A Kiss At Midnight (Delilah and Caelum) novel Chapter 66

Chapter 66

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“Remind me again,” I groaned, turning over to my side to glance at Kaia, with a sligtly raised brow, “why exactly are we doing this?”

She looked up from the notebook spread across the table of an empty class room. “Because Miss Holland asked me to help plan the Fall Festival,” she said matter of factly, “she needed an extra pair of hands, and I couldn’t exactly turn her down.”

I let out a long sigh, “Since when do we go all out for a Fall Festival.”

“Since..” she dragged the word out before checking the time on her phone, “About now,” then turns to flash me a smile. Oh, come on. It will be fun.”

Giving her a deadpan look. “I’m not so sure about the fun part,” I said before gesturing around the empty classroom, “but 1/ do know staying at school for even more hours after classes ended ages ago definitely isn’t.”

She ignored my complaints, tapping the end of her pen against the notebook. “Hit me with more ideas,” tuning to look at me expectantly, “I need something grand.”

Letting out another sigh, I titled my head to the side as I pretended to think, then snapped my fingers. “Open bar,” I say as she stared at me. I ignore the look, continuing as though it were perfectly reasonable, “unlimited alcohol, karaoke, and maybe hire a DJ.”

“Is that honestly all you can think about?” there wasn’t an ounce of judgment in her voice, only amusement, and I shrugged.

“You can’t really blame me, now can you?”

“No.” she admitted with a laugh, “but I can absolutely question your priorities.”

Leaning back in my chair. “Speaking of questioning things..” I pointed between the two of us, “why aren’t we doing this at your house? Or mine?”

Slowly, she lifted her head again then gives me a look that said Seriously? Understanding dawned.

“Oh,” letting out a wince. “Jeez,” I muttered as I leaned back farther in my chair. “That bad, huh?”

Closing her notebook and looking back at me. “You and I both know that if we did this at either of our houses, we’d get absolutely nothing done.”

Gasping out dramatically, I say. “I don’t know about that,” and she gave me a look. “We can be responsible people when it comes to schoolwork,” there was a slight pause before adding, “I think.”

And she lets out a laugh. “I think not,” she says, pointing her pen at me,” we would spend the first ten minutes pretending to work, the next hour talking about literally everything except the Fall Festival, and before we knew it, we would somehow be watching conspiracy theories at two in the morning.”

“Okay,” I admitted, “that’s a possibility.”

“A very likely possibility.”

I tapped my fingers against the table, thinking. “What if..” I began gently, “we turned part of the festival into an overnight camp?” she tilted her head as I continued. “Not a real camping trip. We set it up on the football field, tents, fairy lights, marshmallows over fire pits, if the school allows it, obviously. Games, music, ghost stories.. then everyone stays the night, and the festival wraps up the next day.”

Lifting a brow “Huh,” she scribbled something into her notebook. That’s actually..” she looked back at me, “not a bad idea.”

“I know I muttered, leaning back proudly, “I have my moments.”

11:53 Thu, Jul 23

Chapter 66

“They’re rare.”

“They’re still moments.” Kaia chuckled, jotting down another note, “quick question though.”

“Shoot,” she says without looking up.

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“Why are you doing this by yourself,” a frown hitched between my brows, “aren’t you supposed to have, like, an entire team of overachievers helping you. You know..the ones who treat every school event like it’s worth extra GPA points.”

My words seemed to have gotten a groan out from her as she finally glance up from her notebook. “They were all asked to come up with ideas, and every single one of their suggestions somehow involved studying. One wanted a giant book club/ and another suggested an academic scavenger hunt, someone actually thought a ‘Fall Study Retreat’ sounded fun.”

I stared at her. “You’re kidding.”

“I wish I was,” she sighed dramatically before closing her notebook. “So unless you would rather spend your Fall Festival discussing assigned reading and comparing class notes…” raising an eyebrow, “I think it’s best we come up with a more fun activities, which would you prefer..”

Shiver settled round my body just at the thought of spending the fall festival trapped in some reading session. “Touché,” I mutters and she looked far too pleased with herself.

“If we’re actually doing the whole two days and one night camping thing,” I said, tapping my fingers against the table. “we should add some music amongst other things listed, otherwise everyone’s just going to sit around staring into the fire in awkward silence.”

She nodded thoughtfully. “Music’s a good idea.”

Letting out a sigh. “And as much as I hate to say it..” I made a face, “Jason Whitaker is probably our best option when it comes to DJing.”

Kaia’s expression immediately soured. “I mean,” I continued, “anything outside of that, the guy’s complete trash. But he does know how to work a crowd.” Pointing my pen at her, “which means you’re going to have to talk to h..”

“Absolutely not.” the words came out so quickly they cut me off. I blinked, then let out a short, baffled laugh.

“Okay,” staring at her, “What the hell was that?” she didn’t answer, and I continued, “would you mind telling me why?”

Her grip on her pen tightened as she kept her eyes fixed on the notebook in front of her, suddenly finding the blank page incredibly interesting.

This made me frown. “Kaia.” Nothing. “Kaia.”

She let out a long sigh before finally speaking. “I can’t be the one to talk to him.”

“Yeah..” I said slowly. “Why?” the whole thing felt..weird, but ah weirder than it should’ve.

I watched as she closed her eyes for a brief second before opening them again. “Because,” she exhaled. “I slept with him.” I just stared at her for a full five seconds, my brain completely stopped working, and she cracked one eye open to look at me.

When I still didn’t say anything, she sighed and opened the other one. “You know,” she said, “you’re going to have to say something at some point, Di.”

Blinking back the shock. “I’m trying to figure out what exactly you mean when you said you slept with Jason Whitaker.” I said, hoping it wasn’t what I think she meant, “did you mean you literally slept? Like.. the two of you shared a bed and that’s

I paused “Which, honestly, is already bad enough.”

(1

my voice lowered ghtly. “do you mean slept slept, the kind of sleeping where you’re doing shit you definitely shouldn’t be doing with Jason freaking Whitaker?”

1

11:53 Thu, Jul 23

Chapter 66

She doesn’t answer and just looked at me, which was answer enough. “Kaia.”

&T

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“I know,” burying her face in her hands for a second before looking back up, “I know, okay. Worst mistake ever,” then she groaned. “But I kind of blame you for it.”

Pointing at myself so hard I nearly poked my own chest. “Me.”

She nodded. “Yeah,” then, after a beat, she held up two fingers, “okay, slightly.” I stared at her, waiting for how to continue as to how this was my fucking fault. “You literally dragged my ass to Jace’s party.”

“That was nearly a month ago!” I whisper a yell, despite the fact we were the only two people in the corner of the library.

“I know,” she winced, “but some mistakes are better left unsaid,” then leaned back in her chair with another sigh, rubbing the back of her neck. “You disappeared, I got bored..got a little drunk..” a guilty look crossed her face, “and he just happened to be there.”

I muttered under my breath more than to her, staring at the table like it had answers. “What in the hell does Jason Whitaker even have that makes girls fall to their knees over him like he doesn’t have a single red flag in sight.”

“Maybe because he’s..”

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