We entered a shared house filled with students, it was like a scene right out of a movie. If you think high school parties were wild, check out a college frat ones. They were ten times crazier especially if it was the first one of the whole year.

"Adam," somebody called out, a beer in his hand with a wide grin on his face, "Glad you can make it."

"Sienna, this is Vance," he told me, swinging an arm around my shoulder, "He was the one who invited me."

I flashed him a polite smile while trying to keep my cheeks from burning hot because of the close proximity Adam suddenly placed between us, "Thanks for letting me come."

Personal space be damned.

"American," he nodded towards Adam, a silent conversation transpiring between them, "So the boys and I are having a chat upstairs, want to join?"

At one point, I sincerely hope that people would stop making such a big deal of my nationality. I get it, I don't have that accent that most girls from my country goes crazy for, but if I'm going to finish my degree here, then they better be prepared to have this somewhat foreign female walking around. And besides, I'm not the first nor will I be the last foreigner walking through these halls. I've already seen a number of students like me.

"You could go," I told him, subtly trying to pry myself out of his grasp, "I'll be alright."

He pulled me closer, even if that was possible, and rejected Vance's offer, "Thank you but I'm going with Sienna for tonight."

Then even if his friends call him, he would choose to stay with you.

Julia's words once again rung bells inside my head and the red was drained from my face along with the rest of the other colors. My pleas for her to be wrong was starting to scream louder in my mind and my body was now desperate to put a distance.

Because this was not good. If there was one thing my best friend from high school told me, it was that I fall in love too fast and take an excruciating slow time to move on.

And let me tell you, I don't want to fall for a guy pining over his childhood friend while trying to move on from a guy who I've consciously broken up with.

This is wrong, he's wrong, Julia's wrong, and I'm certainly hoping that I'm not.

To make matters worse, my said roommate and Meg walked through the door and when they saw our positions, their jaws dropped and Julia proceeded to shake Meg violently. The latter tried to break free from her grasp but the fact that their eyes were still glued onto us did not change.

Well, crap.

This was escalating to a point where I never imagined it will go to and frankly, I wanted everything to stop. Can't I just have a bottle of beer and call it a night?

"I'm going to get a drink," I attempted once again to wriggle out of his hold. He perked up and finally released me.

"I'll get one for you," he excused himself and Vance tipped his bottle as a goodbye while following Adam to talk about something. Once I was alone, the two girls found their way to my side and Julia was now suggestively wiggling her eyebrows.

"Not a word," I groaned, lifting a hand to stop whatever she was going to say.

But unfortunately, I was only able to halt Julia so Meg was quick to quip, "Not dating?"

I had no idea what was happening as well. Adam usually kept a respectable distance between, he has never touched me out of the blue like that and his aura has shifted as if he was actively trying to pull me closer.

If it was his way of making an impression to Vance, he could have just told and I would have played along with it.

Only one requirement was left in what Julia called as the 'signs of a date' and the moment that it comes, I don't know how I would handle it. Not with a straight face, that was for sure. I would just confront him about the Vance thing and hopefully, we could still have a peaceful night – well, as peaceful as a frat party could go.

"We'll just go and say hi to the guy who invited us," Julia said after I insistently denied Meg's accusation, "Talk to you later."

I nodded and watched as Adam waved to a few people while he made his way back to me. He had only been here for a total of one week and he was living off-campus, yet he still knew a good number of students. Either he met them before college or he was just really that friendly.

Either way, it was the total opposite of me. Aside from Meg and Julia, I never made a conscious effort to befriend anybody during my first week of class. Like I said, I was going to leave here anyways so might as well make less connections.

After what felt like forever, Adam finally managed to get to me, "Here you go."

"Thanks," I spoke, taking one of the two bottles from his grasp. I took a large swig of the alcoholic beverage, my mind begging me to get drunk. I just had this gut feeling that I would rather suffer a hangover tomorrow morning than to remember this night, "So how's it going with Heart?"

Touching the topic of the girl he loves will hopefully steer his thoughts away. However, I didn't get the results I desired and he shrugged in response, "Same as always."

Short and simple, not the one I expected. The way he said it even made it sound like he wanted to drop it right away.

My worries heightened and I downed the whole bottle in one go. He was taken aback by my actions and I excused myself to get another one, my desperation now at its peak.

Near the kitchen, there were a bunch of coolers along with a line of opened beer bottle. I took one, drinking it as fast as I did the last. Adam took my hand before I could reach for my third beer, his head shaking, "What are you doing?"

"Getting drunk," I answered truthfully, "It's a party, I'm supposed to be wobbling when I get out."

"I was planning on asking you out to the twenty-four hour diner near here after an hour but I think that it's best that we go now."

And then if he's really trying hard, he'll ask you to escape the party and go to a twenty-four hour food place to have your alone time together.

Well, shit.

"Can you hold that thought?" I gave him a tightlipped smile and although he appeared hesitant, he nodded and he released me. The moment he did, I grabbed another bottle and kept with the haste pace of consuming the alcohol.

I didn't consider myself a lightweight nor was I a heavyweight so I was fairly in the middle. Three bottles didn't have much effect on me but after chugging it all that fast plus my mental, I was fully submitting to it.

Three more of these and I would be tumbling on my way out. Perhaps then, he'll get away from me and realize how much of a waste of time I was.

Wow, my self-confidence was through the roof.

"Sienna," he stole the bottle I was grabbing and set it back down on the table, "Stop this."

I always tried to escape before anything affected me and in the end, I was the one who breaks my own heart. What right did I have to judge him for letting go somebody he loved when in truth, I did the same? It was a horrible cycle – I assume and when the thought has drilled itself into my mind, I find every possible way to escape it.

No matter how much I say I've changed, I know for myself that I haven't. And honestly, truth is a concept I was so afraid of. I avoid it as much as possible, morph it into my own reality because I'm scared for myself, I never take the risk. I'm not as free-spirited as Emma, I'm not as strong-headed as Andy, and I'm not as determined as my brother.

I'm that average, overthinking, weak Sienna Clark.

I write because reality is horrible, I write because I want to reconstruct events to the way I hoped it will end up in. However, I can't ignore the fact that I also create unhappy endings because I know for myself that trying to get a happily ever after is useless.

All of a sudden, he took my hand and started to pull me away. He was fast and I could barely keep up with my state but I couldn't tell him that I wanted him to slow down because the moment I opened my mouth, a sob escaped my lips and I felt the tears running down my cheeks.

I was crying and that was the reason he wanted to take me away so urgently.

We had nowhere to go except to the front of the sorority that was next door to the frat house. Thankfully, they had a park bench right in front and Adam situated me on it, bathing us in silence while he waited patiently for me to calm down.

"Sorry," I apologized, running a hand gently across my face, "Must be the alcohol mixing up my emotions."

"I don't think that's all," he told me, looking at me in the eyes. He searched for it, the same thing that got me crying – the ugly truth.

He wanted to find what was it and sadly for him, he wouldn't find it because even I didn't know what it was. There was no reason for me to tear up, but that was the thing that I was doing. And you know what hits me the most? He was also here with me.

The man I met last week and we were both here because of some silly implication that my roommate made.

What broke our trance was not the sudden crash coming from the party nearby, but the loud ringing of his phone that made him fumble around to search for the device. He looked at the screen and showed me Heart's picture with her name flashing on the screen, "Go answer it, I'm alright."

He had a look that showed that he didn't want to leave me alone but I gestured for him to go on. He excused himself and placed a distance between us and I used this opportunity to compose myself. Grabbing my purse, I dug for my compact mirror and cringed at my reflection – my nose was red and my eyes were puffy.

I tried to cover as much as I could with makeup but I could do so little with what I had. I glanced towards Adam and contemplated on telling him that it was best that we should start heading back. He was still invested on his phone call so I had second doubts.

How could he still be so close to her?

I mean, when I broke up with my ex, I asked him to still be friends. Of course, that was just to diffuse the tension during that moment. Remaining friends was indeed easier said than done.

Did I cry bucketloads? Hell yeah I did.

Did I show him how pathetically broken I was? It was a solid nope.

Standing up and dusting down my dress, I made cautious steps towards him and when I was in earshot, I accidentally heard bits of their conversation.

"Soph, stop worrying about me and I promise you'll meet Sienna," he said and I slowed down when he mentioned my name, "I tried going on a date with her like you said but we've ran into some complications."

A dozen butterflies entered my stomach and a red blush crept to my cheeks when I found out that this was in fact a date. Julia was completely right, my worrying wasn't for nothing, and I couldn't believe that this was happening.

But he still loves Heart, right? Where was the lie here?

"I only did this to stop you from pestering me," he chuckled lightheartedly, effectively making my heart sink, "I'm going to take her home and you take care over there."

So all of this was just to satisfy the Hollywood's Princess?

He outright stated that he invited me not because he wanted my company or whatnot, but because Heart told him to. I was just a pawn in this messed up game he wanted to play. And you know what? I should have been angry and threw a fit right there and then, I had every right to do so.

But I was so mortified that I couldn't do anything.

Sienna Clark, what happened to your spirit? It was becoming dull.

When he turned around, he was surprised to see me so close and I knew he was ready to fire a large apology. None of which I wanted to hear at this moment.

"I'm going back to the party and enjoy it with Julia as well as Meg," I managed to say with as much dignity as I could, "Thank you for this evening."

He reached out and tried to stop me but I snatched my hand away before he could. I shook my head and turned, walking back to the fraternity house with my bottom lip shaking so much that I had to bite it to stop.

I didn't stay true to my word because instead of looking for my roommate, I headed straight towards the kitchen and at the long lineup of beer bottles. The anger and sadness were bubbling up inside me, threatening to spill and I needed something to push it back down into my system.

I drank and drank, losing count of how many bottles I picked up and chugged down. Thankfully, Julia and Meg managed to spot me when I was on the brink of sinking down to the ground and crawling my way to find them.

I've gathered quite a crowd because there was this insane girl in the kitchen just consuming their whole stock of beers in one go.

With each girl supporting my sides, we trudged back to my dorm and when I fell into my bed, I started crying.

They were at complete loss on what to do and I couldn't remember much of what happened right after. All I knew was when I woke up, I had this throbbing headache but a glass of water was already there on my bedside table. I glanced towards Julia who was still fast asleep and I sent a silent thank you as I gulped it all down.

I checked my phone and just as I predicted, multiple messages and phone calls from Adam went through.

Oh so now you use my number when you could have called me last night before the party and allowed me to meet you halfway so this huge mess wouldn't have escalated this big.

I opened my browser and searched for his name online and multiple results came through – all pertaining to Heart Valentine.

There were so many paparazzi shots of the two of them, showing just how close they really were. If I didn't know better, I would have assumed as well that they were a couple. But I observed carefully their body language through a candid video I saw of them.

They were exiting some formal event, both were dressed up to the nines but the way they walked said a lot. They were near each other, arm in arm even, but there was a distance. If I wasn't so pissed off and being a sad blob over here, I would have laughed at the tango they were seemingly playing.

When Heart took a step towards him, he would subtly move farther away and when he would try to make a move, she was frigid.

They both liked each other here and it showed with the way they interacted but their actions screamed that they were afraid.

Screw them.

"Sienna?" I heard my roommate's voice and I looked up. She was now awake and was staring at me with a concerned look. I flashed her a small smile to reassure her, swinging my body so I could go down my bed but any sudden movements made my head spin, "Careful, I know Meg's roommate has some painkillers."

"Thanks," I groaned, clutching my poor head, "And I'm sorry for last night."

"Don't be," she soothed, standing up and walking over to me, "You can talk to me if you want."

"Maybe after breakfast," I tried to laugh but my brain felt like it was flopping around in my skull.

She was still worried, it was written all over her face, but she nodded and helped me go down. Meg brought over a bottle of painkillers when she went to our table and never have I been grateful for her meddlesome nature.

The girls tried their best to make sure my mind was preoccupied with thoughts other than the party. Which wasn't that hard to do since I could barely remember what happened.

But when my phone lit up, I was ready to reject the call because I thought that I was Adam again. When I did glance at the screen, all drained from my face when I saw who was the one actually trying to contact me.

Him.

It felt like somebody dumped a whole bucket of cold water over my head. My mind, my poor mind who went through hell and back last night, had to process what was happening.

You know what they say, when the mind goes off, the heart takes over.

And my heart craved for him.

With a shaking hand, I accepted the call and slowly brought it up to my ear, "Hello?"

My voice was thick and I felt like something was jammed in my throat. I haven't heard from him for over a year and now, I wanted to faint.

"Sienna?" he questioned as if he was unsure. Still, his voice wrapped me up in warmth, embracing me in a way I desperately wanted to be last night, "Sorry I couldn't understand anything that you said at three in the morning."

Three in the morning?!

"What?" I gaped, getting the attention of Julia and Meg.

"You did call, right?"

I dropped the phone onto the table and shot up to my feet, taking a huge step back as if the device suddenly turned into a venomous snake.

What did I do last night?

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So sorry this was up today instead of yesterday. Everything was pre-written so I don't really have much of an excuse except for that this completely went out of my mind. I'm so glad that I at least had some sort of feedback on the last chapter. 

And I'm so happy that you guys like Sienna, because like I said, she's the closest to me. Besides, Adam is her love interest and old readers know how much I love him. This story has one of the weirdest pacing I have ever done. We go from slow to fast to slow once again so I hope you can catch up with me.

Don't forget to vote, comment, and hit me a follow if you're feeling kind. I love you so much and I shall see you all next chapter.