"HELP!"

I banged on the door with as much force as I could, the palm of my fists reddening and my throat becoming brittle the longer I went on. After what felt like fifteen minutes of yelling and banging, Jaylen finally open his mouth. "I don't think we'll be getting out of here anytime soon." his body laid out on the carpet of the room relaxed with his hands behind his head, eyes looking up at the popcorn ceiling.

I exhaled a sigh. "Someone has to come find us eventually. Haven't you called anyone, sent out a text or anything?"

"I don't know if you noticed or not Cassian, but we're at a party and they just played Gasolina and Back That Azz Up back to back. No one is even thinking of their phones right now." I cringe at the way my name rolls off his tongue, the way he pronounces each syllable like it's his last sends a chill down my spine.

We'd been locked inside this room for what felt like hours but it's only been fifteen minutes no one had come to our rescue yet. Jaylen hasn't been much help either, spending most of his time sprawled out on the carpet, taking swigs from the tequila bottle in found in one of the boxes in here. He's so stupid, this entire party is stupid, and I'm even more stupid for deciding to come here. Now I'm stuck in a room with the worst person on campus.

"Well, what do you suppose we do JaeBeom," I say back to him in the same know-it-all tone he did to me, picking up my phone up off the floor to see if Lourdes returned any of my calls or texts.

Nothing.

"Whatever," Jaylen waves me off. "...I don't know why you're so upset with me like this isn't entirely your fault."

I blinked. "How is this my fault?" I turned back to bang on the door once again in frustration.

"Because what the fuck were you doing up here anyway? It's clearly sectioned off for a reason," Jaylen argued, crossing his arms over his chest as he finally sat up. "What kind of idiot sees caution tape on a door and decides to go in it?"

"A curious one!"

"Well, you know what they say happened to that one cat." Jaylen takes another swig from the bottle, wiping the wet corners of his mouth quickly after.

I exhaled another breath of annoyance. "Why didn't they have it completely block it off in the first place? Why not board it up, put a chain on the lock, something— anything to keep people from coming in!"

"You know one would think yellow caution tape would be enough for some people but . . ." the sarcasm practically drips from Jaylen's tongue and I rolled my eyes.

"Someone has to come find us." I insisted. "I mean this is a party, I'm sure people will notice if we aren't around."

Jaylen shakes his head, running a hand through the dark strands on his head. "Not when everyone's drunk and on drugs."

I closed my eyes not even trying to fight the muffled groan that escape my lips, sliding down the wall into a sitting position and burying my face in my knees. "This has been the worst night ever."

For the first time since we've been in here silence takes over the room, the only sound is the muffled beat of the music blasting from downstairs. We fell into a comfortable silence, too busy lost in my thoughts. I can hear shuffling around the room but I'm in the mood to look up until I feel a nudge at my shoulder. Jaylen's sitting next to me against the door, lips pressed to the bottle of tequila taking a quick gulp before handing it to me.

I shake my head no and surprisingly Jaylen doesn't protest and places the bottle back down at his side "What were you doing up here anyway? If you were looking for a bathroom there's one downstairs."

"I wasn't looking for a bathroom," I tell him, chin resting on my kneecaps. "I was supposed to be meeting a girl." I don't know why I decided to tell him that part. Why I felt the need to let the truth come out so suddenly, especially to someone like Jaylen, who I didn't know from a can of paint, but he lets out a small chuckle, sharp brows cocking up at me playfully.

"A girl huh? Okay Cas, I see you." Jaylen clasps a big hand on my shoulder giving it a soft rub and I roll my eyes at him shaking it off, grimacing at the little nickname he gave me.

"We didn't do anything," I admitted, feeling my cheeks heating up at the confession. "I got locked in here before something could happen."

Jaylen's rosy pink lips pressed into a thin line at my words, another hand reaching to run a course through his curls. "Oh, that's rough buddy."

I don't say anything back. My eyes darting to my phone beside me still seeing nothing only that we've not been in here for thirty minutes.

"You know, I was also meeting a girl up here," he randomly confessed, eyes trained straight ahead as he spoke. "this really cute Korean girl who was kinda funny. She said she'd meet me up here in one of the rooms but I guess she changed her mind and left me up here hanging. Literally."

"You wanna know something funny," I chuckle and Jaylen hums in reply. "the girl I was supposed to be meeting was Asian too. She spilled a drink on me and said she'll help me clean it up in the bathroom upstairs. "Third door to the right" she whispered that shit in my ear all sexy and shit."

Jaylen laughed lowly before it came to a subtle end, his brows raising at me. "Wait, was she wearing a little black dress?"

"Yeah?"

He nods. "What was the name of the girl who asked you to meet her? Please don't say . . ."

"Mina." We both breathed at the same time, a moment of realization falling over us like a blanket. I blinked at him, a little too stunned to speak but Jaylen found the moment hilarious. His deep laughter rumbled through the room like thunder, a hand clasping to my shoulder again as he wheezed out.

"Not we both got stood up by the same girl," he said in between breaths. "good for her!"

God, as if I wasn't already embarrassed enough.

He grabs the bottle from beside him taking a quick swallow. "I guess we were always meant to run into each other."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean if you didn't get stuck in the closet I probably would've just walked in on you in one of the rooms up here preparing for sexy time, and honestly I'm a little more thankful we ended up in here instead because that would've been traumatizing." Jaylen breathed out a low sigh. "The only reason I agreed to meet up with Mina was because I wanted to mess with Karina."

"Karina?" I repeated the girl's name like a question but then I remembered how I saw her coming out of Jaylen's room on my first day here. "You guys are dating right?"

Jaylen shakes his head. "No, she's just a friend . . . who I have causal sex with sometimes – most times actually."

"Oh, so a friends-with-benefits thing?"

"Kinda," he shrugs his shoulders as his eyes wander around the room for a moment. "so are you and Lourdes a thing or are you . . ." I shake my head no and he sends me a look and I send him one back not really getting what he's hinting at until he makes his wrist limp.

"Ha ha," I faked out a laugh sending a him look that causes him to laugh in response. 

"It's just you never know these things. It's okay if you were. I don't judge."

"I'm not gay Jaylen."

He turns to me. "Then why do you dress like that with your polo sweaters and designer bags? You look like one of Paris Hilton's groupies?"

"And you don't think you look gay in those short Nike shorts you wear around campus all day? I can see your left nut sometimes when you sit down in class."

He sends me a side eye, pressing the bottle to his lips once more face completely still as the clear liquid runs down his throat. "Lourdes likes it." he teases with a childish grin and I roll my eyes.

"She would punch you if she heard you say that aloud."

"So you two have something going on!" he pointed a finger at me.

I don't know how to take his words so I just brush them off. "We don't. She's just my best friend. We've known each other since we were seven."

He raised a brow at me. "Since you were seven . . ." Jaylen begin to count on his fingers for a moment. "that means you two have been with each other for over a decade and you mean to tell me you never hit that?"

I huffed. "You don't have to say it like that."

"I'm just saying," Jaylen placed a hand on my shoulder, rubbing it slightly. "A girl like Lourdes Khadir isn't something you just see every day. I'm pretty sure majority of the guys at this school would kill to be in your position, to be that close to her and here you are doing nothing with the opportunity."

"She's my childhood friend it's weird. We grew up together, our parents are friends, the whole dynamic would be off between us."

"I don't think so," Jaylen shrugged.

I stayed silent.

"I think I know what's the problem," Jaylen stands to his feet then, tall build towering over me as I remained seated on the floor. "You're scared to love. I get it, we've all been there . . ." he shakes his head, gulping the bottle he carried as he begins to walk around the room.

He's not even remotely close but I don't disagree and instead switch the conversation over to him so we don't have to keep talking about me. "You're scared of love?" Of course he is. He's Jaylen Park, the school's designated playboy according to Karina and the other students at CU. Pursuing someone like him is destined to end in heartbreak and yet girls still do it and the outcome is always the same. I don't get it.

"Lemme tell you something my halmeoni (grandmother) once told me," Jaylen begins, messing around with a toy fire truck he finds on one of the shelves. "love is like sour grapes."

"Sour grapes?"

He nods his big head and I roll my eyes. "First you think it's gonna be sweet and maybe it is for the first one but then comes the third and it's bitter and you realized that the grapes aren't actually what you thought and you just wasted your money when you could've bought something else instead."

I blinked at him. "That literally makes no sense."

"You're right and guess what else doesn't make sense . . . love!"

"Mhmm," I hum aloud as I push myself off the ground finally matching his eye level despite the couple of inches he had on me. I snatch the bottle out of his hand, waterfalling the alcohol to the back of my throat. It burned, my chest growing hot with each swallow but after a while I found myself growing numb to the feeling.

He sends me a look, lips tugging into a sly smirk but before I can call him out on it he says "Oh, I love this song!" spinning around on his heels and swaying to the faint beat that played outside. I don't hear it at first causing Jaylen to look like a crazy person as he dances to nothing but then he starts singing the lyrics and the beats fill my ears faintly.

"Say I love you, girl, but I'm out of time," he sings in a singsong voice that to my surprise wasn't all that bad. He shuffles around on his feet and I couldn't contain my laughter at how goofy he looked.

"You look stupid." I bluntly say but from the raised brow look on his face I can tell it only encourages him more and he quickly shuffled over to me. "Don't be a hater because you can't move like me." He dances in front of me, singing the lyrics like this was karaoke night. Without much warning, Jaylen grabs my hands swaying my arms back and forth with his. "What the hell are you doing?"

"We're dancing!" he says cheesing.

I have no control of my limbs as he made us shuffle around the room, and for the first time since we'd been here, I'm glad we're in there alone because if anyone else say this I'd scream. "I can't dance," I admitted, hand rubbing the back of my neck sheepishly. "In middle school, Lourdes got so upset with me one time because I didn't dance with her during the slow dance portion of the night because I suck at it. I'm such a fucking loser it's crazy."

"You're definitely not a loser because, for one, losers don't have Lourdes Khadir as their best friend, and they sure as hell don't have CJ Bergman as a father," Jaylen says to me and I turned my eye to the exposed inked sleeve along his left arm and I chuckled at him. "Pathetic lovesick coward is probably more fitting for your situation." he adds with a smirk.

"Shut up." I laughed breaking free of his grip and shoving him back. I must've underestimated my strength or either Jaylen is really light on his feet because he flies backward into a shelf full of random things and flops to the ground. I lean out to catch him but find myself tripping over my own two feet sending me forward in one swift motion. I land on my arm and which in contrast fall on Jaylen's stomach and he grunts out aloud.

"Well that fucking hurt," the boy groans, rubbing his head with one hand and removing random items from behind his back. His chest rising and falling and it's only then I realize just how close we are. My body on top of his, legs tangled and face oddly close.

Jaylen must have realized as well because his eyes grew wide and for the first since we've been in here he's quiet. It's strange. Not strange as in an unusual sense but still strange nonetheless. At least, for me, it was. The music downstairs only seemed to grow louder in the silence. I could feel everything, my senses widening. The vibrating floors, the heavy breathing between the two of us, and the sound of Jaylen's chest-beating all seemed to attack me at once.

"Cassian," he huffed, partly in amusement and partly due to the toy fire truck under his leg going off. I realized and immediately pushed myself off him.

I rolled my head toward Jaylen still on the ground practically covered in the miscellaneous things that surrounds us in the room. I lazily reached an arm out to him. Jaylen looked at my hand for a moment but his lips quirked up in a soft, amused smile, but he went to me all the same. "Thanks," he says once on his feet, body practically close to mine, so much I can feel the heat of his chest against my own.

I didn't answer – I didn't feel I have to. Once Jaylen tugged his arm towards my head, I leaned in voluntarily, craning my head up to meet his lips halfway. I don't know what I'm doing or why I did it, but I couldn't find it in me to care at this moment. I hummed into the kiss, slowly moving my mouth in a dance both Jaylen and I knew well.

This, though - didn't feel strange at all.

Not even when I feel Jaylen throbbing in his shorts, and out of instinct my hands go directly for it, taking him in my hand. He moans in my mouth, deepening the kiss both our tongues twirling around one another playfully. I can feel Jaylen's warm hand trickling down my body, stopping at the front of my jeans where our fronts meet. He mirrors my movement, his touch making me quiver in the usual sense of pleasure, I wanted to melt.

He pulled away, hands never leaving the front of my jeans, and he grinned, a twinkle in his eye. "Wait, no homo, right?"

I snickered, eyes rolling slightly. "I haven't heard anyone say that since middle school."

"Just say it!"

I exhaled a sigh. "Fine, no homo, whatever."

I'm possessed by something, whether it be the tequila, or simply because it's Jaylen Park, and I lean in again. It's a little awkward and ends a lot sooner than I expected it to. We press our foreheads together and stare at each other as if asking for permission to try again. Jaylen kisses me again, though this time he moves a bit and tries to make the smacking sound that's always so loud in movies by puckering his lips and sucking. It's a lot better. His large hand runs up my neck and gripping my hair, fingers tangled into my locks and gently scratching his scalp.

I accidentally lets out a groan about to pull away to apologize when Jaylen makes a noise of his own and presses us even closer together. Our chests are flush against one another now.

Jaylen laughs. "You're funny," we kiss, "funny looking." he bites my lip and then licks it to soothe the pain. After a bit of sucking and biting and licking, he starts to roll his hips. I groan, which grants another giggly shush followed by a moan when I start doing the same. It's really fucking hot in here now and I'm pretty sure I'm imagining most of this, but I don't care at this point.

"Wait ..." Jaylen whispers harshly, even though I can feel his erection against my thigh.

"What's wrong?" I hate that my voice is full of worry. I tried to look at Jaylen's face, but his eyes are too busy wondering everywhere else.

"Someone's coming," he quickly says and it's like something snaps in me and I realize what I'm doing and who I'm doing it with and I knock the boy away from me with everything in me coming back to my senses.

Jaylen nearly trips over something on the floor and I quickly wiped my lips off his saliva and spit the residue from my mouth. What the fuck!

Jaylen fixes himself in his shorts, tucking his erection in the waistband of his shorts sending me a look and shaking his head. That's when I hear the voices outside the door and the doorknob of the room turns. Jaylen quickly brushes himself off and moves to the other side of the wall.

"Act normal." he mouthed from across the room just as the door opened to reveal a very confused-looking Froy, a red solo cup in his hand as he stood under the door frame. We lock eyes first but then he sees his friend in the corner and makes a face, his brows furrowing in confusion, but before he can say anything Jaylen bolts out of the room a small "'Preciate that," escape his lips as he zooms past Froy and down the hall.

Froy turns his attention back to me, blinking. "I don't even want to know." He shrugged his shoulders before grabbing my hand and pulling me out of the closet.

••••
EXCUSE ANY MISTAKES OR ERRORS