Blood Sweat Tears by BTS

★ ★ ★ ★

"Hey neighbor girl," a voice called out.

I gasped in surprise, turning to my left to come face to face with the infamous Sebastian Snow.

In the couple months that I had lived here, I had never had a conversation with him before, despite him being right next door. However, from all the rumors that spread about him around school, I felt like I knew him.

He was the dictionary definition of hot, with shaggy black hair and piercing green eyes that were so pale, they almost looked like silver. He was tall too, surpassing six feet, with broad shoulders and strong muscles that weren't so bulky that they were unattractive. Rather, they were lean. And sexy. Very sexy.

I looked away though. I didn't want to be caught staring. Ian taught me that a pretty face didn't mean a pretty personality, and from what I knew about Sebastian, his personality was rotten.

"Sorry to disturb you, I'll go back inside now," I choked, reaching for the door handle.

"Wait," he called out. I froze. "Are you crying?"

Without responding, I went inside. What was I supposed to do? Confide in him and tell him that I was scared shitless because my stepfather was a terrifying monster?

Yeah, right.

I plopped onto my bed, completely and utterly exhausted. I was emotionally drained from today, and I just wanted to sleep. Closing my eyes, I waited for the dream world to take me away. Until I heard a knock on my balcony door.

What the hell?

Grabbing my bedside table lamp, I walked over to the door, ready to destroy anyone who threatened to make my day even worse than it already was.

"Howdy, neighbor," a familiar voice greeted with a cheeky smile on his face.

He opened the door without my permission and stepped inside my room.

"Nice lamp by the way. I'd really appreciate it if you didn't use it on me."

I sighed in irritation. "What are you doing here, Sebastian? And how did you get up here?"

"Ooh, I like it when you say my name," he grinned. "And I just climbed the terrace. No biggie."

"I'll repeat myself. What are you doing in my room," I whisper yelled.

He just shrugged carelessly. "I couldn't just leave a crying girl alone. I'm secretly a softie," he winked.

I rolled my eyes.

"It'd be nice if you told me your name so that I could stop calling you neighbor girl."

"You don't need to know my name," I replied, "And you can shoo now. I'm fine, really, just had a rough day. I'll get over it."

"Hmm, I'm not convinced," Sebastian responded. He grabbed my wrist; his grip was so much softer than Ian's.

I flinched, pulling away from him. Sebastian looked caught off guard, his enchanting eyes boring into mine, trying to read me.

"Sorry," he muttered. "I didn't mean to hurt you."

"You didn't hurt me," I snapped. "I'm not that fragile. I just don't like being touched."

He scratched his head awkwardly before that cheeky smirk slipped back onto his face.

"Let's get out of here," Sebastian suggested.

"Why?"

He sighed, rolling his eyes. "Because you're upset and need a distraction. I need a distraction too. You're not the only one having a shitty night."

My mouth dropped open. First Sebastian sneaks into my room despite being a total stranger to me, and now he's asking me to sneak out with him? Freak.

"Don't you have someone else who can distract you?" I asked him.

"My sort of girlfriend has the flu. Normally she'd come over and distract me," I think I knew what that entailed, "but I don't want to get sick. I'm not a masochist," he laughed. "In fact, I like to think I'm a sadist," Sebastian continued, moving closer to me.

My eyes almost popped out of their sockets as I took three large steps away from him.

Sebastian started to cackle, tears forming in his eyes. "I'm just kidding, Dani. Don't take it seriously."

Wait. I thought he didn't know my name.

Reading my mind, his eyes widened. "Fine, you caught me," he chuckled. "I asked around about you a bit."

What?

"I couldn't help it. Here's this pretty girl that's been living beside me for two months now, and she hasn't paid me any attention," he pouted.

I rolled my eyes when he called me pretty. We both knew I was hideous. At least he was polite enough not to say that out loud.

"Come on, now wipe off those tears and let's go have a good time," he smiled.

He was unbelievable. "I am not having sex with you," I declared bluntly. I didn't know who on earth would want to have sex with me, a creature with absolutely no sex appeal, but maybe he was just desperate. You know what they say, desperate times call for desperate measures.

Sebastian started to cackle again, holding his stomach as he was bent over laughing.

"You, Dani Stevens, are a gem," he smirked. "I never did ask to sleep with you, but if you change your mind let me know."

I blushed in embarrasment, completely mortified.

"Didn't you say you had a girlfriend?" I asked him, trying to take the attention off of me.

"Oh, Paige? I said she was kind of my girlfriend, and we're not exclusive," he replied nonchalantly.

To each their own I supposed.

"Now come one, let's go."

"Where?" I questioned, a bit bewildered. I really had no idea what was going on. But then again, I never knew what was going on.

"Did you forget that it's New Year's--we have a party to attend." I actually did forget that it was New Year's Eve. "Now get dressed," he ushered. "I'll go get dressed too and then I'll wait for you out on the balcony.

I closed the curtains and started to get dressed. I wondered why I was going along with this when Sebastian was a total stranger, but then I remembered Ian, and how he was somewhere downstairs, probably thinking about the next way he would torture me. So instead of staying home, I got dressed quicker, praying that Ian wouldn't come upstairs and catch me.

I put on an expensive red dress that wasn't too short, but it did show off my cleavage--the one thing I was proud of. Touching up my makeup, I slapped on some red lipstick and quickly straightened my already pretty straight hair. Grabbing some brand name clutch that I didn't really care for, I opened the balcony door, coming face to face with Sebastian. I might have been almost 5'9", but Sebastian made me feel so small.

He smirked when I opened up the door. "You look great," he told me, looking me up and down. I rolled my eyes for what seemed like the hundredth time.

"Whatever," I told him. I knew he was lying. Ian's words echoed in my mind. Fucking fat ass.

"No, really, I mean it."

I walked past him, ignoring him.

"So, are we going or not?"

Sebastian grinned at me. "Of course we're going."

I stared off the balcony with uncertainty, scratching my head awkwardly. "So... how do we get down?"

"Ah, that's the fun part," he smirked. "I'll climb down, and then when I get to the bottom, you jump and I'll catch you--unless you want to climb down in that outfit."

My mouth dropped open, and I looked at him as if he were an idiot.

"No freaking way," I hissed.

He shrugged, climbing down the terrace. Once he reached the bottom he stared up at me expectantly. "Would you rather walk out the front door and risk being caught by one of your parents?"

My thoughts drifted back to Ian.

I thought about the way his hand wrapped around my wrist, and the way he watched me undress. I also thought about the way I threw up because of him, and the way I called him master because he told me to.

And then I thought about jumping.

I nodded my head, signaling that I was ready. And so I did. It didn't cross my mind that Sebastian might not catch me, or that I could meet a painful, bloody death (I'm a little melodramatic, okay). Instead, all I thought about was getting out of the hell my house quickly turned into.

Sebastian caught me, thankfully, and he looked at me with a victorious expression. He didn't set me down right away. Instead, we stared into each other's eyes--his green eyes into my blue ones. His eyes were by far the most beautiful pair to ever exist. The bright silver specs in his irises were like nothing I had ever seen before and it scared me how much I never wanted to look at anything else again.

I cleared my throat, feeling awkward, effectively ending the moment. Sebastian gently put me on the ground and looked slightly embarrassed.

It was weird seeing him look that way.

He snapped out of it fast, turning back to me with a devious grin on his face. "Ready, kitten?"

"Kitten?" I spat.

Sebastian chuckled. "Yeah, it suits you."

Weirdo.

"Now come on," he continued, ushering me towards his car. I let the odd nickname drop and followed him. Strapping my seatbelt on, Sebastian handed me the aux cord. "Here, play anything you want."

A devilish smile made its way onto my face. Sebastian has no idea what he was getting into. Plugging it into my phone, I put Blood Sweat Tears on by BTS, smirking to myself, waiting to see how he would react.

As he started to drive the car, he just looked puzzled, switching between looking at me, the radio, and the road.

"Is... is this K Pop?" he asked, confused.

I nodded my head excitedly. Sebastian just looked more disturbed by the second.

"Are you playing me right now?" he questioned. "By the way you dress, I could've sworn you'd be a Katy Perry or a Taylor Swift kind of girl."

I shrugged, trying not to appear offended. It was true though. I dressed like a spoiled rich girl--so different from the way I used to dress before my mom married Ian.

In fact, Ian was the one who bought me all this clothing. He had a closet ready for me before I even moved in. Thinking about it caused my stomach to churn. Before it never bothered me--I just thought he was trying to be nice. But now it seemed like another aspect of my life he was trying to control.

I felt like he was grooming me, the way he wanted to control my appearance by encouraging me--no, forcing me--to lose weight, and the way he had picked out all my clothing for me to wear. Like I was a doll.

What girl doesn't want to be thin and beautiful, his voice entered my head again, like a doll?

Is that what I was to him? A toy for him to play with?

The more I thought about it, the worse I felt. What did he want with me? Why did he feel the need to control me?

"You're right," I chuckled darkly, "I do dress like that." Taking my phone and wallet out of the Chanel clutch he bought, I rolled down the window and chucked it outside.

There goes five hundred dollars of Ian's money.

Hashtag no regrets.

"What the hell?" Sebastian cursed. I merely shrugged my shoulders.

"I decided I didn't want it," I quipped.

"Silly rich girls," he muttered, rolling his eyes.

I scoffed. "From what I hear about you, buddy, is that you throw away girls like used tissues. So what if I toss out an expensive bag? At least it's not a person."

That's right, I just clapped back.

He opened his mouth to respond, but then closed it because what I said must have been true.

The rest of the car ride was silent, other than my BTS playing in the background. When we got to the party, Sebastian turned off the car but didn't take the keys out of the ignition.

What was his problem?

I reached for the door handle, but stopped. Turning to Sebastian, I asked him a question. "Why do you do what you do?"

"What?"

"Why do you use girls the way you do?" I clarified.

He chuckled slightly, but he didn't sound happy. "Because girls are all the same."

I tried to look him in the eyes, but Sebastian wouldn't meet my gaze. Instead he just stared straight out of the windshield, watching the lively party from a distance.

I shrugged. It wasn't my problem what he thought of me or any other girl. I once again reached for the door handle, planning to go inside and enjoy the party, but Sebastian reached out and grabbed my wrist, stopping me. I flinched as he made contact with the skin that must have been bruising from my earlier incident with Ian.

"What is your problem?" I exploded, pulling my wrist out of his soft grip. "I thought I told you not to touch me!"

"What's this?" his angry voice shut me up. He pointed to my wrist where you could see a yellowish purple mark begin to form.

Great, I forgot to cover this up with makeup.

"Who did this to you?" he continued, his voice scathing. "It looks like a hand. A large one too. Was it a guy?"

I chuckled, rolling my eyes as he acted like he cared. I thought of my father, and the burn scars his cigarettes left on my back. I thought of Ian, and the force he used when he squeezed my wrist.

"Yeah," I responded. "Haven't you heard, all guys are the same too."

Getting out of the car, I walked towards the house, suddenly realizing how much I needed a drink.

Something told me that it'd be a long night.