Alexia’s POV

I moaned, my head feeling like someone had thought it would be a good idea to run it over with a car. No wait, make that a truck. An eighteen wheeler. 

Light was shining behind my closed eyelids, and I threw my arm over my face to try and make it darker so it wouldn’t sting so much. 

I felt like everything was on hyper drive, and I felt super sensitive to everything.

“Morning,” someone chirped, and at first I wanted to scream because of the ringing it caused in my ears, but then I was suddenly alert to whoever was here. 

Ignoring my body’s protest to keep my eyes shut and just ignore the world until this raging headache mulled over, I gingerly peeled one eye open to see a fuzzy image of a guy standing in the doorway with a tray in his hand. 

I vaguely recognized him as Colin, and my brain was flooded with memories of last night, ultimately causing the headache to throb more. 

“What happened?” I asked anyways, my voice feeling scratchy. I wanted to confirm what I thought were my memories. 

“Well, I found you at Dwayne’s party last night, completely wasted. You were harassing some girl,” he chuckled at this part and I mentally thought that I would scowl if I didn’t think it’d hurt so much. 

“Then what?” I urged. 

“I told you that you needed to go home to sleep off the alcohol, but you told me you didn’t want to go to your house so I brought you to my place.”

“Where are your parents?” I mumbled, fighting the need to go back to sleep. 

“They’re divorced and I live with my dad. But right now he’s on his yearly business trip to California, so I have the place to myself.” I saw Colin give a slight shrug as he set the tray down next to me, and the smell of cooked foods made my stomach rumble. “I made you breakfast though, and brought you some ibuprofen. I figured you might be hungover.” I watched him as he smirked when I winced at the overload on my senses. 

“Thanks,” I muttered, too tired and in pain to speak any longer. With a slight struggle, he helped me to sit up and I took the ibuprofen, before laying back down and waiting for it to take effect. “I’m never drinking again,” I said, more to myself than him.

“I need to go shower, but I’ll leave the food here for when you want to eat. I made eggs.” Moments later, the door slammed, the sound reverberating in my mind. It hurt pretty badly just hearing that; it was as if the noise was amplified due to my hangover. 

It was probably twenty minutes later when I finally felt okay enough to open my eyes and start eating. The bathroom was near the room I was staying in, and I could hear Colin turning on the water and turning it off after he was done. That was about ten minutes ago. 

The eggs were cold, but I didn’t care; I felt ravenous. 

I engulfed them within four minutes flat, and it was a decent sized plate of eggs paired with toast slathered in honey. 

Despite being cold, it was pretty delicious.

Colin came in minutes later, fully clothed, as he towel dried his hair. 

“How are you doing?” he asked as he finished drying his hair. 

“Much better now, thanks,” I told him honestly. My head still felt a slight throb, but it wasn’t even close to the intensity it was before.

“That’s good.” He gave me a genuine smile. “But now you have to tell me; why didn’t you want to go home last night?”

Now that my mind was pretty clear and I could think, I remembered all of it. I didn’t want to remember any of it. 

Suddenly, I was craving a drink. 

But I knew that if I gave in to that whim, it would soon escalate to something I couldn’t control.

So heaving a sigh, I sat up, resting against the headboard. “It’s kind of a long story,” I mumbled, still debating whether or not I should actually tell him.

“It’s okay, you don’t have to tell me if you really don’t want to.” It was the defeated note in his tone that made me look up at him, and it was that aching hurt on his face he was trying to cover up that made me want to comfort him. 

He was being so sweet, taking care of me and all that, I at least owed him an explanation as to why I didn’t want to go home… right?

Biting my lip, I eventually resolved to tell him. “Uh, for starters, my parents kicked me out of the house,” I murmured quietly, and his eyes widened considerably. 

“What? Are you serious?” I nodded at his incredulous tone. “Why would they do that?”

“I-I did something they didn’t like,” I said, starting to fiddle with my fingers. 

“What could you have possibly done?” Colin scoffed. “You’re like, perfect.” Then he paused, and a frown grew on his face. “Was this.. was this all my fault?” You could already hear guilt racking his tone, but I firmly shook my head, immediately insisting it wasn’t. 

“No! Not at all, it wasn’t your fault Colin. This was all on me, I’m the one who caused my parents to do it. I… Well, I, uh, broke it off with Lee. They weren’t too happy about that,” I  conceded, eyes falling towards the blanket covering me. I always felt so ashamed whenever I told anybody this, even though I should be happy with my decision. It was my life, and my parents can’t dictate it forever. Yet I still felt uneasy telling people what I had done that would cause my parents so much anger they didn’t want me in their house anymore. 

“Lee? You mean your fiancé?” 

“Ex-fiancé,” I corrected gently. “And yeah. After that whole fiasco I couldn’t bear to be around you or him, feeling like a terrible person every time I thought about what I did.” Now I was positive my cheeks were starting to grow warm, embarrassment still washing over me from what I had done to the both of them. “So we decided to take a break and see other people, just to make sure that married life is what we really wanted. We’re both still young, you know? We need to see the world and all that before deciding to be tied down. But instead of dating, I immersed myself in my studies so I could keep my grades up. We agreed that we’d meet during the summer to figure out if we still wanted to be together.”

“And?” Colin pressed. “Why didn’t you want to stay together?” I couldn’t help but notice the gleeful little glitch in his voice. Was he happy about me breaking up with Lee? Did he… did he still have feelings for me?

“He found someone that he truly loved,” I said simply, shrugging. “And I stopped having feelings for him, so it was a mutual breakup.” 

“Wait, so your parents kicked you out because of that? Because you no longer wanted to get married to someone you didn’t love?” I nodded. “That’s crazy. And stupid. Why would they do that?”

“It wasn’t so much ‘they’ as it was my mother. She was angry because she wanted his money. She never cared for him, and now I’m starting to doubt if she ever cared about me. It was all about greed and money. And I was her ticket to get it.” Another stake felt like it was being driven through my heart, and I felt myself wanting to just scream and cry. “I realize now that I must not have meant anything to her, for her to kick me out of her house so easily.” My voice was quiet, nearly a whisper. I blinked, and was slightly surprised to feel tears sticking to my eyelashes. 

“No, she loved you! She's your mom, how could she not?” Colin cried, touching my shoulder as a gesture of comfort. “You said that it was mostly your mom, what did your dad do?” 

“Absolutely nothing.” I let out a bitter laugh. “He just listened as she kicked me out, hiding in the kitchen like a coward.” 

“Wow… Alex, I’m so sorry,” Colin said, and I could sense his hesitance before he leaned in and hugged me. 

I immediately stiffened, unsure of what I should do, before I allowed my muscles to relax and I hugged him back. 

“Thanks Colin,” I murmured. 

He pulled back, and looked at me, a thoughtful expression on his face. “Is that why Ashley took you to that party? No offense, but you never really seemed like the partying type.” 

“None taken, and I’m not. But yes, that’s why she took me to that party. I couldn’t believe that she ditched me though, if you hadn’t come along… who knows what’ve happened.” I shook my head, thinking that I’d need to have a talk with her the next time I saw her.

“If I hadn’t…” Colin trailed off, then rubbed his face with his hands. “Wow, I’m an idiot. That’s why she wanted me to go,” he muttered. 

“Wait what? Who wanted you to go where?” I narrowed my eyes in suspicion.

“Ashley sent me a text last night and told me that I had to go to that party. I wasn’t planning on going, but she practically begged me to.” Colin took out his phone, and showed me the texts. Sure enough, what he said was true. 

“So… we were played? Ashley set this entire thing up?” I gaped, and at that moment my phone beeped. 

I unlocked it to read the message. 

Ashley: by now I’m pretty sure you and my boy Collie have figured out what I did. The house is locked, so have fun and spend some time together (: 

Ashley: Oh, and I’ll be back at 8pm :D

I read the text several times, disbelief gnawing at me. 

“Who’s it from? What does it say?” Colin piped curiously, and I showed him my phone. “Wow,” he whistled lowly, raking a hand through his hair after he read the text. “Who knew my best friend could be so manipulative.” 

“Yeah,” I muttered, furiously typing back a reply. 

Me: ASHLEY!! 

Ashley: … :P

I frowned, trying to figure a way out of this. There was no way I was going to spend the entire day with Colin.

Me: I don’t have any clothes to change into

Ashley: taken care of. I left some clothes outside of Colin’s door. HAVE FUNNN

After reading the text, I looked up at Colin. “She said she left some of my clothes outside of your door?” 

He looked confused, but stood up anyways. “Uh, I’m not sure. I’ll go check.” He walked out of the room, and I heard him go down the stairs. 

Then I replied to Ashley one last time:

Me: I hate you.

Then I turned my phone off, and could only imagine Ashley laughing like a hyena on the other side. 

Hearing footsteps on the stairs, Colin reappeared moments later with a bag in his hand. 

“Uh, here you go,” he said awkwardly, handing me the bag. 

“Thanks. Do you mind if I take a shower? I feel really gross right now,” I admitted, blushing lightly. 

“Go ahead, the bathroom’s the room next to this one and there’s a closet full of towels next to it. I’m going to go downstairs and make myself some food.” He gave a slight wave as he left the room once more, and I stood up, walking into the bathroom after grabbing a towel. 

I shut and locked the door, turning on the water to the shower. As the water started to heat up, I took a look in the mirror, visibly shuddering once I saw my bedraggled appearance. 

I looked awful. I had dark circles under my eyes, the remnants of some substance that dried on the corner of my mouth, my hair a tangled mess and sticking up all over the place.

Closing my eyes to shield me from the horridness of it all, I quickly stripped before stepping into the water, a sigh leaving my lips as the hot water hit my body.

I simply stood there for a solid minute, imagining the water washing away all my impurities. Then I quickly soaped and shampooed, before stepping out and wrapping the towel around me. 

This time when I looked in the mirror, I looked a lot better. 

Drying myself off, I dressed quickly before heading downstairs. I had to search a bit, but I found Colin sitting in his living room, eating a bowl of cereal as he watched TV. 

I couldn’t help it, I laughed loudly. He was watching cartoons. 

Colin jumped up, milk from his cereal bowl sloshing dangerously up the edge of the bowl, threatening to spill over. 

He also happened to have just taken another bite when I accidentally scared him, and his cheeks were puffed out. He nearly spewed, milk dribbling down his chin.

I laughed harder, gripping my stomach. 

“That’s not funny!” he cried, wiping his chin with his hand after he chewed and swallowed. He looked at me angrily, but that only succeeded in making me laugh even harder. 

“But… it… was!” I choked out between fits of laughter. 

“What was so funny in the first place,” he grumbled. 

It took a little bit before I got myself to calm down, but once I had, I wiped away the stray tears. “You were watching cartoons,” I stated simply. 

“That’s it?! You started laughing because I was watching cartoons?”

I nodded. “Yeah. You’re like an adult, you’re in college now. And you’re still watching cartoons,” I pointed out, one of my brows shooting up as a smirk grew on my face. 

“Hey, I like cartoons! And not everyone is mature as you,” he muttered, cheeks tinged slightly. 

“Still,” I shrugged, walking over to sit next to him on the couch. He harrumphed, grabbing the remote as he took another bite of his cereal. 

“So what do you watch?” he inquired.

“I don’t.”

“You don’t?” 

“Yeah, I don’t watch TV,” I clarified. 

“What?!” he exclaimed as if it was the most absurd thing he’d ever heard. 

“I just don’t have time. Why? Is that weird?” I looked at him, daring him with my eyes to claim that I was abnormal for not watching TV. I was just raised to believe that TV was bad, that studying was a much better use of my time. 

He clearly didn’t see my warning, for he blurted, “Yes! You’re a teenager, we all watch TV!” 

“Not all of us,” I scoffed. “I don’t.”

“Wow,” he said for what seemed like the millionth time today. “You really are one of a kind.” He grinned, and I felt my mouth quirk up into a smile. 

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” I replied, the situation going from tense to relaxed. 

“So what do you want to do today?” Colin asked, changing the subject. 

“I don’t know. I’m still feeling kind of out of it, but something relaxing might be nice.” 

He looked thoughtful for a minute, the TV providing background noise to prevent silence from setting in. 

“We could.. go for a walk? Maybe at the park or something?” he suggested a bit reluctantly. As if he thought I’d shoot the idea down. 

“That actually sounds great. What time is it? Maybe we could picnic too.” 

Colin glanced at the clock on his cable box. “It’s just over ten o’clock now. We could picnic, that sounds nice.” 

Spending the next half hour preparing for our picnic, I kept thinking of how nice this was, how nice he was. It seemed like every ten seconds he would do something goofy and make me laugh, or just make some adorable remark about whatever.

Then that prompted me to wonder how I ever could have done something so awful to him, yet he was still so great to me. 

“Ready?” Colin asked as he slipped on his shoes. I nodded, wearing the same red converse that I had worn to the party

Colin carried the basket out, walking to the car when I stopped him. 

“How far is it to the park? Maybe we could walk to kill a little time,” I proposed, halting once I had shut the door. 

“It’s a twenty minute walk, but that sounds good.” He grinned, sticking his arm out. 

I stared at it for a second, wondering if I should take it or not. “What the hell,” I muttered under my breath before letting a smile slip onto my face. I practically skipped down the steps, linking my arm with his and we began our walk. 

It was honestly really nice to just walk with Colin, arm in arm, talking and laughing as if the past few months had never happened. As if I had never lead him on, as if I was never engaged. 

Conversation came naturally and easily, and no matter how many times I told myself I wasn’t going to fall for him again… I couldn’t help it. 

He still had that charm about him, that charismatic smile that he flashed at me so often. Admittedly, it still caused my heart to race and my cheeks to flush sometimes. 

I felt like a love-struck girl once more, and I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do about it. 

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TWO UPDATES IN TWO DAYS WHAT IS THIS CRAZINESS

lol don't celebrate yet cause... well... there's only one more chapter after this. which will be posted on friday cause instead of studying for midterms i decided to get off my lazy arse and write some words. but like...

and i know i know, cliche to have his dad out when this party happens but leave me alone i like cliches. and let's face it - this book was basically one big cliche. but on the bright side, i think i have a non-cliche book idea in the works so if you like werewolf stuff then keep an eye out for that on my profile :D *wink wink nudge nudge*