I lay on the couch, trying to pick another movie to watch on tv. The popcorn bowl sits on my lap as I do so and I feel the remote being snatched out of my hand.

I groan, turning to Alisha. "Give it back."

"No, you've been like that for like a week. Get up."

She pulls me up my hands so I manage to get up, "What do you want?" I ask her.

"Don't ask questions, I'm giving you a makeover today and bringing you somewhere with me." She throws an arm over my shoulder, leading me to my room.

"Alisha-"

"Uh uh uh, I said don't ask questions. It's your special day and you're just sitting around." She sits me down in front of my vanity and I sigh.

Maybe she was right, I needed to get out. Unnecessarily staying home just because I didn't feel like it wasn't right.

She brings a piece of short black fabric which seems to be a dress as she brought it closer, she puts it over my chest and hands it to me.

"Put this on."

I head to the bathroom to change into it, it's a short black dress with a triangle shaped cutout by my chest, showing an insane amount under it. Both sides don't have sleeves, small straps keeping it intact, and one arm warmer that I slid on my right arm.

^ the dress

-

I step out of the bathroom, "Alisha I don't know if I should be wearing this-"

Her eyes light up, "Are you kidding me? You look hot."

"Thank you, I literally love you." I wrap my arms around her and she continues to compliment me, I wonder how I ever thought I looked bad at all.

"I don't want this back, keep it." She tells me, I try to deny it but she continues to change the topic.

I had known that Alisha was good at makeup, but not this good. She made me look so much better than I did an hour ago, you wouldn't even have guessed that I was in my couch almost about to cry.

Alisha was wearing a white dress with sheer bell sleeves and an open back, I still had no idea where we were going but she said not to ask so I didn't bother.

We show up to this hotel where a party is taking place, the strobe lights come in my vision as we walk in.

Heels made me seem taller than I already was, I liked that feeling even though I was already pretty tall.

We sit at a table and an extravagant sign sits in the middle of it that read 'Alisha Pierce' in cursive.

"This place is so beautiful." I stared in awe of the area, "Wow." I wasn't aware of what was going on but I loved it.

"Thank me later." She says, giving my shoulder a squeeze.

I watched as a waiter approached us at our table, he places a large cake in the center of the placemat, handing me a pink knife.

The cake is yellow and at the top it reads, "happy 21st birthday inez!" in white frosting, all lower case.

Even though I hated birthdays with a burning passion, I appreciated the fact that Alisha had put effort into cheering me up on the day of the year that I wasn't fond of. I was enjoying it as well.

I smile and thank her over and over, blowing out the candles that sat on top.

Cutting a small piece out of the cake, I feed it to Alisha and she does too. We have the waiter take pictures of us on our phones and Polaroid cameras.

"Thank you, really. I don't thank you enough."

"Shut up, I don't wanna hear that anymore. This is what I'm here for." She tells me as we walk around the crowd, suddenly my smile fades as I spot someone who I swore forgot who I was.

He holds the bottom of the wine glass while our eyes lock, his ring finger on the bottom of it and the rest around the neck of the glass. raking his eyes up and down my body.

Alisha takes me to the other side of the lobby, she starts talking to this guy in front of us.

"Hi. Akash." He reaches out his hand for me to shake, he has dark brown skin and ebony black hair, dressed in a light blue suit.

We shake hands, "Nice to meet you, Inez."

We made small talk for the rest of the evening, I occasionally make eye contact with Ronan but attempt to ignore him. I wasn't giving someone time who couldn't even give me any of his.

Akash offers me to dance and I give in, his right hand resting on my waist as we danced to the slow music that played, his left hand holding mine.

I've been pulling my dress down all night and it's bothering me.

I don't know why but I felt like he kept looking at me, as if I could feel the jealousy right through him even though I haven't spoken to him once tonight.

Akash and I danced for a while and I genuinely enjoyed it, I was enjoying someone else's company.

"Could I- get your number? If you want? It's completely okay if you don't sorry if I just sound like a creep right now-"

I start laughing, telling him my number as he dials it in.

He leaves after twenty minutes so I grow bored, Alisha is hanging out with her other friends so I don't bother.

I step outside to get some air, the cold breeze hitting my bare legs as soon as I got outside. I really should've worn a different dress.

Staring at the view of the city in front of me, I watched as the sky became darker after a couple minutes.

"You didn't tell me it was your birthday." I heard a raspy voice speak, I didn't need to turn to tell who it was but I still did.

He's in a white buttoned shirt and slacks, still managing to look good while I was mad at him.

I attempt to walk away but he grabs my wrist, pulling me towards him.

I scoff, "It's not like you would've answered." There's bitterness laced to my words as I looked him straight in the eye.

"I'm sure you told your little boyfriend over there it was your birthday." He changes the subject.

I actually laugh this time, a humorless one.

"Are you being serious right now? He's not my boyfriend."

"Yeah?"

"Let go of me." I try to take my wrist out of his grasp yet he doesn't even move the position of his hand.

"Why have you been avoiding me?"

"What?" I furrow my brows.

"Is it because of him?"

"I'm actually so-" I shook my head in disbelief, "you can't just-"

"I can't what?" He smirks, we were only inches apart face to face.

"After all this, you can't just act fucking jealous."

"Get over yourself, yeah?" I felt small droplets of water soak the top of my head, I didn't even care at this point.

"I hate you." I spit out, he backs me up so my bare back was against the cold fence.

"Really? Do you?"

"You can't just abandon me for three weeks and act like nothing's fucking happened!" I was angry, so much that I wanted to cry, but I wasn't going to.

"For fucks sake, I've been busy." He runs a hand through his hair.

"That's your excuse? Not even an apology. And on top of that you're being a dick, these past few months have clearly meant nothing to you." I attempt to leave but we're both in the middle of the parking lot.

"Because I couldn't fucking stand seeing you with him all night." His tone changes so it was harsher than it already was.

"God, why do you even care?" I crossed my arms over my chest, "Because I was spending my time with someone who actually valued my presence?"

"I don't have shit to apologize for."

"So fucking pathetic." He says, before I was aware of it my palm hit his right cheek.

Even that couldn't wipe off that lopsided smile off his face, he throws his head back to let out a hoarse deep chuckle.

"I don't give a fuck about who's bed you're in every night."

"You're insane." I took a pause. "God, I really fucking hate you." I spoke again in a lower tone.

The rain begins to fall harder, developing into the loud drops that you could hear falling over and over.

"And to think I ever thought of you as a genuine friend." I said.

"Friends, huh?" He grit out, he lowers his gaze down to the wet concrete.

He lets go of my wrist and I don't even try to stay for another second and walk away, leaving him there. The heeled shoes making a strange tapping sound as I walked back inside, soaked.

I needed to find Alisha, everyone stared at me as I got back into the lobby.

Spotting Alisha, I made my way back to her and she looks at me, her face becoming concerned once she saw me.

"What ha-", she refrains from asking what happened seeing it would make me more upset. "Are you okay?"

"Alisha can we leave please?" I asked her, I didn't care how dumb I looked in front of everyone I just wanted everything to end.

"Yeah of course, guys we really have to go thank you for having us." She ends the conversation with them and swings her arm over my shoulder.

We both step out of the hotel lobby and make our way outside, she doesn't push me to say anything.

"I saw him." I said after I sat in the passenger seat.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry I didn't know-" She begins to apologize but I cut her off.

"It's okay, it's not your fault. Let's just go home and I'll talk about it."

-

"He did what?" Viola looks furious as she pours the alcohol into the small glasses in front of us, we sat on the roof after coming home.

Once I'd gotten back, I slid the dress off me and had changed into a thin tank top and shorts, what all my pajama sets consisted of.

Alisha invited Viola over and I told them everything that happened tonight, the rain stopped so we were sitting on the roof.

"I'm so glad I don't have to deal with dating men." Viola took a sip of the drink, Alisha nudges her shoulder.

"Oh fuck. Sorry. You guys didn't even date. Are talking stages always this complicated?"

"Talking stage?" I raised an eyebrow, "I don't like him like that."

They both start to laugh at my words.

"Guys, stop. This is serious."

"You're right, we're sorry. But-" Alisha begins to speak.

"But what?"

"Block him." Viola says.

"He doesn't even try to contact me what's the point?"

Suddenly I hear the notification sound and pick up my phone, when I turn it on I see a text from him.

I'm sorry for tonight

Before I let myself open the text, I ask my friends for reassurance.

"Don't. Block him." Viola instructs.

"If you don't want to we'll do it for you."

My pointer finger skims over the block button but I decide to anyway.

-

thank uu for 22k reads i really truly love you vote and comment !!! + take care of yourselves have the most amazing and deserving weekend. work/school whatever you're doing is extremely exhausting , and u worked so hard! enjoy this time for yourselves.