Page 105 of Whirlwind

And then, when she was leaving, Angel had tucked the panties into the pocket of her uniform pants. It had maybe been the hottest moment of her life.

She’d hidden them carefully in the back of the bottom drawer of her wardrobe with dreams of taking them out sometimes when she was certain that her roommate wouldn’t be around.

Only, two days later, she’d come back to her room to find Jordan swinging them around on his fingers. He’d teased about them, in the reckless way of teenagers, but Nina hadn’t been able to think fast enough.

She could have made up a girlfriend. Or an off-campus hook-up with someone who was definitely a girl. And in fact she did. But not until she’d stood there with her mind frozen and her cheeks red for long enough for Jordan to think something was wrong.

He’d come to the wrong conclusion—that they were Nina’s—but, of course, while the details were wrong, the idea behind it was correct.

By the next day, it was all over the school.

And Nina, hurt and reeling, bullied and shamed on every side, had assumed that Angel had set the whole thing up as a prank.

Angel reeled back. “Fuck, Chan– Nina. You think that I told people that you had my panties in your room?”

Alright, well, apparently not. Which meant that she’d messed up a lot of other things, too. She’d always hoped that it wasn’t the case, but how else had Jordan known they were there?

Before Nina could fully process everything, Angel was gripping her arms. Her fingers were hot and tight, sending sparks through her core. “Jesus, Nina. You really thought I could do that to you?”

“I… I didn’t know. I couldn’t figure out how Jordan knew where to look for them.”

“Who’s Jordan?”

Yeah, Nina had really gotten this all wrong. “He was my roommate.”

“He was an asshole.”

“Well, yeah.”

“But, fuck, Nina. How could you think that? You didn’t know I was into you?” Angel’s eyes burned.

“I… I couldn’t figure out why you were helping me with my, my homework otherwise. I mean, you were a senior and I was just... just this stupid sophomore. I thought it was, like, a trick.”

Angel let go of Nina’s arms, and she missed those strong hands clutching her too tightly. Then, they came to settle on her face, gently cupping her cheeks.

“Babe,” Angel’s voice was soft now, her eyes sad. “I was way into you. I would have burned down the school for you.”

“Yeah, that’s, like, part of why I didn’t think I could trust you. You were pretty unpredictable.”

Angel rested her forehead on Nina’s, and her whole world narrowed down to those three points of contact where Angel cradled her face. She closed her eyes, too close to focus anyway, and wanting to soak in the sensation.

“I’m not wild like that, any more. I’m sorry that I was at the time, but I was going through a lot. As I suppose you were, too.”

“I… I mean, I’m the one who screwed it all up. I got scared, I guess.”

“You truly had no idea how I felt about you?” Nina could feel Angel’s breath on her lips with every word that she spoke. “God, I spent so much time trying to think of presents to give you. Jesus, teenagers are stupid. You probably didn’t even notice, did you?”

“Wait… was the book from you?”

That had always been a mystery. A week after the whole debacle, Jordan had walked into the room with a new copy of her favorite book. Only, there was an inscription inside, directed to her, and signed by her favorite author.

When she’d questioned Jordan, he’d just named a senior that she barely knew and said that he’d given it to Jordan to return.

“Yeah, I… I wasn’t going to give it to you after you told me to leave you alone. But it seemed silly to keep it when I’d already had it inscribed.”

Fuck. That was way before the days of the internet, and Angel must have gone to a lot of trouble for that.

“I didn’t know. I really had no idea.” Nina’s eyes were still closed, and she felt like she and Angel were the only two people in existence, floating in the dark night.