Chapter 154 Chapter 154

Chapter 154 Chapter 154
Mia woke up already irritated. The light through the curtains felt too bright and her father moving around downstairs felt too loud. Even the familiar creak of the floorboard outside her door grated on her nerves. She sat up, rubbed her face hard with both hands, and immediately replayed the last clear image from the night before the dark smudge of lipstick on Kai’s neck while he slept on the other end of a video call.

She got dressed without care, pulled her hair into a rough ponytail, and went downstairs with a face that dared anyone to ask if she was okay. Laura was at the stove. Mark sat at the table with coffee and the local paper. Sophia was buttering toast. All three of them looked up when Mia entered.
“Morning,” Laura said, cheerful and open.
“Morning,” Mia answered, flat. She poured coffee, set the mug down harder than necessary, and opened the fridge. Nothing inside looked right. She closed it again.
Mark lowered the paper slightly. “Did you sleep okay?”
“Fine.”
Sophia watched her over the toast, already reading the signs. She didn’t say anything yet.
Laura plated eggs and held the pan toward Mia. “You want some?”
“I’m not hungry.”
“You should eat something.”
“I said I’m not hungry.”
The sharpness in her voice made Laura pause and Mark’s eyebrows lifted. Sophia kept her expression carefully neutral and took a slow bite of toast. They moved around the kitchen in a strained quiet after that. Mia leaned against the counter, arms crossed, frowning at nothing. When Mark asked if she had plans for the day she answered with a short “no.” When Laura mentioned needing a few things from the store Mia’s only response was a tight shrug. Every small sound seemed to feed the mood the scrape of a chair, the clink of a spoon, the distant bark of a neighbor’s dog.
Laura and Mark exchanged a look across the table. The kind of quiet parental look that said they had noticed and were choosing not to push yet.
Sophia finished her toast, wiped her hands, and stood. “I’m going to the grocery store. Mia’s coming with me.”
Mia frowned harder. “I didn’t say I was going.”
“You’re going,” Sophia said evenly. “You need air, and your mom needs milk and whatever else is on that list. Come on.”
Laura handed Sophia a short written list without comment. Mark only said, “Drive safe,” and watched them leave with the same careful expression.

The short drive to the store was silent on Mia’s side. Sophia let it stay that way until they arrived. Inside the grocery store Mia’s mood did not improve. She pushed the cart with unnecessary force. When a display of cereal blocked the aisle she muttered under her breath.
When Sophia asked if they needed more coffee Mia answered, “I don’t care,” loud enough that a man two shelves over glanced over.
They reached the cashier with a half-full cart. The young woman at the register scanned items with polite efficiency and made the mistake of small talk.
“Find everything okay?”
Mia’s response was immediate and cold. “If I didn’t, I would have said something.”
The cashier blinked. “Okay… sorry.”
Sophia shot Mia a warning look and stepped in with a quick, polite smile. “We’re fine, thank you. Long morning.”

Mia stood to the side, arms crossed, frowning at the card reader like it had personally offended her. When the payment went through she grabbed two of the bags and walked out of the store without waiting, the automatic doors still opening as she pushed through them.
Sophia caught up in the parking lot, bags in both hands. “You snapped at the cashier for doing her job.”
“She asked a stupid question.”
“She asked a normal question. You’re the one walking around like everyone in a five-mile radius wronged you.”

Mia shoved the bags into the back seat and got in the car without answering. Sophia climbed in after her, started the engine, and drove them home in another stretch of silence. The moment they pulled into the driveway and the car stopped, Sophia reached across, took Mia’s phone from the cup holder, and got out.
Mia followed her toward the house, confused and still angry. “What are you doing?”
Sophia didn’t answer until they were inside, away from the open door. She scrolled, found Kai’s contact, and hit the call button on speaker before Mia could stop her.
Kai answered on the second ring. “Hello?”
“It’s me, Sophia,” Sophia said. “And Mia is standing right here looking like she’s ready to commit a crime. We need to talk about the lipstick on your neck.”
There was a short pause on the other end. Then Kai’s voice, clearer. “Put her on.”
“Not yet. You’re going to explain it to both of us so she stops biting random strangers’ heads off.”
Mia reached for the phone. Sophia turned her body and kept it out of reach.
Kai exhaled. “The lipstick wasn’t from anyone’s mouth.”
Sophia raised an eyebrow. “Continue.”
“It was drawn on,” he said. “For the perfume campaign. The concept was ‘intimate application’ marks left behind, skin, closeness. The makeup team used a lip pencil to create a deliberate stain on my neck for a set of stills and a short cut that didn’t make the final commercial. It wasn’t a kiss, no one put their mouth on me. It was makeup, it was applied with a brush and removed after the shots were done. One of the marks didn’t come off completely under the lights and I didn’t notice it until this morning.” Mia had gone still.
Sophia kept the phone steady. “You’re saying the thing she saw on the video call was leftover makeup from the shoot.”
“Yes, professional, on a call sheet. Signed off by the brand and by Victoria. Nothing else.”
Mia finally snatched the phone out of Sophia’s hand. Her voice came out tighter than she wanted. “You fell asleep with it still on your skin and didn’t think that might look like something else.”
Kai’s tone stayed calm. “I didn’t know it was still there. I got home late, took a shower, must have missed it. You called, and I was tired, so I went to sleep. That’s the entire story.”
She turned away from Sophia, phone pressed to her ear. “You smirked through the whole conversation last night and called me jealous while you had a lipstick mark on your neck.”
“Because you were jealous over a commercial. And the mark wasn’t what you thought it was.” A short beat. “You’re still angry.”
“I’m not angry.”
The lie was immediate and unconvincing.
Kai’s voice dropped into something closer to quiet amusement. “You’re lying.”
“I’m not.”
“You snapped at people all morning, according to Sophia. You’re gripping the phone like it owes you money. And you’re insisting you’re not angry while sounding exactly like you are.”

Mia closed her eyes for a second. The worst of the storm in her chest had started to lose its shape under the explanation, but the residual heat was still there embarrassment mixed with the leftover fear of what she thought she had seen.
“I wasn’t angry,” she said again, weaker this time. “I was… reacting.”
“To a makeup stain.”
“To what it looked like.”
“I know.” His voice softened a fraction. “It wasn’t what it looked like. I’m telling you straight. No one kissed my neck and no one was in that house with me. It was a pencil and a makeup artist and a campaign concept. That’s all.”
Mia let out a long breath and leaned her shoulder against the wall. Sophia watched her from a few feet away, arms crossed, waiting to see if the temperature would finally drop.
“Okay,” Mia said quietly.
“You believe me?”
“I believe you.”
“And you’re still going to pretend you weren’t angry?”
She opened her eyes and stared at the opposite wall. “I’m not angry.”
Kai laughed once, low and short. “Okay, Mia you’re not angry. You’re just going to keep frowning at cashiers and stealing phones out of Sophia’s hand for no reason.”
“Shut up.”
“There she is.” She could hear the smile in his voice. “Go be with your parents. Stop taking it out on the grocery store. I’ll talk to you later.”
Mia’s grip on the phone loosened. “Fine.”
“And Mia.”
“What?”
“Next time something looks wrong, call me until I answer. Don’t spend the whole morning ready to fight the world.”
She didn’t reply to that. She just said a short goodbye and ended the call.
Sophia held out her hand. Mia put the phone in it without argument.
“Arebyou good now?” Sophia asked.
“I’m fine.”
“You’re still lying a little. But at least you’re not about to make a cashier cry.” Sophia bumped her shoulder lightly. “Come on. Your mom is going to want help with the bags, and you need to put a less murderous look on your face before she starts asking questions.”

Mia followed her toward the kitchen, the explanation sitting in her chest like a weight that had finally been named. The jealousy had been real. And the mood swings, for the moment, had nowhere left to go.