Fortunately, Serena had forgotten to ask Kyle what time he wanted to meet me and what he wanted to do but unfortunately, Ally tracked him down and got the details. We weren't going to a bar like I'd guessed, no, it was much worse. It was a house party.

"I say you shouldn't drink any alcohol at the party," Faizah suggested. "If you black out again, who's to say this Kyle guy will drive you home and carry you to your room? He doesn't seem like the type."

"Okay, but—" I cut myself off as Faizah's words caught up to me. "Wait, did Elliot carry me to my room?"

When Faizah nodded an unexpected sensation swirled within me as I imagined myself in Elliot's arms.

Serena asked eagerly, "Did Reed carry me?"

"He could barely carry himself," Faizah laughed at the memory. "He only supported you as best he could."

"How about Jonah, or was he knocked out?" Ally asked.

"I... well no," Faizah hesitated. "He had to go somewhere, he said it was urgent."

"Oh," Ally said in response. "Well, it's cool, I'll be seeing him again tonight." She looked at me then, "so you won't be alone at the party."

"And I'll see if I can convince Reed to go with me so it won't seem like I'm stalking you," Serena chimed in.

"And I will watch over you children, as usual," Faizah added. "Because y'all do not, for the life of you, know your limits."

"Or, how about we just don't go?" I suggested, and they all shot me a look that told me there was no getting out of this.

****

My breath caught when we pulled up outside the house.

It was almost as striking at the hotel what with the palace exterior, the several stories, and the no doubt pricey chandelier I could see through the several large windows. The perfectly trimmed grass, the massive pool with a mini waterfall leading into another pool, and the fairy-like lights lighting the property. There were several cars parked at the entrance of the house, and even though I wasn't a car person I knew for a fact that the cars here cost a fortune.

I was dressed for the occasion this time. Serena had picked out and forced me to wear a black lace dress, but I still felt out of place.

"Ladies," Kyle greeted my friends when we reached the large glass doors then looked at me. "Zara."

"Kyle."

"Welcome," he made a show of spreading out his arms to present the house.

"Is this your house?" I asked.

Kyle dropped his hands and chuckled, "no, it's a bit too grand for me. It belongs to an old buddy of mine."

"Too grand for you?" I questioned.

"Yeah, don't get me wrong, it's beautiful," he admitted. "But even if I had the money I wouldn't splurge it on a house this big, there's no need."

"That sounds like a good trait to me," Serena coughed behind me.

"Come on in," Kyle welcomed us and as soon as I stepped foot in the mansion, my jaw drooped further.

The tiles were a pearly white, the stairs were overly grand, and the entire place was magnificent. Waiters were walking around with trays of wine and fancy finger foods.

Kyle suddenly brought a hand to my chin and closed my hanging mouth before turning my chin and making me face him. "I like your dress, it suits you," he commented then dropped his hand from my chin and took my hand instead. "You're coming with me." He led me through the crowd and to a set of spiral stairs that led down to what I assumed would be a basement. "From what I've gauged of your character, you're not into fancy, prancy stuff like most girls." At the bottom of the stairs was a single door, and when he opened it my jaw dropped, again.

This was a whole other party in itself. There were couches throughout the room, tables with bowls of chocolates—including my favourites—and sweets, an unnecessary amount of flat-screen TVs, and a literal vending machine. There was even a bar counter, a pool table and a shelf of books.

"Can I call my friends down here?"

****

I ate my fill of my favourite chocolates and got to know a lot about Kyle. He loved chocolates almost as much as I did and he was actually pretty funny. I laughed so hard one time that chocolate came out of my nose, and he laughed twice as hard while he went to fetch me a tissue. He was surprisingly kind, sporty and extremely competitive. In wanting to know whether I was only good at soccer in real life, he challenged me to a game of Fifa. He must have underestimated my capabilities because I scored against him in the first few minutes.

He smirked, "lucky shot."

When I scored for the second time he whipped his head in my direction, pure surprise written on his face. When I was about to score for the third time he purposefully leaned against me to disrupt my shot, but it still went in.

"Nice try, sore loser," I teased.

"I was going easy on you."

"Ha! As if."

"Alright, I'll prove it," he said before dramatically clicking his fingers.

The second half came and he proved it. He scored goal after goal despite my efforts to disrupt him. The final score was 3-6 to him. I demanded a rematch but he defeated me even then.

"I am unbeatable, Zara," Kyle grinned, and with that, I decided to call my secret weapon and decided to add a bet to the game.

"Alright," Kyle agreed. "If I beat your 'secret weapon,' you go on a date with me, a proper one."

"And if you don't," I countered, "you buy me a plastic bag full of chocolates."

That got a laugh out of him but he agreed.

I went to the shelf of books and unsurprisingly, there stood Faizah. I grabbed her by the hand and didn't give her any explanation until she was seated on the couch beside Kyle. "Beat him for me, please."

Faizah may have been book obsessed and extremely responsible, but she had a skill not many people knew of. She was a killer when it came to video games.

Faizah only sighed but grabbed the console, chose her team and they began the game. Kyle scored the first goal, then the second and then gave me a look that said: hope you're looking forward to that date.

"Come on, Faiz," I encouraged. "If you win, he buys me a plastic bag full of chocolate and I'll share half with you."

Faizah only looked at me before saying, "you could have told me that before."

Kyle scored the third goal but by the time the second half came, Faizah completely turned the game around and brought the score to 3-3. There were only a couple of minutes left but just before time was up Faizah scored again.

"Yeah!!" I cheered. "Take that Kyle, hope your credit card is ready to buy us a bag full of chocolate."

Kyle laughed and opened his mouth to say something when we suddenly heard a loud commotion coming from upstairs.

"I said no!" A familiar voice shouted. "Just let it go, Jonah!"

Ally.

Faizah and I blasted up the stairs to the upper level and as soon as we spotted Ally through the crowd we rushed to her just as Serena entered and joined us too. Our faces immediately fell when we saw Jonah clasping Ally's arm, her face red and tear-streaked.

"What are you doing?" Serena growled at Jonah.

"Nothing," Jonah said simply. "She's just being a little bitch."

"Don't you dare call her that!" I boomed.

"What are you going to do about it?" Jonah challenged and before I could do something that would get me hurt a hand caught my arm.

Kyle.

"Jonah, why's the lady crying?" Kyle asked.

"The lady and I have been flirting for years and yet," Jonah looked at Ally. "She doesn't want to join me in bed."

My mouth dropped open. He wanted to sleep with her, he'd insisted even after she refused and now he wasn't letting her go and was calling her a bitch because of that. What a bastard.

I looked to Ryan, waiting for his response and my jaw only dropped further when he said, "that's what this is about? Let her go, Jonah, you can literally sleep with anyone you want, there's no need to chase the poor lady, you can find someone who's better, willing and less emotional."

"What did you just say?" I demanded, removing my hand from Kyle's grip.

"Better, willing, and less emotional?" Faizah echoed, her voice full of barely contained rage.

"There is no one better than Ally!" Serena proclaimed. "And that's why this punk is so desperate."

"Are you seriously downplaying my friend and defending this prick?" I questioned.

"I didn't mean it like that," Kyle said.

"You meant it exactly like that," I retorted then groaned. "I thought you came to defend her but you're just an asshole."

"You girls are just babies," Jonah butted in. "I bet if you knew that the only reason Kyle invited you here was to charm you to sleep with him, you would break into tears as well."

My gaze slowly shifted from Jonah to Kyle, "is that true?"

"Zara..." Kyle sighed, and he didn't need to say anything now, the answer was obvious.

This whole night, he was only being kind because he wanted to get with me. Not because he really liked me. I felt a sting behind my eyes but I was not about to give Jonah—or Kyle—the satisfaction of seeing me cry. This was why I stayed away from guys. This was why I stepped back before they got too close. This was the reason why I didn't date, I wanted to avoid the familiar and painful feeling that came with being rejected, but in this case, used. I had actually started to take a liking to Kyle, and this was what I got for it.

"This is the part where you leave," Reed broke through the crowd and moved Kyle out of the way and away from us. "Now."

Kyle glanced at me before mumbling, "whatever," and descending back to the basement.

Rather than leaving like Kyle had, Jonah didn't let go of Ally and continued talking to her. "I thought you would have changed the last time I saw you, but you're still just a..." he shot me a pointed glance when he said, "bitch." I sneered but Jonah only let out a long sigh and looked back at Ally. "Don't you say you like to have fun? Then why won't you have fun with me?"

"I can't," her voice broke. "I promised myself that I wouldn't."

Despite Ally's wild nature, she was still a virgin, like all of us. She had almost given in to the temptation but when she found out that her boyfriend of three months was only with her to sleep with her, she ended it and we all made an oath that we wouldn't sleep with anyone until we were married. Ally had almost broken that oath several times, but with our help, she had managed to walk away each time.

"I'll be kind to you," Jonah said, his tone turning dangerously soft. "I'll be gentle."

"Why don't you go be gentle with someone else," Faizah spat.

"I'm tired of everyone else," Jonah said, and his meaning wasn't hard to read. He'd probably slept with half the girls in this room. Gross. "I want her."

"You want her because you're tired of everyone else?" I demanded. "You know what you are? You're what one would call a male slut."

Jonah shot me a glare that pierced through my being. It was evident that his patience was wearing thin and I had just drawn the last straw. He shoved Ally, making her fall to the ground, and took one long stride toward us. Reed took that as his cue to step forward but before he could stand between us he was suddenly grabbed by two guys from the crowd. He managed to break free from them and his fist connected with one of their faces but then another guy grabbed his free hand and punched his gut to get him to stop squirming.

"Reed!" Serena cried out.

"Don't!" Reed shouted before she could run to him, "I'm fine."

Just then, a large hand grabbed my arm and yanked me forward. "I change my mind," Jonah lifted his other hand and grabbed my face, forcing me to look at him. "I want you. You're ballsy."

He began to lean forward, but before he could come any closer I spat at him. He immediately retaliated and slapped me with his large, hard palm.

"Zara!" Ally shrieked. She got to her feet and leapt onto Jonah, grabbing and pulling a handful of his hair from behind. He groaned and when he released my arm to hold his hair, I stumbled to the ground, holding my stinging cheek.

Seeing Jonah was still distracted by Ally, Serena took that as an opportunity and screamed, "coward!" before kicking him in the balls.

Jonah yelped and Reed shouted, "Run!" So we did.

I quickly found my footing and got to my feet and Ally gave Jonah's hair one last tug before darting off alongside us.

We quickly shoved our way through the crowd and we were right by the door when a sudden yelp sounded behind us. I whipped around only to see Jonah holding Faizah.

"Let me go!" Faizah demanded.

He grinned but looked at me, "let's trade."

Faizah immediately stopped squirming. "No," she ordered. "Don't you dare, Zara."

But I dared. Before Serena could grab me and hold me back I took a long stride toward Jonah who threw Faizah to the ground and grabbed my arm with a vice-like grip that I couldn't help my whimper.

"You're hurting her!" Ally cried.

"I am aware of that," Jonah said simply.

"Are you all seriously just going to stand and watch?!" Serena demanded. "Are none of you going to help!"

Jonah laughed, "they won't help you, they're all loyal to me." Just then, he grabbed my face and forced me to face him again. "You spit on me again, you're dead, got it?"

"I wouldn't waste my saliva on someone like you," I spat verbally instead.

Jonah laughed a humourless laugh, "wrong answer."

He pulled his hand back to slap me again and I turned my face away, tensing and waiting for the impact. When nothing came, I opened my eyes to see someone had stopped his hand mid-motion.

"Elliot," I whispered.

His face was full of untethered rage and with his other hand, he brought his fist up and connected it with Jonah's jaw. I could have sworn I heard a crack, but I wasn't sure if that was Jonah's jaw or Elliot's knuckle. Jonah recovered quickly and wasted no time retaliating. Elliot received the punch but then brought his fist up twice as hard, following through perfectly before sticking his foot out and connecting it with Jonah's gut. Serena suddenly moved from her position but before I could realise what she was doing she kicked one of the guys holding Reed in the balls from behind. As a result, he released Reed and grabbed his balls instead. Reed used that opportunity to punch the other guy, grabbed Serena's hand and pulled her with him in the direction of the door.

"Elliot!" Reed called just before exiting with Serena.

Elliot received a punch just at that moment but before Jonah could throw another punch a hardcover book connected with his face and he roared in pain. I managed to see Faizah's hand following through from that throw before she booked out of the house. Elliot took my hand then and pulled me along with him. We charged through the crowd and sprinted out of the mansion.

Loud hoots immediately sounded from a familiar red car on the road and, without hesitation, Elliot directed us toward it. He tossed the keys to Reed just as Ally opened the door for us to jump in with her at the back, while Serena sat alongside Reed in the passenger seat. Faizah got in first, then me, then Elliot, and as soon as Elliot slammed the door shut, Reed took off.

A long, solemn silence encompassed the vehicle, silence which was broken when we could no longer hold back the tears.