I groaned softly and rolled over on the couch, opening my eyes. I squinted them as the bright rays of sunshine shone through the blinds. I yawned softly and got up, dragging my body with as much strength as possible to my bedroom.

I need to get in the shower. It was always better to get it out of the way now instead of waiting until much later. Plus, it was a good way to get me more energized for the day.

When I got upstairs I opened my door with a weak hand and walked over to my closet, nearly stumbling over. I stretched my arms out blindly in attempts to find an outfit for today, but I was interrupted by my phone vibrating. Not once, not twice. But three times.

I was too tired to think of who it might be. And I didn't plan on answering at first, but the third vibration kind of peaked my interest. I don't know who could possibly be contacting me. It can't be my mom, she hardly texts me because she's always busy. And besides her, I don't know anybody else...

I took my phone out from my jacket pocket and looked at the time first before checking my messages. I saw that it was exactly 2:16 pm. Had I really woken up that late? That's not normal for me.

Eh. I shrugged it off and typed in the password to unlock my phone. I immediately clicked on the messaging icon and saw 3 notifications from an unknown number. I lifted a brow in confusion and felt slightly alarmed as I opened it.

Yo Angel it's Nas. I didn't plan on messaging you frfr but I got bored. I was wondering if you wanted to hang td or sumn

2:13 pm

Hurry up and answer kid

2:14 pm

Ok fine I'll just ask someone else

2:16 pm

"Oh my god!" I whisper yelled. I had totally forgotten that I'd practically forced my number into Nas' phone. I didn't expect him to actually call or text me since he didn't seem interested. But I'm glad he did. I thought I'd be the one to make the first move.

I bit my lip in concentration as I typed back a reply, secretly hoping he didn't actually find someone else to hang out with. That would be a huge bummer. To be honest if he hadn't texted me at all I probably would have ended up locking myself in the house all day.

I'm kind of scared to step out of my own home now, ever since meeting Zhayne. The man was very...off to say the least. His vibe was just not right and it was enough to make anyone want to avoid contact with him. And despite him basically threatening me into making me see him again, I will not do so. At least not willingly.

Why would I volunteer to put myself in an even worse situation? I may be dense sometimes, but I'm surely not stupid. I think the best thing for me to do right now is to just lay low...well after hanging out with Nas of course. Then afterward, I will probably go into hiding. I need to be as cautious as possible.

About time, I was ac gonna ditch if you didn't answer.

2:19 pm

i'm sorry i was asleep!

2:20 pm

No worries Angel. What you wanna do?

2:22 pm

And in that very moment I felt my anxiety skyrocket out of nowhere. I'm not so good when it comes to decision making. Not only that, but I've never been out with someone before. I don't 'know what I wanna do'. I sighed, letting my mind trail off for a moment.

A couple seconds passed and I thought of nothing. If I'm being completely honest, I'm actually glad I didn't. Because last time I tried to come up with something for me to do I ended up locked in a room with some weird man kissing and feeling up on me. I thought that allowing the brilliant idea of going to a club wouldn't really result in any issues. But look what we have here...

I texted him back.

can you some up with something? i can't think of anything.

2:24 pm

Sure kid. How about I take you to meet some of my friends?

2:26 pm

At first I was a little startled reading the text. Of course the reason being because of my horrible social skills. But I'm willing to go anyways. I can't miss out on my only opportunity to possibly make friends. I've been closed off from the world for some time now, I guess it wouldn't hurt to socialize just once.

sure!

2:28 pm

Cool. Be ready by like 3:30 I'll come pick you up. Send me your address.

2:28 pm

I quickly sent him my address and left it at that. I only have one hour to prepare and I need to hurry and get ready now. I kind of have a feeling that if I wasn't done by the given time that Nas probably wouldn't hesitate to leave me here. Thinking about that, I hurriedly grabbed what I needed for my shower and made a beeline for the bathroom.

I wasted a total of about 30 minutes in there. I probably shouldn't have taken that long considering the fact that I'm kind of on a time limit here, but that's okay. I will just have to manage my time wisely from here on out.

Stepping out of the shower I grabbed my towel and wrapped it around me. I reached for my toothbrush and toothpaste from the cabinet and took care of my dental business. When I was done I rushed to my room to get dressed.

I decided to wear something casual. Nothing too ugly or too much. I'm just going to meet his friends so I'm sure there's no need to go all out. I ended up picking out a yellow white and navy blue striped Guess shirt that was a little big on me. I liked it that way though so it wasn't a bother. Then I paired it with some simple light ripped jeans that rose above the ankle and some white slip on vans. For accessories I just threw on my Apple Watch and wore my golden necklace that had my name on it. I topped it off by putting on a little bit of perfume and that was it.

I stood in front of the mirror and studied my reflection. I think I look okay. I nodded my head in approval and walked over to my dresser and picked my phone up off of it to check the time. It was exactly 3:25 pm on the dot. My eyes widened. Christ! Did it really take me that long?

I grabbed my keys, wallet and charger. As soon as I grabbed the last item my phone dinged, letting me know that Nas had probably texted back. I unlocked it and indeed it was him.

Outside.

3:26 pm

I wasted no time leaving my room. He was here a few minutes early and It's okay to say that I'm relieved that I was able to finish getting ready beforehand. After heading down the stairs I reached my living room. I did a quick once over of everything to make sure nothing was out of place. When I was sure it looked fine I opened my front door and locked it behind me when I got outside. I was immediately greeted by the bright sunlight invading my eyesight. Jesus. It sure is hot outside today. Well, It is LA. What did I expect?

I walked down the driveway and hopped into the passengers seat of Nas' sleek black jeep. "Sup. Are you good?" Was the first thing he said to me when I got in.

I reached over to put my seatbelt on. "H-Hey! Yeah..I'm fine, why do you ask?" I inquired. Nas narrowed his eyes slightly, looking unconvinced.

"Mm. You seem a little off. But I'll take your word for it." He said and pulled out of my driveway.

How was he able to tell something was wrong? Am I that obvious? I guess I'm not as good at hiding my emotions as I thought I was. That means I still have a lot that I need to change, because I don't like that he can read me. That's one of my biggest fears. Being figured out. The thought haunts me.

Maybe I just need to stop thinking about what happened yesterday so much because I'm sure that's what it is. It had been on my mind all day so far. I tried to push the thoughts of Zhayne away but they keep eating at me. Every time I tried to distract myself they come back and that causes my anxiety to start up.

I hope that Nas taking me out will help ease my mind. Hopefully I'll forget about Zhayne after all of this and I'll be able to move on. I'm probably just making it a bigger deal than it really is. Anxiety tends to make me overthink just about every situation I get in and that's probably the case now. I just need to relax and that's all.

I sighed and turned to Nas, who was focused heavily on the road. He had one hand on the wheel, his index finger tapping it to some beat in his head and his free hand rested on his thigh. He looked a lot more at ease than me.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

He looked at me for a quick second before looking ahead again. "To my friend Torrence's house. He threw a party today. It started at like 12 and we're a couple hours late but it really doesn't matter. His parties last all day." He told me.

Huh? "W-what kind of party?" I asked another question.

Nas chuckled and stopped at a red light. "You shouldn't ask so many questions kid. Just enjoy the ride. You'll see what kind of party it is when we get there."

Now I'm alarmed.

About 10 minutes had passed by when we finally pulled up to the scene. And lord, what I saw was not what I was expecting at all. My eyes scanned the large mansion in front of us in pure disbelief as I watched what was going on around it. There were a bunch of cars parked in the driveway and even some in the lawn. I'm pretty sure that will ruin the grass but whatever, it's not my property. It wasn't even in an orderly fashion either, they were just scattered everywhere.

There were also way too many people in the front yard itself, dancing, drinking, smoking, making out, and doing other wild things that I wouldn't see on a normal day. A normal day for me specifically.

I turned to Nas, the only thought running through my head was, 'I want to go home'. But just as I turned my head I see him quickly slip out of the car and shut the door behind him. He can't just leave me here!

I quickly unfastened my seatbelt and nearly jumped out of the car. "Uh Nas?! Y-you can't leave me back here! I-I don't know where I'm going!" I said a little loudly as I walked really fast to catch up to him.

The red head spun on his heel to face me just as I was right behind him, and just like last night I was knocked over by a body that was significantly larger than mine. Yet. Again. God I hope this won't be a reoccurring thing.

When I looked back up though, I was relieved to see that no one was paying me any attention. They were all still focused on doing whatever crazy activities they were doing before.

Nas glanced down at me. "Sorry Angel. Come on." He held his hand out for me to take and I did. I stood up straight and dusted myself off and tried focusing on bracing myself for what was to come next.

I kind of regret coming here. That being because I've never been to a party before a day in my life...well, one like this. The only party I ever recall going to was my cousin Lial's. That, first of all was held in a church, and second, I was 8 years old and so was pretty much everyone else that attended besides the adults to watch us. So this was a completely different ball game.

I just pray this turns out okay.

We got to the front door and Nas walked right in, not even bothering to knock. I guess it was pointless to do that though. No one would be able to hear him over the booming techno music playing through the vibrating speakers. It was loud enough to make me go deaf.

When we entered the house, the atmosphere was so much worse than I would have hoped for. In fact, it was worse than the club. There were more people and more chaos. They seemed to be gathered into one area more than spread out and really bothered me. There was hardly any room for me to move without bumping into someone.

There were stuffed animals, bubbles, confetti, and blow up balloons along with alcohol being tossed in the air, causing Nas and I to have to duck in order to avoid getting hit. Broken beer bottles were also being stepped on every time I struggled to move forward.

I guess it was a bad idea for me to wear these shoes. Eh. Well in my defense I thought I was coming to some nice little get together. Not some wild party that looked straight out of Spring Breakers.

"Angel." I looked up from the glass shards to look at Nas. "My friends should be somewhere a lot quieter. Follow me." He said and grabbed my hand before letting me say anything.

He steered me away from the huge crowd of people and led me up a case of stairs. I felt myself calm down more and more as we got further away from the chaos. We kept on walking until we eventually ended up in a long hallway.

Nas and I looked left and right, searching for the room his friends would be in. Most of the doors turned out to be closed and locked though. I came to the conclusion that most people were probably hooking up in there. I shivered in disgust at the mere thought.

After checking more doors we eventually reached the last door on the end and it was found left agape, letting us know that it's okay to walk in. Everything was much much quieter up here than it was downstairs and because of that I already felt better.

Nas opened the door and walked in, letting go of my hand. I followed closely behind and kept my head low. I had to keep myself from coughing as well. The room was hot and filled to the brim with smoke. And it smelled horrible. I didn't want to be rude though so I didn't cover my nose.

Nas and I sat down on a couch opposite to one that was facing us where 3 large guys sat. He tapped my shoulder and introduced me to them. "Guys, this is Angel." He said, looking at me for a second. I raised my hand timidly and gave them a little wave.

He then began to point toward each of them individually, telling me their names as he went. "Angel. This is Torrence, the party host and owner of this house." He said and on queue a tall and well built brown haired boy raised his free hand while the other had a basketball spinning on the index finger. "Sup." He said simply, nodding at me with a smile.

Then he pointed to an even bigger buff blonde guy. "The big guy right there is Chance." He did the same thing Torrence did, keeping it short and sweet. "That's Sterling." A darker brown haired boy who looked to be of Korean descent gave me a tight lipped smile and saluted me.

I noticed he was holding something that looked like a thick brown stick. I was confused as to what it might be at first, but when he held it up to his lips and inhaled deeply I didn't have to question it anymore. So that's what I was smelling. Weed.

The boy blew out the smoke and passed the blunt to Chance who didn't hesitate to take a hit right after him. Sterling let out a relaxed sigh and rested both of his arms on the back of the couch, looking pretty much out of it.

Nas and his friends spent the next half hour or so talking and laughing. They all included me in the conversation often which was so kind of them but since I'm not used to them just yet, I kept my replies short. But that didn't seem to bother them. They were pretty chill and laid back people.

"Where the fuck is Lucien?" Nas suddenly inquired, cutting the discussion about their sexual experiences short. The boy now known as Torrence shrugged, still spinning the ball on his finger without struggle.

"I don't know. Last time I checked he was in the other room doing body shots. But you know Lu, he's always off doing some other shit so I can't say. Aye-" he snapped his fingers in Chance's face. "Pass the fucking blunt you two have been hogging it for the longest." He demanded, holding out his free hand.

Chance took one more hit then passed it to Torrence who then looked to me after taking his turn. He exhaled the smoke and held the blunt toward my direction. He then says, "you wanna take a hit?" My eyes widened at his startling question.

"I-uh- no. Sorry. I-I don't smoke." I told him, politely declining. Weed was definitely not my thing. No drug was. It was nice of him to offer though I guess. Torrence chuckled and handed it over to Nas and he takes his turn with it.

"Looks like we got an innocent one. You a freshman? I haven't seen you around campus before." He said, tilting his head to the side as he quizzed me.

"I'm actually n-not in college yet. I'm a senior i-" I was suddenly cut off by someone busting through the door.

"Yooo these body shots are going fucking crazy. You guys should go- who is that?" We all looked up to see a raven haired boy peaking his head in through the doorway. That must be the Lucien Nas was asking about.

I didn't make eye contact with him, he was making me kind of uncomfortable with the staring. So I fiddled with my nails and looked at almost everything but him. "I-I'm Angel." I gave him a nervous smile and wave. He gladly returned the gesture.

"You're beautiful." He suddenly says with an unreadable expression on his face. I gasped and felt my heart beat faster in my chest. Not because I'm flattered. But because I'm still scarred from yesterday. His compliment reminded me of what Mr. Donovan said to me. I found myself saying a silent prayer, praying with my all that this was not another Zhayne.

"Lucien, don't even think about it. You're fast as fuck and there's no telling what kind of diseases you're carrying. Don't try to pass that shit to Angel." Nas says with a chuckle while shaking his head.

Lucien's mouth dropped as he feigned offense. "Shut up, dickhead. Don't be jealous. If you want some pussy just say that." He scoffed. "Anyways, there's nothing wrong with me acknowledging his beauty..." he turned back to me, "you really are beautiful though. Like damn. I don't mean to be so forward but-"

"Dude you're so gay." Torrence doubled over in laughter. I raised a brow, genuinely confused. I'm not even trying to be funny, but I don't know what he was so weak over.

"Bi. There is a difference, asshole." Lucien moved from his spot and walked over to Torrence, knocking the ball out of his hand. The brown haired boy looked at the ball still in fits of laughter as it rolled away then proceeded to politely ask a pretty blonde girl who was standing in a corner minding her own business to go get it for him. She did, eagerly too. He thanked her as she handed it back.

"Lucien don't be so mean it was only a joke, dude." He wiped a tear from his eye and smiled at the raven. Lucien narrowed his eyes.

"You play too much. Anyways...Angellll." I felt my heart stop as he focused on me yet again. "Have you done body shots before?"

Oh lord.

"No. I-I don't drink." I told him.

"Well it won't be you drinking though." He replies.

"I'm confused." Nas butted in.

"Well if you don't drink then I will. I'll do the body shots on you. You can just sit there and be pretty while I do the work." Lucien said. I visibly shrank. This is exactly why I should have stayed my little self at home. If I'd have known this was going to happen I probably wouldn't have came. Jeez. I've been regretting a lot of my decisions lately it seems.

"Hey, it's alright. If you don't want to do it you don't have to, no pressure at all. Just let me know." He assured me. I turned my head to look over at Nas. He motioned for me to lean over.

"If anything happens, I will intervene. Go, let loose a little. You look stressed anyways." He murmured in my ear then pulled back. He's right. I do have a lot on my mind right now and I would do anything to relax just a little. So I nodded my head and took a deep breath.