Jake's POV

After a very long day at school and a few hours of doing a group study session, the five of us finally arrive at Ricky's house. I say five because somehow Olive had managed to coax Enoch to come with us. Don't ask me how she managed to get him to agree, because I honestly have no idea.

"You ready to go to your first party?" I ask Emma gently as we walk up the front steps of Ricky's house. The house itself is small and extremely old looking. If I didn't know any better I'd say no one had lived here for years. It looks much nicer on the inside though, so that's a plus.

"Yeah...also a little nervous" she admits bashfully, a light blush coloring her cheeks.

"Don't be it'll be fun, I promise" I say with a small grin, I reach down and take her hand in mine. I give it a reassuring squeeze and she smiles up at me shyly. Enoch groans in disgust behind us and I roll my eyes.

"Is he always like this?" I mouth to Emma.

"Yes" she mouths back with sympathy in her eyes. I internally groan and knock on the front door. Ricky opens the door and grins at us.

"Hey man! Glad you could make it!" Ricky says as he pulls me inside. I hear Victor close the door behind us as Ricky leads us down to the basement.

"The music's so loud!" I faintly hear Emma call out over the loud music as we walk down the stairs.

"Yeah. And it's very crowded in here so maybe we should stay together" I say in her ear.

"Good idea" she says, tightening her grip on my hand. We weave our way through the crowd and I lead her over to a couple of chairs in the back of the room.

"I'm gonna go mingle!" Victor says loudly as we sit down.

"Okay!" Emma and I call out, and he disappears into the crowd. A few minutes later Olive tugs a reluctant Enoch onto the dance floor.

"They'd make a good couple" I tell Emma as we watch them awkwardly dance together.

"Yeah" I hear her giggle faintly. I glance at Emma and see her looking at the dancefloor longingly.

"Would you like to dance?" I ask her curiously. She looks at me surprised and even with the multi colored lights above us I can still tell that she's blushing.

"Sure" she says shyly and I grin. I stand up and offer her my hand. She grins and takes it, I carefully pull her up and lead her to the middle of the dance floor as the song changes to Wherever You Will Go by Charlene Soraia. (A/N: I highly recommend listening to this song while reading this, it's just perfect for Jake and Emma!). I put my hands on her waist and she wraps her arms around my neck.

"I'm warning you now, I'm not a very good dancer" Emma says bashfully we begin to sway to the music.

"That's alright, I'm not much of a dancer myself" I say amusedly as I playfully twirl us, causing her to giggle. She grins up at me and I'm happy to see it reach her eyes, something I haven't seen very often since I met her.

'She should always be this happy, she deserves it' I think to myself. That's when I feel a rush of determination, I'll do anything to make her this happy.

"Why are you staring at me? Do I have something on my face?" she asks nervously, snapping me out of my thoughts. She begins to remove one of her hands from my neck, probably to try and wipe her face, but I gently grab it with my own.

"No, you just look really really beautiful Em" I say reassuringly as I replace her hand on my neck. She blushes and I let out a small chuckle. She opens her mouth to say something, but I get distracted when someone taps on my shoulder. I turn my head and see Mindy, a girl from math class looking up at me shyly.

"Can I help you?" I ask curiously, wanting nothing more than to start dancing with Emma again.

"Oh um...I was wondering if you'd like to dance with me" she says seductively, puffing her chest to make her cleavage more prominent. She's wearing a very slutty dress that leaves little to the imagination, and looks like she's two seconds away from attempting to grind on me.

"No thanks, I'm a little busy right now" I say kindly, gesturing to the beautiful girl in my arms.

"Oh come on baby, forget about that little tramp and let me show you a good time. Maybe afterwards we could go upstairs and have some fun" she says seductively, putting her hand on my shoulder.

"Not interested, bye" I say flatly, shaking her hand off of my shoulder. She huffs and stomps away, but i couldn't care less. I look back at Emma and I see tears in her eyes.

"It's okay, go have fun with her" her voice cracks as she begins to try to pull away from me. I tighten my grip on her waist and she looks up at me pleadingly.

"I don't want to have fun with her, I want to have fun with you" I argue back. Her eyes widen and I see a little fear flash in her eyes. My eyes widen in horror when I realize what she thought I meant.

"Not that kind of fun!" I say quickly, and the fear disappears.

"No I know, it just brought back some bad memories" she says quietly, looking at everything except me.

"Hey" I say quietly, removing one of my hands from her waist to gently cup her cheek. She looks up at me and I see many different emotions swimming in her eyes.

"I know what he did to you...but Emma, I swear would never ever do that" I say emotionally, looking right into her eyes. She searches my eyes for a few minutes, and whatever she was looking for she seems to find it, because she suddenly launches herself into my chest to hug me. I hug her back tightly and she snuggles into my embrace.

"Between you and me, I think that girl could use a reality check" I whisper in her ear, and she giggles. I gently kiss her cheek and she buries her face into my neck.

"I'll never let anything bad happen to you again, I promise" I whisper to her. Instead of giving me a verbal response she just brushes her lips against my neck, and I internally shiver.

"Would you like anything to drink?" I ask her, my voice breaking in the middle of the sentence.

"Yes please" she mumbles against my neck.

"I'll be right back" I say quietly as I pull away from her.

"Okay" I hear her murmur as I begin to walk away towards the refreshment table.

Emma's POV

I go back to the chairs we'd been sitting in a few minutes before and look around at everyone dancing to some fast song I'd never heard of.

"Well well well, look here lads this is the little tramp from Cairnholm I told you about" an eerie familiar voice says. I turn my head and see Alexander and two other guys approaching me.

"I don't want you near me" I say bravely as I quickly stand up.

"Oh come on love don't be that way, let's go upstairs and reacquaint. Maybe this time you can be face up" he says as he grabs my injured wrist.

"Let go of me" I growl as I try to pull my wrist away from him.

"Oh feisty one isn't she?" the biggest one asks Alexander amusedly.

"Just how I like my women" the other one says.

"Oh really? Would you lads like to join us? As long as I get to go first I'm fine with it" Alexander says as he begins pulling me towards the stairs.

"Let go of me!" I growl out again as I try to make him let go.

"Shut up bitch" the biggest one growls before slapping my arse, hard. I let out a small whimper and the guy laughs.

"Where's your little boyfriend now slut?" the other one asks tauntingly.

"He's right here!" I hear Jake growl somewhere behind me. Alexander freezes and I take that moment to rip myself out of his grasp.

"Get back here you bitch!" the skinnier one shouts angrily. I ignore the stinging in my wrist and run into Jake's waiting arms.

"Jake" I whimper quietly, clinging onto him desperately. He tightens his arms around my waist protectively.

"Shhh it's alright I'm here sweetheart" he whispers comfortingly in my ear. We look into each others eyes and Jake lightly rubs his nose against mine. Alexander coughs behind me and I see Jake's eyes harden as he looks up and glares at the three guys in front of us.

"Excuse me we weren't finished!" the biggest one growls as he makes a move to grab me. Jake growls and pushes me behind him.

"Well that's too bad, my girlfriend and I are leaving now" He growls protectively.

"I have to say I don't blame you for not wanting to share,that slut felt so tight around me two years ago. I crave to feel that again" Alexander says lustfully as he glances at me from behind Jake's shoulder. I shiver and scoot to the side so I'm completely hidden behind Jake.

"That's it!" Jake roars as he storms towards Alexander. The two goons try to get to me but Jake punches them both repeatedly in the face until they fall to the ground writhing in pain. He pins Alexander to the brick wall in front of the bottom of the stairs and I see fear in Alexander's eyes.

"Let me tell you something you fucking bastard! That girl is mine and I don't share what's mine! And you are so damn lucky that I didn't know Emma two years ago, if I did you wouldn't have been able to walk away with only six months of jail time!" Jake shouts in his face.

"Let go of-" Alexander tries to demand.

"Shut up!" Jake roars, causing all of the talking and the music in the room to stop.

"If you ever ever come near her again I will make you wish you were still in jail! And she doesn't want you so don't even bother trying to talk to her! She has me, a real man in her life now" Jake growls.

"I am a-" Alexander tries to growl before Jake puts one of his hands around his throat, cutting him off.

"A coward! You are nothing but a god damn coward! How the hell do you live with yourself? Rising yourself up by tormenting a beautiful young lady!" Jake growls.

"A real man would treat a girl like her, any girl for that matter, with only the highest respect and kindness! A real man would protect his girl from monsters, not become a monster and take advantage of her when she was defenseless! Don't try to say I'm not a real man either because if it comes down to a competition you will lose" he continues, putting emphasis on the last three words. I feel a hand on my shoulder and jump.

"Emma it's just me" Victor says reassuringly as he rubs my shoulder. I turn my head and see Olive and Enoch watching me protectively.

"What on earth is going on here? Jake who are these guys?" Ricky asks as he breaks through the crowd, causing the four of us turn our attention back to the scene before us.

"This bastard is the guy I told you about back at the punch bowl" Jake growls.

"The one that hurt Emma? Well then it's time to take out the trash!" Ricky says as he shoves the two guys off of the floor and against the bottom of the steps. Jake removes his hands from Alexander's neck and shoves him down on top of his friends.

"Get out of my house!" Ricky demands.

"But-" the biggest one tries to protest.

"You heard him, get out! Victor growls and he and Enoch move towards them. The three of them gulp and scramble up the stairs, with Ricky,Enoch, and Victor on their tails. Jake turns to me and opens his arms, and that's all it takes for me to rush into his arms and wrap my arms around his neck. I sob into his sweater and he just nuzzles his face into my shoulder as he rubs my back soothingly.

"I never should've left you alone, I'm so sorry" he mumbles. I try to speak but the words refuse to come out, so instead all I do is lift my head slightly and kiss his neck. I sniffle and he lets go of my waist. He cups my face and looks down at me, worry in his eyes.

"Are you alright? Did they hurt you?" he asks worriedly as he wipes away my tears.

"Alexander hurt my wrist a little, and the biggest one um" I stop myself, not sure of how he'd react.

"What? Tell me what he did Em" he orders gently.

"He um...he slapped my arse" I whisper so only he could hear.

"I'll kill that bastard!" he growls as he lets go of me. He begins to move away from me but I grab his wrist gently. He turns to me and I see anger and hate in his eyes.

"Please stay with me" I quietly plead, and his eyes soften.

"C'mere" he says gently, wrapping his free arm around my shoulders. I snuggle close to him and he turns to look at Olive, who is walking towards us.

"C'mon I'm taking you guys home" he says to us, and we both nod. The three of us go upstairs and run into the boys in the hallway.

"I'm taking them home" Jake tells Ricky, gesturing to the four of us. Ricky nods understandingly and Jake leads us to the car. The drive home is silent, no one had anything to say.

"I'll see you tomorrow Em" Jake says softly as we stop in front of the door. The others had gone inside a few minutes ago.

"Can't you stay the night?" I ask pleadingly.

"I don't have any clothes with me Em" he says quietly. I feel my face fall and he frowns slightly.

"See you tomorrow" I say quietly, beginning to turn to open the door. He takes my hand and I begin to turn my face to ask him what he's doing, but get cut off from his lips connecting with mine. I moan against his lips and he deepens the kiss slightly.

"Goodnight Em" he whispers against my lips.

"Goodnight Jake" I whisper, a small smile on my lips. He kisses my forehead once before walking to his car. I go inside and wave at him through the window. He waves back with a grin on his face before getting into his car and driving away.

'Boy what a night' I think to myself as I begin going upstairs to go to bed.