Allie's P.O.V.

"Yo, dude, what's up?" the guy who opened the door greeted Luke with a handshake.

"What's up Macon?" Luke grinned at the guy, who I'm guessing was Macon.

Macon's eyes drifted down to me, where I was kind of latched onto Luke's arm.

"And who's your lady friend?" he asked, wiggling his eyebrows.

"Allie," I said. "Nice to meet you."

"Well, come on in Allie!" he said, stepping aside to let me in. "Luke, you can come in too," he added as an afterthought.

I stepped inside and immediately felt a little intimidated. There were more people in here than at any other party I'd been to, and even with my heels, I was still at least three inches shorter than all the other girls. At least my hair, which was up in a bun, gave me some extra height.

"Alright, you go mingle, I have some people I want Lukey hear to meet," Macon said, putting an arm around Luke and ruffling his hair like Luke was a kid.

I opened my mouth to protest. "Luke, wait-" but he had already been swept away by the hurricane I was quickly learning to call Macon.

I sighed and turned around and began the struggle of pushing through people to get to the alcohol. I found the keg and got myself some beer and took a sip.

Ick. It's warm.

I managed to get back through the group of half-naked dancing people to a nice spot away from the front door but with a good vantage point to watch the dance floor and the keg.

"Well, I'll be damned," a voice said from the left. "It's Allie."

I turned and luckily I wasn't drinking from my cup because if I was I would have done a spit take all over the familiar boy in a snapback.

"Hi Chris," I said slowly.

He smiled down at me, but then again, who didn't? "Hey Allie," he said friendly.

I shuffled my feet awkwardly. I didn't know what to say to him, especially after he basically told me he didn't want me to date Luke.

I tried to ignore the way his eyes traveled up and down my body.

"New dress?" he asked.

"No," I said defensively, suddenly feeling way too exposed. I wanted my hair down so it could cover my chest. "I've had it since high school."

"Huh," he said. "I just haven't seen you wear a dress to a party before."

"Luke wanted me to wear it," I blurted out, then immediately regretted my decision.

To my surprise, Chris barely reacted to the sound of his ex-best friend's name. "Tell him he has good taste."

"Right, and inflate his head any more," I joked.

Chris laughed and I rubbed my arm awkwardly, not knowing what to say.

And honestly, can you blame me? the last time we spoke, he was pissed. I'd never seen him so mad, and it sucked because he was such a nice and chill guy.

"So how's Luke?" he spoke casually, leaning against the wall as if he expected to be there a while.

I panicked a little. "He's good," I managed to say.

"Does he have a job yet?" Chris asked.

"No," I said, my heart beating a little faster.

"Does he still live at home?" he asked another question.

"Yes," I answered feeling a little defensive, which was how I felt the whole awkward conversation.

"So he's still living off his parents," Chris said.

"No," I snapped. "He's working on getting a job."

"And going to parties in between?" Luke raised his eyebrows.

"Look, why don't you go ask him instead of me?" I said. "I'm not Luke; I can't and won't answer for him."

"I just thought since you two were so close and all-" Chris started.

"Yeah, we are dating, but i'm not  him," I said angrily. "That's like saying just because I lived with my brother for sixteen years means I ccan answer every question about his life."

Chris, much to my rapidly growing fury, laughed, tilting his head back and putting his hand on his stomach.

"What's so fucking funny?" I demanded, putting my hands on my hips.

"Ah, Allie," Chris said, wiping his eyes. "You're so easy to piss off."

Ironically, this pissed me off more. "Was this just some joke?" I asked.

Luke appeared behind me just then. "Do I get 10 bucks or what?" he grinned.

"What?" I asked, dumbfounded as Chris handed Luke a 10 dollar bill.

"We bet 10 bucks that I could piss you off in les than 10 minutes," Chris explained.

"I said that he could," Luke said. "You have a nasty temper."

"I can' believe you," I said and stomped off.

"Allie, wait," Luke called, but I already was around the corner and out the door.

I stood on the porch, arms crossed, fuming. How dare they make a bet? They knew full well that Chris and I had a less than amicable parting. They didn't just make me feel angry, I felt exposed and uncomfortable.

A guy wolf-whistled as he and his friend drove past. I flipped them off and stepped down from the porch and almost fell over.

Damn these heels Luke wanted me to wear. Suddenly, I reached down and undid the buckle on my shoes and stepped out of them. I was tempted to throw them, but I did actually like these heels.

I started walking home, shoes in one hand. I didn't want to g back in there. Luke was a dick, Chris was a dick, everyone was a dick.

I just wanted to go home and get out of this stupid dress and let my hair down and go to bed.

I was painfully aware of my own pounding heartbeat as I realized I was alone walking across campus in the dark.

I swear to fucking God, if anyone tries anything I will shove this fucking heel in their face, I thought.

I knew my apartment wasn't that far away, but I was still nervous. One learns to be scared alone in the dark when you're a girl and all that happens when you turn on the news is shootings and rapings all across America.

So, yes, I was a little nervous to be walking home, but I steeled my resolve and set out to get away from the assholes that ruined my life.

I'll admit, after two minutes of walking, I broke out into a run and sprinted the rest of the way home. Granted, it was only a five minute walk, so at a run I got there in two and was out of breath and ready to collapse by then.

"Wow, I am really out of shape," I muttered as I unlocked my door.

Dropping my keys on the side table by the door, I glanced in the living room at the clock on the wall and saw that it was only midnight. I sighed heavily as I headed straight to my room and closed the door. I wasn't in the mood to deal with Jasmine tonight.

The first thing I did was throw my shoes in my closet and I enjoyed the bang that they made. The fear had burned out my anger and now I was left exhausted. Nothing felt more freeing than taking off my dress and letting my hair fall in its original, crazy curls.

I curled up in just my bra and underwear and was half asleep when someone knocked on the door and said tentatively, "Allie?"

I rolled over and shot a disgruntled look at my door. "What?"

It was Jasmine. "Um, Luke's at the door and he wants to know if you're here and if you're okay. He wanted to see you if, um, you were home. Did something happen?"

The concern in her tone was the only reason I answered. "He can come in."

"Okay," she said, but she sounded skeptical.

I rolled back over and kept my back to the door determinedly. When Luke walked in, I kept my back turned.

"Allie," he said in relief. "You're okay."

"No thanks to you," I said to the wall.

"I know, and I'm sorry. But you left and I was really worried about you. I didn't know where you went," Luke said.

I grunted into my pillow. "It's your fault that I left in the first place. You were rude and I didn't like it, so I left."

"I know you're mad at me, and I know I deserve it, but when I couldn't find you and someone said you left, I seriously thought I was going to find you dead in a ditch somewhere," Luke said worriedly. "You should know better than to walk alone in the dark."

"You sound like my mother," I grumbled, and that's what made Luke take the step forward to put a hand on my shoulder.

"I love you," he told me gently. "And if anything happened to you I wouldn't know what I would do."

I rolled over to face him finally. I knew that if I looked at his puppy eyes when he was apologizing , I would give in too easily, but now I felt better. He apologized and he was worried about me.

"I know," I said. "But you're still a dick for making that bet, and I'm going to yell at you for it tomorrow, but for now, you're forgiven since you were scared half to death."

Luke slid down on the bed next to me and put an arm over my bare stomach. "All I could think of was the Maroon 5 song Maps and the music video and how she died."

I couldn't help myself; I snorted. "I could have been murdered, and all you could think about was Maroon 5?"

"In my defense, Adam Levine is really hot," Luke replied.

I smiled. "That's true."

I turned and rested my head on his chest, soothed by the sound of his breathing. It may be creepy, but when I lived at  home and we had a dog, I was always comforted by the sound of my dog breathing whenever she slept with me. It just made me think that yes, I'm still breathing, I'm not sinking under, and as long as I keep inhaling and exhaling I'll live to see another day.

So I fell asleep to the promise of seeing another day go by.

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Hey guys! Look, this update was a little bit faster, right? Only one month instead of three??? I mean, it's still bad, but there's improvement. I wanted to update before tomorrow, because I am going to see 5sos in concert and I decided that after that my will to live will be crushed by their perfection, so I better update now lol.

Hope you enjoy, wish me luck on not having a heart attack when I see Calum Hood in person, and have a lovely, lovely weekend.

love ya!

-taylor