily taking a long gulp as I wondered what was taking my girlfriend so long.

Especially when a silence settled over us and time seemed to slow one second at a time.

Have they been texting since the brunch incident?

Was Mili actually at the gallery all day today?

I took another long sip of wine—suddenly feeling my stomach tie in knots at even the idea of her going to see Lana.

She wouldn't do that.

I know she wouldn't do that.

But do I?

Do I really?

I took another sip of the red wine—I have to give her the benefit of the doubt.

I'm clearly assuming off of one text that I haven't even read.

When laughter echoed into the apartment, my stare was suddenly at the door that swung open.

"Bro Nate dropped all the fucking Uno cards everywhere," Mili laughed even more to herself as Ryder fell into laughter with her.

It was clear that they had been laughing about it all the way up here.

Ryder leaned over the counter as he laughed more, "You crawling to pick them up really wasn't helping," he pointed out.

"It was windy—I had to think fast," Mili fell into even deeper laughter, "Why did you think catching them in the air would work dumbass?" she breathed out between laughs.

Wheezes were heard from a laughing Ryder, "You know that made sense because of the wind—" he nudged my laughing girlfriend, "—When others go low, you go high."

And just like that, Damon was falling into laughter with the pair that managed to laugh even more.

"That was the corniest thing I ever heard bro," Damon laughed with them.

Meanwhile, Mya and Arielle seemed to look at me unamused.

But even I knew that they wanted to laugh deep down inside.

It was definitely funny, and I can't lie and say I didn't want to laugh along.

Maybe if it wasn't for Lana texting my girlfriend's phone I would actually be able to laugh about this.

Our seriousness was such a contrast from the laughing group—so much so, that Arielle nudged her boyfriend, clearly signaling him to lock back into the issue at hand.

Damon seemed to catch on as soon as he met Arielle's serious stare—easily causing him to cough a few times to contain his laughter.

Meanwhile, Mili and Ryder were wiping tears from their eyes as their laughter managed to fade by the second.

And as we remained silent—they both managed to slowly look over to us.

"Damn, what the fuck happened to you guys?" Ryder said, clearly breathless from all the laughing he had just done.

Mili pursed her lips, "Is this because of the Uno cards? Because we picked them back—"

But she was easily cut off by Ryder—who seemed to fall into another fit of laughter.

And just like that, they were both laughing again, leaving us all in our own silence.

"Bro get away from me," Mili laughed out as she pushed Ryder away, clearly trying to stop laughing.

And as they managed to laugh more, I couldn't even stop myself from sighing as I grabbed my girlfriend's phone and walked over to her.

"My bad, I didn't mean to get you in trouble," Ryder laughed with Mili as he playfully nudged me.

I blinked blankly at him, easily causing his laughter to stop—

Not fade.

Just completely mute as he quickly looked over to Mya for some sort of explanation.

Mya only motioned her hand across the front of her neck, queuing him to cut it out.

The action alone left my girlfriend confused as she looked between us all—physically correcting her posture as she looked back at me.

"What happened? Is everything good?" she said, instinctively reaching out for me.

And I had to physically force myself to remain put as her arms slid around my waist, clearly not trying to jump to conclusions about what she had been up to.

"Let's head down, yeah?" I said, forcing my tone to remain neutral when all I wanted was an explanation.

Mili tilted her head as her dark eyes looked between mine, "Ati, what's going on?" she reiterated her question.

And with the way she glanced down at the space between our bodies, I knew that she knew something was up.

Especially since I normally close the gap when her arms are around my waist

"I'll explain on the way down," I assured her, knowing that we shouldn't do this anywhere near our friends.

Mili looked between my eyes one last time before she inevitably nodded.

But it wasn't hard to miss her hesitance.

Within a matter of seconds, we were saying goodbye to everyone who seemed to already be in their own side conversations—and as we walked out of the apartment, I couldn't miss how confused Ryder looked.

I knew Mya would fill him in later since he was already involved in the whole Lana situation.

The fact that this has spiraled into this big of a situation is actually irritating.

Lana shouldn't be texting my girlfriend's phone.

And my girlfriend...

Well, I have to hear her side and see what's going on before making that call.

"Atiana," Mili sighed out as soon as we stopped outside of the apartment building.

And upon using my full name, I knew it was due to the space I was unintentionally putting between us.

I wasn't actively thinking about it—I just couldn't help but distance myself out of caution.

"Can you please explain what's going on?" Mili said as she remained put, clearly respecting the space I initiated between us.

Her voice was soft and lowered as her eyes analyzed my face for any sort of clues.

And as the warm LA air wrapped around me, I found myself handing her phone back to her.

"Lana texted you."

It was meant to come out as a strong confident statement.

But instead, it came out as a whisper.

How pathetic can I actually be right now?

Within a matter of seconds, my girlfriend's face had softened.

And it wasn't hard to miss the way that her hands twitched up at her sides, clearly wanting to reach out and hug me.

"Zero, seven, twenty-four," Mili suddenly said.

I tilted my head at her statement—

Until suddenly it clicked.

She was giving me her password...

Which happened to be my birthday.

A sigh fell from my lips as I shook my head to myself—suddenly I felt really fucking bad for even jumping to a conclusion in my own head.

Mili hadn't heard them, but I did, and staring into her eyes right now makes me want to crawl up into a ball and cry.

I hadn't actually accused her of anything—but somehow the accusation was laced in my tone and unintentional actions.

Because a part of me doesn't trust her.

Or maybe most of me doesn't—which is clearly the greater half of me.

Mili glanced away from me as soon as I began putting her password in, and it was clear that she was looking away from me in disappointment.

But it was too late to realize that she expected me to not be so quick to input her password.

To not jump at an opportunity to pick apart her morals.

Yet as I began reading the texts, I managed to only pick her apart even more.