Kaylee's POV
My alarm went off. It was weird because I didn't remember setting an alarm. School didn't even restart until a few weeks later. I reached an arm out to hit the snooze button, but just as I silenced it, I noticed his arms around me.
Ayden's sturdy arms were wrapped around my waist with his chin was settled in the crook of my neck. Now that I was finally noticing it, I could feel his light breathing on my skin and it tickled. By this time my heart was racing. He was too close for comfort and through his thin white t-shirt, I could feel his heartbeat. Slow and steady. Peaceful.
For some odd reason I felt myself wanting to stay in that moment; it was so quiet and he looked so innocent, it was as if he had never wanted to kill Will or blackmail me into staying with him for his entertainment. But as good as it felt being held, I refused to sink into this delusion of him being the good guy.
Gently, I peeled his hands off of me and slipped out from under the covers. I was just reaching for the doorknob when I saw the dress hanging on it. It was all black with a tiny white belt loosely looped around the waist part of the dress. I reached a hand out to touch it, but whirled around the second I felt his arms sneak around my waist.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" he asked. I nodded. I couldn't help but notice how close his lips were to mine. His arms were still wrapped around me, keeping me close to him. He nodded. "Good, since you'll be wearing the dress for tonight's party." He let go of me.
Tonight? What party?
"The party's at a friend of mine. It starts at eight. Be ready by seven though. Her place is on the either side of town." He reached up to pull the hanger off the door. As he did, his white shirt slipped up, revealing a stretch of skin. I tore my eyes off of him when he turned back around to hand me the dress. "Here," He opened the door to leave, but then stopped short. He walked around me and pulled his coat off my chair. He tossed it to me. "To keep warm." He winked at me and called over his shoulder, "I'm going to go make breakfast."
The dress fit perfectly. Almost a little too perfect. I didn't want to know how Ayden even knew my size. Some things were better left in question.
The engine was already started and music was blasting out the windows by the time I reached the car. No questions were asked when I didn't take the passenger seat next to him.
He let out a low whistle with his cigarette hanging between his lips. Ayden turned the radio on a little louder and finally drove off.
It took maybe an hour or more to reach the house. Technically speaking, it wasn't even a house. Mansion was more like it. And when Ayden said it was on the hillside, he had literally meant on the hill. Cars were parked randomly around the house. The whole house seemed to be vibrating due to the loud music pounding from the inside out.
Ayden parked the car somewhat close to the house and opened the door for me.
The front door swung open before we could even open it and two drunk girls giggled as they stumbled out. One of them was so off-balance that she had to place a hand on Ayden's chest to right herself. "Hi," she giggled again.
"Hey,"
She laughed and looked at her friend. She was swaying on her feet. Her friend looked a little bit more sober than the her, but both obviously had no clue way they were doing.
"Sorry," she apologized. "We're both insanely drunk. Do you mind if you drive us home or something?"
Ayden looked at me and shrugged. He turned back to the girls. "Why don't we go back in and find someone else to take you home, alright?"
He tugged on my arm and with his other free hand, pulled one of the girls along with him. When we got in, he leaned over to me and said, "I'll be right back. I'll meet you at the fireplace. Don't go anywhere else." I nodded. I didn't know anyone here anyways.
I made my way through the crowd slowly. A couple standing in the doorway were making out with each other while another pair were feeding each other bits and pieces of cake. Cheers erupted somewhere in the middle of the room and I looked over just in time to see a pretty dark-haired brunette leaning over the bottle on the floor to kiss a shy-looking blonde boy who sat opposite of her.
I was still walking and glancing in that direction when I bumped into a boy that I had never seen before. He caught me right before I tripped and fell.
"Sorry," he grinned. When I didn't respond right away, he held out a hand and said, "Logan,"
I shook his hand and he waited for me to introduce myself. Introductions were never my strong suit. I held up a finger for him to wait a second as I dug through my purse to pull out my phone.
I'm Kaylee. I typed.
"Are you here alone?" I liked him already. He didn't ask me the most dreaded question.!i shook my head in response to his question, but I might as well have been since Ayden still wasn't back yet.
You? I asked. He shook his head and shrugged. "I was meeting a friend here, but he seems to be running late," he turned around to check out the crowd, trying to see if his friend had arrived probably. "Oh wait," he suddenly said, "there he is."
I wasn't as tall as Logan was. But with the help of the heels I was wearing I could see exactly who his friend was. Will.
I began panicking. I couldn't let him see me here with Ayden, but maybe this was exactly what Ayden wanted. He was too nice to me all day for this to just be a happy coincidence.
"I'm sorry," I mouthed at Logan before disappearing into the crowd. He called after me but I ignored him. I hadn't walked far when Ayden found me and grabbed me by the wrist, pulling me right next to the fireplace where he was standing. I pulled my wrist back, but he held onto it tightly. I glanced behind me again. I had seen Will, but maybe there was a chance he didn't see me. I could see him now, too, talking with Logan and looking confused.
"What the hell are you looking at?" Ayden asked. He took one peek over my head and saw what I was looking at. A smile spread across his face. "This is just too perfect." I shook my head and mentally begged him to leave Will alone. He pulled on my arm again until I faced him. "Listen, Kaylee, this is what we're going to do. He's bound to look over here any minute, and when he does, I want you to kiss me like you mean it."
I glanced back again. Too late. Will made eye contact with me across the room and suddenly I was kissing Ayden. I couldn't breathe the minute our lips connected. It was like he was an air vacuum, sucking all the air out of me. At some point, I felt his hand slip up my dress. My heart was beating in my ears and I forced myself to kiss him back. I realized then that I had two options. I could pull away from him for air and risk the consequences or--
A force ripped us apart from each other and I looked up to see Will shaking out his knuckles and Ayden lying on the floor with a hand to his bloody nose.
"C'mon," Will said quietly, tugging on my hand. I didn't even realize his hand was there. "We need to leave." A crowd was forming around us and the pretty dark-haired brunette who had been kissing that boy appeared close to us, looking angry. I figured she was the hostess.
"What the hell is going on?" she asked.
I wanted to leave. I hated the feeling of everyone's eyes burning into the back off head, but if I left with Will instead of Ayden, he would kill me. Ayden sat up, tenderly touching his nose to see if it was broken. I watched him wince and pull back his hand away from his nose. A stream of blood ran down his nose. A few guys who probably knew him started to help him up and as they did so, Ayden snuck a wink at me.
He wanted this to happen. He wanted me to go with Will.
Will pulled on my hand again. "Let's go." This time, I allowed myself to follow his lead. He pushed through the crowd. Eyes followed us everywhere. We passed by a shocked and confused looking Logan in the crowd. He looked like he was going to say something, but we brushed by him too fast to stay to see what he was going to say.
Will shoved open the door and lead me to his car. I sat in the back like always.
He sped down the hill and I could see him looking at me through the rear view mirror. He didn't say anything though.
Will finally parked the car. The house I assumed was his looked ordinary. Two stories. It was gray. No lights were on in it.
He turned around in his seat and looked at me. "Don't move. I'm going to go check on something." I nodded and he opened the door, jogging over to his house.
Now that I was alone, I didn't know what to make of the situation. Ayden hadn't planned on Will bring there at the party tonight, so it wasn't a coincidence. He also didn't plan on Will coming to my rescue. So why did he want me to leave with him?
I jolted when the door I was leaning on opened.
"Sorry," he apologized.
Will flipped on the light switch. While he went into the living room to turn on some more lights, I followed him, looking around the house. Finally he sat down and I found myself sitting across from him.
"Kaylee, you can't be with him. He's not who you think he is." I knew exactly who he was. "He's a bad person. He's done horrible things to people." I could tell that he was trying not to give away everything. He started getting angry. He stood up and started pacing. "I mean, why are you even with him in the first place? I thought... I thought..." he trailed off and looked at me. I stayed quiet. "He's dangerous." he finally said. "And I don't want you to get hurt because of him. I could never live with myself if that happened."
He was eyeing the coat Ayden had made me wear wearily.
It was sweet to hear those words out loud. It was sweet that he cared. But it wasn't like I could explain to him that Ayden was using me to hurt him. How would that even go in the first place? Oh, one day he just decided to move into my house and blackmail me into staying with him?
"I'll go set up the guest room, you can stay here for the night." He turned around to leave and I could tell that he was slightly blushing from what he had said earlier before.
However, the minute I heard him walking up the stairs, I sent him a quick text saying thank you, raided his refrigerator until I found the ice pack for his bruised knuckles, and slipped out the front door.
Just like I thought, Ayden was expecting me inside my house, but this time he brought company.
"Kaylee!" he exclaimed. There was a bear bottle in his hand and by the way he was swaying on his heels slightly, I could tell that he was drunk out of his mind. There probably wasn't a single sober cell in his body. "Welcome home," he grinned sloppily and threw his arm around my shoulder, leading me into my living room.
Cigarette smoke danced around the room. I could smell it before I saw it.
"Everyone, this is the famous Kaylee Harrison." he announced. He pulled me onto the couch next to him. In response, the boy on the couch exhaled more smoke. A girl was leaning into him, also smoking. Another girl sat on the chair beside the couch they were on, trying to open another bottle of beer. It hissed when she finally got it open. Ayden placed an unopened bottle into my hands. "Drink up,"
"I told you she'd be back before twelve." Ayden said. The other boy sighed and reached into his pocket, pulling a bunch of crumpled twenties out. He counted out loud with his cigarette dangling from his lips.
"Twenty. Forty. Sixty. Eighty. One hundred." He slid the wad of cash across the table.
So while I was busy covering for Ayden and lying to Will without actually telling the lie, they were betting on when I'd return. I stood up abruptly to leave.
"What's wrong?" Ayden looked up at me and took another swig of his drink. Everything was wrong, but I took it as a cue to sit back down.
A hour passed and they somehow ended up talking about about their useless families and how glad they were that they got rid of them. How much better off they were alone.
Ayden was finally introducing them name by name as he explained each of their stories to me.
He nodded at the only other guy in the room. "Did you know that Asher could've been a millionaire?" I shook my head and leaned against the couch. I was having a hard time keeping my eyes opened. The clock on top of my TV read that it was a quarter until two.
"But his parents disowned him since he was slacking off on school plus he was dealing. Mya, his sister," He pointed to the girl with short hair. "She was cut off the minute she followed him out the door."
"Best decision I ever made," She drank to that.
"And Khloe," Khloe waved slightly at me. She was too drunk to do anything else. "She was a waitress who stole more than tips. Genius." Khloe giggled and leaned over to place her lips on Asher's. He set the bottle he was drinking down on the table and pulled her onto his lap.
I couldn't watch this anymore. I picked myself off the couch and set the untouched drink back onto the table.
I turned to go, but felt Ayden's hand in mine once again. "Before you go," He stood up, towering over me, and brushed my hair away from my ear. Where his fingers had been sent tingles running up and down my spine and I shivered. I felt his lips at my ear. "Baby, I want you to break his heart before he breaks yours."
I pulled myself away and he sat down as if nothing had happened at all. I didn't know whether or not he could sense the horror emitting out of me.
Turning, I made my way up the stairs to my bedroom and I tried to decide whether or not he meant it. Two parties in one night. It was enough to make a crazy guy say even crazier things, wasn't it? Surely he didn't mean it. He wasn't even sober. He wouldn't remember what he said when he woke up, would he?
I turned the lamp off in my room and laid down on my pillow. How was it even possible to break a heart that wasn't even mine to begin with?
I fell asleep with that one thought running through my mind.
~A/N: Hope you liked it! Don't forget to comment, vote, and follow :)
~Forever_Yours_Too