Warning: This chapter contains distressing language discussing sexual assault and sexual assault. If this isn't something you are willing to read, stop when you see the following mark: *

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I studied Mia's face carefully, from where she still sat on my lap. Her gaze had fallen low, and I could almost see her eyes swirling with thought.

I couldn't for the life of me work out what had suddenly upset her so much. She'd been very enthusiastically kissing me, only seconds ago.

With a sigh, she untangled her arms from around my neck before flopping off my lap and onto the sofa.

I resisted the urge to tug her back, despite how badly I'd been enjoying holding her.

"Hey, are you alright, Chubs, you look a little sad?" I mumbled, noticing the slight frown on her lips. She stared quietly off at the party as the beginning of a soft song started to play.

She turned to me immediately with a small smile and straightened up her posture. "Yeah, yeah, I'm good," she said. An obvious lie.

I looked at her silently for a while, wondering what it was that she was hiding from me. My eyes did a slow glance over the room where I could see a few people attempting to jokingly ballroom dance to the song that was playing. It was a little slow for a party song, but I guess whoever made the playlist must have accidentally left it on. I stared at them silently for a while before the image jogged my memory.

Suddenly an idea formed in my mind, and I smiled.

Standing up abruptly, I stood before a very confused-looking Mia. "First off, imagine me twelve, skinny and short," I said abruptly.

Mia blinked twice and looked at me like I'd positively lost my mind.

I cleared my throat dramatically before sticking my hands in my pockets, just like I'd remembered doing six years ago.

"Hey, so, Mia, I know I'm not your favorite person right now since you know....the whole lesbian rumor," I said with another clear of my throat. "But I – I just thought...well, maybe, only if you want to, of course...would you mind dancing with me?" I stumbled out, my eyes rocking between hers.

I saw Mia's eyes warp from confused, to shocked as she realized, I'd recited back the very words I'd said to her at our school dance all those years ago.

"H-how do you remember exactly what you said?" she asked in bewilderment.

I let out a light chuckle. "Well, it's hard to forget what you said when someone responds with and I quote, 'Fuck off, you nasty piece of shit," I laughed while scratching the back of my neck. "Your rejection stung like a bitch, so the cruel part of my brain likes to replay that memory over and over again in my head," I mumbled, my laughter a little stiff.

Mia seemed to physically cringe at the memory, guilt crossing her features. She had no reason to feel guilty and I was about to tell her so before she sat up straighter, and cleared her throat, her eyes locking on mine.

"Well Seventeen-year-old Mia says, yes, she'd love to dance with you," she said with a smile, clearly deciding to play along.

Though it was a little dumb and stupid, I couldn't help but smile foolishly on behalf of the twelve-year-old love-sick fool that still lived in me. God knows, how desperate he was for her to say yes.

Taking hold of her hand, I pulled her to her feet and started pulling her over to the makeshift dance floor.

The moment we got there, I grabbed a hold of her waist and pulled her flush up against me causing laughter to escape her lips. I reached out to tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear that had fallen into her face. I searched over her face, admiring how fucking beautiful she was. Beautiful and mine.

I slowly started to sway with her to the music, one hand intertwined with hers and the other pressing her by the small of her back into the warmth of my body.

Recognizing the song, I decided to see if I could earn some further laughter from her to cheer her up. "I was praying that you and I might end up together," I sang along with the track, immediately sensing the irony of the lyrics.

Mia immediately started to laugh. "I think I finally might have found something you're not good at," she teased while biting her lip to contain her laughter.

I teasingly pinched at her waist, punishing her for laughing at me. Here I was trying to be all sexy and romantic and she was bullying me.

Lowly chuckling, I continued singing. "And I'm holding you closer than most," I sang near her ear as I pulled her tighter to me.

Our faces drew closer as we danced, and I took the time to admire every soft feature of the face I'd always loved. It used to scare me how I cared for her, how desperately I always wanted to be closer to her, but it didn't scare me anymore. She was my Mia – my chubs, and I loved her. Always would.

She let out a squeal of laughter as I lifted her up in the arms, and spun her around as the song reached its climax.

I chuckled and lowered her down slowly, my stomach dipping low as I felt the way her body slid down against mine.

As the song started to reach its end, Mia rested her hand against my chest as we swayed gently to the music. Smiling, I kissed the top of her head and ignored the pressing feeling of tiredness that was creeping up on me.

I suddenly felt nauseous as well. What the hell was wrong with me? Ignoring how badly I felt, I continued swaying.

Just as the song started fading out, the whole of my head suddenly burst with pain.

Unable to help myself, I ripped away from Mia fast. "Fuck," I winced as I bent down to massage my temples, feeling a headache coming on worse than I'd ever felt before in my life. It felt like my whole head was going to explode and it was making me dizzy.

Just as my heart started to break into a dizzyingly fast speed, the whole room suddenly felt like it was fire, and an unnatural sweat started to break out on my forehead.

I caught sight of Mia's face and saw her smile slowly fade as she looked at me. Shame washed through me, embarrassed by how horrible I likely looked.

"You need to sit down," Mia said gently, her voice soft, as she grabbed my hand gently and tried to pull me back to the sofas.

I managed with struggle through my pounding headache to resist. "No, I don't want to ruin the night. We can keep dancing, it's probably just nothing," I said, brushing it off dismissively.

 I knew full well it wasn't nothing, knowing I'd never felt so disorientated and weak in all of my life. A second later, my head suddenly felt weightless all at once, and I wobbled unsteadily on my feet, feeling faint. Mia immediately grabbed my arm to steady me.

"No, we're sitting down," she snapped firmly, with finality to her tone. I would have normally found the bossiness in her tone sexy, but I felt so fucking disgusting, I couldn't even bring myself to enjoy it. Okay, it was official, if I wasn't getting aroused by Mia, there was seriously something wrong with me.

Mia wrapped her arms with struggle around my shoulders and started dragging me towards the sofas. My legs felt like jelly, and I leaned far more weight than I wanted onto her, to the point I was scared I would drag us both to the floor.

God, I was ruining fucking everything.

Miraculously, we managed to make it to the couch before either of us hit the floor. Mia let me go with a grunt, and I collapsed weakly onto the sofa, dizziness practically blinding me. I felt as she dropped down beside me. "Ethan, please, please tell me you can hear me?" she said, panic evident in her tone as she lightly slapped my face.

"Yes, I can hear you," I said weakly. My heart leaped in panic, as my head continued to spin. I turned my head towards the other sofas limply searching for my friends in the hopes they could help carry me to somewhere quiet, but I saw to my disappointment they were all gone.

Fuck

"How much did you drink, Ethan?" Mia asked in a panic.

Groaning, I rubbed my head, still feeling like I was going to be sick. "I only had one beer. I don't know what's wrong with me," I whispered croakily. At this point, my body barely felt like my own, and I could hardly move my arms and legs and I was struggling to keep my eyes open.

Mia's eyes searched over mine frantically. "You're probably just tired from playing so hard in the game today. We can just find a quiet room for you to rest, okay?" she said as she softly forked her hands through my hair.

I would have laughed at the suggestion if I had the strength to, knowing I'd damn well near crushed her on our two-second walk to the sofas. "Chubs, I can't even move, and you're not strong enough to carry me," I groaned, my eyes still half closed.

"Nonsense. I got you here, didn't I?" she stated with far too much confidence.

She grabbed a hold of my arm, wrapped it over her shoulder, and shakily tried to stand.

"Mia don't....," I murmured in protest, unable to fight her. I couldn't hold any of my weight, and I was resting it all on her and could only step forward drunkenly.

I desperately fought to keep conscious and let myself get dragged forward as Mia managed three shaky steps before she stopped to catch her breath.

"Hey, need some help, I can carry him for you," a smooth voice called out from behind me.

Mia turned in surprise, but I couldn't even move my neck to check who was there, feeling as though I was about to hit the floor.

I saw Mia nod her head stiffly. "Yeah, I'd appreciate that. I just was about to take him upstairs so he could lie down. He's very sick," she explained, her voice strained as she struggled to hold my weight.

Whoever it was didn't reply, and just silently grabbed a hold of my arm and wrapped it around their own shoulders. I could no longer keep my eyes open, and delirious mumbles escaped my lips as I tried to ask to go home.

"He's probably just dehydrated, Mia," the guy holding me said. "It happens to him all the time. Why don't you just get him some water? I'll take him upstairs and you can come find us," he explained confidently.

Through my haziness, I could just about detect it was Connor's voice. I wanted to yell and shove him away from me, but I couldn't, my mouth and body were too drained to fight for what I wanted.

I heard Mia sigh in relief. "Yeah, you are probably right, and thank you," she said, her voice stiff, and shaking slightly.

I felt as Connor carried me forward, his pace much faster than Mia's had been as I half stumbled, half let him drag me forward.

I couldn't take the pain anymore, and all I wanted to do was go home. "I need to go home," was all I was managed to grunt, as he started dragging me up the stairs. He chuckled lowly, still continuing on his path. "All, in good time, cuz, first you've got business to attend to."

None of his words made sense and my head ringed with pain, as we trudged up the stairs.

As we made it to the upstairs level of the house, I could vaguely see him taking me towards a room at the far end of the corridor. He kicked open the door before dragging me inside.

He lugged me across the room, then let me collapse back first onto the bed. I grunted in pain as he roughly pulled me up by the shoulders to the top of the bed before ripping my shoes off my feet and chucking them disrespectfully onto the floor.

"Okay here, he is as promised, April," Connor said amusement in his tone.

I could barely think, my eyes once more falling briefly closed. Nothing made sense, and I just wanted to go home.

*

I heard the click of shoes as someone approached the bed.

"Why is he so knocked out? How am I supposed to do anything with him like this? He looked fine just a second ago, when that bitch had her slutty hands all over him," a high voice snapped, irritated.

Connor let out a breath of laughter. "You clearly gave him too much of my shit, but it's fine, he should still get a hard one if you touch him up enough and obviously just do it with you on top. The fucker doesn't need to be conscious."

I struggled against my growing lack of consciousness, hearing the words but not fully understanding them.

I heard the girl let out an irritated huff. "Fine, whatever. And what are you going to do to keep Mia away?"

I heard Connor chuckle, stepping closer to the door. "You obviously know what I'm going to do. Slut deserves it as well for that sassy mouth of hers."

"Fair enough," the girl said.

"See you in the morning, enjoy," Connor said before I heard footsteps and the sound of a door swinging closed.

I fought to open my eyes, and move my body, but I couldn't move. "Mia," I mumbled helplessly, remembering she was just with me.

"She isn't here, Ethan. She left you, but I'm here," a voice said as she approached the bed.

I just about managed to open my eyes and saw nothing but a blurry face through my vision, and a mane of blondish hair.

I heard the rustle of clothing, similar to the sound of someone taking off clothes. The bed soon dipped, and suddenly I felt a weight on my lap.

"I need to go home," I mumbled, nausea twisting my thoughts and my head once again felt like exploding.

"Shh," a voice said. Then suddenly I felt lips on mine, trying to kiss me. I rolled my head to the side to avoid them, then the lips were sucking at my neck. "Stop," I whispered, my voice coming out in a helpless croak.

I could feel myself getting weaker, and then I felt fingers at the bottom of my shirt and then a tug as the material slid slowly up my torso.

I couldn't hold on anymore, and before I knew it, my eyes fully closed, and I slipped into the darkness. 

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Thanks for reading! I apologise for how dark this chapter ends. 

Should bring an update soon x