The Bitch Is Back

22 | "karma"

tw // sexual assault

Luna

I stood up and Amelia looked at me with complete hatred in her eyes. Her eyes were stained with mascara from when she started crying when Ethan found out the truth.

"Where are you running to, Adams? Don't stop now, you've already ruined my relationship, why not finish me off right now?"

I scoffed. "I've barely scratched the surface with you 'Melia. If you think I'm even remotely done with you then you've got another thing coming."

"Finish what you were gonna say." Caleb urged. "How did Lydia and Amelia kill Stella?"

Before I got the chance to speak, Lydia spoke first. "Stella's death was an accident. She was wasted."

I shoved my phone into my purse. "I don't have time for this right now." I walked over to Nate who was still leaned against the door frame. "I need Andrew's keys." I told him and he gave me a strange look.

"Why? Where are you going?"

"Madison's in trouble. I have to go get her."

Nate kissed his teeth. "No way in hell am I letting you drive when you're this wasted."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm not even that wasted."

I would've been convincing if my words hadn't been slurred and if I hadn't stumbled right as I said that. Nate quickly caught me before I fell and held me upright. He scoffed. "Yeah, sure. Come on, I'll drive you. I drank loads of water so I'm mostly sobered up now."

"Whatever." I said before Nate turned to Lena and Olivia. "Are you guys ready to leave?" Lena stood up without hesitation and breathed a sigh of relief. "I thought you'd never ask." She murmured as she began walking towards us.

Olivia soon followed her with a scowl on her face. "That totally killed my buzz." She muttered, referring to the conversation that was just had.

"I'm gonna go see if I can find Andrew, Brandon and your friends." Nate said. "Here's the keys, you guys can wait in the car." He passed the keys to Lena. "I'll come back with them and we can go get your sister, alright?"

"Step-sister." I corrected but nodded nonetheless.

Nate was about to walk away when he stopped to look at me. "Are you okay?" He had concern and pity in his tone and just the question itself made me want to burst into tears because I was the furthest thing from okay.

But I wouldn't cry. Crying doesn't get anybody anywhere so why waste your time?

I nodded and rubbed my legs together. Nate suddenly reached his hand over to cup my cheek and I almost jumped at the sudden affection. He rubbed my cheek with his thumb slightly before retracting it, leaving me craving more of his touch.

"You're freezing." He stated and I dismissed him with a wave of my hand. "I'm fine."

I had lost my jacket somewhere in the midst of the party and knowing the people of this town, someone had probably already stolen it.

"Your cheek is literally ice cold." He said as he began to take his jacket off. I shook my head in protest. "No. I don't need your jacket."

"Just take it. I don't like you shivering and moving about, it makes me anxious. Stop being stubborn and just put it on."

I fought a smile and realised that I was actually thankful for Nate. He wasn't making me feel embarrassed or awkward for what he's found out about me tonight. He was acting as if nothing happened and for that, I was grateful.

I slipped the jacket on and gave him a crooked smile. "Thanks, Nathaniel."

He winked at me cheekily before walking out the door and towards the field that wasn't far from the house we were in.

"We're gonna go wait in the car." Olivia said to me. "You coming?"

I was about to say yes before Caleb came over to me, abandoning the rest of his group that were still sat down trying to mend the damage I had inflicted on their friendship.

"Uh, you guys can go on without me. I'll meet you guys there in a bit."

They nodded hesitantly before I turned around fully and faced Caleb. He swiped his thumb over the tip of his nose before sniffing. "So are you gonna tell me if it was my baby or what?"

I groaned. "For fucks sake, why do you care Caleb? It's not as if you would've stayed with me even if it was yours."

He shook his head. "No. If it was some other broad then maybe, but not you. I would've stayed with you no matter what back then."

"Forget about it, Caleb. You weren't even supposed to find out anyways."

"I can't just forget about it. That was my kid you wanted to get rid of and you don't even have the decency to tell me? That's messed up."

I rolled my eyes. "Get over yourself. You don't even know if it was yours or not. Besides, didn't you hear Amelia? It died inside me. I didn't even get the chance to make a decision about it."

Caleb scratched the back of his neck and looked at me with pity that I haven't seen in awhile. "That's shit. You didn't deserve that."

"I also don't deserve to be pestered about something that happened when I was fifteen but here we are."

He didn't say anything for a few seconds until he looked at Blair who was still sat sadly on her own, before looking back at me. "What Blair did to you was fucked up. You never told me about that part."

"What you're doing to me right now is fucked up, Caleb. You know exactly what Jack did that night and you're trying to manipulate me into forgetting it. You've done it before and now you're doing it again."

He let out a huff but didn't say anything and neither did I for a few seconds until I finally looked him in his eyes and gave him the smallest of smiles. "I never said thank you for what you did for me that night. You probably don't deserve it after what you put me through but still, thank you."

Caleb looked back to see if anybody was listening before turning back to me, his voice low. "I should've killed him for what he did to you. I wanted to."

A small weight had finally been lifted from my chest. At least I knew now that it wasn't all in my head like they were saying. I had the video but I've never watched it for fear of what I'd do if I had to watch exactly what Jack did to me that night. But with Caleb's words, I now knew that everything Jack did to me was true.

"I knew I loved you that night, Caleb."

Caleb gave me a small smirk with pride and the soft expression on my face quickly moulded into hatred. "It's funny how far manipulation will get you."

Caleb's face turned hard and his eyes turned dark. "You're not a fucking victim Luna so you need to quit this 'Bad Girl Gone Good' act because you're not fooling anybody."

I forgot how easily angered Caleb was. He could go from being the sweetest person in the world to being your worst nightmare in the span of half a second.

He came up close, towering over me in fury. He leaned down a little so his mouth was next to my ear. "You love to talk about how I manipulated you and how I fucked with your head but isn't that exactly what you did to other people?"

I looked forward, refusing to look him in the eye. I crossed my arms and inhaled sharply. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Don't play stupid, L. It's not cute."

Caleb stepped even closer to me and I stepped back before feeling my back hit a wall. Caleb put his hand against the wall beside my head and glared at me, forcing me to finally look him in the eyes.

"Don't forget Luna, it was you who started fucking Ethan, your best friend's boyfriend." I opened my mouth to protest but he didn't let me speak. "And you walk around like you're so fucking high and mighty. Like you're a victim. You deserved every last bit of what you got, Luna. We all had to pay for the things we did and you don't see us complaining."

"How the hell did you pay for all the fucked up stuff you did, Caleb? Please, remind me, because I don't remember you paying for shit."

"I pay for it every day. In here." He tapped his temple with his free hand and I couldn't stop myself from laughing dryly at him.

"Oh you poor thing. It must be so hard battling with your guilt after you drugged me an-"

Caleb banged his fist against the wall, which made me flinch and silenced me immediately. "You don't," He paused and took several deep breaths before speaking slower and quieter. "you don't know what you're talking about. That never happened."

"Don't play stupid, Caleb. It's not cute." I said coldly, repeating his earlier words.

Caleb said nothing and neither did I for a bit. I was trying to be careful with my words before I pushed the wrong buttons and he really snapped. Caleb was unpredictable when he was angry. You could never tell when he would hit something or how hard he would do it. He would hit the nearest thing in sight and sometimes, that just happened to be me.

Caleb once told me that when he got angry, he wouldn't even see properly. Just shapes moulded together. He used that as an excuse every time he hit me which wasn't often, but it wasn't rare either. "It's just how he copes with his anger." I'd say to myself as if that was a valid excuse. I would forgive him each time because it didn't matter how much he hurt me or how hard as long as he'd say sorry.

How utterly naïve of me.

"Are you fucking him?" Caleb asked after a long intense silence.

My brows furrowed in confusion. "Fucking who?"

"Nate."

I rolled my eyes as a condescending smirk played on the corner of my lips. "You've been in love with me for what, four years now? It's embarrassing how infatuated with me you still are, Caleb. Besides, I hear you're getting quite serious with little miss cheerleader Georgia Nelson. Thinking about other girls while you're in a relationship is considered cheating, no?"

"Don't get it twisted, Luna. Georgia's perfect. She puts out, she's gorgeous, popular, rich. She also doesn't drive me fucking crazy like other girls I know." I scoffed as he continued. "She's everything I want in a girl. But she's just.." He trailed off.

"Not me." I finished for him and he took a frustrated breath, not disagreeing.

"You may act like a victim in front of your precious Nate and all your new friends but I know the truth. You're a toxic, manipulative cunt. That's what makes us so alike."

This triggered something in me and I suddenly became very angry. "We're nothing alike, Caleb." I hissed and he laughed coldheartedly. He snaked one of his hands behind my neck and stroked my cheek with his thumb.

"Come on now baby, let's not start denying what we both know is the truth. We're both set to self-destruct, L. It's just the way it is. It's the way it always been. We're the worst parts of each other. That's what makes us so special."

"Loving you was my only form of self-destruction, Caleb."

"And you loved every last bit of it. I know you did, Luna. If loving me meant your own destruction, you would have happily let yourself be ruined."

Without hesitation.

Knowing he was right, I pulled away from his touch and turned to walk back to the car. "I'm done with this conversation." I murmured and before I got the chance to leave, Caleb gripped my arm tightly and pulled me back forcefully.

"I'm not." He spoke aggressively and I winced in pain. "What the hell Caleb. You're hurting me." Caleb's grip only tightened as he became angrier.

"Who the fuck do you think you are, huh? You don't get to walk away from me, understand?"

Without hesitating I spat in his face, catching him off guard. I pulled my arm back from his hold with force. "I swear Caleb, if you ever put your hands on me again I'll fucking kill you."

I flicked a hair out from my eyes and began walking away before he grabbed me sharply once more. "You little bitc-"

He was cut off by Nate suddenly returning and looking at us in confusion. "Dude," Nate began as he stepped closer to us. "what the fuck?"

"Stay out this, bro." Caleb warned. "It's got nothing to do with you."

Nate shoved Caleb back lightly but with enough force that he let go of the grip on my arm. "What the fuck, man? You can't be grabbing her like that. What the fuck is wrong with you dude."

Caleb shoved Nate back. "You're fucking her, aren't you? Some fucking friend you are, huh? Just a warning bro, she's already been ran through more times than a goddamn drive-through. You're not special."

I scoffed. "You're just mad because mommy didn't want you and neither did I. I chose Ethan over you and well, your mom simply hated you, no? Face it Caleb, you're just unlovable. Hate to break it to you but degrading women is never gonna gonna change that."

"I could fucking-"

I looked at Caleb mockingly. "You could what? Hit me? Been there done that, remember?"

"Luna shut up, please." Nate begged as he was trying to keep Caleb, who was seething with rage from lunging at me.

Nate put his two hands up in defence because he could clearly see that Caleb was about to snap. "Look dude, I'm not having sex with her, alright? I'm your friend okay, I'd never do that."

This really reminded me that as charming and funny Nate could be, he was still one of them. Anybody who was friends with Caleb or Jack or even Ethan was an enemy of mine. I couldn't be friends with someone that would knowingly stand alongside a sexual abuser and call them his friend. It was as easy as that.

Caleb was visibly calming down and ran a hand through his hair frustratedly. Seeing that he was now calm, Nate shoved Caleb's head back in a scolding manner. "What the fuck is wrong with you, huh? You're putting hands on girls now? Don't ever touch her like that again dude. What the hell is the matter with you, come on."

Nate and Caleb stared at each other for awhile before Caleb pointed at me as he started to walk away. "You better watch your fucking mouth next time, L."

"And you better count your days because if you touch me again Caleb I'll break every bone in your hand. Just watch."

As Caleb disappeared into the kitchen, probably in the search for more alcohol, Nate put his hand on my cheek and caressed it, just as he did earlier. "Hey, you okay?" He asked and although it felt nice when he touched me, I still pushed his hand away and gave him a blank stare.

"I'm fine."

The energy between us had shifted and for good reason. Being with Nate made me feel good but I couldn't forget that at the end of the day when things finally get bad, he'll choose them. He'll choose Caleb, he'll choose Jack and I know he'll choose Amelia.

Nate and I being "friends" would never work. And us being anything more would cause nothing short of chaos and disappointment. In an ideal world, Nate and I could be anything we wanted to be. But this was Westview where Nate and I just wouldn't work. And I respected myself enough to not let myself be trapped by another Westview High boy.

Nate noticed my action and he tilted his head slightly. "Are we good?"

I tucked my hair behind ear and shrugged. Nate looked completely lost as his eyebrows were creased in confusion. "Luna did I miss something? I thought we were cool."

I exhaled sharply as I clutched my arm from where Caleb grabbed me. "We are cool, Nate. But that's all we're ever gonna be; cool."

I saw a hint of disappointment flash over Nate's eyes that I would have easily missed if I had even blinked. His mood changed which in turn, changed the atmosphere between us.

Nate ran a hand through his hair. "Uh we should get going. Your sister's probably waiting."

"Step-sister. And what about the rest? Weren't you supposed to go get them?"

Nate scratched the back of his neck. "They all went to some guy on the swim team's party not too far from here. They said they're gonna catch a ride from Gabrielle Brown to get home though. Andrew said it's cool that we're taking his car so we can go now."

I nodded and was about to turn around to walk out the front door when Nate stopped and pointed at Blair who was still sat in the corner of the sitting room, basking in her shame.

"What about her? Are we bringing her too?" He asked and I looked Blair up and down before scoffing. "Nope. Leave her here."

As I turned to walk away once more, Blair quickly scrambled up and stopped me. "Luna, come on. You can't be mad at me forever. Besides, it was Jack who actually tried to rap-" She took a deep breath before speaking slower. "Look, I'm the one who's always had your back through it all. So I fucked up one time, who do you think is gonna have your back, him?"

She pointed to Nate who scoffed. "Come on L, he'll get tired of the chase sooner or later. And I'm pretty sure he's already sleeping with Amelia, your worst enemy."

"Hey, fuck you. You don't know shit about me, okay?" Nate said, telling her off. But Blair ignored him and remained concentrated on me.

"And your so called "friends", do you really think that they won't sell you out for the slightest bit of attention from Caleb or Ethan, hell even Jack. I fucked up, okay? But you can't hate me for one little mistake. I mean for fucks sake, L, the boy I loved, loved you. I was angry okay, anybody in my position would've done the same thing."

I remained silent for a few moments, trying to comprehend exactly what Blair just said to me.

"You think you know everything, don't you B? Well first of all, Nate and I are barely friends so he can sleep with whoever he wants. Secondly, is there a possibility that my friends might sell me out? Yeah, there is. But nothing they do to me will be worse than my own cousin allowing me to be raped because the boy you liked didn't like you back."

Blair turned from apologetic to sour within the matter of seconds. "You want to push me away like you push everyone away then fine. But don't be surprised when you finally realise that pushing everyone away has turned your heart to stone."

I let out a dry scoff as I held on tightly to the arm that Caleb grabbed. "I don't even know what you mean, B."

"I mean how they fucked you up so bad that you've lost the ability to feel anything. You're a fucking parasite now, Luna." Blair turned to Nate. "Don't bother waiting for her to catch feelings or fall in love with you because she won't. She's emotionless. You know she didn't even cry when her dad told her he hated her. Or not even when her mom nearly sold her for coke. She can't feel anything. And you seem like a decent boy, Nate. She's only gonna destroy you like she does everything else."

I almost wanted to laugh because now I knew that Blair really was the devil in disguise.

"I want you to go back to my house and pack up all your shit. I don't care how you get there. Whether you walk, or call a taxi, I don't care. I just want you gone before I get back or I swear Blair, I'll really show you emotionless. From now on, you're dead to me."

Something snapped in Blair as if she had only just realised what she said to me. "Fuck, Luna. I didn't mean any of that. Please, L. I'll do anything. Just tell me how to make things right and I'll do it." Her eyes began to water and her voice cracked. "I'd do anything for you Luna."

I took a deep breath and looked Blair straight in the eyes.

"You can go fuck yourself, B."

And that was it. That was the last thing I said to her before Nate and I finally left her, and walked back out to the car.

What had remained of Blair and I's relationship had now been snuffed out by lies, jealousy and most importantly, betrayal.

So Nate and I finally got into the car where Lena and Olivia had patiently been waiting in the backseat. I sat in the front seat beside Nate who was in the driver's seat.

There was an awkward silence and nobody said anything for a few seconds.

"So Luna," Olivia began. "a baby, huh?"

"I don't wanna talk about it."

"And Jack tried to," She paused. "rape you?"

I took a deep breath. "I don't wanna talk about that either."

I knew that they were dying to know more about what happened but I didn't want to be the one to tell them. What happened to me was my business and my business only. If I was gonna share it then it would be on my own terms. Not under pressure from anyone.

Olivia however, was dying to know all the details. "And Blair saw it happen but left you?"

I had my mouth open to repeat what I had previously said but she cut me off. "And Amelia was fucking both Ethan's brothers and has a child? And what did you mean when you said that Lydia and Amelia killed Stella? Stella as in Stella Romano? I thought her death was an accident."

"I said I don't wanna fucking talk about it, Olivia." I snapped and Olivia sunk back into her seat sheepishly, making me feel a twinge of guilt for snapping at her.

Nate exhaled loudly as he put the keys in the ignition. "So, are we all ready to go?" He asked awkwardly and I was about to nod before Olivia announced that she had forgotten her phone in one of the upstairs bedrooms. We all waited in the car while she quickly ran in to grab it.

I turned my head to look out the window as I held my aching arm. "I should've never come tonight." I murmured. "Worst party ever."

No, I thought. I've been to even worse parties than this one.

The one where Jack did what he did is definitely near the top of the list but there's one other party that was even worse than that. The party that happened near the very end of sophomore year. The party that very nearly destroyed me.

I rotated my body to look back at Lena. "What about you love, did you at least have fun before all that shit went down?"

Lena chewed on her bottom lip with a small smile on her face, as if remembering something. She shrugged. "It was alright. Nothing special happened."

"The hickies on your neck say otherwise, babe." I teased and she quickly put a hand to her neck.

Within seconds she had pulled out a small mirror from her purse and was inspecting the love bites that trailed from her jaw to her collarbones. Some even went as far as the valley of her boobs that was exposed due to the plunging neckline of her dress.

"So who gave you those, Lena?" I raised my eyebrows at her cheekily and she face palmed herself. "You're gonna laugh at me."

"Who is it?"

She shook her head and crossed her arms. "No. He's such a player. You're gonna make fun of me for letting him get his way with me."

"Come on Lena, do you know how many people I've fucked? How many losers I've fucked? Trust me, I've had sex with my fair share of players. Your brother included. I'm not in any position to be judging anyone."

"Okay, fine." She took a deep breath. "Andrew."

I couldn't help myself and slapped a hand over my mouth to keep from laughing. "Andrew? You had sex with Andrew?"

Even Nate turned around to look at Lena like she was crazy. "My friend Andrew?"

She nodded but couldn't stop herself from laughing also. "It just happened, okay? I swear I didn't mean for it to happen but he was saying all this shit about-"

"Let me guess," Nate interrupted. "he was saying how he couldn't keep his eyes off you all night and how he didn't make a move earlier because he thought you were completely out of his league?"

Lena practically gasped. "How did you know?"

"Because he says that to every girl!" Nate exclaimed while laughing which caused me to giggle. "He pulls all his girls with that same line. And it works every time."

Lena groaned and chuckled at the same time. "I didn't even want to have sex with anyone tonight. Let alone with Andrew of all people. Fuck." She complained as she continued to inspect the hickies on her neck.

"Brandon can't see these. He'll kill me if he knew I had sex with Andrew. He hates when I get with his friends."

I gave her a weird look and she gave me a knowing one back. "I know. The hypocrisy is real."

"Damn," Nate started. "my boy Andrew's really making his way through the friend group." Lena's head tilted and her smile faltered slightly. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about how he was also making moves on your friend, what was her name, Marissa? Marlene?"

"Marceline?" She asked and Nate nodded. "Yeah, that one."

Lena looked disappointed as she put her mirror back in her purse. "Kudos to him, he works fast." She murmured and I gave Nate a death glare.

"What?" He asked obliviously and I smacked his arm. "Ow!" He exclaimed. "What the hell was that for?"

"Why the fuck would tell her that?" I hissed and he continued to look at me cluelessly so I rolled my eyes at him, exasperated.

"Well, did any of you guys get any action?" Lena asked as she swiped a hair out of her face and Nate nodded. "I kissed Annabelle Brady and I nearly had sex with Melissa Thornton."

For some reason, that sparked irritation inside of me. "Why nearly? Couldn't get it up, Nathaniel?" I teased and he smirked as he rolled his eyes.

"Very funny. But no, this hotter girl, I can't remember her name, walked by just as we were about to go upstairs. Obviously I chose her instead but it was worth it because I got a blowy from her in one of the storage closets. Really wished I remembered her name."

"Wow. A true love story." I said dryly, letting my jealousy get the best of me. Which annoyed me even more because I rarely got jealous of anyone. At all.

Nate pouted at me and reached over to cup my chin and pulled my face close to his. "Aw, don't be jealous baby. Say the word and we can go into a room and you can show me what all the hype about you is about."

"Get a room guys." Lena complained from the backseat.

"Fuck off." I rolled my eyes and pushed his hand away as he laughed, teasing me.

"So, L." Lena started. "Any action for you tonight?"

"There were a few boys from the swim team and I kissed Brandon a couple times tonight. We would've went further but I got caught up with another lacrosse boy." I said truthfully, remembering how I started dancing with the boy while Brandon stared daggers at me.

Nate's head snapped towards me. "You and Brandon are still on?"

I tilted my head slightly and gave him a confused look. "I don't know Nate, were we ever off?"

"I just thought you were done with him after what he said about you in the boys locker room." Nate said, with a hint of irritation in his tone.

"Brandon has a big mouth sure, but he's a lot of fun, not gonna lie. Besides, football boys are all the same so I expected nothing less from him. Even you, Nathaniel."

"You do know he still has sex with other girls, right?"

"... okay?" I said, confused. "He has every right to, we're not dating, as much as he wishes." I added before Lena and I both laughed.

"Why do you care, Nate?" Lena questioned and he was now very obviously pissed off. "I don't. Why would I care about what she does with her life? We're barely friends anyways, remember?"

He was referring to what I had previously said in my point to Blair and it was then that I knew that what I said hurt him.

"Come on Nate." I said, rolling my eyes. "You can't seriously be mad that I said that. We're not really friends if you think about it. You're just a guy I know."

I was saying that we weren't friends because it was true. You can't be friends with someone and still be friends with the same people that tortured them. It didn't make sense. Friendship is about loyalty and Nate being "friends" with both Amelia and I showed me that he had none.

"You're not even just a girl I know because nobody even knows who you really are, do they?"

He was angry. I get it. But I don't know what he expected.

"Couldn't have said it better myself." I said before turning my head to look away from him and out the window instead.

"Where the fuck is Olivia? It's been ages." Lena muttered awkwardly.

Suddenly during the awkward silence, Nate turned to me and gave me a weird look. "Why're you holding your arm like that?"

He said it in a way that was sour but still concerned which showed that although he was angry at me, he still cared about my wellbeing. That brought me a small bit of comfort.

"No reason." I shrugged and sank further back into the seat.

Nate paused for a few seconds. "Take off your clothes." He said suddenly and my eyes nearly popped out of my head with surprise. Lena in the back also nearly choked as she drank from a bottle of water that Nate had given her earlier on.

"What the hell did you just say to me?" I asked angrily and Nate rolled his eyes, exasperated.

"I meant take the jacket off."

Lena smiled to herself as she twisted the lid of her bottle closed. "I'm sure you did, Nate." She said sarcastically and Nate gave her a dirty look.

"I'm not taking off my jacket."

"It's my jacket. Which means you have to take it off. So take it off. Now." He spoke firmly and I huffed before peeling the jacket off.

I glared at Nate. "There, you happy now?"

My dress was long-sleeved so Nate looked at my arms before looking back up at me.

"Pull your sleeves up." He ordered and I crossed my arms in protest. "No. Leave me alone."

"Luna just pull your fucking sleeves up."

His tone was hard and assertive, making me flinch. So despite my discomfort, I rolled my sleeve up to reveal a black and purple bruise that burned red around the edges. It was nasty and I heard Lena hiss at the sight of it.

I looked over at Nate and his breathing became heavy. I watched as his chest rose and fell quicker and quicker with anger.

He held my forearm and looked closer at the bruise on my upper arm. "Did Caleb do this? Did this happen when he grabbed you?"

I took my arm back and began to roll down my sleeve, saying nothing. Nate ran a hand through his hair furiously. "I could fucking kill him." He grunted.

I crossed my legs and rested my hands on my thighs. "No you wouldn't. He's your friend. Remember?" Nate said nothing as he obviously noticed the edge in my voice. "Besides Nate, why do you even care, you were literally mad at me two seconds ago."

"Luna just because I'm mad you that doesn't mean I like to see you with bruises all over you. I mean Jesus, look at it, you're gonna need a hell of a lot of ice for that."

"It's not that big of a deal. Forget it."

"Luna," He paused, treading lightly. "has this happened before?"

"I don't know what you mean, Nate."

"You're a bitch, Luna, but you're not stupid so don't act like it. You know exactly what I mean. Has Caleb ever put his hands on you before?"

I looked back hesitantly at Lena who was pretending to be on her phone but I knew she was listening.

Still, I said nothing.

Nate took my silence as a yes. "That fucking scumbag." He cursed loudly as he slammed his hand aggressively against the steering wheel, making me flinch once again.

I nodded. "Yeah, he's a scumbag. They're all scumbags. But they're also some of your best friends."

"What are you trying to say, Luna? That you think I'm like them just because I'm friends with them?"

"Yes actually." I started, refusing to sugar-coat anything. "That's exactly what I'm saying. It's not as if your friends are just assholes, no. These are rapists and abusers, guys who drug girls and take their turn with them, homophobes, racists and plenty more. So yeah, I think you might be like them and even if you're not, you still hang out with them and watch them do all these shitty things. Which means that you think that what they do to people, to girls, is okay. And I think that might just be worse."

"Did you really just fucking say that?"

"But did I lie though?" He said nothing to that and I exhaled sharply before continuing. "Look, all I'm saying is that you can't say what you said to me in the bathroom and then go fist bump someone like Jack Prentice. You can't tell me you want to kill all my pain and sadness tonight and then tomorrow, go grab a coffee with the same guy who tried to rape me. It's not right, Nate. It's borderline fucking psychopathic."

Nate took a moment before he asked me again, "Luna I just need to hear you say it, has Caleb ever put his hands on you before?"

I shrugged. "Whatever I say to you isn't gonna matter because you guys are always gonna be friends regardless."

"Luna what do you want me to do?"

"I don't want you to do anything, Nate. We're not friends. We don't know each other. Like I said, you're just some guy I know. You just happen to show up when I get myself into shit and you drove me home once. Well twice now, but that's it. Nothing more, nothing less."

He had his mouth opened to say something but quickly closed it because Olivia had finally come out of the house and stepped into the car, out of breath.

"What the hell took you so long?" Lena asked her and Olivia ran a hand through her hair. "Uhm, don't worry about it. I'm here now aren't I? So, what did I miss?"

Nate looked at me coldly in the eyes. "Nothing. Nothing at all."

A few moments of an intense silence passed before Nate finally started the engine once again. "What's the address that your sister's at?" He asked with no emotion in his voice as he backed out of the neighbourhood.

"Ste-" I went to correct him but stopped in order to prevent another argument. "Let me text her." I said instead and just as I pulled out my phone to text her, Madison coincidentally started calling me.

I answered the call and pressed my phone to my ear. "Luna where the hell are you? You were supposed to be here ages ago." She spoke angrily through the phone and I could hear her still crying.

"I know, we're on our way right now."

"We? Who the hell is we?"

"Me, Nate, Lena and Olivia." I told her and I heard her let out a frustrated groan through the phone.

"Nate? You brought Nate with you? Are you out of your fucking mind Luna?"

Her voice was so loud that Nate turned to me, although he was still mad, and gave me a strange look because he heard his name through the phone. Ignoring his weird glares, I focused back on Madison who was still groaning on the phone.

"What? What's wrong with Nate?"

"One of these days, I'm going to have sex with Nate and you've totally ruined it by bringing him when you're picking me up while I'm having a meltdown. God, I knew you hated me but this is so low."

"I don't care about whatever stupid agenda you have with him, Madison. Nate's practically sober and I'm not so he had to drive. You're welcome to walk home if you're so bothered by it." She went silent. "That's what I thought. Now, where are you?"

She hesitated. "The Southside."

Frustration surged through my body as she said that. "The Southside? What the hell are you doing on the Southside?"

" Some guy was having a party."

I pinched the bridge of my nose, trying my very hardest not to lose my temper. "Madison why on earth would you go to a party on the Southside without figuring out how you're getting home first? I mean how did you even get there in the first place?"

"My friends and I took a taxi."

"Okay so why can't you guys just take a taxi back?"

Her silence told me that her friends had most likely ditched her so I refrained from reprimanding her any further to prevent her from getting even more upset. "Just text me the address. And get better friends."

I was about to hang up when I heard Madison sniff and I knew that she had began to cry again. "Luna?" She called out through tears.

"Yeah?"

"Please hurry." She said and my throat began to tighten in sadness for her, although I hadn't the slightest clue as to why she was crying in the first place.

I wanted to kick myself for feeling sorry for her. She was a horrible person and I hated her so I shouldn't have felt bad. But I couldn't help it no matter how hard I tried and I think I hated that even more.

"I'll tell Nate to go faster." I spoke softly before finally hanging up the phone.

"She's on the Southside." I told Nate who still hadn't glanced in my direction.

"Yeah I got that." He said coldly and I rolled my eyes at his harsh manner.

I didn't want to be friends with Nate. I didn't even wanna be friendly with him even though I don't think that would be entirely possible. I wanted absolutely nothing to do with him and I should've been glad that he was ignoring me. But I wasn't.

He was trouble. He could fuck up all the plans I had spent months preparing for. He was going to. I knew that for a fact. But for some reason, I was beginning to think that he was worth the risk. Something about Nate just felt right. He made me feel good and more importantly, he looked at me like I was more than just a piece of ass which was more than most guys have done throughout the course of my entire life.

I wanted to push him away. I had to. But something in my body rejected the very idea of it every time I tried to and I couldn't seem to figure out what it was.

"What's wrong with you two lovebirds?" Olivia asked, breaking my thoughts. "Trouble in paradise?"

"Oh I think you have the wrong guy, Olivia." Nate began. "Brandon's her lovebird. Not me."

I gave Nate a weird look, finally sick of his attitude. "What's your deal with me and Brandon?"

He looked at me as if I was crazy. "What are you talking about? I have no deal with you and Brandon."

"Why do you keep bringing him up then? Is it so hard for you to believe that I actually like the guy?"

He scoffed. "Give me a break. You don't like him." Nate was starting to get on my nerves now and I suddenly began to wish that he'd ignore me again.

"Oh yeah and how would you know?"

"Because you don't like boys."

"Just because you found out that I like other genders that doesn't mean I don't like boys, stupid." I said to him frustratedly and he sighed loudly as if he was starting to get annoyed with me. "That's not what I meant."

"What did you mean then?" I spoke with an edge in my voice.

"I just meant that everyone knows you don't catch feelings. People are too complicated for you so you'd rather not feel things for them at all."

I stopped dead in my tracks at hearing the last part of Nate's sentence. It was familiar. I turned in my seat to look at him before it dawned on me as to where I had heard that sentence before. The sentence was familiar because I was the one that said it. But not to Nate. To Caleb.

"Who told you that, Nate?" I asked, my voice starting to get louder.

"I can't remember."

"Don't bullshit me, Nate. Caleb told you that didn't he?"

"How would you know?"

"Because I'm the one that said it to him you idiot." Nate's face instantly morphed into regret for accidentally exposing the fact that him and Caleb talk about me.

"Well was he wrong?"

"You're an asshole Nate, you know that?"

"Yeah and you're a bitch, Luna." A moment of silence fell upon us when Nate decided to pick up the conversation one again. But this time with a much softer attitude. ""Look, I just don't know why you would go back to him tonight."

"Why are you so concerned? You weren't thinking about this when you were getting head in a storage closet."

"Brandon's my guy, Luna. And I don't want him getting mind fucked by some girl."

I looked at him in disbelief. "What, so now I'm just some girl?" He looked as if he didn't fully believe his statement either. We both knew that I was more than just some girl.

He exhaled loudly and shook his head lightly as he turned a corner. "No you're not just some girl. But you're a girl with a lot of fucking baggage and you're completely unpredictable. I just don't think he's ready for all that, especially during football season. Besides, I don't think Brandon's equipped to handle a girl like you."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that you're a lot to handle for a simple guy like Brandon. It's hard to keep your attention for longer than thirty seconds and you almost always have an opinion on everything."

"Aw it must be so hard to deal with girls that have opinions. Us girls should just keep quiet and just agree with anything and everything that men say. I mean we wouldn't want to bruise your fragile male egos, now would we?" I mocked.

Nate rolled his eyes as the corner of his lips threatened to tug up into a smile. "Shut up, you know that's not what I meant. Some guys just don't like that sort of thing. They like quiet girls."

"Quiet girls? Do you hear the misogyny behind that statement or am I just hearing things?" I turned back to Lena and Olivia. "Are you guys hearing this too?"

Lena nodded. "I know I heard it." She turned to Olivia. "What about you Liv, did you hear it?"

Olivia smirked. "I heard it loud and clear."

I finally turned back around to Nate who had turned yet another corner as we neared our destination. "So what, do you like quiet girls Nathaniel?"

I had called him Nathaniel, which meant that I was getting comfortable with him again. Which was something that I didn't plan on doing. Nate and I were so hot and cold that I found it hard to keep up. For some reason I just couldn't find it in me to stay mad at him.

He shook his head, a small smirk appearing on his face. "Nah quiet's boring. I like my girls loud and opinionated. Girls who aren't afraid to speak up. Nice girls bore me. I like a girl who's a bit of a mystery."

"Now why's that?"

"Because I like the chase, the anticipation. Quiet's overrated in my opinion."

He finally looked at me and held my gaze with amusement in his eyes before he turned back to face the road ahead.

I tucked my hair behind my ear and leaned further into the seat. "God I'm so tired." I muttered under my breath as I refrained from yawning.

"Tell me about it." Lena agreed and the car went silent for a few seconds before Olivia called out my name.

"Luna?"

"Yeah?"

She paused, as if contemplating whether she should ask me the question or not. She then quickly shook her head and she looked to be regretting calling my name in the first. "Uh never mind." She said and I shook my head.

"No what did you want to say?"

"I just-" She paused once more. "I just wanted to know if you really did lose your virginity to Caleb Lockhart?"

I shifted uncomfortably, having seen the question coming already.

"Yeah, I did. Why, are you surprised?"

She raised her eyebrows and gave a small laugh. "Not really. He's exactly your type, L. He's tall, has gorgeous eyes, also has crippling mommy issues and anger issues and he's bad news. He's exactly like the kind of guys you're usually attracted to. But why him, out of all people?"

"You had a thing with him huh? That's why you're asking?"

I turned and watched her cheeks flush red. "How could you tell?"

How could I tell? I'm literally the blueprint for girls traumatised by Caleb Lockhart.

"Let me guess, he'd make you feel like the only girl in the world one day and then the next day he'd act as if you don't exist? And this makes you crave his attention and validation even more that you feel like you'd do anything for him?"

She looked uncomfortable as if she knew exactly what I meant. "It was a while ago. I don't even think he remembers my name to be honest." She said quickly and I gave her a small smile. "Don't worry, I get it."

"So why, out of every boy including Ethan, did you choose Caleb to lose your virginity to?"

I shrugged. "I was young, dumb and in love. I guess it just happened."

I felt Nate look at me when I said the word "love" but I chose to ignore him. For all I knew he would probably go running to Caleb to tell him everything I said. Frankly, I couldn't care less because I wasn't saying anything that I wouldn't say to Caleb's face. But honestly, I didn't think Nate was the type to do something like that.

"Do you regret it?" Olivia asked and I snorted. "Which part?"

"The whole Caleb and Ethan situation."

I took a few seconds to think.

Did I regret it? All the lies, the cheating, the backstabbing. Was it all even worth it in the end?

"There's not a yes or no answer for that question because do I regret getting with both Caleb and Ethan? No. But do I regret the way I got with Ethan? Absolutely."

"But you said that Amelia was sleeping with Ethan's brother anyways so she cheated first. You just got caught in the middle." Olivia said, attempting to defend my poor choices.

"None of that matters because I still fucked my best friend's boyfriend, regardless of what a shitty person Amelia was- sorry is. It was a disgusting thing to do. And as much as I appreciate you trying to defend my choices, I'm not the victim in that situation. I was fully aware of what I was doing and what it's consequences would be and I still did it anyways. It was downright slutty of me and if there's anything I regret most, it's that. Karma came for me though and I've learned my lesson."

"Karma?" Olivia questioned. "You think Karma's the reason why all those bad things happened to you?"

"I don't think Karma has to do with all the bad things that happened to me but definitely some."

Olivia nodded slowly. "I guess Karma comes for everyone in one way or another."

This time I shook my head, disagreeing with her. "No. Karma doesn't come for everyone. Karma's only a bitch if you are too."

I watched Olivia pause, as if thinking back on something and it was then that she turned her head to face the window as she held a look of regret on her face. "Yeah Luna, I guess you're right." She murmured and I gave her a sympathetic smile for whatever it was that she felt she had done wrong.

As Nate pulled into a neighbourhood, he glanced at me and looked as though he was about to say something before I spotted Madison.

"Stop here," I said abruptly. "there she is." I had spotted her bright red hair before anything else and there she was, sitting on a curb on the side of the road crying.

Nate quickly pulled over and I immediately jumped out of the car and rushed to her side. Nate soon followed suit and joined me while Lena and Olivia patiently waited in the car.

"Hey, what happened? Are you hurt?" I asked her as I crouched beside her in concern and she began to cry even harder.

She finally looked up at me and her piercing green eyes were glassy with tears and she had smudged eyeliner around her eyes and dried up mascara that ran down her cheeks in messy streaks. Her fiery red hair was rough, as if she had been running her hands through it. She was wearing a mini, red satin dress that I recognised as mine and I noticed that she was also barefoot and her shoes were placed on the curb beside her.

"What happened to you?" Nate asked as he stood over the both of us in worry.

"He took me to a room and they cornered me. All four of them."

My stomach lurched and a knot was caught in my throat. I was gonna be sick.

The last thing I ever wanted was for Madison to experience even half of what I went through.

I took her chin in my hand and forced her to look me in directly in my eyes and I noticed that my breath had began to quicken with panic. "Madison, I'm only gonna ask you this once and I need you to tell me the absolute truth. I need you to tell me so I can help you because no one was there to help me, okay?" She nodded and I gulped, fearing the answer to what I was about to ask. "Were you raped tonight?"

She shook her head. "No. They didn't get that far."

I breathed out a sigh of relief and it felt as though a weight had been lifted from my chest. "Oh thank God." And without thinking I pulled Madison and held her close. It was weird but comforting at the same time. I wasn't one for hugs, let alone with Madison, but I knew that whatever hatred we had for each other had to be put aside for the moment.

I pulled back. "So what happened to you then?"

"I was talking to this guy and he seemed like he actually really liked me so he said that he wanted to go somewhere quiet to talk. God, my friends warned me. They told me that sleeping around would get me in bad places and they told me not to go into a room with him. I went anyways obviously because I'm such a fucking dumbass.

"So he's texting on his phone and then he starts kissing me and all of a sudden three of his friends come in and they shut the door. I'm totally weirded out so I stand up to leave but one of them blocks the door. Then before I know it, they're all touching me and groping me and trying to get their hands under my dress while I'm screaming for them to stop. Then the first guy, the one I was talking to, he tries to kiss me and I bite down on his tongue really hard like I swear I nearly ripped it off.

"So he's bleeding and the rest of them stopped to see where all the blood was coming from and that's when I make a run for it and by the time I get downstairs, they somehow already told everyone that I fucked them all at the same time. And now every girl is calling me a slut and every guy is calling me desperate and on top of that, my friends literally left me."

"Jesus." I hear Nate mutter as Madison begins to cry again.

As she weeps, she puts her head on my chest and I wrap my arms around her tightly, as if to shield her from all the horrors of the world.

The sympathy I felt for her was unlike anything I ever felt when it came to Madison. And I think I felt so bad because I knew better than anyone else how shit it was to have people spread lies about you and have everyone shame you over something that never even happened.

Nate looked down at us and his eyes seemed to also hold sympathy for Madison, though she couldn't see it.

"Hey," I said to her and pulled back to look at her. "you are Madison fucking Brennan. There's no way in hell you're going to let a bullshit, unrealistic, rumour be your downfall. You're too much of a stubborn bitch to let that happen. Besides, I'm gonna be the one to take you down, not a fucking rumour. Got it?"

She chuckled through her tears and nodded. I stood up and held my hand out for her to take it. "Come on, let them talk. If you're gonna be a "slut" as they say, then you're at least gonna be a hot one." She swiped her tears away and nodded firmly before taking my hand and using it as a grip to stand up as she grabbed her heels also.

We were about to walk to the car when a boy suddenly calls out to Madison.

"Hey Maddie, we should do that again sometime. You really are a freak in the sheets." He says and him and his friends burst into laughter.

Madison stiffens beside me. "That's them." She whispers and anger takes over my body before I storm over to them with Nate and Madison on my tail.

"Attempting to gang rape one girl is fucking disgusting and downright pathetic. You're sick. All four of you." I spat and the brown haired boy that called to her laughed.

"Is that what she told you? She fucking wanted me. And him, him and him." He gestured to the rest of his friends. "She's a slut."

I had my mouth opened to speak but a blonde boy that stood next to the brunette interrupted me. "Luna fucking Adams. Who knew you'd ever be here on the Southside? Strayed a little far from home, did you?"

My face scrunched up in confusion. "I'm sorry who are you?"

"I'm Brad. Brad Colson?" I continued to stare blankly at him and he began to get irritated. "Do you seriously not remember me?"

"Well does it fucking look like I remember you?"

"I asked you out one time and you said no. Remember?"

I looked him up and down in disgust. "I don't remember but I can see why I said no. You're an ugly little creature, aren't you?"

I heard Nate snort loudly and the boy's face flushed red and he looked at me in anger. "You're not nearly as hot as you think you are."

I smiled tightly at him. "You're right, Bryce. I'm hotter."

"It's Brad." He spat and I looked at him, repulsed by his very existence.

"Whatever rapist."

He burned with fury and I turned my attention to a black haired boy who had dried up blood around his mouth. "If she wanted it so bad as you claim, why the hell would she try to bite your tongue off?" I questioned and the boy forced a smug smirk on his face.

"What can I say, the whore likes it rough."

That was the last straw for me and I instantly launched for him because he was the reason that she was in this mess in the first place.

I punched him in the nose before reaching over and scratching at his face with my long acrylic nails. I felt strong hands try pull me away but I had taken such a strong grip on the boy's hair that when Nate finally pulled me away, I had chunks of it in my hands.

"He's not worth it, Luna. As much as he deserves every bit of pain you give him, he's not worth it. You're attracting a crowd." He was right. A crowd was forming and someone was bound to call the police soon.

So we turned to walk away before the same boy screamed out to me with red jagged scratch marks along his face. "Fucking slut. Next time it'll be you under me begging for mercy."

Nate stopped dead in his tracks. "What the fuck did you just sa-" Nate didn't even finish his sentence because his anger got the best of him and soon he was on top of the boy, beating him to a pulp. Blow after blow, the boy spat out blood with each hit and Nate wasn't holding back at all.

I'd come to the conclusion that Nate was really good at fighting. Like actually good. In every fight I'd seen him in, he always overpowered the other person by a lot. In seconds he'd have them on the floor pleading for him to stop.

And as hot as it was to see him in action and how I wanted him to absolutely annihilate the boy, I was hearing sirens in the background that were starting to get closer.

"Nate come on." I hissed but he just kept punching. The boy underneath him had gone limp and stopped fighting back but Nate just kept going. It was as if he was completely out of tune with the world.

"Nate?" I asked again, starting to worry a little. Still, he continued punching and I feared that he would actually kill him.

I came up close to him. "Nate!" I yelled and he finally turned to look at me. He looked at the practically dead boy in his arms, then at his hands before looking back at me with anger still in his eyes. His chest rose and fell quickly with fury.

"Come on," I barked. "the cops are coming. We don't have time for this. Get a hold of yourself."

He dropped the boy and stood up and the three of us quickly ran back to the car where Olivia and Lena had stepped out and were watching everything that happened.

"Get in," I hissed at them. "we have to go. Now."

Nate quickly started the car and sped off quickly in the other direction that the sirens were coming from.

Ten minutes had passed and the only sound in the car was a soft melody that was coming from the radio. Nobody knew whether to make small conversation and ignore everything that had happened throughout the night or whether to talk about the night's events and to try make sense of it all. So not knowing which to choose from, we all remained silent.

And it wasn't until we were finally back home, in the Northside, that I thought of all the ways my Dad and Stacey would kill me for coming home with Madison looking the way she did. They'd blame it all on me and they'd make sure I'd suffer for it. The argument wouldn't end for hours and I was sure they'd kick me out once again by the time it hit nine a.m.

I ran my fingers through my hair, stressed out. "Fucks sake," I cursed. "Madison your mom is gonna kill me."

"I'll tell her that you had nothing to do with it."

I dry laughed, knowing that my night was about to get even worse. "Come on, she's gonna think I coerced you into saying that. She's gonna slaughter me for letting you come home like this. God, I can't even imagine what my dad's gonna do to me. Stacy's probably gonna tell my Dad to ship me off somewhere. Pompous bitch."

"Hey," Madison warned. "that's still my mom you're talking about. Watch your mouth."

"The fact that she's your mom has never stopped me from insulting her before and it's not gonna start now."

For once she didn't argue with me, instead she flashed me a small sympathetic smile and I turned back around to face the window, watching all the buildings pass by.

"Hey Luna, if you really don't wanna stay in your house tonight you can stay in mine. I mean my parents wouldn't care and I don't even want you to go somewhere that you're clearly not comfortable in."

I turned to Lena and I looked at her with an almost sad look in my eyes. "You'd really do that for me?"

She chuckled. "Of course I would. I'd do anything for you, Luna."

Every fibre in my body was screaming at me to believe her but I couldn't. I tried with all my might to accept her words into my heart but something in my body was rejecting it.

I had heard that phrase one too many times from people who I thought would give me the world. And it was those same people that ended up teaching me the lesson that if I wanted the world the only person that could ever give it to me was myself.

So as much as I wanted to believe Lena and to trust that she had my best interests at heart, I couldn't.

Blair had been right when she said that I was broken.

And I smiled, I smiled at Lena because I didn't have the heart to tell her that I knew she was full of shit. I smiled and I nodded.

"Thanks Lena."

Before I knew it, we arrived at Olivia's house and when she stepped out of the car and was about to walk in, she walk towards my car door and I rolled my windows down.

"Will you be okay, L?"

I scoffed. "I'm already okay what are you talking about? Now when you get inside remember to drink a lot of water. I don't want you calling me at ten in the morning to tell me how all the vodka you drank kicked your ass, alright?"

I fixed a grin on my face and it had to have been one of the best damn performances of my life because Olivia's face went from worried to joyful in the span of half a second.

"You know me too well Luna Adams." She grinned before she grabbed both my hands that were rested on the window and planted a soft kiss on them both. She smiled tightly at me, making her cheekbones much prominent. "I'll see you tomorrow, Luna. I love you."

I blew a kiss at her. "I love you too, 'Liv."

As Olivia began to walk away, she called out to Nate. "Thanks for the ride, Nate."

"No problem." He nodded before starting the car up once again and driving away as Olivia walked back into her house.

Nate glanced at me. "Where are we going next? Your dad's house?"

"Unfortunately."

So he drove us to my dad's house and as soon as he drove through the enormous front gates, a sick feeling settled in my stomach.

Once he parked on the property, I let out a loud sigh. "You guys wait here. I need to pack a bag quickly." I looked at Nate solemnly. "If I'm not back in ten minutes call the police. My Dad most likely killed me and Stacy has already stolen all my shit."

Nate and Lena both let out chuckles. "Noted." Nate smiled and he winked at me.

I swear my stomach started fluttering and my heart rate sped up when he winked at me. Nate honestly had some kind of effect on my body and I didn't know how to control it.

When he winked at me, I somehow caught myself blushing.

Blushing.

How utterly disgusting of me.

Madison however, did not find my joke humorous. "Shut up, Luna." She spat as she got out of the car and I couldn't help but giggle. We were finally back to the way we usually were.

So when Madison and I stepped into the house, I let out a breath of relief to find that nobody was waiting for us in the hallway.

We walked up the stairs together and were about to part ways when I turned to Madison. "Hey, don't worry about everyone talking about what happened. By tomorrow something else will have happened and they'll forget all about tonight."

I was only trying to make her feel better but I think I might've spoken it into reality because by the morning, the entire town and further would be talking about me.

Madison smiled. "Thanks for what you did tonight, Luna. Really. I didn't think you'd come through for me but you did. I owe you one. Big time."

I sighed and smiled. "Yeah.." I trailed off. "You do owe me big time."

Madison and I both laughed before she rolled her eyes jokingly. "Whatever Luna. I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Not if I'm lucky." I grinned and she smiled before giving me her middle finger and walking back to her room.

I went into my room which I noticed was somehow dirtier than when my friends and I were there earlier on. But I genuinely didn't have the energy to question it for all my energy had been painfully overused for the night. Instead I dismissed it as Madison coming in to look for something to wear.

I did however, also notice that Blair's bags were gone and I tried my hardest to quench the disappointment that was bubbling in the pit of my stomach.

So I packed a small bag and quickly left my room before I had the chance to think about her any further.

As I ran down the stairs I thought finally, I'm in some luck. I didn't run into Stacy or my Dad.

I knew I had spoken too soon when I was about to open the front door when he spoke aloud.

"Luna." His voice called and my body immediately stiffened. I slowly turned around and was greeted with the sight of my Dad with a glass of Brandy in his hand.

"Yes?"

He paused for a few moments before speaking. "Your cousin Blair, she's gone isn't she?" I gritted my teeth in irritation before nodding. "Yeah, she's gone."

He looked closely at me. "She disappointed you, didn't she?"

I remained silent.

"Didn't she?" He pressed, his voice louder this time.

I huffed. "Yeah, she did."

"And I was right about her wasn't I?"

I dug my nails into the palms of my hands to keep from saying something I'd regret. "Yeah Dad, you were right about her."

He looked smug. "So, what happened then?"

"She's just not who I thought she was." I paused and took a deep breath. My face began to heat up and I felt tears threaten to fall from my eyes. "What did she do to you?" He asked, his voice emotionless.

"She broke my heart, Dad."

My voice cracked and I used every fibre in my body to hold back the tears in my eyes. I had gone so long without crying and I refused to break that over Blair of all people.

He came up close to me and tucked a side of my hair behind my ear and I let my eyes fall to the ground, refusing to look him in the eyes. "I'd tell you it's your own fault for giving it to her but I think you already know that don't you?"

"Yeah Dad, I do."

"You did the same thing with the Henderson boy and you did the same thing again with the Dickson girl."

I raised my eyes to finally look him in the eyes and I cocked my head slightly in confusion. "How do you kno-"

He stuffed one hand in his pocket and sighed before cutting me off. "You have a thousand secrets, Luna. Most of which you're probably taking to the grave. I know this because I have them too and as much as you and I both hate to admit this, you are your father's daughter."

"Your point?"

"My point is that I know you have secrets, and don't bother denying it because I know you do. You have secrets, but you letting those kids ruin you is not one of them. Now you can try put up a front to everyone else but I know you Luna, you're weak."

My nails dug deeper into my palms and I started to feel the twinge of blood. "You've got one thing wrong, Dad. I'm not anything like you. Not in the slightest."

Lies.

He raised an eyebrow, amused. "Is that so?"

"Yeah, it is. Because I know you know what goes on in that house every time you send me home. I know you know what Pete does to me and what Marina doesn't do to protect me." His jaw tensed as I carried on.

"I'm nothing like either of you. I would never punish my child for the wrongdoings of the other parent. And if it was guaranteed that I would ever be such a parent, well, I would much rather kill myself than to bring a life into this world only to be the very reason that they want to end it. That's the difference between you and I."

In the typical Charles Adams fashion, he refused to listen to anyone other than himself. Especially if it was the truth. So he turned around and walked back in the direction of his study.

He turned to look at me before he left. "Remember what I said Luna, me and you, we're the people who are destined die alone. It's important you don't forget that."

"When you die alone Charles, it's not gonna be because you were destined to. It'll be because you are an empty man. And because you simply don't know how to love. So if I do die alone, that's gonna be on you. And it'll be because yours and Marina's lack of love and affection towards anyone and everyone has rendered me emotionless. But who knows, maybe once upon a time you did have love in your heart. That's what I like to tell myself anyways. Because if I tell myself the truth, which is that you have always been empty, then that'll have meant that I never stood a chance to begin with and that's just depressing."

I looked at my Dad who looked seemingly disturbed at my words and he cocked his head slightly. "Do you genuinely think I don't love you Luna?"

I shook my head. "No. I know you don't love me. And I don't think you ever have." I raised my bag up so that he could see it and get the hint. "Don't wait up, Dad." I said softly before walking out of the house before he could say anything more.

Once I got back into Nate's car, Lena and Nate who seemed to be engaged in a conversation immediately fell quiet as soon as I sat down.

I noticed and gave them both weird looks. "Don't stop your conversation on account of me." I said as I fastened my seatbelt.

"You okay Luna?" Nate asked and I took a frustrated breath, annoyed that my father had left me in an even worse mood.

"I'll be fine."

"That's not what I asked."

I turned to look at him and immediately looked away once I found his intense blue eyes boring into my brown ones. It was almost as if I didn't like him looking directly into my eyes for fear of him uncovering the dirtiest parts of me.

As if letting him look into my eyes would be surrendering everything to him. Every nasty thought I've ever had, every bad thing I've ever done, or worse, him finding my layers and layers of insecurities and the validation that I so desperately crave specifically from both my parents.

He could find it all if he really wanted to. For some reason, I knew that eventually, he would.

And he'd hate what he saw.

It's one thing to look ugly on the outside. If you have a pimple or overly large pores it was nothing that couldn't be fixed by a simple swipe of concealer or foundation. But being ugly on the inside was something that could never be covered up.

All the trauma, the insecurities and every act of sin that I've ever committed whether it be a little white lie or sleeping with my best friend's boyfriend. It has all twisted itself up into my soul leaving nothing but ugliness and despair.

And it was only a matter of time before Nate saw it too.

So instead of looking at Nate, I looked ahead. "We should get going." I said, ignoring what Nate had previously said. I felt his eyes on me for a few seconds before he turned on the ignition and began to back out of the property.

We were halfway to Lena's house when her phone buzzed. "It's Brandon." She stated. "He says he's gonna start getting ready to head home soon."

Before I even got a chance to say anything, Lena pointed a finger at me accusingly. "Don't get any ideas, Luna. Our rooms are right beside each others and the walls aren't exactly soundproof."

Nate winced. "That's gotta suck."

"You have no idea." She groaned. "I hear everything. It's nonstop "Luna hasn't texted me back" or "maybe I should call her" or "maybe I should send her a dick pic". God, it's disgusting."

"Shut up, Lena." I complained as I struggled to hold back my laughter at the revelation of Brandon vocalising his inner thoughts about me.

"And when he's really desperate, he'll come in to my room and be like, "have you talked to Luna today?" or "did she say she was busy or something?" or sometimes, "do you know if her phone died or something?". It's the most irritating thing in the world."

I covered my mouth to keep from giggling. "Lena you're so mean."

She rolled her eyes jokingly. "Ugh you're rubbing off on me."

I grinned cheekily at her. "Don't act like you don't love it."

"Whatever." She dismissed me before continuing. "So I'm warning you Luna you better not try anything. As I said before, our rooms are right next to each other's."

"Lena I already know that they're right next to each other's."

"How do you know?"

"I've been to your house before stupid." Lena cocked her head in confusion. "You've been to my house twice and that was a while ago. How would you remember that?"

I kept quiet, not wanting to say anything further and even Nate turned to give me a knowing look. The car fell silent before Lena suddenly gasped.

"You haven't, Luna."

"I haven't what?" I asked, trying to be oblivious but the smile that dominated my lips said otherwise.

"You've been to my house to have sex with Brandon, haven't you?"

I finally gave up on trying to fight the grin and I giggled knowingly. "Maybe once or twice."

"That's disgusting. I think I'm gonna be sick." Lena turned her head to Nate who had began to chuckle lightly. "Did you know about this, Nate?"

He shrugged. "Brandon may have mentioned it."

Lena groaned, putting her head in her hands. "You're disgusting. I hate you."

I blew her a kiss and despite her annoyance, a grin could be found in between her scowling. She could never bear to stay mad at me for long.

"You're not gonna have sex with him tonight." She told me assertively and I shrugged. "No promises, babe."

Before she could protest, Nate spoke. "Brandon sending unsolicited dick pics? Who would've thought."

My interest had been piqued. "Is that out of the ordinary for him?"

"Not really. He was probably trying to impress you. Why, did you not like it?"

I hesitated before shaking my head slightly. "Not really to be honest. It'd be nice to get a heads up before I get a penis sent to me randomly."

"You get a lot of random dick pics?"

I shrugged. "More than the average person. It's quite gross really."

"Why do you care Nate?" Lena raised her eyebrows suggestively. "Are you trying to scope out your competition?" Nate scoffed. "Hell no. And even if I was, I'd have no competition. I'd have Princess here wrapped around my finger within minutes."

I gave him a surprised look. "Is that so?"

Nate nodded. "Yeah, it is."

"Well I wouldn't let you within 500 metres of me. I mean who knows what it's like down there. The whole cheerleading squad has probably all been there too. God knows what you might've caught already."

Nate had reached Lena's house and was now parked in her driveway and none of us had moved.

He smirked. "I'm all clean down there, don't you worry."

"I'm sure you are Nathaniel."

"You don't believe me?"

I shook my head. "Seeing as you got head from a random chick in a storage closet earlier tonight, I'm gonna have to say no. I don't believe you."

"Why don't you come over here and see for yourself?" He teased and Lena stopped us before our flirting went too far.

"Enough." She said, breaking through the tension. "If I didn't know better I'd think you guys are dating. I mean you might as well be seeing as how you're constantly flirting shamelessly with each other." Nate smirked at this, not taking his eyes off me.

"Nate," Lena began. "thanks for the ride home. When you see Andrew tell him not to call me." Nate nodded. "Will do."

Lena turned to me. "Luna, you ready to go?" My eyes remained on Nate. "Not just yet. You can go in without me, I'll be there in a few minutes."

She shrugged. "Whatever." She dug through her purse before she pulled a condom out and threw it to the front seat. It landed on my lap and I picked it up before giving her a dirty look. "What?" She said in defence. "It's important to wrap up the willy before getting silly."

As she stepped out of the car and closed the door, I held my middle finger up at her until the very moment she closed the front door behind her.

"You wanna put that to use?" Nate teased, gesturing to the condom in my hand. "You're hilarious." I said dryly and the smile on his face suddenly withered away.

"So tonight was a trip." He began and I laughed awkwardly. "That's an understatement."

"I'll ask you one more time Luna, are you okay?"

I had my mouth open to lie and say yes but Nate stopped me before I had the chance. "And don't bullshit me okay? I'm not a fucking idiot." He said and I sighed.

"What do you want me to say Nate? Do you want me to tell you that there's not a single good thing in my life right now? Do you want me to burst into tears and cry on your shoulder? Because that's not how this works. That's not how I work."

"Well from what Blair said earlier on, you don't cry. At all."

I crossed my arms over my chest and rolled my eyes. "Blair doesn't know what she's talking about. And so what, crying doesn't do shit. It makes you weak."

"Well when you go through as much shit as you do on a daily basis, I think crying is a necessity." I said nothing to this and he paused, as if remembering to tread lightly on his next few words. "Hey Luna?" He asked.

"Yeah?" I replied softly.

"Did your mom really nearly sell you for coke? Or is your cousin just full of shit."

I chuckled, remembering the traumatic moment. "No that part was true. I think I was about fifteen and I remember that I was getting ready to go out. Probably to meet Caleb or something, God knows I was always going out to meet him back then. But anyways, I came downstairs and in the living room was Marin- my Mom, Pete and some man."

"Who's Pete?"

I waved my hand in a dismissal. "Her creepy junky boyfriend. He's not important. Anyways, I was about to walk out when I accidentally make eye contact with the man. I guess he liked the look of a little pubescent girl or whatever because he nods to my Mom and he says, "Her. I want her.""

Nate's looking at me with disgust, as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

I continued. "So my mom calls me in and without hesitation, she's like, "Luna baby, this nice man would like to take you somewhere." And obviously I'm like what the fuck. So this man, who keep in mind is a solid 6 foot 6, comes up close to me and he looks me up and down and he nods like he's certain he wants me."

I paused before carrying on. "And so he tosses my Mom the littlest bag of cocaine that you can probably only do two lines with by the way, and he grabs me by my arm before dragging me out of my house and forces me into his truck before locking it. He doesn't get inside though, he's too busy fighting with Pete and Marina who are bargaining for a larger bag of cocaine."

I see Nate's hands ball up into fists and he seems to be visibly getting mad at my story.

"So I'm banging as hard as I can on the windows, begging to be let out. Then I decide to call my Dad and I'm like, "Dad, Marina's trying to sell me for drugs." And he hangs up. He fucking hangs up. So I think this is it, this is how Marina finally gets rid of me. Then after ten minutes, I see my Dad's stupid black Bugatti pull up. And I don't know what he says to the man but he looks terrified so my Dad comes up to the now unlocked truck and forces me out.

"The man then grabs the bag of cocaine from Marina, angry as hell, before getting in his truck and speeding away. My Mom is furious at this. She's screaming at my Dad for ruining her deal and he simply walks back to his car, irritated that he had to come save me. I catch up with him before he gets in and I'm thanking him. He looks at me in disgust and he's like, "Because I saved your life, you have to repay me."

Nate's eyes nearly pop out of his head. "You had to repay him? What the fuck?"

I continued. "He says, "To repay me, you don't come to my house for two months. I hate when you come over and Stacy does too so think of this as your payment." And that was the moment I knew that my parents would do anything to not have me around." I let out an awkward laugh at the memory while Nate looks dumbfounded.

"That's fucked up, Luna."

I shrug it off and look away. "It's whatever."

Nate suddenly grabbed my chin and gently turned my face to look at him. "Hey, it's not whatever. Nobody deserves that shit. Least of all you. I don't care if you think it's your karma or whatever bullshit you were spouting earlier. You're a good person, Luna. You're a good person who has made a few shitty choices. But that doesn't take away from the fact that you have a good heart."

And he looked at me like he really did want to take away all my hurt.

I pushed his hand away as if it were on fire and I turned my head once again, frustrated.

"Nate," I huffed. "you can't just do that."

"Do what?"

"That. You can't look at me like that."

"Look at you like what?"

"Like there's something worth looking at. Like you're actually interested in what I have to say and not just what I have to offer. It's fucked up."

Nate raised an eyebrow. "It's fucked up because I care?"

"That's the thing. You don't. And it's fucked up to pretend like you do."

"I'm not pretending Luna."

"Whatever." I grumbled before I started to play with my hands in my lap.

"So your dad..." Nate began, changing the subject. I gave him a strange look. "What about him?"

"Do you guys have a complicated relationship or something?"

I shook my head. "Nope. It's not complicated in the slightest. He hates me because I look like my Mom and he's made it clear that I'm a burden to his life. It's pretty straightforward."

"He must be intimidating if he scared away the man who tried to take you though."

I scoffed. "Intimidating? Intimidating doesn't even cut it. I'm not one to believe that people are born evil but him? He was born with hatred in his heart. He's terrifying." Suddenly my voice went quiet, as if scared to admit what I was about to say. "I think he's the only person in the world that actually scares me. I think it's because I'm afraid that I might just be exactly like him."

"Let me guess, you hate him but you want his validation more than anything?"

I looked up at Nate, surprised that he understood. "If you think your Dad is bad, my old man takes evil to another level." He explained.

"You know I've never said that out loud before. Let alone to another person." I whispered and Nate looked at me in complete seriousness.

"Luna, we are not our parents. We can only choose to be them." He tried to say but I gave a half smile. "You can't stop DNA, Nate."

Nate chuckled. "Well I'll sure as hell die trying."

And we smiled at each other because we both understood. We understood the pain and force it took to not become the very thing we despised. And we found comfort in that.

"Once I graduate, I'm getting the hell out of this fucked up town." I said and Nate chuckled.

"With daddy's money I assume?"

"Never that." I grimaced. "No, I actually just got a job today if I have you know. I start Monday after school." I beamed happily.

"Oh yeah?" Nate asked, surprised. "What job?"

"I get to be the assistant for this high-end fashion designer."

Nate groaned. "I cannot stand fashion stuff. My Mom's a fashion designer and I swear it's all she talks about. It's all she does too."

"Aw does Mommy force you to model?" I pouted, mocking him and he rolled his eyes. "Once or twice." He grumbled and I clapped my hands together in excitement.

"I have to see those pictures." I exclaimed and he shook his head. "Over my dead body." I laughed some more before Nate changed the conversation.

"Okay okay enough of that. So what did you do after your mom tried to sell you? Did you go to your room and cry?"

"I didn't cry remember?"

"Why not?"

"Is crying going to make my parents love me?" Nate remained silent and I let out a dry chuckle. "Yeah didn't think so."

Nate rolled his eyes at my dry manner, holding back a smile. "Okay okay, what did you do?"

I shrugged. "I went to see Caleb."

Nate looked at me like I was crazy. "You were almost sold and you still went to see him?"

"Fucked up right? I wouldn't let anything stop me from seeing him, not even the trauma of almost being sold. I mean why would I? It may have been the first time she tried to sell me for drugs but it definitely wasn't the last."

"That's sick." Nate said and I dismissed him, not wanting to talk about it any further.

"So what was it about Caleb that made you so obsessed with him?" Nate asked, getting the hint that I was done with the previous topic.

"You're asking one too many personal questions, Nathaniel. Either you're spying on me, or you're more intoxicated than I thought, or you're just really nosey." I joked and he laughed.

"None actually."

I raised an eyebrow and he chuckled. "Okay maybe the last one but I'd just blame that on curiosity."

"Curiosity? What could you possibly be curious about?"

"You." He answered without missing a beat. "I want to know everything there is to know about you Luna. I want to know the way you think, what makes you happy or sad or mad. I want to know your insecurities and your greatest accomplishments. I want to know your embarrassing guilty pleasures and your dirtiest secrets. I want to know everything."

"Why on earth would you want to know those stuff and more importantly, why do you think I would even tell you all that?"

Nate shifted closer in his seat, his face inching closer. "I want to know because I want to know you Luna. I want to figure out the exact reason why Caleb and Ethan just can't seem to shake you. I want to know what makes you so special. See you're a mystery, Luna. And all mysteries have to be solved. And I'm gonna be the first person to finally figure you out. Whether you're the one to tell me or not is up to you but I'm gonna find out somehow."

"I warn you Nate, if you go digging around in my past you're gonna find some shit that is terrifying and downright disgusting. And frankly, I don't think you have the stomach for it."

Nate took that as a challenge and I could see the anticipation in his eyes. "You wanna bet?" He said and I chuckled lowly.

"I'm telling you now, once you find out everything, and I mean everything, you won't take such a liking to me anymore."

Nate laughed, amused. "I don't think that's even possible, Princess."

Just you wait.

I didn't want Nate to find out anything about me because the last thing I'd want, is for him to see me as how I saw myself.

"I don't have the most innocent past, Nathaniel."

Nate leaned in further, just inches away from my face, he indiscreetly looked at my lips before looking back up at me, a smirk plastered on his mouth. "That's what makes you so exciting. I told you I didn't like innocent, remember?"

I let out a small laugh and took my bottom lip softly in between my teeth. I felt my heart begin to race and I crossed my legs over one another tightly, shifting in my seat. The car suddenly began to feel hot but it wasn't the temperature, more so the hefty amount of sexual energy Nate was emitting.

I tried my best to ignore the unholy thoughts that plagued my mind and the pulse that was throbbing both in my heart and in the space just below my stomach.

Nate's smirk broadened as if he was fully aware of the effect he had on me.

God, he's so hot.

"What's wrong Luna, you seem.. frustrated."

This fucker.

I kissed my teeth and rolled my eyes, not bothering to deny his assumption that we both knew was true.

"It's late." He said, checking his phone. "You should probably go back inside."

I hadn't even realised that nearly thirty minutes had went by. I swear every time I talked to Nate, time slowly became more and more void.

The truth is, I didn't want to go inside. I could've stayed out there talking to him for hours on end.

"Yeah." I agreed much to my dismay.

Before I had the chance to open the car door, Nate stopped me.

"Luna," He started. "I need you to answer me honestly and truthfully. You don't have to tell me any details right now but I need to know. Has Caleb ever hit you or put his hands on you before?"

I hesitated. "Nat-"

"Yes or no, Luna?"

I sighed. "Yeah but-"

Nate visibly became angry but he struggled desperately to hide it. "Thank you. That's all I needed to know."

"Don't do anything stupid Nate, I can fight my own battles."

Instead of answering me, he gave me a soft smile. "Goodnight Princess." Despite my best efforts, I couldn't help but smile back. "Goodnight Nathaniel."

I went to take off his jacket and give it back to him but he stopped me. "No, keep it. It makes you look hot." I rolled my eyes at him. "Whatever you say."

As I stepped out of the car with my bag and was about to close the door, Nate called out to me. "Hey good luck with Brandon." I rolled my eyes once again before tossing him the condom that Lena gave to us earlier.

"Have fun with whatever girl you're gonna end the night with."

"How do you know I'm gonna have sex tonight?"

I scoffed. "Please, a blowjob in a storage closet isn't gonna be enough to satisfy you for the night." I said and he chuckled. "You know me too well."

"Tell me who the unlucky girl is tomorrow?"

He smirked. "You bet."

And I gave him a smile before walking up to Lena's front door. As I opened the door and was about to step in, Nate shouted from the car, "Make sure you have sweet dreams about me!". To which I replied, "No because then they'd be nightmares."

I watched him laugh before I finally shut the front door and walked up to Lena's room, in a weirdly good mood.

I walked into her room and immediately dropped my bag on the ground before I plonked down on her bed, my feet dangling off the edge so as not to put my shoes on her bed.

Lena was now in a short silk robe and was sitting at her vanity, brushing out her medium length dark hair.

She glanced back at me, amused. "So you and Nate huh?" I rolled my eyes. "It's not even like that."

She raised her eyebrows. "That's why you're still wearing his jacket?" I hugged the oversized jacket closer to my body. It was huge on me. It stopped just above my knees, longer than my actual dress and the sleeves were just as long.

I inhaled softly and instantly felt at ease. The jacket smelled like cologne, mint and leather, all rolled into one scent. Exactly like Nate.

"I tried to give it back to him but he told me to keep it."

"Of course he did. Because when people see you in it, they know you belong to him."

I scoffed. "First of all, I would rather die than belong to any man, and secondly, I really don't think that's what he thought when he gave it to me."

Lena sighed. "Oh Luna, you're so naïve. Nate likes you, stupid."

I couldn't stop myself from laughing. "Now I know you're full of shit. Nate doesn't do girlfriends. And besides, we argue too much for that to even be a possibility."

"How many times has Nate gotten into fights for you? Fights that didn't even involve him in the first place. He got into two today alone."

I shrugged. "Well it's clear that he's got a temper control issue."

Lena would've face palmed herself if she didn't have a full face of makeup on. "That's the exactly it. He's got a temper control issue except when it comes to you. Like I said earlier, Nate is a complete asshole to everyone that's not you. If anyone else said even half of the rude shit that you say to him on a daily basis, he would lose it. But when it's you, he laughs at it instead of getting mad. And I'd only ever seen Nate Langford laugh a handful of times before you came back."

I dismissed her. "Whatever, Lena." She rolled her eyes, frustrated that I didn't believe any of her wild claims.

We heard the front door open and close. "Brandon's home then." Lena stated and I shrugged.

"So when are your parents coming home?" I asked, drifting away from our previous conversation.

I watched as Lena grabbed a makeup wipe before throwing the empty packet in the bin. "They're not coming home today. My Dad whisked my Mom away to Berlin a couple days ago. I think they're coming back tomorrow though, I'm not really sure."

I chuckled. "Berlin? That sounds amazing."

As Lena swiped away her makeup, she smiled. "Yeah, he's always taking her on spontaneous trips. He says it keeps their love alive or something like that. They bring Brandon and I along too during the summer so it doesn't interfere with school."

I couldn't help but feel a pang of jealousy at Lena's happy home life. It made me wonder how she could ever say she wished she had my life when she had a healthy relationship with both her parents who were still very much in love. She also liked all her siblings and got along with them. As far as I knew, she was living the dream.

"That sounds nice." I said, envious and she nodded. "I guess it is."

As Lena wiped off the remainder of her makeup she turned to me. "My Mom actually said I should invite you to dinner sometime this week. Our older brother Aiden's gonna be home from college. You should come. I think you'd like him."

I looked hesitant. "I don't know, Lena. I don't wanna intrude or anything."

Lena looked at me crazily. "Are you kidding? You wouldn't be. Besides, my Mom invited you because she said she likes you."

I sighed, giving in. "Fine, what day?"

"Thursday night."

I nodded. "I'll come straight there after work."

As Lena finished tying her hair up into a tight ponytail, she clapped her hands together in excitement. "Great!" She exclaimed and stood up to walk in the direction of the bathroom in her room. "I'm gonna go shower. Don't miss me too much."

I gave her butt a light slap as she walked passed me. "Don't keep me waiting too long." I joked and she giggled. "I wouldn't dare."

After a few minutes, I decided to take my makeup off so I stuck my head in the door of Lena's bathroom. "Hey Lena," I called out. "where are your makeup wipes?"

"There's some in the other bathroom. The bathroom in the hall." She spoke through the loudness of the shower and I nodded, though she couldn't see me.

Closing the door behind me, I walked out in the hall towards the bathroom. Once I stepped into the bathroom, I was greeted with the sight of Brandon shirtless, wearing nothing but grey sweatpants that hung low on his hips.

He stood next to the shower, looking surprised to see me. "Luna," He said. "I didn't know you were here."

"Yeah, I didn't wanna go home so Lena said I could stay over. That's okay, isn't it?"

Judging by the way he was looking me up and down, I knew it was more than okay.

But I too, couldn't stop the impure thoughts that I had whilst looking at Brandon. My emotions were even more heightened seeing as Nate had left me high and dry earlier on.

After checking me out for a few seconds, Brandon finally regained his speech. "Uh, yeah of course it is. I just came to have a shower because the one in my room's temperature is off."

I stepped closer, knowing exactly what I wanted. And knowing that I was going to get it. "Oh yeah?" I said softly. "What temperature do you usually like your showers?"

I bit down softly on my bottom lip and I didn't miss his eyes take notice of it.

Brandon took a few steps closer too. "Hot. I like them really, really hot."

"I would've pegged you for a cold shower kinda guy."

He gave a cheeky smirk, one that sent a shiver down my spine. "I only take cold showers when things don't go my way, if you know what I mean."

"Based on my own personal knowledge, you get your way a lot, don't you?"

He let out a deep throaty laugh. "What can I say, I'm a pretty persuasive guy."

God, I wanted him.

I simply smiled at him, keeping eye contact so as not to look down at his abs.

I bent down to one of the drawers and pulled out a pack of makeup wipes. I stood upright and turned to walk out of the bathroom.

I opened the door and Brandon quickly slammed it closed. I didn't turn around yet as I felt him press himself against my back. I smirked when I felt it pressing against my lower to mid back.

His lips pressed against my ear. "You had fun teasing me tonight, didn't you?" I bit down on my bottom lip, not saying anything. Brandon continued. "You liked watching me get angry while you let that lacrosse player touch you, didn't you?"

Still, I said nothing so he turned me around. He placed his hand around my throat softly. "Didn't you? "He urged, his fingers tightening slowly.

I whimpered slightly. "Yes. I did."

He pulled me closer. "I don't like being teased, Luna." Before I knew it, he crashed his lips against mine furiously. I had dropped the makeup wipes and was gripping his hair tightly with my fingers.

The way Brandon was acting was as if he was actually angry which I think he was due to how much I pissed him off throughout the night.

I shrugged off Nate's jacket, letting it fall to the floor as I tugged on the bands of Brandon's sweatpants. Making it known that I wanted them off.

Brandon obliged and quickly took them off. Not long after, he grabbed the end of my dress and lifted it over my head, throwing it to the corner of the bathroom.

I quickly unlatched my bra and let it drop to the ground. Brandon pulled away before quickly turning the shower on. "Come on." He breathed, stepping in and letting the water engulf him.

I smirked as I pulled down what remained of my clothes and stepped in after him.

As soon as I entered, Brandon pushed me against the wall, kissing along my neck and jaw. He then lifted me up and I wrapped my legs around his waist.

He had one hand on my throat and the other on my hip. Before we did anything, he pulled his lips away from me, panting.

"Are you ready to do this?" He breathed and I nodded. "Yeah."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes Brandon I'm sure." I said and he smirked before going for it.

As Brandon and I got into it, I completely forgot that we were supposed to be quiet. I didn't know if Lena was out of the shower and could hear us but in the moment, I didn't care.

"Fuck." Brandon groaned as we kept going.

My hands tugged on Brandon's wet hair as the scorching water continued to fall down on us. "Brandon." I cried, as he began to pick up the speed.

His fingers dug deeper and deeper into my hips and I knew that he was sure to leave bruises. I wrapped my arms tightly around his neck and pulled in closer to him. "Fuck." Brandon swore again as I whimpered shamelessly in his ear.

By the time we were done, my skin was red from the scorching water and from how hard Brandon gripped me.

Brandon loosened his hold on me, setting me softly back onto the floor of the shower.

He looked down at me and smiled before leaning in close to me. He leaned his forehead against mine, our lips on the brink of touching. "I missed you tonight." He told me and I couldn't stop myself from smiling back. "I missed you too, Brandon."

He planted a tender kiss on my lips before one on my cheek, chin and soon all over my face. I laughed hysterically. "Okay, okay." I cried out through my laughter.

"Right," He stated, once he was done. "we should get out of here before we turn into prunes."

I laughed as I stepped out, Brandon following in suit and giving my butt a light slap as he did so.

When I finally walked back into Lena's room, I found her wearing pink satin pyjama shorts with a matching pink satin tank top. She was running a towel through her freshly washed hair when she saw me.

"Enjoy your shower?" She asked and I cocked my head, pretending to be confused. "Hm?"

"Your hair." She pointed, gesturing to my dripping locks. "You know, that shirt your wearing looks really familiar, Luna." She said sarcastically and I groaned as I played with the hem of Brandon's oversized shirt that he gave me to wear.

"Funny enough, Brandon has one exactly like it. I never really pegged you for a Metallica girl to be honest. I thought you were more of a Nirvana person."

"Len-"

"The shower temperature must've been piping hot to give you marks on your neck that look exactly like hickies. I'll ask my Dad to check if the shower's safe when he gets home."

I bursted out laughing. "Lena I swear it was an accident. One minute I was leaving with the makeup wipes in my hand and next thing I know, we're doing it in the shower."

Lena didn't even look angry but more so amused. "You're both disgusting." She said through a smile, withholding her laughter.

She then threw her towel at me, and I caught it quickly before laughing along with her.

"Come on, Lena. You know you're still my favourite." I teased before coming closer and engulfing her in a bear hug. She tried to push me away in between her laughter and it was her force that sent the both of us tumbling in a heap on her bed.

Once our laughter died down, Lena looked at me, delighted. "Shower sex, huh? I've never done it there before." She admitted and I raised my eyebrows. "Really?"

She nodded. "So what's it like?"

"It's all about who you're doing it with. If it's with someone clumsy or someone with no body strength whatsoever then it's bound to end up bad but if you're with someone who knows what they're doing, like Brandon, then it's fun."

Lena pushed my hair back, further exposing my hickies. "Well it's clear that you certainly had a lot of fun in there." She chuckled and I rolled my eyes, a small smile on my face. "It was cool I guess."

"You and Andrew certainly had some fun too." I pointed out, changing the subject from Brandon and I.

Lena groaned. "I don't wanna talk about that. I even started catching feelings for him and everything. God, I'm such an idiot. Thank God Nate told me."

"Don't beat yourself up about it. It happens to even the best of us." I reassured her and she gave me a small smile before sitting up and stretching.

"I'm exhausted." She stated. "Let's go to sleep?"

I nodded and as she got into bed, I stood up and turned off her lights before quickly joining her.

We huddled close in bed, trying to keep warm. Lena turned around to face me, her expression soft. She reached over and tucked a piece of my damp hair behind my ear. "Luna?" She whispered.

"Yeah?" I whispered back.

"I know you don't fully trust me yet and that you're not sure if I have your best interests at heart but I just wanna tell you that I do. And I know that these are just words and I don't expect you believe me straight away but I just want to let you know that when you're ready to finally open up, whether it be tomorrow, or next week, or even in a few years. Just know that I'll be here waiting for you. No matter how long it takes."

My heart lurched. "Lena.."

She continued. "And I know you think that you're a bad person because you got pregnant or because you had sex with your ex best friend's boyfriend but I happen to think that you're one of the greatest people I've ever known. And I consider you my best friend. So whatever happens between you and Brandon, you'll always be that. My best friend."

"I love you, Lena."

She smiled before giving me a kiss on the very corner of my mouth. She then snuggled up close and placed her head in the crook of my neck while our legs draped over one another.

And that was it.

That was the calm before the storm.

***

It was around eleven in the morning when I was standing in front of Lena's bathroom mirror reapplying my makeup.

Lena who was sprawled on her bed groaned. "Do you have to go so early? I'm gonna be so bored."

I nodded as I took out my eyeliner. "I wish I could stay for longer but I'm going back to my Mom's house today and there's someone there that I kinda wanna avoid. So the morning is the only time I can slip in without them noticing."

"Who are you avoiding?"

I hesitated. If I told Lena that I was afraid of my Mom's boyfriend, she wouldn't have ever let me go home. And then if Lena's parents found out, they'd call the police or CPS and my Dad would kill me for bringing him bad publicity.

So I simply shrugged. "Don't worry about it. It's not that big of a deal."

She huffed. "Why can't you just go to your Dad's?"

"We had an argument." I said vaguely, not wanting to get into the details of how my father possibly hated me even more for all the stuff I said to him the night before.

"You know, I'll see you tomorrow at school, Lena. We still have classes together in case you forgot." I reminded her and she sighed. "Yeah I guess you're right."

Brandon walked into Lena's room and Lena immediately grimaced. "Ew what do you want?" She asked rudely and I snorted.

"Relax. I just came to see if Luna wanted any breakfast." He said and gave him an amused look.

Lena saw the glances between Brandon and I and quickly decided to go downstairs to get a glass of water.

With Lena gone, Brandon walked further into her room, stopping at her bathroom door. "I'm not staying long enough to have breakfast but thanks."

Brandon nodded. "So Lena knows what happened last night, doesn't she?" I chuckled. "Well it wasn't hard for her to find out seeing as you left your marks all over me."

He smirked. "Well at least everyone knows you're mine." I gave Brandon a warning look.

"You're still wearing my shirt." He said, gesturing to the Metallica t-shirt that stopped just above my knees.

"So?"

"So that means that you're mine."

"No it doesn't."

"When you came into the bathroom yesterday, you were wearing Nate's jacket. Does that mean that you belong to him?"

"I don't belong to anybody but myself. Not to you and especially not to Nate. I'm not your property and wearing any of your stuff isn't going to change that. Understood?"

Before Brandon got the chance to answer, the doorbell rang and Lena quickly called out that she would answer it. A few seconds had passed before we heard multiple footsteps come towards Lena's room. "She's in there." I heard Lena said and Nate soon entered with Andrew behind him.

"Hey you." He said and I smiled. "Hey Nate."

He greeted Brandon and they fist bumped each other along with Andrew.

"What're you guys doing here?" Brandon asked and Nate played with a basketball in his hands. "We came to ask if you were down to shoot some hoops."

Brandon nodded. "Sure."

I spotted his hands and noticed that his knuckles were shining a nasty black and blue colour. More than they had been after he fought the guy from the Southside.

I winced at the sight of them alone. "Jesus Nate. Who did you fight last night?"

He shrugged. "Just some nobody."

Andrew looked confused. "It wasn't a nobody. You fought C-"

Nate shoved his arm. "Dude shut the fuck up."

Andrew immediately fell silent and I gave the two of them weird looks before ignoring it. "Wow Nathaniel, three fights in one night. I think you may have a slight problem." I chuckled as I put my makeup back into my bag.

"Yeah and two of them were in your defence."

"That she's aware of." Andrew mumbled and Nate hit him in the arm once again. I cocked my head to the side, curious as to what Nate actually did.

"Nate," I started slowly. "did you do something that you shouldn't have? Something that I should know about?"

He had his mouth open to answer but Andrew beat him to it. "He's done several things actually. That temper of yours is gonna be the death of you one day."

"Luna," Nate said quickly. "don't mind him. He doesn't know what he's talking about." He turned to Andrew. "Will you shut the fuck up?" He hissed and my eyebrows creased in confusion.

Brandon turned around to leave, looking irritated. "I'm gonna go get dressed." Andrew followed him, not wanting to be left alone with Nate and I.

"So who was the unlucky girl you got with when I left last night?"

He scratched the back of his neck. "Leila Abadi." He answered and I raised my eyebrows in surprise. "Leila? Damn. Must've been fun."

"She was really fucking boring actually. And then she got mad at me because I didn't want to stay and talk to her afterwards. As if I give half a shit about anything that goes on in her life."

I looked at Nate in disbelief. "Please don't tell me you actually said that to her."

He smirked. "I did. And I don't regret it." I rolled my eyes at his hostility towards the girl who, funnily enough, hated me.

"Looks like you sure had fun." He pointed to my neck. "Brandon?"

I nodded. "Who else would it be?"

Nate's jaw tensed. "Well he sure did a number on you."

I scowled. "I am perfectly fine thank you very much. You know, he tried to tell me that I belong to him because I'm wearing his shirt."

He let out a snort. "Yeah right. Like you'd ever let yourself belong to anyone."

"That's what I said!" I exclaimed and he gave a throaty laugh, making my heart flutter.

Nate and I had just walked out of the bathroom and back into Lena's room when Lena came speeding up the stairs and into her room with panic on her face.

"Luna," She breathed. "the video. It's out."

"What video?"

"The video of Blair's party. The one that was taken in Blair's room." My stomach lurched and my throat tightened. "Lena. What are you trying to say?"

"I'm saying that someone released the video of what Jack did to you."

I was going to be sick. "So you're saying that.."

"Everyone's seen it, Luna. Everyone."

***

Heyyy x

I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! Sorry it was so delayed, I had so much school stuff to catch up on :(

Thank you for all your sweet comments, they make me so happy!

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