Katie

With a lot of help from Lincoln and John supporting both my arms, I manage to get upstairs. Angela carries up my wheelchair behind us. "Thank you so much," I say gratefully, as I sit back down.

"No worries, just call for us if you need help getting downstairs later," John says, patting my shoulder.

Lincoln pushes me down the hall to his bedroom. I notice the door to the room across from his is ajar, it's Jasmine's room. I see her sitting on her bed, speaking on her phone.

"So this is your childhood room huh?" The walls are a pale periwinkle blue. The double bed frame is a deep wooden brown with a light grey comforter, the desk is pretty bare - just a couple stray pens and notebooks, the walls have a couple posters of cars and movie prints, and there is a large wooden bookcase with various books, pictures, and figures.

"Yup. Haven't lived here since I was seventeen, and it hasn't changed much." He sits down on his bed, and carefully maneuvers me out of the wheelchair and onto his lap.

I bury my face into his neck. "I'm nervous about meeting your family tonight, there's way more people coming than I expected," I grumble against his warm skin.

He laughs and strokes my hair. "It'll be fine, I promise." He pulls my face back and makes a trail of kisses from my forehead, to my nose, to my cheek, and to my lips. He holds me tight against him, I don't have the best balance with the clunky casts, and it'd be pretty bad if I fell.

His lips are soft and gentle. I reach around to hold his golden hair at the nape of his neck. I slightly open my mouth, letting him sneak his tongue in, he tastes like waffles and Lincoln. My stress melts away, and the only thing that matters to me right now is him. He moves his face lower and kisses my neck. I have to hold my hand tightly over my mouth to muffle any noises that might slip past my lips, definitely not something I'd want his sister or parents to hear.

When we pull apart, my hair is a mess, my lips are swollen, and my face feels flushed. He doesn't look much better. I laugh and use my thumb to wipe off the lipstick that smeared onto him. "I think we should freshen up in the bathroom," he says, carefully lifting me back into the wheelchair.

As he pushes me down the hall, we run into Jasmine who's heading back to her room. She looks at Lincoln, then me, probably judging how we look right now. She furrows her brows, looking extremely unimpressed. She doesn't say anything before walking around us and back to her room.

I want to die.

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On our way back to Lincoln's room, I notice the door to Jasmine's room is still ajar and she's sitting at her desk. "You go back first, I'm going to talk to her," I whisper. His eyes widen but he nods and leaves me in the hall.

I never thought in a million years I would willingly go talk to someone who looks like they want to bite my head off. I feel like prey walking into a predator's cave. I knock softly on her door. She looks up, slightly surprised, "Come in."

I struggle a bit but manage to climb out of the wheelchair, and do an awkward limping half walk half hop inside. I lean on the wall next to the door. "So uh...it's, it's not what you thin-"

She turns in her chair and raises her hand to stop me. "It's alright. You're two consenting adults, it's just not something I want to think about my brother doing, you know?" To my surprise, she laughs a bit. "Was there something you needed?"

I gulp, I don't want her to see my fear, but I think I'm doing a terrible job of hiding it anyways. I take a deep breath before speaking, "Do you not like me? I don't understand what I could've done to you, we just met."

She chuckles and sighs a little, "Lincoln has dated some very questionable girls in the past. It pains me to see him waste his time like that when he has so much potential in his life."

"So you're like this to scare them away?" I raise an eyebrow.

"No," she scoffs, "some of them were total airheads, others were really passive with no personality. I press them because I want to see if they will push back in a competent way."

"And?"

A smile tugs at the corner of her lips. "You sure did."

The tension in my body relaxes a bit.

"Having intelligent things to respond with instead of backing down or losing control of your emotions. Hell, even just coming in here to confront me. I'm glad Lincoln found someone like you. I hope you stay around." She gives me a genuine smile that I haven't even seen her use yet since meeting me.

I suddenly feel a bit guilty. "There's something else though...you were right about my accident, I was the one who was drunk. It's a very...very long story."

She nods towards her bed. "I'm listening."

I explain what happened. Everything from the first time I walked into the club room, to Jason visiting me while in the hospital. I'm prepared for her to completely change her opinion on me and be disgusted with me.

To my surprise, she has a mix of sympathy and a tiny bit of amusement on her face. She leans back in her chair and crosses her arms, slightly shaking her head.

"Jason fucking Larsen huh."

"Y-yeah, I assume you know him? He and Lincoln have been friends for a long time."

She comes over and sits next to me on the bed.

"He and I had a...thing...together," she says uncomfortably, "it was when I came back for the summer after my third year of university, he was eighteen and I was twenty."

My eyes widen. Everything just made a 180 real quick.

"I'm sure you can tell I'm pretty, well, uptight. He saw that as a challenge I suppose," I can tell she's getting more and more upset as she speaks, "he wanted to break that part of me, and get through...and he did."

"What happened?" I'm in disbelief.

She chuckles a bit. "I don't want to corrupt your seemingly innocent mind. Let's just say, it was a wild four months of experiments...in the bedroom...and in other places."

My mouth drops open.

"Then after a while, he got bored of me when I wasn't a 'game' to him anymore. After I had given him so much of my time, trust, and...myself, and he didn't care. He just brushed me aside like I was nothing after he was 'done' with me." Her voice has dropped to a whisper, and her lip trembles. I gently rub her back. She gives me the slightest smile.

"So I guess I can understand why you did what you did. There's just something so disturbingly intoxicating about him," she says, putting her arm around me. "I'm glad you're ok now."

"Thanks Jasmine." I pull her into a hug, albeit a bit awkwardly with my casts.

"Also, don't mention this to Lincoln, he has no idea."

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"Oh it's so nice to meet you dear!" Lincoln's grandma pulls me into a hug. This family sure hugs a lot. I think that was the last of his grandparents.

He's been bringing me around, introducing me to all his relatives and friends. I've been getting a lot of questions about my injuries, but Lincoln's been helpful in keeping it private. Everyone is really friendly and kind, and I feel so welcome. There's this warmth inside of me, I feel like the Grinch after his heart grew three sizes.

Lincoln's mom made an insane amount of food, everyone's plates barely fit on the dining room table. She literally had to bring in a second table to put by the wall, to hold all of the additional food that there wasn't space for on the main table. I end up seated in between Lincoln and Jasmine, and after our talk, she's a lot kinder. We end up having genuine conversations this time.

My phone buzzes in the middle of dinner. I discreetly take it out, and read the text I got.

Jason: Merry Christmas Katie.

Even just reading his name sends my feelings on a roller coaster.

I delete his contact and put my phone back in my pocket.

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I'm proud 😭

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