It was Lina's first time to attend a party in her entire life. Now that was really saying something, considering the fact that she was eighteen years old, but she couldn't deny that simple truth. Lina had never been a big fan of them - she thought that the alcohol consumption was a little too much for her taste - and she still wasn't.

She had even considered not going at all, but after her friends eventually all got invited - by word of mouth, of course - she decided she would go after all (mostly due to her friends' persuasive skills, mind you). The plan was that she, considering the fact that she usually got pretty shy around large crowds, would just simply have fun with her friends and mingle as minimally as possible with the other guests, but no; fate always had a way of always screwing with her plans.

Her best friend, Lizzie Bisco, had cancelled at last minute because of a family reunion to go to; Sarah Reding, another of her close friends, had caught the flu three days before the party; Zoey Blooming had a funeral; Betsy Wright had a birthday party for her little brother, and Patrisha Patterson, who was known to all of her friends as 'Trish', went out of town for the weekend to visit some relatives. So, Lina was left alone, reclusing herself away in a chair located in the corner of the walk-in kitchen pantry. In other words: as far away from everyone else as possible.

Stupid fate.

At the end of the night, the hostess, Karen Whittman, would send all of the boys home and keep the girls over for a sleepover - the sober ones, in any case. Lina had decided that this would be the perfect opportunity to escape. Surely no one would notice if one of the guests had disappeared, right?

Oh... life really did like to have its fun with her.

Tick Hassler stumbled into the pantry, a red plastic cup in hand. He looked up at her with unfocused blue eyes. He was tall, muscular, and lean, and his usually neat, tidy hair was a mess. His clouded eyes met Lina's clear, deep blue ones. "Who're you?" He asked groggily.

Lina looked at him like he was an alien. Really, at that moment she thought he was in comparison to his sober self. He stunk of alcohol and she could see the golden liquid sloshing around in his cup. When she didn't speak, he took a clumsy step toward her. "Um..." she backed away from him as he neared her.

"Who're you?" Tick repeated loudly, unintentionnally slurring his words and pursuing with sluggish steps towatd her.

She backed into a pantry shelf, flinching at the realization that she had run out of room. "Stop drinking that!" She snapped, snatching away his cup.

"Hey!" he yelped, reaching out for it. Alcohol, luckily for Lina and not so much for the drunk teenager in her company, had a tendency to make a person slower, giving Lina the chance to shove him out of her way, cup in hand, and throw open the pantry door. No one was in the kitchen, so Lina's reappearance went unnoticed. She wondered, as she made her way to the living room and forced herself through the crowd of people to find a trashcan to drop Tick's cup in, who had brought the alcohol in the first place.

It was most likely a boy, Lina decided. The music was turned up to an ear-shattering volume, and Lina had to yell if she wanted to be heard. Luckily, she didn't. Over the large mass of sweating, dancing bodies, Lina spotted a large trashcan in the corner of the room. Slithering through the crowd, Lina reached it and dropped the cup into the black plastic bin. She heard a thump! as the cup hit the bottom and a splash! as the alcohol spilled out.

Lina spun around on her heels quickly and squeezed her way back through the crowd toward the front door. She reached out, turned the knob, and slipped out through the partial opening she had made and shutting it quickly behind herself. Lina reached into her pocket, retrieved her cell phone, and quickly dialed her mom's number into the phone. Her real mothee had died not long after Poppy, Lina's little sister was born due to childbirth complications, and after her father died their grandmother took care of them. But when she passed, their next door neighbor, a close friend of their grandmother's whom Lina had referred to as Mrs. Murdo at the time, took them in.

Now, after living with the woman for almost six years, Lina had just recently decided to call her mom. Mrs. Murdo was just like a mom: she attended all of the school and family functions, baked a lot, and kept the house organized and tidy, but she knew that she would never fill in the shoes of the girls' real mother. That was okay, though. All Lina cared about was that she and her sister had a nice place to stay and that Poppy had a mature adult in her life to teach her and set a good example for her.

"Hello?" Mrs. Murdo's voice said through the speaker pressed to Lina's ear.

"Hi, mom." Lina said, "Can you please come pick me up?"

"Is the party over already?" the woman asked.

"Uh," Lina looked back at the house, the sound of the music loud enough for her to detect the song that was playing, "sort of."

"Sort of?"

"Yes." Lina said impatiently, "Just please…come get me."

"Okay." Mrs. Murdo sighed, "I'll be there in about twenty minutes."

"Thanks. 'Bye." Lina hung up the phone after hearing Mrs. Murdo's goodbye and slid the phone back into her pocket.

"Hey." A familiar voice said. Lina heard the front door open and close behind her and cringed. She didn't turn around. A warm hand rested itself on her shoulder, and it spun her around.

"Hi again, Tick." Lina glared down at the ground.

"Hey beautiful." He said. She suppressed a shudder of disgust.

"I don't really know you." Lina muttered, trying to pull away from him. She backed up into a car, cornered by him. Again. His other hand rested itself on her other shoulder.

"Sure you do," he replied, smiling a drunken smile and revealing two rows of perfectly straight, white teeth. "I've seen you around."

"Yeah, well…" Lina wriggled in his grasp. It was no use. She sighed and rolled her eyes.

"I saw you in the pantry." He said, interrupting her reverie. He leaned in closer, "You took my drink." He didn't sound too pleased about that.

"Sorry about that," Lina apologized quietly, "it's just that it's not the best thing you could be -" his lips slammed down on hers forcefully, interrupting her. She jerked hers from his, rubbing her lips on her shoulder. His grip on her arms was so tight that her fingertips were beginning to tingle from loss of complete circulation. "What are you doing?" She hissed, deciding it was best not to mention that part.

"C'mon," he said, "give me a real kiss."

"I didn't want to kiss you in the first place!"

"You only want me to think that." Tick smiled cockily at her. She didn't even attempt to repress her sudden urge to gag.

"You're a filthy pig." Lina spat through gritted teeth.

"Hey," Tick pouted, "no need to throw the insults."

"Get off of me." She ordered, her voice stronger than she felt. Inside, she was falling apart due to fear and insecurity about her situation. Deep breaths, Lina. Mom always told you to be calm in situations like these.

"Give me a kiss, then."

"No." Lina said firmly.

"Then I won't let you go." He replied, smiling triumphantly.

"Well I guess we'll be here all night, because I'm not kissing you." She argued stubbornly. Even in his drunken stupor, he is still the same jock who thinks all the girls in the entire school want him. Lina thought, grimacing. What a slime ball. To prove her point further, Tick had the audacity to give Lina a surprised look.

"One more." He forced, the shock quickly forgotten. He had drawn his face so closely to hers that she could feel his uncomfortably hot breath upon her face and smell the alcohol heavily upon it.

"I don't want to kiss you!" Lina shouted. Okay, screw being calm! I want to get out of here right now! "Leave me alone!" His lips crushed hers again. Her body went completely rigid and she clenched her jaw as hard as she could to keep him from entertaining himself by playing with her tonsils. As fun as that sounded - note the sarcasm, here - she really want interested. At all. She jerked herself from his kiss once again.

"I always liked a challenge." Tick said thoughtfully, as if he were really in the right state of mind to do so.

"Get away or else." Lina warned him.

"Or else what?"

"Or else…" Lina tried to think of something quickly, struggling as she drew a blank, "or else…"

"Or else you might just regret not doing so." A male voice piped up for her, the owner's tone angry and irritated. A fist accompanied the statement and Tick fell to the ground in an instant, knocked out cold. Lina knew from the sound he'd have a black eye by the morning. Lina turned around to see who had defended her.

There was a familiar looking boy standing before her, curling and uncurling his fingers on his right hand. He had dark brown shaggy hair and brown eyes, and was wearing a leather jacket and baggy jeans and tennis shoes. She recognized the teenager; she had seen him in the hallways and even had a few classes with him, but she couldn't remember his name. "Thanks, uh…"

"Doon." He said, "Doon Harrow."

"Thanks, Doon." Lina tried again.

"No problem." He shook his right hand, "Damn!" he said, "I didn't think I would hit him that hard!" Lina's eyes traveled down to the boy who lay unconscious on the ground at her feet. Doon started to walk away. After he'd gotten a few yards away, he turned around. "You coming?" He asked.

"What are you talking about?" Lina called back.

"Well, you can either come with me or wait until he wakes up." He jerked his head in Tick's direction. Lina looked at Tick again before finally making her decision.

"Wait up!" She cried, running to catch up with Doon.

Author's Note

Hello, lovely readers!

I'm currently going through and editing all of my chapters, so even if you've already read my story I'd advise you to read it again. I added some sentences, took out some words here and there... I'll have all of the work done very soon. Thank you for your patience!

And please don't forget to review. :)

-Caitie Manda