It's rare that I go to parties and even more rare that I get invited to one. If I ever got invited it was only because Archer was my brother and he was part of the School's ice-hockey team, also part of the "popular" gangs. Even today when Kayla texted and invited me to go to a Frat party, I made up an excuse and told her I couldn't. It was my introvert behavior and my dislike for conversing outside of my circle that my mom and Archer had pushed me into doing cheerleading.

I'd rather cozy up under a warm blanket, fire up my laptop and write my blogs than socialize. Pretty nerdy thing to do on a weekend but that's exactly what gave me peace, even better if I had my chamomile tea.

I slipped my feet into the Panda slippers and started heading downstairs when I heard loud voices.

"And that's your excuse?" Mom bellowed.

I stood at the top of the stairs and looked down to find that she was arguing with Dad, who was usually busy with his business trips and was almost non-existent to his family. He'd been a good father, a good husband even, but lately he was neither. I'd tried to ignore those things as much as I could, I'd tried to divert my attention to studying, but sometimes during times like these, I just couldn't.

"It's not an excuse, Isabel; I'm telling you the truth! I was really in Sweden for a business trip."

Mom sobbed, "I've had enough of your lies Oliver! I know where you've been and what you were doing. Yes, I know you went to Sweden, but you came back to the country on Sunday. It's been four days, where were you then? Living in a hotel?" She pulled out a chair from the dining table and sat down, completely resigned.

"Why do you say that?" He asked.

And the way he asked her, I just knew that Mom was telling the truth. I'd always thought it fishy how he went on business trips for over two weeks, and when he came back to us, it was like he was pretending to be someone else. Sure he loved us, but there was something he was hiding for sure.

Mom picked up her phone and showed him a picture. I couldn't see the picture but I heard what she said, "Your secretary posted this!" She made a swiping motion and showed more. "The day she blocked me on Facebook, I knew there was something going on so I made a fake account to test what was going on. This picture right here, she's holding hands with a man in a hotel room. It's your hand!"

I held the banister tightly because I was going to collapse on the floor.

"You've been fucking other women on your trips, haven't you?!"

Dad remained silent and just stared ahead. He looked so much like Archer, it was surreal. He had the same face, hair color, and eyes. Women were easily attracted to my dad, and he had a hard time ignoring them.

"We have three beautiful children. We had a good family, where have I gone wrong?" The pain in my mother's voice cut through me like a knife.

"Bell, I...I was just stressed with everything going on at work, and at home. I keep worrying about Vicky's future. Her asthma attacks especially. I had a few drinks that night at the bar and was in a vulnerable state, Terrie...she was just comforting me."

"By opening her legs for you?" Mom asked savagely.

Dad looked defeated. And I knew that he'd cheated. Cheated on my mother, and had shattered her trust. She had her suspicions about him right from the start but she'd ignored them and I'd told her that it had been her imagination.

I guess I was wrong.

"It was just once." He said.

As if cheating and sleeping with some woman "just once" was considered normal and if he'd done it over a dozen times it could have been an offense.

He started moving towards Mom, "Isabelle, I'm...I'm..." he looked torn between.

Mom raised her hand to stop him from talking further. "Don't come near me."

She stood up and started making her way upstairs. I was about to bolt, but was unable to move, frozen on the stairs, staring ahead. Tears streamed down my cheeks. She saw me, and she appeared to be ashamed.

No. No. This is not your fault! Why are you ashamed? I wanted to ask her.

Without a word, she passed me and a second later I heard the guest room door slam shut.

"Bell, honey..." Dad stood at the foot of the stairs and looked up. When he saw me, all the color from his face drained. "Vicky...it's not what you think..."

I wasn't going to listen to his bullshit. I willed myself to move, turned and headed straight to my room.

This family was falling apart.

The plan had changed. After the drama that had unfolded at home, I needed to get my mind off it so I got dressed up and decided to go for the party.

Hazel had gone to sleep early; mom and dad were still having a screaming match that had moved from the kitchen to the master bedroom so it was easier for me to just slip out of the house without anyone noticing.

I parked the car in an empty spot and looked at the Fraternity house. To be honest, this was my first time at a frat party. I'd tried to go with Archer before but he'd always denied taking me to these parties because he didn't want me to witness the things that went on there like I was an innocent little angel and he obviously he didn't trust some of the frat boys.

And, I wasn't blind or deaf, so I heard from other people about boys who had crushes on me who belonged to this frat. It's just that no one had outright said they liked me on my face because obviously, they feared Tyler who stayed behind me like a shadow, an imperial guard on a twenty-four-seven duty. If a guy so much as tried to make a move on me, they'd see Tyler and run in the opposite direction. That was a pattern.

Can't say I really hated that, though. It kinda helped me fend off unwanted attention.

When I entered the house, I immediately regretted coming to the party. The house was big and crowded with a lot of kids from the university and a lot of seniors from our school. Beer pongs, Chandeliers and other types of games were taking place on the other end. Loud music blasted from the speakers, some kids were dancing and couples were making out in all the four corners of the house. A guy who looked like a freshman was doing push-ups and a frat boy was screaming in his face.

Guess the guy was really desperate for that fraternity initiation.

Even the poolside areas appeared to be crowded.

I felt a bit nervous and out of place. I looked at my outfit. I was wearing a sleeveless nude peek-a-boo crop top over jeans shorts and sneakers. There were a lot of girls wearing much more scandalous outfits. I was greeted by a lot of kids that I didn't even know and I was actually surprised they knew me by name.

"Hey, look who's here, it's Vicky-Mickey." One of the frat members walked towards me, Aiden Kilmartin, senior and the goalie of Cold-Bay's Football team who was tall, dark hair and dark eyes. He had a welcoming smile on his face, and he was nursing a bottle of vodka in his hand. "I'm glad you decided to crawl out of your hermit's shell."

"I make exceptions, sometimes."

"Make those exceptions often." He grinned, giving me a quick once-over.

"Have you seen Archer?" I asked.

"How old are you again? Sixteen?" He asked.

"Seventeen," I corrected him.

Understanding dawned, "Oh. In that case, you're not allowed to drink, Okay? But, you're free to look around and have some fun. No one's gonna stop you." He pointed at the bulletin board on the wall that had a white sheet of paper pinned to it. "These are the rules you're supposed to follow here." And then he smirked, "Unless, you have any ID's that you're not supposed to have."

"Okay."

I didn't have a Fake ID if that's what he was implying.

The paper read:

"Who's this kid?" I glanced around to find....ugh...

Parker O'Neal was blocking my view and practically eye-fucking me. He was studying at a University, and a lot of girls from my school had a crush on him but Archer told me he was a major douchebag and he wouldn't trust this guy with a dog.

Aiden shook his head, "Lane's twin."

"How old are you? Because we don't allow thirteen-year-old brats here."

I wondered if that was supposed to be an insult.

"You're almost eighteen, right, Vicky?" Aiden asked.

"Yeah."

Parker took a swing of his drink, "Awesome. Want me to give you a little house tour?"

I might be naïve but I could read people just fine. And Parker was lighting up with all the DANGER signals. I even imagined him with a "Keep out" sign with a skull and bones on his forehead.

"I'm okay."

Aiden grabbed my hand, "Come, Vicky, let's get you something to eat and drink."

I was thankful to be steered away from Parker. I searched around the area and there was no sign of Archer or Tyler. Maybe they decided not to come to the party.

If that was the case, I was screwed. I followed him to the kitchen where he handed me a red cup filled with beer. There was a lot of finger food spread on the table. I picked up a

Aiden led me downstairs in the basement where it was transformed into a gaming parlor. There was a pool table, pinball machine and PlayStation connected to a flat-screen.

At the corner of the room, I spotted Archer making out with a girl and his hands were...

Disgusting.

I looked away. They were kissing so deep, the girl could have been sitting in his mouth. I needed some bleach to clean my eyes and wipe the images out of my brain.

A loud cheering sound distracted me and my attention was diverted towards the football table. Tyler was there, playing with an opponent I didn't recognize. He was invested in the game and clearly winning. There were about four girls buzzing around him like bees on a lone flower in a field. The closest and the clingiest one was a very attractive Asian girl, she was cheering for him, pressing against his body. She was a college girl from the looks of it and literally looked like one of those K-pop idols. She was whispering in Tyler's ear, and that made him grin.

I looked away. This time my jealously could blow out of the rooftop. It was obvious that he was having fun without me. After the argument last week, we hadn't spoken and I'd dodged all his calls because of how he had handled the situation with T.J.

I watched him down the contents of the red cup, and a guy quickly refilled it back up while Ty played the game.

The Asian girl grasped his face in her hands and brought it down to her lips. I'd come to this party to forget what was going on at my house even if it was just for a little while, I didn't come to feel worse about everything, and that's exactly how I was feeling right now.

I watched as Tyler's arms went around her neck as he kissed her back passionately. I was breathing hard, anxiety normally brought the attacks. I stepped into a corner and used my inhaler.

It was really stupid of me to overreact. I mean, it wasn't like we were dating. And right now, I didn't know if we were even friends anymore and yet, I felt a sense of ownership each time I saw him with someone. I was insane.

I mean. Sure, Tyler is a virgin but that didn't mean he wasn't kissing or doing other things.

"Your nose is red."

I looked up to find myself staring at a guy I didn't recognize. He was tall-ish, he had bronze-colored hair that was cropped short and friendly light brown eyes. He smiled at me, pouring some weird looking drink into my glass.

"Maybe you're just cold and need something to warm you up."

Had he just slipped in an innuendo?

My nose usually turned red when I was angry or about to cry. I wasn't going to cry in front of all these people and let them see how humiliating this entire thing was. I wasn't Tyler's toy; he couldn't play with my feelings just like that.

Okay, let's just backtrack. I was Tyler's toy, and he was playing with my feelings.

I looked at the drink I was holding. I'd be dumb to drink it, god knows what he had mixed in it, and still, I pretended that I was going to drink it. He put his hand on my shoulder. I was feeling especially rebellious tonight.

If Ty could have fun, so could I.

"Do you talk?" He asked, taking a sip of his drink.

I smiled, raising my hand towards him, "Victoria."

He accepted my handshake, "Mark."

"Um, where are you studying?"

"Cold-Bay High. I'm a soph...I'm a senior." I lied.

He chuckled knowingly, "I'm sure you are. Did you come here with someone?"

Mark pulled me a little closer. Before I could answer, I heard another voice behind me. "Take your hand off her or I'll break it."

Tyler stood behind us, glaring down at Mark.