"Okay, why in the hell are you here?" I ask furiously.

Austin.

He's here.

"Alex," Austin says in astonishment, looking me up and down. "You look beautiful."

"I'm sure I looked beautiful to you a couple of years ago, too, huh? But we all know that each and every one of those were lies." I spit, putting air quotes around the word beautiful.

Disgust courses through my body, and nausea makes my chest feel heavy. All of the memories come back to punch me in the stomach, and I'm struggling to breathe properly because I'm so angry.

"Don't start with me, don't." I say, clenching my fists.

"What? I can't compliment an old friend?" Austin says defensively, and I try to hold in every obscenity I know.

"Compliment an old friend, my ass. You can't just show up out of the blue like fucking Adele. You might've taken away my happiness before, but there's no way in hell that I'll let you take that away from me now." I say, growing angrier by the second.

I feel Rian's arm slip around my waist, and I give him a weak smile before giving Austin a cold glare.

"Who's this?" Rian asks.

"I'm Austin." He says, and Rian's demeanor automatically changes.

"I still need an answer as to why you're here." I demand.

"My girlfriend Kassandra invited me to attend this event with her."

"Oh, bullshit! If this girl supposedly invited you here, then where the hell is she?" I ask, and as I begin to lunge toward him, Rian grabs me and holds me back.

"Babe, don't." Rian softly whispers in my ear, giving me a quick kiss on my temple.

"Aww," Austin says at the sight of Rian kissing me. "You've got a new boyfriend, huh?"

"Why wouldn't I? He loves me, and I love him and it's actually real. Not like the artificial love we had."

"Why don't you just leave Alex and I alone? She doesn't owe you any damn explanation." Rian says angrily, still holding onto me.

I see a woman appear behind Austin, and he smiles before looking at Rian and I again.

"Ooh, I love your dress!" The woman exclaims.

"Thank you. You are?"

"This is my girlfriend, Kassandra James." Austin says, and something washes over me.

He went from me, to her?

Wow, how much lower can you get?

Kassandra is about 5'3 with green eyes and brown wavy hair, and she's wearing a little black dress with an imitation diamond necklace.

"And I'm Alexandrianna Hawkins. His ex-girlfriend." I reply, and my confidence has boosted through the roof.

Kassandra's cheeks redden almost instantly, and she looks down at the ground as if she's intimated by me. I straighten my posture, and I smirk at the shocked look on Austin's face.

"Babe, what are you doing?" Rian whispers in my ear, and I just give him a mischievous smile.

"How long have you guys been together?" I ask, arching an eyebrow at her.

"About two months." Austin replies nervously, clearing his throat.

"You're going to make her wait until after the party tonight to bang her, huh? And I bet you're gonna use the same line you said to me. Aren't you, Austin?" I ask, and I can see Rian giving me a disapproving glare.

"What same line?" He asks cluelessly, and I roll my eyes before chuckling.

"If you love me, you should trust me enough to do this." I retort, slightly mocking his voice.

His eyes flash with something, but I can't quite figure out what it is. Austin awkwardly looks anywhere but avoids my burning gaze and rapid fire of questions.

"Oh, are your palms starting to sweat? Heart beating quickly? Legs starting to shake, huh? You don't want to answer that in front of your precious little Kassandra, would you?" I sneer, loving every minute of this.

"Leave him alone. I understand that you're hurt by the past, but that doesn't necessarily mean that it'll happen to me." Kassandra says, and I turn my head over to her.

Excuse you?

"Fine, don't believe me. But when he leaves you, don't say that I didn't warn you. So with that, you both can go to hell." I say, deliberately pushing past them.

"Alex, wait!" Rian calls out, but I ignore him and I rush out of the mansion.

~~~

I don't know where I'm going, I'm just trying to get as far away from Austin as possible. After making my way through dozens of people, I'm outside of the mansion. I see the pier straight ahead, and a few boats slowly cruising along the water. I make my way to the pier, and once I'm on the pier, I just stop in my tracks trying to take in what just happened. I cover my mouth to suppress a sob, and once the tears subside, I mentally scold myself for crying.

Why are you crying? Austin doesn't mean anything to you anymore. You have Rian.

Think about the advice he gave you, and how he makes you so happy that you've completely forgot about everything Austin has ever done to you.

I take deep breaths in and out, to calm myself down. Those tears weren't out of sadness, they were of outrage. My repugnance is through the roof. I keep breathing, but it isn't calming me down at all. My eyes peer up to the heavens, and I see nothing but the trillions of galaxies in the sky.

"Pretty amazing view, huh?" A female voice says, and my head snaps over at her.

I see a girl in a black dress, and her red hair is being lit by the moon. She walks towards me, and she stands next to me, looking off into the distance. The woman's fresh face and creamy pale skin is illuminated with the moons light. She has an aquiline nose, fleshy pink lips and her fake eyelashes are so long that they nearly touch her arched brows. Her eyes are so blue that they look icy.

"Yeah, I just came to get some fresh air." I say.

"I'm Vanessa." She says.

"I'm Alexandrianna, but people mainly call me Alex."

Her eyes widen, and her jaw drops.

"You're the famous Alexandrianna Hawkins? It's nice to finally meet you! I'm Rian's little sister." She says amiably, and I feel extremely self conscious all of a sudden.

"Oh! It's nice to finally meet you! Rian was going to introduce me to you and your older brother, but we got a little distracted." I reply, trying to hold back my smirk.

"It's totally fine, and trust me, you don't want to meet Brendan. He's a dick." Vanessa says, and a laugh bubbles in my throat.

"Rian's told me about the family, just never mentioned Brendan's alleged dick-headed ness." I reply with a laugh, and she giggles.

"Maybe it's just because he's our older brother, so naturally he's a bit rude to us." Vanessa explains, and I laugh.

"Yeah, it's like my older sister. She was always tougher on me, and for the right reasons." I say, and she smiles.

"I wish I had a sister. Having two brothers can be awkward because there are some things that would be so embarrassing to talk about with them." Vanessa says, and I nod.

We both return our gazes to the water, and I listen to the small waves crashing into each other.

"Rian really loves you. You know that right?" Vanessa asks, smiling at me.

"I know, and I love him too."

"You should hear how he speaks about you when he comes to visit us, Alex. He talks about you like you put stars in the sky. He truly loves you, and he hasn't talked about his past girlfriends like how he talks about you." Vanessa says, and I feel jealousy course through my body.

Rian never told me about his past relationships.

"I love him so much, and trust me I wouldn't stupidly ruin what I have with him. Your brother is by far the most gentlemanly man I've ever been graced by. Rian has put me on this pedestal like I'm a goddess, and I couldn't be more grateful. I've been through a lot of shit to put it mildly, especially in the past five or six years. I haven't had the best life, in fact, if there was a competition I'd definitely be in the top ten for shittiest existence. My point is that I would never neglect Rian because he's done the exact opposite to me. I couldn't do something like that to him." I say, looking out beyond the water.

The stars create a million fragments of light on the ripples of water, and the small waves playfully splash underneath the light of the moon. I look over at Vanessa, and the wind blows her hair back like she's in a movie. She looks over at me, and she gives me a small smile.

"What happened? If you don't mind my asking." Vanessa asks, and I give a bitter laugh.

"Lost someone extremely important to me, abuse, and my first love gone wrong." I say, shaking my head and looking up at the stars.

"I'm sorry for bringing it up, damn my curiosity." Vanessa says, looking flustered.

"It's fine, it's fine. I've moved past it now. I see things a lot differently now, though. Being through some things that most people can't even imagine what it's like, it changes your perspective on things." I say, reflecting on everything that's happened in my past.

"Is your perspective changed about love?" Vanessa asks, and I chuckle.

"You and I are similar, Vanessa. We both have a certain curiosity that everyone finds amusing yet annoying at the same time." I say, and we both laugh.

"It's just in my blood, I guess." Vanessa says, shrugging her shoulders while smiling at me.

"To answer your question, yes, my perspective on love has changed. After my first love left me, I went through this whole phase of worthlessness. That I wasn't good enough or worthy enough of love, which scared me. I didn't know that he was using me, I was so naïve. You never really realize how horribly you're being treated until someone comes along and treats you the way you deserve to be treated, and that's how I felt when I met Rian. We all deserve a person who makes us realize that." I explain, and she doesn't tear her gaze off of my face.

"Well the guy that used you clearly played himself because you're beautiful, and you're smart, and you seem easy to connect to. No wonder Rian fell for you." Vanessa says, and my cheeks redden.

"Thank you." I say, looking down at my feet.

"You really are sweet, just like Rian said." Vanessa says, causing me to smile even more.

"Thank you, I try my best to be." I say, and she laughs.

"God, I know that feeling all too well."

"Yeah, it's like everything's going fine and then someone pushes that certain button and then everything's just gone downhill."

"Yes! Well, I couldn't see you being angry. You're really welcoming and nice, and I can tell because you've seemed to instantly connect yourself to me."

"You seem to really make my brother happy, I can tell. As long as you do that, then yes I'll welcome you in. But if you don't, I'll be the complete opposite."

"Of course, I wouldn't even think about neglecting your brother." I say without a second thought.

Vanessa and I share a final glance with each other, and her eye color is a much lighter color than Rian's. The icy blue is cold, but inviting at the same time.

"I hope you enjoy the rest of the party." Vanessa says, and I can tell that she's smiling at me.

"You too, I'll see you around. I'm going to go find Rian." I say, and she hesitantly leans in before hugging me.

There's a moment of shock before I smile, because I just met her, and I didn't think that she'd like me as much as she seems to. We pull away from the hug, and we smile at each other before she continues to look at the moonlit water, and I walk back towards the mansion.

~~~

"So, you're the infamous Austin?" I say, stepping closer to him.

"Listen, I know what I did was wrong, but let's just put that behind us. I hate thinking about it." Austin says, and anger courses through my blood.

"If you hate thinking about it, then why would you do that to her? Alex told me about everything, and I've never wanted to hurt someone more than I want to hurt you for deliberately making Alex suffer like that."

"I can explain—" Austin starts, but I shove him.

"Explain what?! How you slept with her and then just broke off everything with her and left her heart broken? You just left her wondering what she did wrong, and had her thinking that it was all her fault. There's no logical explanation to justify your actions, Austin." I say, clenching my hands into fists.

"I know, I know. Everything I did was wrong, and I shouldn't have done it because I really did love her." Austin says, and I feel the urge to punch him growing more and more.

"If that's love, then I guess I'm not loving her properly." I reply sarcastically, and I bite back a few more heinous remarks.

"I knew what I did would hurt her, and I knew someone else would come along and love her."

"You're damn right. Alex deserves all the love on this planet, whereas you don't deserve any." I spit, crossing my arms.

"Listen, why don't we both just calm down and talk about this rationally instead of arguing about it?" Kassandra asks, stepping in between the both of us.

"Oh, so now your new little sex toy is going to mediate?" I ask, and I laugh.

Austin scowls at me, and Kassandra grabs his hand to stop him from lunging towards me.

"You used her just to get sex on prom night. Don't get me wrong, the sex I have with Alex is pretty great, just ask her. Man, the things we do together even surprises me sometimes. That's not my point, my point is that just using her for sex and the pleasure that comes from it is beyond wrong. Alex deserves love, honesty, respect and a plethora of other things. Especially with her past and everything she's had to endure! I feel sorry for those who've ever had to cross paths with you." I say through my gritted teeth.

"I know. Just go find her and comfort her, she really looked upset when she stormed out of here." Austin says.

"Oh, really? I wonder who made her feel that way." I say with obvious sarcasm, and I have the taste of bile in my throat just looking at him.

"If you come in contact with Alex during the night, I swear you'll regret it." I hiss, grabbing his collar.

"Okay, okay." Austin says, trembling as my fists are clenching the fabric of his cheap suit.

I shove him back, and he falls onto the ground. Kassandra walks over to him, helping him back up and running her hands over his crinkled suit.

"Move." I demand, and they automatically step aside for me before I walk past them so that I can find Alex.

I make my way through the crowd of people talking boisterously talking and dancing together.

"Excuse me, have you seen a girl with brown hair and really pretty brown eyes? She has really long legs, I think she's about 5'9. Her name's Alex." I ask a man with blonde hair, and he shakes his head.

I continue searching for Alex, and from far away I see Jordan and Elijah. As I get closer to them, I overhear Elijah talking about his pseudo-fascination with antidisestablishmentarianism.

"Have you guys seen Alex?" I ask over the loud music, and they both shake their heads.

"No! Why, what happened?" Jordan asks, and I groan.

"It's a long story." I sigh, running my fingers through my hair.

"No, we haven't seen her." Elijah says.

I make my way out of the mansion, to the pier and I speed walk to it before I see Alex in my peripheral vision, and I change my direction to walk over to her.

"Alex." I say, and she immediately stops walking.

"Rian." Alex says back to me, and I feel cold as she doesn't bother to bring her eyes to mine.

"Are you okay?" I ask, reaching out to grab one of her hands.

"I'm fine." Alex replies incredulously, and it makes my chest feel heavy seeing her try to hold back how she really feels.

"Alexandrianna Hawkins, look at me." I demand softly, and she finally looks into my eyes.

"Talk to me, baby." I plead, and I hold one of her hands in mine while the other rests comfortably on her waist.

"I'm angry." She mumbles, shaking her head.

"You can be angry, Alex. But the way you handled it wasn't very smart." I say calmly, and her eyes flash with anger.

I realize how much of a hypocrite I sound like, because not even a few minutes ago I was verbally attacking Austin, and luckily I kept myself together because if I didn't, he would've been in critical condition.

"I have every right to react however I want to react to it. Rian, the bastard who took my virginity and then just dumped me is here at this party. I wanted this night to be special, and now I just feel like it's been ruined because he has the audacity to show up and act like nothing ever happened." Alex says, and her voice becomes sharper than a knife.

"I know, I know. I went off on Austin, too. I shouldn't have just said that."

"Yeah, it's almost like you're defending him or something." Alex says angrily, and I instantly shake my head.

"No, no! I'm not defending him at all, baby. I just advise that you just try to keep your anger in." I say, and as I'm about to place my other hand on her waist, she shoves it away.

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?" Alex vociferates, and my eyes widen when she raises her voice.

"Exactly what I said! Alex, I know that you're angry but—"

"I'm beyond angry! Austin and his new little whore are here at this party, and you're basically telling me that I'm wrong for the way I reacted!" She exclaims, and I feel everything inside of my chest tighten.

"I'm not saying that you're wrong, Alex. You're twisting my words." I say firmly.

I slowly inch to her, and she scoffs before looking at the ground. I place my hand on her waist, and I take my other hand caresses her cheek. I lift her chin, forcing her to look at me, and her eyes look grim.

"Alex, I know how much pain you've been through. I wouldn't defend the man who put you through it, either. You should know that by now, because that's unlike me." I say softly, and her eyes become coated with tears.

"I'm sorry." She whimpers, and I shake my head.

"None of this is your fault, Alex." I say, frowning at her.

"I just hate arguing with you. I hate that this night got ruined." She says weakly.

"Hey, the entire night isn't ruined. Sure, there might've been an unpleasant distraction, but the night can only go up from here." I say, and she finally gives me a smile.

"I love you." Alex says, and I smile when I feel the warm spark enter my body again.

"I love you, too. Come here." I say, and she embraces me tightly.

I kiss her forehead gently before taking her face in both of my hands, and I purse my lips ever so slightly.

"Kiss me." She implores, and I chuckle.

"I was just about to ask if I could."

"I'll feel a little less pissy if you do." Alex replies, and she laughs.

Unhesitatingly, I place my mouth softly onto hers. The warmth spreads to my cheeks when her hand softly caresses it, and Alex accidentally steps on my foot which causes us to both laugh.

"Ow, damn how pointy are your heels?" I ask jokingly, and her cheeks redden as she looks down at them.

"Sorry." She says, and then looks up at me again.

"Why don't we head back downstairs to the drawing room?" I ask, winking at her.

"I'd like that." Alex says.

We both smile at each other, grabbing each other's hands and rushing back inside to find the drawing room and to make each other forget everything that's just happened.