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It's a Beauty thing to put herself first.

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Ira Brown doesn't shy away from parties.

But, she was in no mood for this one.

Ira walked inside the party house and recoiled at the smell. It smelled like weed, alcohol and sweat, a combination that made her want to hurl. Everyone around her was lost in the sea of young adults trying desperately to forget about their woes. But she didn't care about everyone. She was here to find one single person. 

Ozias Van Everly.

Aka her boyfriend and her current pain in the ass.

Oz and Ira were the type of couple singers wrote songs about. Being together since high school, they had their ups and downs, but nothing they couldn't overcome. They were the couple everyone admired. They were each other's homes.

Until college arrived.

Oz's life revolved around soccer, even in high school. He often joked with Ira that she was his second love. The first was always soccer. The statement held a certain degree of truth, and Ira understood that, hence accepting the position. Oz was Ira's first love, her only love, and nothing gave her more joy and filled her with pride than seeing her love work towards achieving his dream.

And it paid off. Once in college, he got selected for their university team. And as a surprise to no one, he quickly rose the ranks from rookie to pro. Oz excelled at Soccer. Tremendously. So much so, he was soon known all around campus as the best soccer player they'd had in years. Ira couldn't be happier for Ozias. 

But with the pros also came the cons.

It started slow. Oz had started acting a little irresponsibly. Maybe a little careless every now and then. But it wasn't anything Ira couldn't handle. But then he got worse, the fame swallowing him up. He started cutting classes, his grades dropped and he was almost in no contact with his family, who was growing increasingly worried for him. Ira was close to Oz's family, as was he with hers. But, she was much closer to his sister, Alydia, as she was almost the same age as them, minus two years. The only communication his family had with Oz was through Ira, and even that wasn't much.

So when she had gotten a call from Alydia earlier this evening, she had assumed it had something to do with Oz. But upon answering the call, Alydia told her that her car had broken down half an hour from their college. Ira had agreed to help, and had instantly grabbed her car keys when Alydia said something that made her stumble.

"Could you bring Oz along? I need to tell him something and I would really like it if you were there too."

Which brought Ira to the party she had no interest in attending. Nor was she invited. But since everyone on campus knew her as Ozias's girlfriend, she entered without anyone protesting against. She had one goal, find Oz and get him out of there.

Almost immediately, she saw her person of interest leaning against a wall, smoking. It irritated her, as Oz had promised her and himself that he won't ever smoke as it wasn't good for his health. It was a personal decision of his and he was breaking it.

Almost immediately, Oz's eyes met hers and a drunken smile took over his features. He stumbled towards Ira, eyes intoxicated. He smelled like smoke, Ira thought, as she took a step back from him to avoid the smokey scent. His eyes darkened at that but he quickly put on a mask of indifference.

"What are you doing here?"His slurred speech didn't bother Ira, nor did his dry emotionless tone.

"We have to leave," Ira said calmly, holding her stance.

"Why?" he asked again. His voice had deepened, irritation making its way to his features. He grabbed Ira's hand and led her into a spare bedroom. Once alone, his eyes instantly lightened, as if his mood had a switch which he controlled. He gave her a teasing grin and stalked towards her like a hunter stalked his prey.

"Feeling lonely, are we, Eye?"

Oz always called Ira 'Eye', as he had explained to Ira that there was no way her name could be shortened. So he decided to stick with the first syllable of her name, making it his own. No one but him called her, which usually never failed to make her feel warm inside, but today it seemed to have no effect whatsoever. She was exhausted. She needed her Oz back. Not the one who only thought about getting wasted. Not the one who was constantly ditching their lunches, the one who was ignoring most of her calls for the past 4 months.

Not the one who didn't seem to love her anymore.

"Oz, we need to-" Ira started again.

"Leave?" he said blankly.

"Yes. Your-" Ira was cut off again, by Ozias who seemed unrecognisable to Ira.

"Tell me, who do you think you are Ira?"

Ira couldn't believe her ears. Ozias had never spoken to her like this.

"Excuse me?"

"Yes, you heard that right. For the past few months, you really think you're my mother, don't you? Always babysitting me, always on my fucking back," he was seething with anger at this point, his voice rising slowly. He was unrecognisable.

Ira held her stance, not letting herself falter. She looked Oz straight in the eye and said calmly, "What do you mean?"

Oz's eyes were flaming, his hands trembling with anger.

"All you do nowadays is babysit me. All you care about is how I'm not giving you enough time or how I'm being irresponsible. Let me live for God's sake!"

"I say this for your own good Ozias," Ira replied. She could feel tears pricking behind her eyes, but she willed them to not flow.

"And only you know what's good for me, huh? I CAN HANDLE MYSELF," his voice boomed around the room. Ira flinched at his raised voice and took a step back. Noticing this, his lips curled into a mocking smile and he let out a sadistic laugh.

"Now you want to get away from me. You've been so busy with your studies. With your stupid studying to become a stupid fucking low-pay teacher that you don't even have time for your boyfriend. I bet you're not even studying half the time you tell me that, fucking some guy behind my back," he snarled menacingly through gritted teeth.

"Mind your tongue, Ozias," Ira said, forcing herself to remain calm before continuing, "All I wanted to tell you that-"

"That what? That you can't deal with my spoiled ass? Well, good for me, you chose a perfect place to do so. The entire college is outside that door, I can get any girl I want, even two if I like. I don't want you anymore."

His words slapped Ira right in the face, this time not being able to control the tears that flowed so freely now. Oz's eyes flashed with guilt when he saw the tears, but it disappeared as soon as it appeared. Putting on a mask of her own, Ira forced herself to take a few deep breaths and spoke out in such a low whisper that she wasn't sure he could even hear her.

"Well. I guess that's it then? I don't know who you are anymore but you're not the Oz I fell in love with. You can assume anything you want, blame me all you want, ridicule my dreams when all I've done is support yours. I can't do this anymore. You've lost my respect, Ozias. I wish you all the best for your future, a future without me in it."

Ozias didn't utter a word. He couldn't. After all, the fog of anger was clearing his head, his drunkenness reducing. He was finally realising what he had done. He was losing the love of his life and there was no one else to blame but him.

He watched Ira turn around and start walking away and he didn't do anything to stop her. But she did, she stopped. She turned around, faced him, eyes red from the tears he was responsible for, defeated but still strong. Like she always was, his third Eye, his strong and loving Eye, who kept him sane.

"Don't ever contact me again."

And with that, she left, leaving Oz a helpless, empty Beast.

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I think you can guess that this is the first fight/ breakup sequence I've ever written. Might've overdone it a bit I guess? This book, unfortunately, isn't going to follow a particular update pattern (but look out for the weekend maybe?). What do we think about the prologue? 

Anywayyy, I'm gonna go now. Give me your feedback, vote or comment (or all?) if you'd like to. I'll talk to you later then!

Love,

Anushka <3