Billionaire Happy After

Can’t you tell

The mascara she had so carefully applied earlier and one-streak eyeliner with the flawless wing only Shirley could do were currently trailing down her cheeks in black streaks. Her eyes were red and swollen, as if the running makeup wasn't enough confirmation that she had been crying.

"What's wrong?" I asked, scanning the room hurriedly before looking her up and down. "What happened?"

Her clothes weren't torn and her lipstick looked untouched, but I wasn't sure if I could rule out assault- or worse, rape.

"It's Fede," she choked out.

"What happened?" I asked again. "What'd he do?"

I had suspected they had gotten into some kind of fight from Shirley's mood earlier, but it had to be serious if she was hiding in a dark room crying her eyes out at a party. I shifted through my cloudy mind, trying to remember the reason she had given me for why Fede wasn't here.

"Isn't he away at some football thing for the weekend?" I think that had been what Shirley had told me when I asked earlier. Fede may have been known as a good boy, but that didn't mean he often missed out on parties he was invited to.

Shirley shook her head. "I asked Abel. Fede never said anything about it, and they even have plans to go to the tomorrow."

Briefly I wondered if that was why Abel had been looking for Shirley earlier, but shook off the thought to focus back on her. "So he lied about where he's gonna be?" There had to be more, lying was bad, but not something that should've resulted in full out tears

"I wouldn't care so much, but last week I was on his phone and I found lissa's nudes." She fell back onto the bed behind her, so I took a seat on the edge of the mattress beside her.

"Lissa Inez?" She was Fede's ex-girlfriend. I think they broke up because she was cheating on him, or something like that, I wasn't a hundred percent sure of the details, despite the story spreading like wildfire through our friend circle. Despite the shitty way their relationship ended, Lissa and Fede were somehow still on pretty good terms. Better terms, I guess than either of us had expected. "She sent him nudes?"

"He asked for her nudes."

I blinked. "This was when they were still dating, right?"

She scoffed. "I wish."

"Before you guys got together?" Even as I asked, though, I knew it was unlikely. Fede and Shirley had started dating almost immediately after Fede and Lissa had broken up. It had been quick enough that either Shirley was his rebound, or Fede had been thinking about straying himself.

Shirley shook her head, but quickly spoke before I could go into a rage. "We already had a huge fight about it. He said he did it to get back at me."

"Get back at you?" I repeated, feeling my head clear a little, though it was probably only because I know had anger to focus on. "For what? Did you send nudes to someone or something?"

Shirley let out a bitter chuckle. "Kinda the opposite actually. More like I didn't send nudes to someone."

"And he got mad at you for that?" Jeez, this was seriously ruining the good guy image I'd had of Fede. And considering he had been Abel's best friend since freshman year, and I knew him better than most people who labeled him a golden boy, that was saying something.

"Shirley,break up with him!" I exclaimed. I may have been a little mad at her -though that was fading now that I found out why she was in such a shitty mood- she was still my best friend. And the fact that she was dating a guy who got mad at her for not sending nudes to him didn't sit well with me.

"We sorted it out. It's not a big deal."

"It's a big deal. If he asked for nudes- fine. But he got mad at you for not sending them!" I had shipped them together for a while now, but I was definitely reconsidering whether Fede was really good for Shirley.

I couldn't believe she was actually more or less defending him for this.

"I just want to give him some time, okay? I really like him and he went from Lissa, who probably got off on giving blow jobs in public and sent him nudes instead of good morning texts, to me," she explained.

"Stop, you're making yourself sound like a downgrade," I said. "I thought he really liked you, I mean with the way he asked you out-"

It had been cheesy as hell, straight out of a movie kind of cliché. He had literally serenaded her at our Winter formal. Like got up on a stage and sang a love song in front of half the upperclassmen before asking her out.

I realized something then. "Wait, if he lied about where he is tonight... You think he's with Lissa?"

"I don't know. He won't tell me where he is and I don't know if I should assume the worst," she replied.

"He wouldn't do that, would he?" Fede was annoying as hell and always f****d up my hair whenever he saw me, but he wouldn't cheat on Shirley , would he? Especially not after his relationship with Lissa had ended with her cheating on him. But the break-up had been on her terms, not his, so who knew if he still had feelings for her.

"Why won't he tell me where he is then?" she asked.

Before I could reply, there was a faint knock at the door, then I just barely made out Lucas calling my name. I glanced at Shay. "It's Lucas ," I hesitated. "Can I let him in?"

"I don't exactly want anyone to see me like this," Shay said, sitting up.

"It's just Lucas," I reassured her. "He won't care."

She shrugged, so I took it as an okay to open the door. He gave me a concerned look as he stepped inside.

"Everything okay?" he asked.

I opened my mouth to respond, but before I could Shay cut in. "Yeah, everything's just dandy, can't you tell?"