Chapter 41: Waking Up to the Truth

Aveline’s pov

The music from Milo’s birthday party was loud enough to shake the floorboards, the kind of sound that didn’t just play in your ears but settled in your chest and made everything feel slightly unreal. Crestwood boys filled every corner of the house as they owned it, laughing too loudly, spilling drinks, shouting over each other. Neon lights from cheap LED strips kept changing colour across the walls, turning faces into shifting versions of themselves. I told myself I was fine, that I could stay in control, that I could blend in and not stand out.

So I stood at the edge of a folding table in the kitchen, a red plastic cup in my hand, Beer pong wasn’t even fun anymore, it had become something closer to a test, a way to prove you could keep up. The ping-pong ball felt slippery between my fingers, Every time the opposing team scored, I drank, because that was the rule, and I hated how easily I was starting to accept things like this as normal. Milo was somewhere behind me, already half gone, his silver birthday crown tilted on his head like it had given up trying to sit properly, shouting encouragement like the world depended on it.

“Come on, Ash! Don’t choke now!” he yelled, voice slurred with laughter.

I rolled my eyes but still drank when I missed again, the bitter alcohol burning all the way down my throat. I was aware enough to know I wasn’t completely blacked out, but not sharp enough to pretend I wasn’t feeling it. The room tilted slightly every time I shifted my weight, like the floor was just a suggestion. Across the room I saw Daphne watching me with that look she always got when she was pretending not to worry, while Theo stood beside her, jaw tight, already moving forward before I even realised I needed saving from myself.

“Hey, let me take the next shot for you,” Theo muttered, reaching for my cup. “You’ve had too much.”

I barely had time to react before the atmosphere shifted. Someone had walked into the room. Then a voice cut through the noise, low and smooth, carrying just enough authority to make people listen without asking why.

“Hey, Theo. The mascot can handle his own games.”

Kieran.

He stepped into the kitchen light like he had been there the entire time and just decided to become visible. Dark hoodie, leather jacket, hair slightly messy like he hadn’t bothered fixing it, but still somehow put together in a way that made everyone else look careless. He wasn’t holding a drink. He didn’t need one. His eyes found mine immediately, steady and focused, like the rest of the room didn’t exist.

Theo straightened instantly, jaw clenching as if he was swallowing something sharp. I didn’t miss the way his grip tightened around the cup before he forced himself to let go.

Kieran didn’t even look at him properly, just stood there for a second too long, close enough that I could feel the weight of his attention pulling at me. “You’re fine,” he said quietly,

Then the night blurred. Laughter that felt too loud. Lights that felt too bright. The heat of bodies packed into too small a space. I remember my legs getting heavier the longer I stayed, my thoughts slower, my focus drifting until everything started to feel distant and soft at the edges.

By the time it was past one in the morning, I needed air.

I pushed through the back door into the cold without really thinking about where I was going. The sudden silence outside. My body didn’t quite cooperate the way I expected it to. I barely made it a few steps onto the grass before my knees dipped.

I thought I was going to hit the ground but I didn’t Arms caught me before I could fall completely, steadying me in a way that felt immediate and familiar in a way I didn’t want to analyse. A heavy jacket was placed around my shoulders, warm.

“I’ve got you, Ash,” Kieran murmured near my ear, voice

I didn’t fight it. My body just followed when he guided me toward a car parked nearby. The leather seats were cold

I slumped against the window, my eyelids refusing to stay fully open while he got into the car with me.

“Where do you live, Ash?” he asked quietly, leaning closer.

I tried to answer properly, I really did, but everything came out slow and tangled. “Don’t… don’t know.”

He stared at me for a long moment, something unreadable tightening in his expression. “You’re impossible,” he murmured under his breath, and then he kissed me. like something he had been holding back for a long time and only just stopped resisting.

My brain didn’t process it properly at first. Everything slowed down. The warmth of it, the closeness, the strange pull that made it feel less like surprise and more like something my body already recognised before my mind could argue.

I should have pushed him away.

I didn’t.

When everything finally faded, I was gone before I could make sense of anything.

I woke up in a room that didn’t belong to me.

White ceiling. Expensive Sheets that were too clean The air carried a cold, masculine scent I recognised immediately even before I turned my head.

Kieran’s room.

Panic hit instantly, sharp and ugly, cutting straight through the fog in my head. I sat up too fast, heart slamming, trying to locate my bag, my clothes, anything that felt like mine. Everything was still there, but nothing about it felt safe. My hands were shaking as I grabbed my things and tried to leave before my thoughts could fully catch up.

The door clicked open before I reached it.

Kieran stepped in holding two glasses of water. He looked calmer than I felt, a sweatshirt hanging loosely off his frame, as if he had just woken up and I still didn’t quite understand the situation fully either.

“You’re awake,” he said, voice low “You shouldn’t rush. You couldn’t even give me your address yesterday.

“I have to go,” I cut in immediately, moving past him.

His hand caught my wrist firm enough to stop me completely.

“Ash, wait.”

“Let go,” I snapped, panic rising fast.

He pulled me back instead, just enough that I stumbled forward into him before I could stop myself. The space between us closed and before I could process what was happening, his hand was at my chin and he kissed me again.

This time I was fully awake And it was worse.

Because I felt everything. he wasnt actuslly kissing Aveline but Asher

I shoved him back with everything I had. And gave him a sounding slap that echoed through the hallway. My hand stung immediately, but I didn’t regret it.

Kieran’s head turned slightly with the impact. He didn’t react the way I expected. When he looked back at me, something in his expression had shifted completely.

“You hit hard for a girl,” he said quietly.

Everything inside me stopped. My breath caught. My body went cold.

“What?” The word came out wrong. “What did you just say?”

He didn’t step back. If anything, he stepped closer.

“I know,” he said simply, like it was obvious. “You’re a girl. Probably Asher’s twin because of the resemblance, I don’t know.”

The room tilted again,

“I’m not guessing,” he continued, voice steady. “I’ve known for a while.”

My throat tightened painfully. “No you haven’t.”

“I have,” he said, softer now. “And I’m not going to tell anyone.”

The words didn’t land the way they were supposed to.

They didn’t feel safe.

They felt like control dressed up as protection.

“I don’t need you to protect me,” I said, voice breaking as I shoved his hand away again. “You don’t get to decide that. You don’t get to decide anything about me.”

I grabbed my bag, shoved past him with all the strength I had left, and didn’t wait for him to say anything else because whatever he thought he knew, whatever he believed he had figured out about me, it didn’t change the fact that my entire world had just changed in a way I could no longer undo.