Chapter 1 - Grace Stewart

Grace POV

“Come on Grace, it’s your birthday,” Amber says as she pulls me out of the bed and I groan in frustration. I hate celebrating my birthday. My birth is nothing to celebrate honestly. I never thought birthdays were that special. My parents always threw me massive parties, but barely any kids showed up. We would always end up with large amounts of food, and the grownups would always look at me with pity plastered all over their faces. 

“Seriously Amber, all I want is to go for dinner, and then come home and watch a film with a large bucket of popcorn,” I say as I adjust my glasses that are sliding down my nose. Amber stares at me, shaking her head and resting her hands on her hips. 

“Okay, dinner, and then a couple of drinks,” she says, and I take a deep breath. I guess I will have to compromise on this. She won’t stop annoying me if I don’t do the drinks. “After all, we’re all legally allowed to drink,” she says and I couldn’t care less. Alcohol is not something I enjoy. I always order one cocktail and by the end of the night, someone else has finished it because all I do is take tiny sips during the night. 

“Okay, okay,” I say, not bothered to fight with her anymore. I have spent all day in bed today. I am tired and I honestly only wanted to stay there, but I guess Amber, Hannah, and Jamie have another plan for me. 

“Okay, go have a shower because you fucking stink,” she says and I frown as I sniff under my arms and shake my head. 

“Liar,” I say and she smiles, opening my closet and disappearing inside. My parents paid for my apartment because they knew I would never be comfortable in the dorms, besides, they could pay for it. I never really asked for anything while growing up, but this was the only thing I asked of them. 

Dad owns a shoe factory and let’s say we never had to count any pennies. Money was never a problem for our family. My mother always enjoyed the status that it gave us in New York, but I never really cared. Mom grew up as an Upper East Side princess and she thought I would be just like her, but I guess I am more like my father than we care to admit. I like the quiet and to be alone. After obeying to my best friend and having a shower, I walk out to find her putting loads of makeup on the vanity. 

“No, I am not wearing that,” I say, and I hear someone laughing coming from the living room. I look at Amber and she shrugs as Jamie walks into the bedroom and stares at me as I wrap my towel tighter around my body. 

“Nothing I haven’t seen before,” she remarks as she winks at me. I shake my head, trying to push away my shyness as I grab my glasses from the vanity and Amber smacks my hand. “Nope, not today sunshine,” she says and I widen my eyes and she points at the bed. 

“Put that on,” she says and I walk to the bed to find the smallest skirt I have ever seen in my life and a tube top that only covers half of my torso. They must be shitting me right now.

“I am not wearing that,” I protest, but they both ignore me as Amber answers the phone. After a lot of arguments and tears shed by Amber, I am dressed in my jeans and a small tank top that leaves my belly button out. 

I am being dragged into our local restaurant, the place where we spend most of our Friday nights before we go back to my house and watch film after film. They like to go out dancing, but they spend their Friday nights with me while they dedicate their Saturdays to dating and hooking up. I never really understood their desire to party so hard. We celebrated my birthday with our usual food and drink orders. We even got a small cupcake with a candle for free. The lady that owns the restaurant knows us and threw that at us. 

“Come on, it’s only down the road,” Jamie says while she pulls me. They blindfolded me, saying they had a surprise for me at my house and they wanted me to have my eyes closed. I don’t know what they managed to pull off in such a short time, but hey, who am I to doubt their will to surprise me? 

I can hear loud music booming and my insides twist. I stop walking and rip the tie that was tied around my head and I can see we’re arriving at someone’s party. I stare at Hannah who shrugs and then Jamie smiles as she hugs me tight. 

“Happy birthday,” she shouts when she opens the door and I can see a banner with my name. The banner is bright pink, a color I absolutely despise and my name is right at the center with a big Happy Birthday on top. I close my eyes for a few seconds, trying to process what is happening right now. There are dozens of people scattered around the living room and no one even glances at me. I watch as my friends pull me down the sea of people towards the make-pretend bar and I scrunch my nose. I am not happy about this. 

“Come on, let’s drink and celebrate,” Hannah shouts, lifting a beer and I shake my head. I don’t know anyone here and I doubt very much any of those people know who I am. I tend to keep to myself and I don’t really interact with anyone I don’t know. 

“I’m going home,” I let out through my greeted teeth and Jamie shook her head, wrapping her arm around my shoulder. “Oh, no you’re not, you’re legally an adult, so you will drink this, and you will have fun,” Hannah says and I shake my head before they put the beer bottle in my hand.

I decide to take the beer just so I can shut them up and go home. The more they drink, the more they will forget I am here and I will be able to get away. I live two buildings away and I know who’s the responsible person for this party. 

Angelo Parker, as soon as his name crosses my mind, he walks past me, wrapping his arms around my best friend’s shoulders, pulling them away from me. Jamie looks back over her shoulder and I wave her off, raising my full beer bottle as I offer her a shaky smile. Angelo Parker is the sexiest quarterback in the world.

I have never seen anyone as beautiful as him. His eyes are captivating, and his smile is intoxicating. Some might say I have a crush on him, but who doesn’t? I bet you every girl in this room is about to make a comment or stare at his ass while he walks past. 

I decide to sit on the couch and watch as everyone mingles, and I am left alone. This is what I wanted anyway, to be alone. I just never realized how lonely I am. I am in a room full of people and I feel like I have been abandoned by everyone. I have never felt so alone in my life. This feels like my birthday parties growing up.

Once my parents even had a petting zoo brought to our backyard and only two kids showed up. I think I was so excited to have kids my age at the party that I didn’t even worry about the animals, but obviously all they wanted was to play with the baby goat and the baby donkey. I try to push away those memories because right now I have friends. Friends that throw me surprise parties even though they know I will hate them.

“This is a party. Shouldn’t you be having some fun?” Angelo says as he sits next to me. I stare at him blankly as my brain tries to process his words and then I see my friends giving me the thumbs up right behind him. They are all grinning and I, for once, don’t know what to do. I grip the beer bottle in my hand and, without thinking about what I am doing, I drink some of it.

The horrible taste of the beer makes me scrunch my nose and Angelo smiles and then chuckles. His voice sent a chill down my spine. “Come with me, I’ll give you something sweeter to drink,” he says, and I nod slightly as he grabs my hand and pulls me from the couch. The way his fingers lace around mine sends a chill down my spine, and I smile as he pulls me to the kitchen. 

“Here you go, beautiful,” he says, offering me a red cup with something inside. I stare at the cup and then at him and he bumps his cup against mine cheering and then he leans closer and whispers a soft happy birthday in my ear, and I decide to let loose just for once. When will I ever have the chance to party with the hottest guy in college, and when will he ever look at me again? It might be a charity conversation and dance, but I am okay with it. 

We spend the next couple of hours dancing and drinking together, his body pressed against mine while I grind against his body. I can feel the erection, but I try to push away the feeling. I have never known a guy to be turned on by me and just the thought of that makes me want to hide away. 

Angelo’s hands move up and down my body, while we dance to some R&B song I have never heard before in my life. Every time his hands go to my breasts, I pull them down to my stomach or my hips. Just because we are dancing and I am grinding my ass against his frontal doesn’t mean he can move his hands wherever he wants. 

“Here,” Jamie passes me a red cup with something inside and I drink the entire thing without taking a breath. I am sweating and the air is getting hotter and stuffy with the amount of people in the same space dancing and breathing. 

Angelo’s hands move and he spins me around. I wrap my arms around his shoulders while his lips meet my neck and he drops sloppy kisses down my neck and I shiver. I always thought neck kisses were supposed to be a turn on but they are just making me cringe. “I need to go to the bathroom,” I say in his ear and pull away from him. He nods as he watches me walk away from him. My friends follow me as soon as they see me alone and we all walk to the bathroom that has a big line outside. 

“So? Is it today? Are you going to do it?” Jamie asks and I shake my head, passing my hand on my neck, trying to erase the feeling of Angelo’s lips on my neck. 

“No. I would never do it like this,” I say and Hannah nods but gets easily distracted when a guy she has been hooking up walks past her. “That’s my sign,” she says, winking at me and walking after him. I love my friends, but we are all so different. I don’t even know how we became so close.