December 4

Stella

"I can't believe I let you convince me into this," Bloom mutters under her breath as we approach the door of an extremely big frat house. "I'm going back to the car," she twists around but Musa catches her before she leaves the porch.

I roll my eyes at her. "And do what? Wait for us?" I cross my arms.

"I'm not going inside, Stella," she refuses stubbornly. "I'll be betraying Sky if I do so."

"Oh, grow a pair," Musa snorts, tugging her towards the door. "What he doesn't know won't hurt him."

"But — " she starts to protest, but I ignore her, pushing her inside the house and locking the door behind.

I grin broadly when I hear the blaring music and the mind-numbing lights. The room overflows with college sorority sisters and frat boys grinding against each other, but what truly catches my attention is the basketball team at the far corner of the room, hanging around, chugging a few drinks, and smoking. I'm already eager to talk to them, so I take Musa's wrist with my left hand and Bloom's with my right and drag them toward the kitchen.

"We're getting a few drinks first," I announce, opening the door and pouring us a shot. Raising my cup to the air, I grin. "To us!" I cheer loudly. Musa's cup pushes against mine and it takes Bloom a few seconds before she's toasting with us.

We throw back our shots and cringe at the hideous after taste it leaves.

"So . . ." Musa starts, Bloom crossing her arms across her chest to appear bored. "You're going to tell us why you dragged us here on a Thursday night?"

"No reason, just felt like it," I shrug vaguely, throwing another shot down. Truth is, I desperately needed to get Brandon off my mind. I never expected his smile to keep penetrating my mind even after we're not together but I guess he's just that memorable. And that's why I need to shrug his face off my mind, get piss drunk, and find a decent guy to make out with.

"You felt like it? Stella, you went missing for the whole day and when you finally got back, you dragged us into this party. Have you forgotten where we are? We're at our enemy's house. We can't be seen here." Musa reminds me for the thousand time and I roll my eyes as I tip back another shot.

"You mean you can't be seen here?" I retort without thinking. Musa narrows her eyes and even in my drunken-hazed mind, I can tell she's confused.

"What are you talking about?" she crosses her arms across her chest, her lips pursed in a straight line.

I didn't intend to bring up the whole Riven thing today, but if I barely have filters when I'm sober, then I have zero when I'm drunk. "I know about you and Riven," my lips twitch in distaste. "When were you planning on telling me?"

"Who told you about us?"

"It doesn't matter, I was bound to find out anyway." I shrug vaguely, my slim fingers tightening around the red cup in my hands.

Musa releases a heavy breath and uncrosses her arms, pouring herself a shot. "It's nothing serious, Stell, we're just hanging out."

"So you're sleeping with him?"

She shrugs. "Only once,"

"Unbelievable,"

"Why are you so mad, Stella?" Musa accuses, her midnight eyes shinning with anger. A notification from her phone has her pausing her anger and she knits her eyebrows as she reads it over.

I ignore her and throw my hands in the air. "I'm mad because you don't trust me enough to tell me!"

Musa's eyes flare as she tucks her phone into her pocket. She crosses her arms and stares at me. "Oh like you trust me to tell me that you're going out with Brandon Shields?" she demands.

It takes me a few seconds to process her accusation. Going out with Brandon? Since when? "What? Who told you that?"

"So you are going out with him?"

"No, I'm not, we're in a group project together and I'm meeting him tomorrow. Big deal. How did you find out anyway?" I ask her curiously and watch as she fishes her phone from her pocket. She trusts the phone in my face and my eyebrows furrow as I read what she has shown me.

LOL. Brandon's going out with Blondie. LMAO.

I gasp in indignation at the text message. "Blondie?" I reread the message. It takes a no-brainer to know who the text came from. Other than Musa, no one ever calls me that but Riven.

"Be happy, he usually calls you worse." she shrugs carelessly.

I roll my eyes at her and dismiss the text message with a vague shrug. "Whatever, he's drunk, who even texts LOL?"

Musa snickers. "Riven when he's drunk," she bites her lips as her gaze falls, her smile dropping. "I bet he's making out with someone else right now."

I pause when I hear the frustration in her voice. It's unsettling, to see the walls around Musa crash. Out of the three of us, she's the most emotionally stable one, always knowing exactly what she wants and never being afraid to reach her goal. She's not one to be drunk crying about a boy she only slept with once. Tentatively, I place a hand on her shoulder and offer her a sad smile. "You're not exclusive?" I ask her softly, knowing she could burst out in tears any moment now.

Her chest rises in frustration. "I don't know at this point," she sighs. "It was hot at first y'know? The whole 'I don't commit' thing with this badass attitude." she admits. "Now? I'm fucking tired of it. One minute we're making out and the next we're fighting because I was talking to a guy, his best friend of all people."

"Yeah, he threw mayonnaise at Brandon because he thought he was flirting with you,"

"See what I mean? He jumps to conclusions without talking to me first," Her shoulders sag. "Now I'm sure he's moved on to the next hot trend."

I pour her another shot out of sympathy. It seems like coming here was more for Musa to release than for me to forget. "You haven't moved on?"

She snorts and takes a large gulp of her drink. "From the three orgasms he gave me? Yeah, no."

I snort out loud. Trust Musa to always light up the situation."Three?" I smirk, impressed. "Must've been a long night."

"Morning, actually, but yeah, I'm pissed off now, I wanna go, where's Bloom?"

I crane my head to the spot we left Bloom just a few minutes ago and furrow my eyebrows when I notice she's not there anymore. "Maybe she went to the bathroom?" I offer, though deep down I know she would have informed us first if that was the case.

"It's not like Bloom to leave without telling us," Musa shakes her head. "Either she's really short and we can't see her through this crowd or someone kidnapped her."

I elbow Musa for her comment and continue looking for our favorite redhead. "I'm freaking out, Musa," I tell her, going through the crowd and pushing everyone out of my way. "I don't see her!"

"She's with us, babes," a voice interrupts our search and I whip my gaze to the source of it. And my God I think I died and went to heaven. This boy has the clearest shade of green eyes I've ever seen coupled with an amazing flop of curly blond hair and a deliciously ripped body.

Not as ripped as Brandon's, though.

Dammit, no! Even drunk I'm still thinking and comparing every living male with Brandon.

But can you really blame me? This boy made me go to heaven, but Brandon would make me a sinner.

"Who are you?" Musa narrows her eyes at him while I ogle him.

"I'm Bryce," he points to himself, a grin creeping its way to his lips. "Princeton captain, you?"

"Where's Bloom? Did you kidnap her?" Musa ignores his question and challenges.

He scoffs. "Would a victim of kidnapping be having that much fun?" he points towards the far corner of the room where Bloom is seen having the time of her life, sitting on another man's lap.

"She's drunk," I tell Musa and she nods.

"She's fine," Bryce assures up with a light smile. "We were just about to play a game of truth or dare, wanna join?"

"Truth or dare?" Musa scoffs. "What are you? Fifteen?"

"Please," Bryce drawls. "This isn't your ordinary game of truth or dare."


"Girls!" Bloom slurs, waving at us when she notices us and giggling like an idiot when a stranger leans in and whispers something in her ear. I raise my eyebrow at that. So much for not wanting to betray Sky.

Bryce seems to notice Bloom's drunken state and leans in. "Your friend's a lightweight," he whispers.

I nod, going over to her and taking the red cup from her hand. I wouldn't be surprised to know that it's spiked and the least I can do is keep my best friend safe. "She's also a girlfriend, so I better cut her off,"

"Bummer, my boy here wanted a night with her," he tsks, shaking his head sadly.

I send him a pointed look. "Is sex all you guys think about?"

"Not really," he grins, taking a swing of his drink. "There's also blowjobs," he points out.

I give him a hard shove. Men.

"What?" he grins innocently. "You asked,"

"Don't blowjobs count as sex?" I ask sarcastically.

"Not to us, babe," He smirks and grabs me by the shoulder, pulling me towards the small circle of guys I was checking out earlier. We're all huddled together and it takes a few seconds for a few more girls to sit down next to us. One places a bottle in the middle of the circle and I raise my eyebrows in confusion, leaning towards Bryce to ask him something. "Weren't we going to play Truth or Dare?"

"I guess they decided that Spin the Bottle is more fun," he shrugs, raising his cup to take a gulp but stopping midway. He lowers it and raises himself from the floor. I grab his hand before he could leave.

"What are you doing?" If he goes, I'm going. I barely know Bryce, but at least we've shared a conversation. I don't know anyone else.

"Don't worry, I'm just sitting over there," he points to the other side of the circle and I frown.

"Why? I don't know if you've noticed but I don't know anyone here,"

"Exactly why I'm sitting over there," he smiles. "You want to make out with random strangers?"

It takes me a second before I realize what he meant. I grin and shrug. "We're not really friends either," I tease.

"Then I guess I'll be staying here," he says, crouching to sit down but I stop him before he can.

"No, no," I shake my head. "Go over there, you're right."

He smirks and leaves. I watch him take a seat next to one of his friends and I nod in approval. The chances of that bottle ever landing on me are slim, but I'll take every chance I get.

. . .

Turns out spin the bottle is more fun when you're not a rebelling teenager trying to hide from your parents. I've seen more girls kiss in this game than I've seen in a lifetime and I'm not even complaining. I haven't yet kissed anyone yet, but Musa has. Bloom, however refused to play the game. She said she's already walking on thin ice by just coming here.

Now it's Bryce's turn and I don't realize I'm holding my breath until the bottle stops and points towards me. Next to me Musa jabs an elbow suggestively and I smirk when Bryce sits next to me, an intact grin covering his face.

"I guess I calculated right," he says, not sparing a single second before his lips quickly descend on mine. I respond almost immediately, smiling through the kiss as I soak in the whistles and the cheering. It's a good kiss, his lips are soft, his touch is tender and his kiss is slow. But I want more. I want lip-biting, I want ragged breaths and small caresses. I want the whole spark. Unfortunately, there's none between us. It feels just like any other kiss I've received.

I wonder what it would feel to kiss Brandon. Would he moan into my mouth? Would he grab my hair? Bite my lip? Kiss my neck? I want to find out and I want him to be the one kissing me today.

Bryce pulls back and strokes my hair endearingly. He takes a seat next to me and passes the bottle to the next guy. I feel someone grab my arm and when I turn around Musa and Bloom are watching me with knowing smirks.

"So . . ?" Musa starts, her flaming red cheeks showing just how drunk she is. "How was it?"

I shrug nonchalantly. "Nothing new,"

"Stop playing coy," Bloom jabs me with her elbow. "Come on, spill the tea."

"What do you want me to spill? It was just a kiss," I tell them. "I've had millions of those."

"She's too drunk to tell us," Musa concludes once I don't further explain my feelings. "We'll juice it out of her tomorrow."


"You smoke?" Bryce shoves a joint in front of my face, and I push it back. I've been around weed long enough to know that it's not for me. I don't mind other people smoking, but I'll never touch one of those. Just for self-preservation.

"I don't," I shake my head and he smiles in disappointment. His saddened smile quickly turns into a smirk when he sees Ashton, a friend of his, grope a very drunk Bloom.

"Watch out, Wells, she's taken," I hear Bryce announce loudly and Ashton groans as Bloom giggles at his expression.

"You're taken?" he doesn't try to hide the disappointment in his voice. "By who? Do I know the guy?"

Bloom shrugs and falls back to the couch with a dreamy look on her face. "You probably do, his name's Sky."

Ashton places his beer down and Bryce's warm body goes rigid behind mine. I eye them weirdly and Ashton scoffs. "Sky? As in the Sky that plays basketball in BU?"

"The one and only," Bloom chirps happily.

"No way," he pushes Bloom off his lap. Bloom glares at him and he raises his arms in surrender. "Hey, I can't have Sky's girl on my lap if I ever want to play again."

Bloom scoffs and crosses her arm, taking a seat next to him.

Behind me, I feel Bryce move and when I turn my gaze to his, I see him with his hands over his head, leaning back and feigning innocence. "Well, I for one, can't wait to tell those BU boys who we partied with."

"I don't think that's a good idea," Musa stops her makeout session with a random guy to interrupt our conversation. "They don't know we're here."

"We've got Sky's girlfriend in our turf, boys," Ashton whistles cheerfully, ignoring Bloom's pleading eyes and Musa's earlier statement. "Who else? Do we have Shields' girl here too?"

I freeze when I hear his question. It shouldn't bother me but the thought of being around girls who have probably slept with Brandon does. I came here to forget about my twisted thoughts of Brandon, but somehow, the guy keeps making his way to my mind.

"She's actually over there," Musa points to me despite me assuring her that I'm not dating Brandon.

Every single pair of eyes is now on me, and I shrink next to Bryce when I notice a few red faces from some girls I don't even know.

I feel like I could punch Musa right now.

"No way," Bryce exclaims as his gaze returns to me. "Babe, you just had your tongue in my mouth,"

I choke on my drink at his bluntness. "He's not my boyfriend," I snap, tightening my hold on the red cup.

"Fuck buddy?" Bryce offers with a sly grin and I roll my eyes.

"We haven't slept together," I clarify.

"Let me guess, you want him?" He prompts, lips still quirked into that ridiculously handsome teasing grin of his.

"No, I don't," I tell him pointedly, but his expression tells me he has me all figured out. "Okay, yes, maybe," I relent with a sigh. There aren't any real feelings towards Brandon, but lust. I'm not ashamed to admit that I like him and not the way friends like each other. Heck, I've openly pursued the guy for three months now. And being completely honest, my attraction and pull towards him is too strong for me to maintain a 'friends' relationship.

"You've got a long road ahead," he muses. "He goes through girls like he goes through kleenex tissues."

I snort at that. Biggest understatement of the year. "Is it really that surprising?" I release a long sigh.

"Not really, I mean have you seen the guy?" Bryce blows a breath. "He's a charmer, one dimpled smile and he's got you on your knees."

And don't I know it. I'm a sucker for brunet hunks with starry brown eyes and cute smiles.

"Any reason why you're telling me this?" I ask him, making myself comfortable on his lap. "I thought you wanted to get in my pants,"

He smirks, an arm coming around my waist and squeezing it gently. "That was before I knew I'd be going one-on-one with Brandon Shields. Besides," he drawls lazily. "were you ever going to have sex with me?"

"No," I answer immediately. We may have kissed earlier, but there's no way I'd be comfortable losing my virginity to a man I just met.

He smiles knowingly and shrugs. "Then the least I can do is give you some pointers,"

I furrow my eyebrows and ask. "On what?"

"On how to get in his pants," he states in a matter-of-fact tone, and I stare at him.

"What?" I laugh at his stupidity. This conversation just took a whole 360 turn. "All right, I'll bite, how do I get in his pants?" I ask sarcastically.

"Friends with benefits," he offers helpfully.

"You're crazy," I inform him, gulping my beer.

"You're in college, babe," he shrugs. "You want an unattainable man, you've got to play by his own rules."

"And what are his rules?" I hesitate to ask. Last thing I heard, Brandon doesn't have rules when it comes to hookups. He usually just throws them out after a night or two.

"No strings, no feelings, just you, his bed and pleasure." he replies with a grin. I shouldn't probably be listening to him, I mean, he's probably on his fifth beer by now, spewing bullshit without thinking. But the fact that I am interested in what he's saying just shows I'm equally as drunk.

"So what happens if I catch feelings and he doesn't?"

"Then he's not worth it," he claims with no hesitation. "If you give him sex and he doesn't as much bat an eyelash then you know there was never a spark, to begin with."

"And if he doesn't what a friends with benefits relationship?"

"He will," he insists. "Every guy with a working dick does."

I quirk an eyebrow at that and snort. "Nice to know,"

"So, now that I know that you're off the market, what's the deal with 'Fuck me' eyes over there?" he raises his drink and points towards Musa, who's getting maybe a bit too cozy with her friend Dean over there.

"You won't want to mess with her," I shake my head. I may be blonde, but I'm not stupid. Riven is a very possessive guy and even though Musa thinks he's not interested, my conversation with Brandon two days ago begs to differ. "She's with Riven,"

"Enough said," he plants a hand on my knee, but the gesture doesn't come out as sexual. "I'm surprised a guy like him even pulled a girl like her,"

"Well, he's a douche, but at least he's attractive," I remind him, taking a sip of my beer.

"Damn right," he agrees and we fall silent. The music's still blaring in the background, but all I can do is ignore it and ponder on how quickly a tiny make-out session turned into a heart-to-heart conversation with a guy I barely know.

I pause and stare at him. "You're a good guy, Bryce," I admit, resting my chin on his shoulder.

"I try to be," He shrugs, laid-back.

But I shake my head. "Seriously, thanks for the pep talk, I felt like I was going to explode without talking to someone about it,"

"It's all right, I'm here for anything," he pats my back, his touch platonic. "Though I'd like to keep talking to you, y'know to see the progress with Shields."

I release a laugh. "Of course,"


So sorry this chapter took longer than expected. I had way too many school work this week and barely got any writing on. I have good news though! The story's finally picking on! I don't want any of you to worry so I'm going to admit that Bryce is not going to be a problem in the future. He appeared in this chapter, and will probably appear in the future, but his relationship with Stella is purely platonic. He's just a character I used to introduce an idea.

And speaking of . . . what do you think? Do any of you guys have any ideas of how Stella and Brandon are going to start their relationship? Like I've mentioned before this story is slow-burn so that means we have a lot to go through before they're officially boyfriend and girlfriend!


Guest: I don't know if I've mentioned this before but Luna and Radius are lawyers, I think that's the closet profession that portrays Queen and King of a realm but realistically. And as you know, Stella's not interested in law at all. It took a lot of convincing, but when Stella graduated college, her parents, Luna in particular, accepted her dreams and knew that if they forced her to study law, she would never be happy. There's also a backstory to this regarding Luna, but I'm not going to spoil it yet ;))

Guest: Yes! I'm also proud Stella's being honest, at least to herself, about her feelings towards Brandon! Remember though, that she's not in love with him. She's been around his crowd for a while and that's why she's so tired of hiding that she wants to go out with him. He never payed full attention to her, so that's why he's suddenly so interested in her.

Guest: Riven's a douche like that. He doesn't know Stella enough to know that she's not like that, but I think everyone's first impression of her is a rich daddy's girl who's surface level. But through the story we'll see how Stella's character grows as she begins to appreciate things on a whole another level.


Oh, and I think I'll edit this story once it's completely done. I want to look back and see how much progress I've gone over as I continue to write.


To anyone else that reviewed, thank you! I'm so happy to be able to bring you some kind of peace and happiness with just a single chapter and I can't wait to finally finish this story. I appreciate the kind words and yeah, I hope you enjoyed this chapter.