Go away, damn it.
He holds his hands up. “Dia, listen to me—”
I cut him off. “Y-You left.”
“I did, but I’m back now.”
It takes me a moment to snap out of it.
Holy shit.
This is real.
Finn is here.
In front of me.
I don’t know whether to be happy that I’m not having a mental breakdown or completely horrified that he’s back. Xavier comes bursting into the guest room before I can make up my mind.
“Dude, what the fuck was that noise?” Xavier notices me the next second, and his tired eyes widen at the sight of me. “Dia? What are you doing here?”
Xavier zeroes in on the broken lamp on the floor moments later, question marks plaguing his gaze. “Anyone want to tell me what the fuck happened in here?”
I’m about to explain myself when I hear the front door close in the distance. Aveena’s home.
I fill in the blanks. “Vee said I could crash here tonight.”
Xavier seems surprised. “She did? I didn’t know that.”
The most logical explanation pops into my mind. Aveena obviously didn’t tell Xavier I was sleeping over, and Xavier didn’t tell her that he invited Finn to do the same thing. Classic miscommunication.
“Why didn’t she tell me?” Xavier curses under his breath.
“Tell you what?” Aveena comes in a second later. She’s barely taken two steps inside the room when she spots Finn standing by the bed in nothing but black sweats. Her face practically decomposes when she connects the dots.
“I swear I had no idea he’d be here.” She turns to me, a million apologies swirling in her eyes.
“I told you he was back in town,” Xavier points out.
“Exactly, you said he was back in town. You didn’t say he was sleeping in my apartment. Why didn’t you text me?”
“You were out with your sister. I didn’t want to bother you. Why didn’t you text me?” Xavier returns the question.
“She asked me if she could come over an hour ago. I figured you’d be sleeping already,” Aveena explains. I replay their conversation in my head, so overwhelmed by this turn of events that it takes me a minute to realize what was said.
“Wait, you knew he was back in town? Is that why you were acting so weird at the café earlier?” I put two and two together.
She stresses her bottom lip, and her silence tells me everything I need to know.
“How long have you known?” I ask.
She cringes. “A month?”
“A month? Jesus, were you ever going to tell me?”
“Sure… eventually.”
Xavier scoffs when she says that. He tries to pass it as a cough, failing miserably, and Aveena drives her elbow into his stomach.