I could still feel the slight buzz from the alcohol coursing through my veins, but the effect seemed to have been easily masked by the immense pleasure and relief still surging through my body.  I lay on my side, head resting on Harry’s shoulder with my arm draped lazily across his torso as we both tried to catch our breath.  A light coat of sweat covered his skin, but I didn’t mind. 

My fingers traced lightly over his skin, raising goose bumps wherever my feathery light touch came into contact.  I smiled softly to myself, thrilled that I could elicit such a physical reaction from him with even the simplest of touches.  My lips pressed against his skin, leaving a kiss there before resting my head back down on his shoulder.

The music from the party was still pounding, making the room feel like it was almost vibrating.  Gleeful cheers sounded every few minutes, and there was a constant buzz from the chatter of people, but it was all a blur in the background, making no impression on me when I was with him.  It was simply there, an easily ignorable haze that lingered around our space.

“I love you,” I whispered again.  I felt like I could never say it enough.

“I love you, too, babe,” he replied.  His fingers stroked from the crown of my head, down my neck, and all along my spine before returning to the top and starting their journey all over again.   I kissed his skin again before propping myself up on his chest so I could look at him.  He looked extremely content, eyes happily staring back at me and a small smile playing on his red lips. 

“No, really.  I’m so in love with you, Harry.” I looked into his green eyes, feeing suddenly vulnerable as I bit my lip and waited for him to respond.

“Oh, Joey,” he said, smile spreading farther across his lips as he wrapped his fingers around the back of my head and pulled, bringing his lips to my forehead.  “I know, babe.  I can just feel it from you.”

I felt a sense of relief at his words; it was really important to me that he knows how much I love him.  It was like every fiber of my being yearned for him emotionally, physically, mentally, everything.  It wasn’t just that I loved him, I needed him.

“Yeah?” I asked softly, resting my lips on his chest as I looked up at him. 

“Yeah.  It’s like everything you do… it’s like you’re tethered to me.  Like you can’t be without me, even for the shortest amount of time or you go crazy.”  His fingers massaged through my hair as he spoke, and my heart pounded.

“That’s it exactly,” I said.  “How did you know?”

“I know because that’s exactly how I feel about you, babe, don’t you know that?” he said, his eyes burning into mine.  “If you don’t know how much I love you, I’m doing something wrong.”

I couldn’t stop the ridiculous grin spread across my face.  My heart felt like it was going to explode as I tried to catch enough breath to respond.  “You’re perfect at everything, Harry.  I know you love me,” I told him.  It was true.  Just as he said he could feel it from me, I could feel it from him. 

How could I not when everything he did was so wonderfully amazing?  He showed me all the time through his touches, his looks, his kisses, everything. There was no doubt in my mind that he loved me as much as I loved him.

“I’ve never been happier in my life,” I told him.  It probably sounded cheesy but it was one hundred percent true.  “Even after all the shit that’s happened… I’m the happiest I’ve ever been.”

“Babe you make me so happy, too.  I can’t tell you enough how much you’ve changed my life.  For the better,” he said softly, cupping my face in both of his hands now.  “God, I love you.”

Surely my face was about to split in half from the insanely wide grin.  “Always,” I told him, repeating the phrase that had quickly become ours and ours alone.  He beamed at me before pulling my face to his, pressing his lips against mine. 

He kissed me slowly, languidly, deeply, pouring every emotion we were trying to describe into it.  Never in my life had I been more content, fulfilled, and happy.  I was so incredibly happy, all because of Harry.

After our kiss ended, I sighed contentedly and rest my head back down on his chest.  His fingers traced down my back, running the calloused pads of his fingers across my bare skin.  I shivered against him and he laughed softly.  He pressed a kiss to the top of my head, the muscles on his stomach contracting beneath me as he did so.

We laid there in silent contentment for a few minutes, reveling in the afterglow of our connected bodies and the shared emotions.  Gentle touches were shared, as well as the pressing of lips to each others’ skin as we melted into each other.  After a loud crash sounded from the basement, I figured we had been gone long enough, even though I would have been ecstatic to stay like this with him forever.

“Baby,” I said quietly.

“Hmm?” he hummed.  I glanced up at him and saw he had his eyes closed, his face relaxed.

“Do you wanna go home?” I asked.  A glance at the clock on the bedside table told me it was nearly two in the morning.

“Yeah, let’s go,” he said, opening his eyes and looking at me.  I pulled myself up to press a quick kiss to his lips.

“Okay,” I said, smiling gently at him before pulling myself off him.  He grumbled at the loss of my body heat before rubbing his hands across his face, reorienting himself.  He pushed himself up, resting himself on his hands as he watched me stumble around the dark room, gathering our clothes from the floor.  I giggled as I tossed him his boxers and jeans, which he barely caught before they hit him in the face. 

He reluctantly crawled out of bed and pulled his clothes on as I gathered the rest of mine.  We giggled at each other, still a little drunk as we struggled to get dressed.  He finished before I did, and came over to rescue me after I had somehow tangled myself in my shirt.  A light chuckle escaped his lips as his hands gripped the bottom of it and tugged it down properly, smoothing his hands down my sides before leaning down to give me a quick kiss.

“What am I gonna do with you?” he teased. “Can’t even get dressed properly…”

I lightly pushed his chest, giggling.  “Hey, shut up.”

He laughed again before pinching my chin lightly between his thumb and index finger.

“I remember the first time I noticed how adorable you were, you did something very similar so you have no room to talk,” I informed him.

“What? When was that?” he asked, surprised by my answer.

“That first night you came over to my house, you couldn’t get your shoes off and I thought you were the cutest thing I’d ever seen,” I reminded him.  The memory was burned into my brain, and I was certain I would never forget it.  In a way, it was the start of our relationship.  “I told you even, remember?”

“I thought you were kidding,” he said, recalling the incident.  I grinned at him.

“Nope, I definitely meant it,” I said, leaning up on my toes to kiss his lips once more before grabbing his hand.  “Now let’s go find a ride home.”

He nodded at me before following me out the door and down the hall.  The party was still in full swing as we descended the stairs; people continued to drink, dance, and grope at each other as we wove through the crowd.  I was pleased when I ran into Lydia almost immediately, wiping up a spilled red drink off the hardwood floor. 

“Hey, Lyd, do you know who’s DDing tonight?” I asked.  At almost every party, there were usually a handful of people who would come but not drink, taking their turn to drive their drunken friends home.  It always surprised me that people volunteered to do that, but I suppose there was a little hope for our generation after all. 

“Um…” she thought, searching her brain for the names and faces of the sober people still in attendance. “I think Sarah wasn’t gonna drink tonight? She has a game tomorrow or something,” she said.  “I’d ask her!”

I smiled and thanked her.  I knew Sarah, and she was really nice.  She hardly ever drank at parties, actually, but always was a good sport about it, playing the games and having fun despite being the near only sober person.  After searching through most of the ground floor, dragging Harry behind me the entire time, I found her in the kitchen, laughing with a group of people as a guy tried to drink an entire pitcher of beer in one swig.

“Hey, Sarah, would you mind giving us a ride home?  You’re sober, right?” I asked.

She nodded and smiled at me.  “Yeah, sure! Just let me go grab my coat and we can go,” she answered, hopping off the counter she was sitting on.  “Meet me by the front door?”

“Yeah, sounds good!” I said enthusiastically.  Her mention of a coat reminded me of mine, which luckily I found in the corner of the dining room before heading to the front door to meet Sarah.  She arrived after only minutes. 

“This is Harry, by the way,” I told her, tugging him closer to me.  He gave a small smile.

“I know,” she said, smiling at him.  “Nice to actually meet you, Harry.”

“You, too,” he replied, waving awkwardly.  So adorable.

She led us out the door and down the block a bit before we reached her silver car.  I had already climbed in the backseat with Harry before I realized I should have probably sat up front with her.  I hoped she didn’t feel awkward driving us home.  We made small talk about the party, mentioning the ridiculous things we had seen as she drove.

We were about halfway to my house, laughing about something her best friend had said when the car filled with flashing red and blue lights.  The giddy laughter instantly subsided as panic flew through me.  Cops.

“Oh, shit,” I breathed, fear flooding through my body.  Cops were never good, even when you had a DD.  We were underage, and could get in big trouble if we were caught drinking.  Immediately my mind flew to Harry, guilt taking over as I thought how disappointed he would be. 

It was his first time ever really drinking and now he was going to get in trouble, all because of me.  I frantically looked behind us, expecting to see a cop car right there, waiting to bust us.  I was surprised and confused when I saw none.

“Joey,” Harry said softly in my ear.  I turned to look at him, my face contorted with all the different emotions I was feeling as I took in his expression.  He had visibly paled, his eyes wide as he stared straight ahead of us, jaw clenched so tightly his muscles were twitching.  I instantly knew whatever it was that had caused this expression on his face wasn’t good.  Slowly, I followed his tense gaze to see what he was looking at.

It was immediately clear to me as I looked through the front of the car that the cops lights weren’t intended for us; we weren’t being pulled over, and we weren’t going to get in trouble, but what I was seeing was surely much, much worse. 

Four cop cars were blocking the street in front of us, as well as an ambulance and a fire truck.  Their sirens had been switched off but the air was filled with shouting voices and swirling lights as people in uniforms darted around on the street. 

Passed the authority vehicles, what I saw made my entire body freeze.  A car was turned on it’s top, resting on the pavement that was glittering with broken glass, littered around it in a wide circle.  The side of the car was curved around a light pole, and huge dents covered the rest of it.  The car must have rolled a few times, colliding heavily with the pavement before smashing into the pole and wrapping around it. 

As if all that wasn’t bad enough, what really caused my blood to turn to ice in my veins was that I recognized the car.  The once sleek, shiny, black sports car was now a mess of dents, broken glass, and irreparable damage.  Bile rose in my throat as I took in the scarily large pool of blood that seeped out from the driver side of the car, coating the pavement in deep red.  I had never seen anything so horrific.

A stretcher was on the ground, paramedics huddled around it and working furiously on the body laid across it.  I couldn’t see much of the body, but what I had already seen had been more than enough evidence. 

Not only did I know the person from the wreck, I had history with him.  Major history.  

Colt.