Previouslyy: 1) Dana met this guy, Trent, at Pierre's lil party.

2) As Brie began to depart from the kitchen with Jayden's tray of food in a hand, she inaudibly murmured to herself, "I don't like butter, I'm allergic to peanuts," she mimicked, "Good luck with your dinner this evening Mr. I'm allergic to everything. Just don't die too quick."

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Trent had left Pierre's apartment with his friends a couple of minutes after Dana had, and had spotted her walking on the pavement.

His friend asked, "Ain't that the chick Bryan dared you to ask for the orgy with?" his friend snorted at his own words.

"That's her," Trent turned on his trafficator and moved into the next lane so he could be nearer to the pavement where Dana walked.

He began to slow down as she strutted in her tight denim jeans and a fitting blouse like she owned the street.

When she had noticed the Chevrolet slowing down beside her, she slowed down her steps and turned. Before she could say anything, Trent's friend in the passenger seat had rolled down his glass and asked,

"Hey, where are you headed?"

Dana pushed her hair back, the wind doing her no justice as she replied, "It's just fifteen minutes away."

"Hop in, we'll give you a ride," the friend continued.

Dana was just about to decline his offer till she saw Trent sticking his head out of his friend's blockage, his messy curls escaping from his hoodie as they complimented the thickness of his furrowed brows, the straightness of his pointed nose and the fullness of his lips.

She could have sworn she had held his gaze for an entire hour when it had only been five seconds.

"Sure," she smiled and approached the car door, overhearing the friend in the passenger seat asking Trent in a whisper,

"Should I go to the back so she'd sit here?"

But Trent tightly replied, "Bro, chill."

After Dana sat down in the backseat where another female friend occupied, Trent got back on the road, locking the doors of the car.

The six pm sky easily stretched across the horizon, dashed with hues of orange and blue, softly illuminating the halcyon surroundings.

Trent's friend in the passenger seat introduced himself, "I go by Coach," he stretched his hand out after turning towards the backseat, "It's a pleasure to meet you...?" he pushed for a name.

"-Dana," she completed, "I'm Dana, and it's a pleasure to meet you too."

Coach went on, "This is Trent, and Mimi right there," he gestured at the girl who stared at her phone screen with a huge smile on.

When she had heard her name, she lifted her head and smiled at Dana, "Hi."

Dana kindly returned her smile.

"So," Trent spoke, snatching Dana's attention as if it had ever left him, "How do you know Pierre?"

He looked at her through the rearview mirror and she replied, "His sister."

Coach wanted to know, "Are you and Pierre an item? The minute you showed up, he ignored everyone else at the party. You must be special."

"No, we aren't," she answered and sarcastically went on, "I don't know about you, but I wouldn't call someone who ruins my expensive clothes, 'special'."

"Oh, boy," Coach chuckled, turning to Trent who had been easing into the third spot behind a red range rover at a traffic light stop, the red light shining so brightly.

When things had remained still, Dana decided to steal a glance at Trent through the rearview mirror.

Her heart nearly jumped to her throat when she had caught him looking at her through it.

He immediately directed his gaze to the range rover before him with a frown, not wanting to create an impression on her.

Not yet, at least.

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"Brie." Jayden grimaced when she had placed his food on the table. He remembered that she was the prime suspect of being his father's lover, and it made his blood boil.

Brie cluelessly turned to Jayden at the mention of her name, and he instructed,

"See me in ten minutes."

"Have I stepped on your toes, 'sir'?" she air quoted.

"Ten minutes," he repeated.

She flipped her hair, "Where? In your room? That's where you love having your meetings."

He threw his gaze up from the food, "Quite the tongue you have. Mind filling me in on the secret to your revolting confidence?"

She nearly gave him a cheeky answer concerning his father's bed but refrained from it and decided to let him finish his dinner.

Or at least try to, after what she had done to it.

***

Lara had retired to her bedroom. It was 6:45 pm, but she knew she wouldn't be coming out for anything for the rest of the night.

She had her bottle of water and a few snacks just in case she got hungry while staying up late drowning in her thoughts.

Her birthday was a few days away, however, she had been having one of the worst weeks ever.

Following her breakup with Jayden, she knew she had to be resolute in her search for a new job. She needed to get away from the house. This life. Wipe it all away from her memory.

All of a sudden, Jayden's voice penetrated the walls of Lara's bedroom from the dining hall as he loudly called out her name.

Alarmed, Lara began to tear herself away from her bed as she ran towards the door. However, Brie had immediately barged into her room, stopping her in her tracks.

"Brie what-"

"Don't go," Brie interrupted, "I- there's lots of peanut oil in his salad and soup," she confessed.

"What?" Lara's eyes bulged out of their sockets. "What do you mean?" Everyone in the house knew that Jayden was severely allergic to peanut and its derivatives.

"It's for justice after what he did to you," she defended.

"Brie, you know he's allergic to Anything 'peanut'. Even the littlest amount could stir up a reaction. A serious one."

"Well, that's the point!"

"Not when it's life-threatening! When he was 15, he had an allergic reaction to peanut butter; anaphylaxis, and he almost lost his life." Lara informed, rushing out the door, "We need to go."

The minute they reached the dining room, they landed their gazes on Jayden who remained still in his chair. His face had obtained a reddish hue.

His voice croaked, "What did you put in this?" gaze fixed on Lara.

"I..." Lara trailed off. His food was almost done. He had consumed almost everything before experiencing a reaction.

"Peanut oil?" he beseeched.

Brie then confessed, "I did."

He audibly cursed, which was rare to Lara since he barely did in public. He pushed his chair away from the table and latched his hand onto his neck.

"I didn't know you were allergic to it," Brie attempted to lie but he countered,

"Sure, you didn't."

Jayden furiously rubbed his throat, groaning as his strikingly handsome face continued to redden before their eyes.

"Jayden, what do I do?" Lara rushed to stand beside Jayden who had vehemently begun to scratch his exposed biceps and wrists. "Should I call your doctor?"

"Don't bother," he grimaced before detaching himself from the seat and making his way up the stairs to his room, scratching his arms and unzipping the flap of his brown jeans, completely abandoning what was left of his salad and soup on the table.

"Why would you do that?" Lara questioned an unreadable Brie, "We don't joke like this."

"As I said, I needed to teach him a lesson," she shrugged.

A frown ambushed Lara's dainty facial features, "Well, not like this," she told a nonchalant Brie.

Brie could care less. She was capable of doing much more than triggering someone's allergic reactions. He deserved it.

"Lara, where are you going?" Brie called out when she had realised that Lara had ascended the stairs and had moved in the direction of Jayden's room.

Ignoring Brie, Lara pushed open his room door, and the sight before her nearly sank her heart into the deepest pits of her stomach.

Jayden sat on the edge of his bed half-naked in his black boxers only, his shoulders and arms blazing with red raised welts and blotches that disfigured his once unblemished skin.

She gaped, rushing to a crouching position before him as she implored a visually distraught and pale Jayden, "Should I call your doctor? Tell me what to do."

He picked up on her eagerness to help, but before he was able to vocalize his thoughts, the walls of his throat constricted, a burning sensation perforating the confines of his gullet as he badly struggled to functionally respirate, the simple ability depreciating into nothing but dim candlelight.

"Fvck, I can't breathe," he swallowed his wheeze, "Can't breathe."

He tore himself from the bed, detaching himself from her touch as he marched towards his ensuite bathroom.

Moments later, after the cacophony he had made from dropping random objects during his search for a specific item, he emerged from the bathroom.

"Watch your step," Lara yelled when he nearly bumped into his couch, the dizziness clouding his senses now.

It got worse by the second that moving back to the bed became the hardest task of his life.

His muscles were contracting, his chest was tightening and his heart was beating incredibly fast.

He nearly reached his bed. He could see Lara rising to her feet.

The next thing he knew, his face had sloppily kissed the ground in a brutal force that was deemed life-threatening as if his anaphylaxis wasn't already.

Luckily, his knees had collided with the ground before his face had followed suit, the object he had picked from the bathroom immediately rolling out of his hand.

He groaned as Lara turned him over onto his back, "Jayden!"

His forehead reddened from the collision and his neck began to swell but it did not stop him from directing Lara, "Over there," he groaned, pointing at the object, "EpiPen."

His whole body rocked with immense pain from the fall and the allergic reaction. Hives decorated his skin in irregular patterns of red.

Lara immediately retrieved the auto-injector, and he took it from her, immediately taking the injector out of the tube, pushing off the blue cap so he could inject his thigh.

However, Lara took it back from him, earning a questioning look from his suffocated face.

"I'll do it. Just tell me exactly what to do."

He chose not to argue, time, clearly not on his side.

His next action sent a jolt of sensation up Lara's spine, coursing through her system. He possessively grabbed her hand and lodged it onto his strong outer thigh, the skin to skin contact with his muscled body part instilling tingles in her core.

"Right here, inject."

"Do I press something to let the needle come out?" she thoroughly observed the orange tip of the injector, left hand firmly placed on his thigh while the other carried the EpiPen.

He instructed, "No, just stab me with it. I'll feel it." A cough escaped his lips, "And don't let go till I say so."

"Okay," she understood. "I hope it doesn't hurt," hesitation crawled in but it wasn't enough to stop her from doing what needed to be done.

Within a blink of an eye, she stabbed the spot he had indicated, the click sound eminent, and had held it in place while waiting for his instructions to tell her when to stop.

He nodded to indicate that she could take it out.

"What next?" she asked, eager to provide utmost support to the man she still had feelings for.

Jayden whispered, his head pounding like he had been hanging upside down for five hours straight, "Rub the spot for a couple of seconds."

If Jayden hadn't been in pain, she would have succumbed to the sultry look in his dazzling eyes. Even in pain and with hives surfacing on his shoulders, he sure could not help his profounding appeal.

His face grew pale amidst the redness it had birthed, and his lips turned dry. She badly wanted to moisten them.

"Rub," he reminded, and she did as she was told. While she rubbed, she decided to look at the contents of the label on the EpiPen.

She had had a friend in high school who had carried it around all the time. The boy had been allergic to almost every goddamn thing in his life.

But he had never ceased letting everyone know that the one thing he was most allergic to was people.

Lara's eyes scanned the device while she rubbed his thigh. The minute she had laid eyes on a particular set of letters on the EpiPen, she froze.

Turning to Jayden, she shrieked, "Jayden, it's expired!"