The four of us were at Tyler's. He was throwing a party before we all headed off for Christmas break. It had been forever since we went to a party and I didn't really want to go, but Lana almost begged me into going. She said she wanted to let loose from a long week of exams and just have fun.

Lana and I had ditched the guys not long after arriving and headed for the kitchen to take shots with some group of guys we didn't know. I only took a few shots but Lana was throwing them back like liquor was about to be officially banned.

After her tenth shot I made her stop drinking, which she fought with me about claiming she wasn't drunk, but stopped drinking anyway.

Everything was fine until this one guy, who looked like he had started drinking way before we got there, started flirting with me, and I'm not talking about a little, I'm talking full on flirting. All it took was me telling him I'm not going to have sex with him for him to leave me alone and wander off to, probably, find some other girl to hit on.

Lana and I walked back into the living room where Derek and Grayson were sitting with Tyler and Stacie and two other people we didn't know.

"Let's play truth or dare," the one girl said. She was pretty drunk as she laughed and threw her head against the guy sitting beside her.

"Truth or dare?" he asked her

"Why not?" She shrugged. "It'll be fun."

"Okay, you go first, Tiffany," Stacie told her. I guess she knew who she was. "Oh, Ellie, Lana," she looked over at us. "This is my friend, Tiffany, and her boyfriend, Will."

We exchanged hellos and then Tiffany started the game. "Tyler," she turned to him, "truth or dare."

"Dare."

A mischievous smile spread across her lips. "I dare you to give Derek a lap dance."

Oh okay, we were playing that kind of truth or dare.

"What?" He looked at her oddly. "That's so weird, Tiffany."

"Would you rather have truth?"

"Maybe."

"Okay," she said and then grew quiet as she tapped her chin. "Where's the weirdest place you've had sex?"

His face fell and his eyes shot towards me for a split second, so quick I don't think anyone even noticed. "I'll do the dare." He stood up and looked more than uncomfortable as he walked a few feet over to Derek.

I wondered why he looked at me at her question. I mean was having sex on the trampoline in his backyard in the middle of the day really that weird? Okay, yeah maybe it was.

Not only that but Stacie was right there and her knowing that was the last thing I wanted, and apparently, he felt the same since he was now, grinding his ass against Derek's junk.

The look on both of their faces was priceless, but the rest of us were laughing way too hard at the sight. It only lasted, maybe, ten seconds, but it was the best ten seconds I've ever witnessed.

When it came around to Stacie's turn, she looked at me straight away. Of course. "Ellie, truth or dare."

"Truth." Everyone else had been choosing dare, but after seeing some of the things I've had to see I felt like truth was a safer bet.

"What's the worst sexual experience you've ever had?" she asked me.

My heart started to beat faster and my palms were getting sweaty. I hoped no one could sense how uneasy I felt. "Never mind." I shook my head. "I choose dare."

"I dare you to make out with Grayson," Lana blurted out, through her drunken state of having to take three shots for her dare. That made a total of way too many shots for the night.

My head shot towards her. "It's not even your turn!"

"Oh, that's a good one!" Stacie smiled. "I dare you to make out with Grayson!"

I blew my breath. "Fine." I pushed myself up from the floor and walked over to Grayson. He was sitting on the couch looking up at me with a look that I couldn't quite make out. It was like a mixture of, you don't have to but if you want to, I'm totally up for it.

I straddled his legs and cupped his cheeks as I leaned in and our lips met. The kisses were light and soft until his tongue traced my bottom lip and I parted them allowing him in. His one hand ran up my thigh to my waist while the other held my neck pulling me into him deepening the kiss. My hands ran through his hair gripping tight when he bit my bottom lip. I pulled away from him before the moan building in my throat could be heard.

My eyes were on his swollen lips before my eyes met his. I'm pretty sure the look on my face mimicked his. A look of, I didn't expect that, but damn was it good.

I licked my lips before turning around to face everyone. "There, done," I said as if it was no big deal.

Lana's smile was so wide I thought her cheeks might tear.

After our make out session the game ended. I dragged Lana to the kitchen and grabbed a shot glass filling it up with vodka, throwing it back and following with two more.

"If you try and tell me there is nothing between you two, you're lying out of your ass," Lana said as she reached for the bottle of vodka but I pulled it away from her and back to me.

I ignored the shot glasses and just drank from the bottle staring off into the distance at nothing in particular. "Is it hot in here or is the vodka getting to me?" I asked her.

"I don't think it's the vodka," she said as a smile crept onto her lips, and I took another drink while looking into the living room where I caught Grayson's eye for a second before I looked back at Lana. "I don't feel good," she said but I ignored her until she said, "I think I'm going to," she stopped talking and that's when I looked at her. Her face was twisted and she was holding her stomach. She jumped to her feet and took off running out the back door.

It took a minute for me to realize what was going on with Lana, with the vodka and other thought running through my head. I was about to take off after her to make sure she was okay, but someone caught my eye.

Farah was making her way into the kitchen looking right at me. She looked worried. "What are you doing here?" I asked her while looking her over. "Are you okay?"

She shook her head. "I think I just did something really bad."

"What?" I placed my hands on her shoulders to try and calm her. "It couldn't have been that bad."

"I was on my way back to the dorms when I saw this guy walking towards me. He stopped me and asked me if I knew you and I said yes," she paused and I could already sense where this was going. "Well, he asked if I knew where you were and I told him you would probably, either be at your dorm or here. He asked where each place was and I told him."

"Did he tell you his name?" I asked her.

She shook her head, again. "But he was tall,"

I cut her off. "How tall? Like Grayson tall?" He was at least six feet two inches. "Derek tall?" He was roughly a couple inches shorter than Grayson. "Or this tall?" I pointed to a guy not far from us who looked around five feet six inches.

"Derek, I would say." She grabbed the bottle of vodka and took a drink. I definitely didn't picture her to be the drinking type. Maybe she wasn't and was just freaking out, or could sense I was. "He had shorter dirty blonde hair, brown eyes, and he wore glasses. Oh, and he was wearing a suit, which I thought was weird."

She described him to a T. I could feel the anxiety building in me but I didn't want her to see it so I tried to remain calm.

"I didn't think anything about it at first, but then when he thanked me and walked off, I don't know. I just got this weird feeling and had to come find you," she told me.

"Well, thank you for coming to tell me." My hands were still on her shoulders and I gave them a squeeze. "You should go home," I told her but then those words didn't sit well in my stomach. "Actually, no." I didn't want to take the chance of her running into him again. I didn't think he would do anything to her, but still, I didn't want to chance it.

"C'mon," I said and grabbed her hand while leading her into the living room. Grayson and Derek were still standing there with the truth or dare group, and they all looked at us when we walked up. "Watch her," I told Grayson.

He had a puzzled look on his face. "Is everything okay?"

I nodded. "Yeah, it's fine," I lied. "I'm going to go get Lana really quick." I hurried off before he or anyone else could question me anymore.

I stepped outside to see Lana at the side of the porch leaned over. As I walked over to her I could hear her groaning at her sickness. "Lana."

"I don't feel good," she mumbled, her head still hanging over the side of the railing. "I shouldn't have taken all those shots."

"I know." I rested my hand on her back. "But we need to go."

"Why?"

"Because, I think Jared is about to show up here."

Her head shot towards me and the fast movement made her stumble. "Why would he?"

"Farah ran into him and she told him where I would be."

"Why would she do that?"

"She didn't know who he was. It's not her fault." I shook my head. "And she thought something was up so she came right away here to tell me."

She nodded in understatement. "That was nice of her."

"Yeah." I took hold of her arms. "Now we need to get out of here."

I held on to her to keep her steady and help her walk. Just as we were about to step into the house, we were blocked by someone standing in the way. I looked up to see Jared standing there, and my stomach fell.

"Hey, Ellie," he said.

"Leave her alone, you piece of shit," Lana yelled in anger at him.

He ignored her and looked at me. "Can we talk?"

"No," I said.

"I've been trying to get a hold of you."

"I blocked your number." I pushed passed him, leading Lana along with me.

The music was loud so I couldn't hear him following us, but I could feel that he was. "Ellie, c'mon," I heard him say.

"We're leaving, c'mon Farah," I said when we got back to our group.

"Ellie," Jared said as he grabbed my shoulder.

"Don't touch me!" I shook from his grasp.

"How many times do I have to apologize to you?" he asked me.

"Apologize?" I spat. I let go of Lana to spin on my heels, from the corner of my eye I saw Derek catch Lana before she fell on the floor. "You think you can apologize and everything will be okay?" I stared into his eyes; they looked guilt ridden but I could see past that to the coldness laced in them. "Look, I already told you I forgive you, but that wasn't for you. That was for me, so I could just move on and not have you stuck in the back of my head every day."

"If you forgive me then what's the problem?"

"The problem is I'll never forget."

"Oh c'mon. I was drunk and I know that doesn't make it okay, but I was."

I was focused on Jared, but I could hear how quiet it was, even with the loud music. I knew everyone was watching and listening to us.

I was about to say something until I, literally, saw Jared rise at least two inches off the ground and be slammed against the wall. Grayson had a grip on Jared's suit collar pinning him against the wall.

"Grayson, stop," I told him but he kept him against the wall. I turned to Jared. "You know damn well that's not what I'm talking about!" I turned back to Grayson. "Grayson, stop. Please." I grabbed his arm and he let go of his collar letting his feet hit the floor.

"This must be your boyfriend," Jared said as he situated his suit. "And are you seriously going to start on that, again?"

"Excuse me?"

He laughed. "Oh c'mon. You were into it just as much as me."

"I'm not talking about this here."

"What is he talking about?" Lana asked me.

"Nothing," I told her shaking my head at Jared. I turned to leave. "C'mon, let's just go."

I began to walk off but heard Jared say, "you can't be mad at me. You wanted it."

I stopped in my tracks, trying to calm the anger boiling inside of me. Then I turned, slowly. The room was so quiet like everyone was waiting to see what I did or said next. Then it was as if the slow motion stopped and I was racing towards him. "Maybe at first, but then I realized how fucking crazy you are. I said I didn't want to. I said stop. I said no." I held a finger up for each three I said.

"Ellie, did he-," Lana didn't finish her question but I knew what she was referring to.

Before I had the chance to answer her Grayson had him pinned against the wall, again. His fist was clenched in the air about to swing. "Grayson, no!" I grabbed his arm and tried to pull it back down.

He looked down at me, angered. "If he did that to you then why not?"

"He didn't. Okay." He eased up and let me bring his arm down. "He didn't get the chance to." His hand was still clenched at his side and I held it between my hands. "I just want to leave. Please let's just go."

"If you ever even attempt to talk to her again, or come near her again, I will beat your ass," Grayson threatened him, and by the tone of his voice I knew he meant it.

He unclenched his hand and interlocked his fingers with mine allowing me to lead him out of the house.

The walk back to the dorms was quiet. I could feel Lana and Grayson glance at me from time to time. I'm sure they were mad that I left out that bit of information as to why I don't like Jared.

When we made it back to the dorms, I walked with Farah back to her room, Grayson following closely behind. I wanted to make sure she made it back inside her room safely.

"I just wanted to say thank you again for coming to find me tonight," I said to her.

"I'm still so sorry for telling him."

I shook my head. "You didn't know. It's not your fault."

She looked past me to Grayson. "Make sure to protect her. Always."

"Of course, I will," I heard him say behind me.

I waited for her to walk inside her room and didn't walk away until I heard the lock turn.

When Grayson and I walked back to my room we stayed quiet, but I could tell he wanted to ask me something, though he didn't get the chance to because the moment we walked into the room Lana ran right up to me asking, "why didn't you tell me he tried to do that to you?"

"Because it's not something I wanted to talk about." I grabbed some clothes and slipped into the bathroom to change. I walked back out and Lana was still staring at me. "I managed to stop it before it happened. I don't want to talk about it, anymore."

She nodded. "Okay." She crawled into bed beside Derek. "I hate him though."

"Join the club," I told her and then turned the light out and crawled into bed.

A knock on the door woke me from the sleep I was, finally, able to get after laying there for an hour. I crawled over Grayson, who was now awake, and headed for the door, hearing Lana whisper, "who could that be?"

I flipped the light switch lighting up the room, squinting as my eyes tried to adjust to the brightness, then I opened the door. "What are you doing here?" I asked Jared as he stood just outside the door looking down at me with a blank expression.

"I came to apologize."

"I've heard enough of your apologies to last me a lifetime, Jared." I tried to close the door but he put his hand up stopping it from closing. "Just leave," I told him.

"Not until you talk to me," he said, still pushing against the door preventing me from closing it.

"I thought I told you not to talk to or come near her, again," Grayson told him, now standing beside me.

"This doesn't involve you," Jared told him dryly and then tried to take a step closer to me, but Grayson shoved him back.

I didn't think the situation would escalate so quickly just from a shove, but Jared's fist connected with Grayson's jaw and within seconds Jared was on the floor, Grayson above him and his fist making contact with Jared's face repeatedly.

"What the hell is going on?" Lana yelled and then footsteps pounded the floor growing louder as they neared me.

"Grayson stop," I yelled at him. My eyes were burning, too afraid to blink in fear something terrible would happen if I did. "Grayson!" I grabbed him by his bare shoulders, lunging forward as his arm swung once more before falling to his side.

Derek stepped up beside me and replaced my hands with his pulling Grayson back. Grayson fell to the side on his ass before using his hands to push himself backwards, his back hitting against the wall.

I stared down at a bloody Jared who just laid there looking up at me rubbing his jawline. I let out a sigh before walking back into the dorm and into the bathroom. I grabbed two towels and wet them both before walking back out into the hall.

For the first time I noticed a few girls standing in their doorways looking at the scene in front of our door before slipping back in their rooms with expressions of worry and fake disregard to the situation.

I handed one of the towels to Jared. "You should really leave before someone sees you here," I told him and watched as he stood up while using the towel to apply pressure to his lip. He gave me a long stare before turning around and walking down the hall and disappearing.

I turned to face Grayson, staring down at him as he looked up at me. My hands were on my hips, the wet towel soaking into the side of my shirt.

"We'll just give you two some privacy," Lana said before slipping back into the room with Derek and closing the door.

"Are you mad at me?" Grayson asked me.

I sighed and sat down, cross legged, on the floor in front of him. He spread his legs out on both sides of me. "I'm not happy."

"I'm sorry."

I used the towel to wipe the blood from the corner of his lip. "You shouldn't have done that."

"I know. Just seeing him come around you like he never did anything to you pissed me off," he said as I folded the towel to hide the blood and used a clean part to wipe the small blood stain from the side of his eyebrow. "I just care about you."

A small smile spread across my lips. "Well, I care about you, too. Obviously. I'm sitting here wiping gross blood off your face." I chuckled.

He laughed. "Thank you."

Once I wiped the last of his blood, I let me hands fall into my lap. I leaned forward resting my forehead on his bare chest and closed my eyes. "But I told you he wasn't worth going to jail for."

"You think I'm going to go to jail?" he asked worried.

"No." I laughed. "But no telling what is going to happen now. My mom is stuck up his ass."

I felt his hands on my knees. "I'm sorry. If she does anything it will be my fault." He caressed my knees with his thumbs. "But I'm not sorry for kicking his ass."

I shook my head as I laughed. "I won't blame you for anything she does, if she does it."

"But it will be my fault."

I pulled away from him and looked into his eyes. "No. It will be Jared's fault. No matter how hard I try he just won't leave me alone."

He grabbed my hands. "I'll kick his ass a million times if I have to."

"No." I shook my head. "No more fighting because of me."

"I did it for you."

"Well, then no more fighting for me." I stood up still holding his hands. "It's been a very eventful night and I just want to go to sleep."

He stood up. "Then let's go to sleep."

But I didn't sleep. I laid in bed in the dark with my mind going a hundred miles a minute. I couldn't stop thinking about anything and everything. I was pretty sure Grayson was awake, too, but I stayed in silence not wanting to talk, as he held me in his arms.