"I should've known you'd be here instead of the five other places I checked first."

My head swiveled to the side in a comical fashion at the voice interrupting my train of thought, a popping sensation cracking in my neck as I did so.

Franny inspected my manic studying alcove with an air of sympathetic pity on her heavily made up face.

"You do realize you've been missing for over four hours now, right? I've been blowing up your phone, asking Colby if he'd seen you...I was this close to having campus security look for you."

"I've only been studying for four hours, Fran, it's not that long."

"It is when it's a fucking Friday night."

Her eyebrows rose up significantly while I rolled my eyes, glancing back down at the mound of work I'd already completed in such a short time.

The internship at the museum had only barely started and I was only TA'ing for a short time out of the week, but combined, it would be easy for me to get behind and I wasn't about to let that happen.

Letting my grades slip meant my scholarship would be in trouble, and it was kind of the only thing I had going for me at the moment.

The quiet sanctuary of the library was my only reprieve from my tumultuous thoughts and emotions as a rollercoaster of uncertainty and dread piled on top of me after my latest confrontation with Kalen.

He'd been all too happy to keep watch on me anytime we were in the same vicinity, those icy, frigid eyes seeking me out like he was waiting for me to come up to him and make a fool out of myself, again.

"I couldn't study in the dorm.  The library makes it easier for me to concentrate."

"You do realize we already made plans tonight though, right?"

A stone sunk in my stomach at the awaiting expression on her face.

"Tonight?"

"Yes, the movie you were so excited to see?  Those plans?"

"I...shit.  I'm sorry, Fran.  This week has been getting to me.  Can we still make it in time to see it?  Or we can pick one you want to see, or do anything else you'd rather do?"

Franny's blue eyes softened as she came around the other side of the desk to plop into the chair beside me. 

"Gracie, I don't blame you for checking out, but you can't pull what you did back in high school.  The ulcers, the stress, it was too much.  You know I'm not mad—it's typical Gracie and I know by now not to get offended that you forgot about our plans because you got so lost in your own head, but you need to start taking better care of yourself here, especially now that my parents aren't here to watch out for you, too."

"I know, I've been trying.  I'm sorry—do you still want to go to the movies?"

Franny laughed as I started frantically pulling all my things into my bag and stopped me with a gentle hand to my wrist. 

"The movie's been over for hours now, babes.  But if you still want to do something..."

I quirked an eyebrow at her mischievous tone, a playful smirk dancing across her red painted lips. 

"I'm listening."

"Well, Colby's house is throwing a party tonight to celebrate their first practice game win.  There's this girl that's gonna be there...her best friend is on the team so she's like always there..."

"And you think she'll be there tonight?  Do you want me to play wing-woman?"

Her eyes lit up at the suggestion and I was already packed up and ready to go by the time she nodded in the affirmative. 

"And to make up for totally standing you up tonight, I'll even let you dress me."

To say we were shushed by anyone else still lingering in the library at nine o'clock at night on a Friday was an understatement from the squeal of happiness that emanated from my best friend's mouth. 

"You are so not going to regret this!"

Oh, I highly doubted that. 

***

"What even is in this drink, Franny?"

"It's just vodka!"

The thumping bass of the music was drowned out as the splash of alcohol numbed the rest of my senses until I could hardly even see past the mind-altering burn of it as it slid in an inelegant way down my throat. 

"Vodka or gasoline?"

"Vodka.  Now, drink up!  You always loosen up after a drink or two."

She tipped the cup up and back to my mouth as I took two more swallows of the burning liquid and cringed as the burn singed through to my stomach.

Franny didn't acknowledge my ineptitude with alcohol as she grabbed my hand and led me through the throng of party-goers, each dressed in more and more eclectic outfits that had me questioning the stylistic choices of one Francesca Hart. 

She'd managed to wrangle me into one of her crop tops and a pair of shorts so short and tight I was sure no one aside from close family and friends had ever seen me in anything so small, save for when I'd worn a swimsuit in the summer. 

Setting my drink down discreetly so that Franny wouldn't realize I wasn't too excited to continue in the drinking aspect of the party, I followed her through the thick crush of bodies until we were in front of the couches peppered with members of the team and then she was waving at her brother, pulling me along even though everything in me was screaming to stop, turn around, and go back to the dorms. 

Because sitting perched on his lap was his blindingly beautiful girlfriend, a genuine smile on her face made all the more dazzling by the bright white of her teeth set against the backdrop of her unblemished dark skin.

There was an effortless glow to her as she sat with Colby, his arm wrapped protectively around her middle and as I stood there and took in the striking couple they made, a hollow ache formed in the middle of my chest that throbbed with the memory of the kiss that we'd shared, the one that probably hadn't meant a damn thing to him all things considered. 

A tingle spread onto my scalp as heat suffused my cheeks and I whipped my head around as if I was about to find someone staring at me but when I turned all I found was the back of someone's head as he was walking away.

I was just his little sister's best friend—practically his little sister, too, if the conversation we'd had in the dining hall was anything to go by.

"Um, I think I'm gonna—"

"Gracie!  Franny!"

Colby had already spotted us, just as I was about to make my breakaway. 

At least I hadn't caught sight of Kalen yet.  That was the one silver lining of this party so far. 

Catching sight of the girl that Franny was wanting to talk to, I nudged her side and angled my head her way as we walked toward the couches where Colby and his girlfriend Delia were sitting.

"You sit with Colby and I'll be right back."

She tossed me a salacious wink and I had to bite back my laugh as she practically floated over to talk with her. 

"What are you drinking, Gracie?  Delia's got some wine-coolers in the ice chest in the kitchen if you want me to grab you one?"

Colby picked up Delia by her hips and maneuvered them so that there was more space to sit on the couch and I quickly sat down, feeling overwhelmed by the swarms of different conversations and thrumming bass of the music. 

"Uh, I'm not really drinking anything.  I think there was some vodka but it wasn't for me."

"I really hate vodka too, don't worry.  Here, you can try this one, I haven't even drank out of it yet."

Delia reached forward on the table to grab a can of a seltzer looking type of drink and I took it from her hands while averting my eyes. 

It wasn't like I could just come out and ask to be best friends with her while being hung up on her boyfriend, could I?"

I took a sip and wasn't immediately recoiling from the burn, so I turned and smiled at her. 

"It's really good, thanks."

"Of course!  I don't really drink that much, but when I do it's nothing hard.  So, how did you get to be a TA as a freshman?  That's pretty unheard of."

"I told you, Dels.  Gracie here's a little genius.  She's technically a sophomore already."

"Oh?  How did you do that?"

"I took a few college courses in my junior and senior year of high school, and the credits transferred over.  A lot of people do it, actually."

Delia nodded emphatically, her smile genuine as she traced lines on Colby's hand as it was wrapped around her waist. 

"That's really amazing!  Colby said you guys grew up together?"

"Uh—"

"Yeah, she practically lived with us.  My parents used to joke her and Franny were twins separated at birth."

Colby huffed out a laugh as he swigged a sip of his own beer and I followed suit, the earlier swigs of vodka swimming in my senses and catching up to me quickly as I hadn't eaten anything since lunch and it was already nearing midnight. 

"Well, I think it's great that you grew up with basically two siblings.  I had to grow up an only child, you know."

I almost replied that I had as well, but that wasn't really true, was it?

I had Colby and Franny with me almost at all times, especially when my dad was too strung out to take care of me.  

I was lucky.  Lucky that they were there to be my saving grace when my own family didn't want to take care of me themselves. 

The conversation died down just as a loud confrontation happened over in a corner of the kitchen that I couldn't directly see, but then Colby was up in a flash, Delia deposited gently onto the floor as he stood, and we both shared worried glances as he strode toward the commotion.

Wordlessly agreeing, we followed Colby into the fray. 

It was clearly a fight if the chanting was to be believed, but before I could take another step to follow Delia, a steel banded arm slashed across my path and I stumbled, tripping into the person who'd stopped me. 

Looking up with startled eyes, I was confronted with the storm-cloud eyes of none other than Kalen Rush, and he was eyeing me like I was going to be his dinner, a glittering, malicious intent swimming in the depths of his irises. 

They were bleached sapphire in the lowlights of the party, dancing along to the beat of a song forgotten in the background as my hands scrambled to latch onto his before I could fall. 

I shouldn't have worried about that, though, considering the fact that his other arm had come around behind me, bracketing me in toward his chest as he pulled me closer to him. 

Kalen's lips curled up in a taunting smirk. 

"I don't think so, Sweetheart."

"Don't call me that.  And let go of me—I was going somewhere."

"You don't wanna go in there, trust me.  You'd just be in the way, and I'd hate for your little boyfriend to have to watch out for not one, but two of you."

His voice reverberated against my ears like the vibrations of the bass in the music humming in the background, the atmosphere charged with an energy from the fight as suddenly the music was cut and screaming could be heard over the din of chanting and too-loud conversations. 

"You don't tell me what I can and can't do."

My neck craned upward to catch his eyes, a whiff of whiskey hit my senses and I stiffened in remembrance of the many times I'd smelled that exact same type of alcohol on my father. 

There was a reason I didn't drink that much, even when it was the height of things to do in such a small town.  Even when my best friend loved to partake in it as well. 

My father's addiction wasn't a disease that I could catch, technically, but that didn't mean that addictive personalities didn't run in families.  

I didn't want to give myself the chance to become like him.

Sensing the difference in my posture, Kalen moved his arm from behind me and let his hands hang at his sides, though he still stood directly in my path.  An unmoving force, towering over me with unending height and intimidation. 

"This is my house.  I can do whatever I want here, and I want you to stay out of the kitchen right now.  That fight is none of your business."

"Okay, then why are you standing here trying to intimidate me instead of going in there and breaking up the fight in 'your house'?"

Fire roiled somewhere deep below the surface of the emotionless mask he'd plastered on his face.  

"Because some asshole's been spiking drinks tonight, and we're teaching him what happens when you fuck with girls at our house."

"And you singled me out specifically because...?"

His jaw feathering, grey eyes flashing and black hair swooping low across his brow, he leaned down until the scent of his fresh cologne and the heat from him wafted onto my skin, flushing mine in return. 

"Whose drink do you think he spiked, Gracie?"

Standing back up to his full height, I could only gape at him in surprise.

"But...I only took a few sips of my first drink before I set it down.  And then Colby's girlfriend gave me another that I barely even drank."

"Are you seriously that oblivious?  You were holding the cup so far away from your body you might as well have been screaming at someone to drug you.  I was about to slap the damn thing out of your hand before you set it down."

To say that I was speechless was an understatement.  He'd been watching me—which explained the tingling of my scalp as I felt his eyes on me before going to sit down with Colby and Delia. 

But then, if he was singling me out to watch me...

"Why were you even watching me in the first place?"

He scoffed, a sneer on his face. 

"What, no 'thank you' for watching out for you when all Hart could do was shove his hand up his girlfriend's shirt?"

His words were venom as they escaped his mouth. 

"Fine.  Thank you for watching out for me, is that what you wanted to hear?"

"No.  That's not what I wanted to fucking hear, Gracie."

"Okay, then what is it?  What exactly do you want from me?  You bully me and belittle me and get angry with me for no reason, and you hate me.  You actually hate me for something I didn't do.  I get it.  You hate me, my mom, and my entire family because we ruined your life, well guess what?  Has it ever occurred to you that maybe, just maybe, your family ruined mine, too?"

I turned on my heel and was halfway to the door when I felt his presence behind me, but I didn't dare turn around. 

It was only when I reached the front yard and his solid form pressed into my back while I caught my breath beside a lone tree did I finally turn around. 

He stole the words from my lips as he pressed his own against mine instead.

***

Author's Note:

FIRST KISS INCOMING!

What did you think of this chapter?

What do you think will happen next?

Until next time my lovely readers,

Kristen :)