Five

I was numb. Just completely and utterly dumbfounded.

My brain was taking a lot of time to process what the fuck just happened. Throughout the ride home, I replayed the kisses over and over in my mind. How they felt and how they drove me to peaks of desire and ecstasy.

After I reached my home, I walked like a robot to my room, all the while ignoring my parents and brother. I plopped down on my bed and that was when it hit me.

HARPER CAIN KISSED ME! AND I KISSED HIM BACK! AND I LIKED IT!

TWICE, if you leave that last peck.

After I freaked out for half an hour, I decided I needed an expert opinion on this matter and that's why I called my two best friends on a conference call and told them everything.

Silence reigned for a few seconds on their ends and then they screamed. I could feel cracks beginning to form in my room's walls and my eardrums being shattered. They were that loud.

They giggled for some time, fangirled a lot, and fought over who was going to be my maid of honor in my wedding with Harper. They even foretold the names of our children because according to them 'we are so meant to be together'. Over dramatic much?! I rolled my eyes at their childish behavior.

It was a nice distraction. Their giggling and 'oohing' and 'aahing' certainly put me in a much lighter mood.

I mean, he had just asked me out for a party. It was not even a proper date. And before that, we hadn't even spoken two words to each other (if you exclude the short conversation we had in the janitor's closet). So what was the big deal?

But even then, I let them have their moment, because why not. It amused me to no end and diverted my mind.

The only reasonable decision my two best friends could come up with was to help me get ready for Harper's birthday party tonight.

So, at exactly seven, they came over to my house and dolled me up. They curled my straight hair into soft waves. They made me wear a chick strapless black figure-hugging dress that rested just above my knees and accentuated my curves. Then, they gave me black pumps to wear with four-inch heels and because of them, I now stood tall at 5'9". My makeup was light but my eyes were given a smoky look which looked very attractive.

They changed me!

After taking an hour on me, they both worked super fast and were ready in just half an hour. That was the fastest I had ever seen them getting ready. I swear, they were more excited about this party than I was.

And that was why here I was, sitting in the backseat of Samantha's car with Natalie sitting in the front, filled with nervous anticipation.

I didn't even know why I was nervous, to be honest. I mean, like I said before, it was just a party. Nothing serious at all. 

And it's not like I had never attended parties. I had gone to my fair share of parties, gotten drunk, danced like crazy, committed drunken mistakes which I regretted later, and woke up with a killer hangover in the morning. As I said, parties were not new to me at all. So, I didn't have the slightest clue as to why I was getting nervous.

Clenching my hands into fists, I took deep breaths and tried to control my anxiety.

"We are here," Samantha said.

Harper lived in the richer part of the town. The insanely rich part of the town was directly opposite to mine. I am not saying that I was poor or anything. No one was really poor in our little town but Harper, he was insanely rich. The society in which he lived, was a sucker for guards and all kinds of security systems. On a normal day, normal people like me won't even be able to enter the society premises. We were only allowed entry because Harper was having a party. Talk about being royalty! I had no idea how his father turned out to be a man of such importance.

Natalie lived in this part of the town and her parents were super rich too. Samantha just lived outside the society and as a result, their houses were pretty close to each other. That helped when we had to sneak in the middle of the night to go to each other's houses.

Harper's house was simply gorgeous. I mean, who even needs that much space? It was like six stories. The building before me was styled like a mansion from the Victorian era and looked like a five-star hotel. How many rooms were in this house?!

The lights on the ground floor and the first floor were all on. The music was blaring and I wondered why his neighbors weren't calling the police. There were so many people milling around, drunk teenagers smoking in the front well-kept lawn, and inside, I could see silhouettes of teenagers dancing to the crazy music.

I could recognize many of the people from my school, Ridgeback High, and many others from Cormack High. Despite teenage novels clichè, there was no enmity between our school and theirs. There were two schools in the town just because there were too many teenagers to accommodate in one building.

The three of us got out of Sam's car and headed towards the front door. When Natalie opened the door, the base of the music hit us in full force. 

The ground was shaking with the thumping of the bass and I could see a few pieces of furniture vibrating on their spots on the ground, but I don't think anyone minded getting deaf at such a young age because everyone was already dancing like crazy. 

Bodies were grinding against each other. Red cups were littered everywhere. Zombie-like people were lying on the couches and floor, passed out from intoxication, and it was not even 10 o'clock.

Samantha grabbed my hand and started leading me towards the kitchen. How she knew, where the kitchen was, I had no clue! As we walked, I could sense several pairs of eyes following us and checking us out. Some even wolf-whistled at us. I blushed at the attention.

When we made it to the kitchen, Natalie handed me a beer bottle and we downed our first drinks of the night.

My eyes roamed the entire place for a certain person who invited me to this party but he was nowhere to be found. Slightly disappointed, I grabbed another drink and finished it in a few seconds. 

Natalie grabbed our hands and led us to the makeshift dance floor. She was the wildest and the spontaneous person in our group. 

I didn't have the heart to tell her that I wanted to roam the place and check out where Harper was.

Hiding my disappointment at not meeting Harper yet, I tried to at least enjoy the party. I moved my hips to the rhythm of the music. Swedish House Mafia was on and the crowd went wild and started jumping and dancing with more vigor.

I was having so much fun that I almost forgot about Harper. Almost.

After about an hour of dancing, I yelled in Natalie's ear that I was going to the kitchen to get another drink. She just nodded and went back to her seductive dancing.

I made my way toward the kitchen with much more difficulty than I had experienced earlier. It looked like more people joined the party and even more of them were passed out, as if this was their own house. There was barely any space to move.

The kitchen was relatively quieter and the music was muffled. 

I grabbed a beer and drank a few sips. I found myself alone in the kitchen with empty beer bottles and a lot of trash and I was thankful for some silence because I could finally hear my thoughts.

Just then, Aiden Knight entered the kitchen. Aiden Knight was Harper's best friend. He was insanely good-looking and was a player too. Why are good-looking guys all players? So damn unfair. With sandy blonde hair and brown eyes, girls fell to his feet and worshipped him but he wasn't exactly like Harper. He at least treated girls with respect and had the decency to offer them a cup of coffee after he kicked them out after a one-night stand. Nonetheless, he too, used girls to get whatever he wanted which were mostly sexual favors. As far as I know, he too never had a girlfriend, just some casual flings.

Now, as I think about it, I have always been in the same school with the same people for so many years and have never once talked to them. 

Aiden smirked and winked at me. 

"So, Zara, right?"

He knew my name was Zara, which was new. I was like a wallflower. I had no intention of coming into the spotlight and being the topic of everyone's interest. He was just trying to make conversation, I reminded myself. Let's see, do I help him or act like a bitch?

I just nodded. 

He leaned against the counter, at a respectable distance, his whole body facing me. "So, are you enjoying the party?"

I smiled. "Yeah" and held my red cup upwards in the universal sign of "cheers".

He abruptly stood up and covered the distance between us in two short strides. Somehow, I just knew that he didn't want anything to do with me. Anything romantic or sexual, I mean. I didn't get turned on by our proximity at all. Unlike with Harper.

He just leaned forward and whispered, "If you're looking for Harper, he is on the first floor. On the balcony. The last door on the left side."

He leaned back, winked at me, and then left me speechless.

That was random. I have a doubt it was random at all!

Great, now I am going crazy too!

How could he have known I was looking for Harper? It was not like I had looked for him at other parties before! Or maybe, he just thought I was another one of his hookups who clinged to him for a relationship and would be satisfied with a quickie instead. I scoffed at the thought.

I finished my beer placed the empty bottle on the counter and headed toward the staircase. I followed Aiden's directions and reached the first floor.

I turned left and kept walking straight till I felt the soft breeze of the wind which could only come from the open doors of a balcony.

The sliding glass doors of the balcony were open. The curtains that covered the doors were fluttering in the breeze.

I reached the glass doors, grabbed the curtains, and moved them to look out onto the balcony and there he was. Harper.

The only problem was, he wasn't alone.

In his arms, there was a girl. I couldn't figure out who she was, though. But that detail was irrelevant. What matters was, that they were both making out, quite passionately so.

I was just rooted to my spot. I didn't know what to do, because out of all the scenarios I prepared myself for, I didn't think about this one. My heart plummeted to the ground and I felt sick.

Gathering my wits, I just turned around and fled from the scene. I ran down the stairs and waited a moment to catch my breath.

I felt incredibly stupid.

What did I even expect from him? Did I think that a few stolen kisses would change him and make him less of a douchebag?! I think, for a moment I forgot who I was talking about. Guys like Harper Cain never changed. He was a playboy and he didn't care about anyone. He broke everyone's heart and I will not be next in line for him to trample over, I vowed to myself.

Plastering a smile on my face, I rejoined my friends. They didn't question my prolonged disappearance for which I was glad. I resumed swaying my hips to the peppy Katy Perry number and lost myself to the music.

After some time, I felt a pair of hands wrap around my waist. I turned around to find Harper gazing down at me with adoration and lust. I wasn't going to be fooled again. I don't know what came over me, but I didn't remove his hands from me. Instead, I giggled put my arms around his neck, and danced with him for a while. I swayed my body with the music, while Harper's hands burned my body.

After the song, Harper stopped moving. I stopped too and looked up at him, silently asking him why he stopped.

He grabbed my wrist pulled me off the dance floor and dragged me up the stairs. If anyone did see Harper dragging me, nobody stopped him. Where are your friends when you need them? I was too drunk to resist him. I wasn't sure the drunk me wanted to resist him and that was a big problem. His strides were long and determined and I stumbled after him, trying desperately not to fall. He pulled me to the same balcony where I found him making out earlier with some girl.

My mood plummeted instantly when those images flashed through my mind. I writhed in his grip in a desperate attempt to get away from him but he didn't let me go. Instead, he slammed his lips to mine.

Earlier in the day, when he kissed me there were fireworks, and there was passion and I loved it. But now, I wanted nothing of it. Those images kept flashing in my mind and the rough way in which he dragged me here gave me enough motive to resist him.

I started pushing him away from me but my actions were already uncoordinated because of the alcohol I had consumed.

His grip on my body was firm. It was clear he didn't want to let me go yet. 

His lips moved forcefully over mine and were continuously asking for entrance. My lips are so going to be bruised after this. I was trying to push him away. I tried to hit his shoulders and push him away, but our bodies were pressed so tightly against each other that there was no space and my drunk body was refusing to cooperate with me.

And then I got an idea.

I granted him entrance for a second and before I could forget the reasons why I needed to get away from him, I bit his lip hard. I immediately tasted blood. I think I bit a little too hard. Oops.

Well, he deserved it!

He pulled away from me in a state of shock and disbelief. Taking advantage of his shocked state, I pushed his chest, his hold on me loosened and he stumbled back with wide eyes and blood on his lower lip. He looked at me with hurt in his eyes, but I didn't give a damn. You don't kiss a girl forcefully and then expect her to sympathize with you when she kicks your balls.

As soon as I got away from his hold, I swung my hand and slapped him as hard as I could. If he was shocked before, he was more than stunned now. He was completely speechless. His cheek was red with a red imprint of my hand on his cheek and I smirked internally in satisfaction at my masterpiece.

"Who the hell do you take me for?" I shrieked. "I am not one of your whores!"

I was getting angrier by the second now. How dare he do this! What does he take me for?

"W-what?" He stuttered.

"I saw you making out with some girl in this very place two hours ago. And now, you bring me here to make out with me as some sort of fucking replacement." 

His eyes widened and he had the gall to look guilty. He looked around nervously and didn't make eye contact with me, for a few minutes. When he looked up again, I could see his face depicting several emotions, the prominent ones being pain and guilt.

"I am not one of your whores, Harper. News flash and fuck you."

I was seething now. I was furious.

Before he could say anything else, I pushed him again one more time and ran away from the balcony. He didn't follow me. Good. I didn't think he had the nerve. And I would have kicked him in the balls if he did.

I rushed down the stairs and ran out of the house. 

I stopped only when I realized I was standing on the pavement with no mode of transportation in the middle of the night.

It was only then that I realized that my face was streaked with tears. And they weren't angry ones!