Chapter 4

Chris' head has started spinning long before he downed his first bottle of beer, or the second. He watched Mara walk around the house like she was the one hosting the party, handing beers to people, cheering and drinking with them, laughing with strangers that the alcohol cursing in her veins turned into momentary friends. She looked as joyful and careless as ever, no one would guess she just dropped the biggest bomb ever.

There was a certain lack of logic in his reasoning, but Chris figured that since his head was already a mess, the alcohol might do more good than bad, and maybe it would make him numb. Then it would hurt less to watch her go about like nothing at all happened, like she didn't just wreck his world and put him in a very bad place. Mara forced Chris to make a choice he has been postponing for far too long.

"Chris, man!" One of his friends called his name, barely audible over the loud music and Chris squinted his eyes to try and see who it was that was talking to him. "Over here!"

Chris finally saw someone waving at him to come over and he sneaked his way through the crowd, trying not to make contact wit the grinding couples. When he reached the group of boys, Chris greeted each of them with a tap on the back and a shoulder hug.

"Chris you look like you saw a ghost!" One of them felt the need to comment.

It earned him a shrug. Who cares? The neon blue and pink lights that kept flashing in the room made it nearly impossible to decipher anything anyway.

"And yet I still look better than any of you", Chris shot back with his signature smile and the boy who made the comment received a few sympathetic pats on the shoulders from his friends after that burn.

He stayed with them for a while, not caring or noticing the time passing, or the people dancing behind them. Chris plopped down on the armrest of the couch, and a couple beers passed in his hands before the first troublesome thing happened. They were all roaring with laughter at something Chris showed them on his phone.

"Oh, jesus, look at that!" Some guy suddenly said when something behind Chris caught his eye.

He shoved Chris in the shoulder to get his attention and gestured him to turn around.

"That's some hot piece of ass right there!" Another one said, which was followed by another fit of laughter from the boys.

Mara stood not far from them, facing away from them. She was talking to two other girls from her year, one of them being Iben, Chris' ex. His stare must have been too insistent because she looked up and over Mara's shoulder and when her eyes caught Chris' she glared daggers at him before lightly touching Mara's shoulder and walking away. This had Mara wondering what upset her so she turned around only to see all the boys look at her like she was some kind of piece of meat. Not one girl would have taken all this attention from drooling boys like a compliment, it must have been terribly awkward for her, not to mention degrading. Yet she smiled softly before returning to her conversation. Chris knew the smile was for him now, the relief he felt in this exact moment was indescribable. He hadn't realised how much it ate away at him to see her smile like that to other boys.

"You might as well take a good look because that's all you'll get from her," the only sober one said to his friends. "William's sister is off limits. Bros before hoes, you know the rule..."

A round of sighs and protests erupted from the group, but Chris wasn't listening anymore. Gone was the relief. Gone was everything. In one corner of the room stood William and Noora, gazing at each other like two lovesick puppies, unaware of their surroundings. In the opposite corner Mara danced with some girls, and some boys who not so subtly made their way toward her. Chris' blood boiled.

"If you think like this, the poor girl's never gonna get a boyfriend," Chris pointed out rightly.

"Never prevented her from sleeping with anyone," someone else commented.

"With who? Did any of you hit that?"

"Not me!"

"If I had I'd be a happy man!"

"But she's got a reputation! It's got to come from somewhere, right?"

"I heard she only sleeps with boys from other schools because of her brother," sober guy said, and the others nodded thoughtfully, although none of them were in the right state to understand right now.

"He'd rather have her screw strangers than us?" One of the brightest said.

Chris realised how bitter this whole conversation made him when he noticed that even his inner voice became sarcastic.

"I wouldn't let you touch my sister either, bro!"

Annoyed with the turn of the conversation, Chris set his beer on the coffee table and stood up. He needed to put distance between them and himself, or he would punch some teeth out before the end of the night. It wasn't even midnight and Chris already wanted to go home. But he had brought Mara and he would also give her a ride home when she would request it. Geez, how whipped was he?

"I knew something was wrong, you can never lie to me."

Chris almost jumped when he heard the familiar voice. It was gentle, like a stroke from the hand, and she didn't need to speak too loud to be heard from him in this room. Most of the party happened in the living room, the kitchen was fairly quiet. Mara came up behind him soundlessly, taking him by surprise. Chris didn't expect her to follow him.

She looked fairly fresh for someone who has been drinking and dancing among sweaty people for a few hours now. Her eyes glimmered with mischief and a knowing smile adorned her lips.

"You genuinely didn't expect it, am I right?" She asked in a hushed tone, so the other people in the room couldn't hear them.

"Did I expect my best friend's sister to boldly tell me she was into me? Not really, no," he said in a low but firm voice.

He wanted to be mad at her, but he was fundamentally incapable of that. What she did was like telling an alcoholic she had a fine bottle of whiskey in her bag.

"Does it bother you?" She then asked, still not showing any sign of self-doubt of gawkiness.

They might as well be talking about the weather or their homework. How could she remain so utter unaffected?

"I'm not blind, Chris, I see when a boy looks at me," she added before he had a chance to pretend he was not interested and that she should never mention her attraction toward him again, for both their sakes.

"Mara, do you want me dead or something? William is going to skin me alive if he knows about that," Chris suddenly burst, leaning in toward her to keep this conversation private.

"Don't be dramatic! If he knows about what? Nothing's happened... yet."

Mara rolled her eyes and winked as she turned around. She left the kitchen in a swirl of sparkles and Chris felt like punching a hole in the nearest wall.

"Fuck!" Chris shouted, his fist slamming on the counter.

He swore a second time when his hand throbbed from the pain and brought it against his chest, cradling it to sooth the ache. The few people in the room jumped in surprise and looked at him as though he had a third eye in the middle of his forehead.

"What?!" He barked at them.

"Chris?" He heard William's voice ask in bedazzlement from the door frame. "Everything fine? What happened?"

"Nothing, nothing happened!"

Chris angrily shoved him aside and walked back into the living room to blend in the crowd. A girl pressed her body against Chris' chest on his way to the back of the room where all the drinks were set on a table. He pushed her away from him, which prompted an offended gasp and disbelieving glance. Penetrator Chris refused a hook up, call the paparazzi. He ignored her, as well as William who was following him closely.

"Chris! Chris wait!" William called him, his hand slamming on Chris' shoulder to make him stop. "What's going on? Why are you so upset?"

Chris could count on the fingers of one hand the number of times he lied to his best friend, but he didn't hesitate a second when William asked the one question he couldn't answer.

"Just- I ran into Iben earlier and it ruined the mood to have her glare at me," Chris said and shrugged.

He saw the confusion and the suspicion in William's eyes because how could an unfortunate encounter with his ex girlfriend cause such a fit of anger. But Noora came into view and Chris raised his brows as if to say 'any more questions?' and William seemed to buy the dumb excuse Chris had made up.

After this minor incident Chris tried not to run into Mara, or Chris, or his friends or girls in general – actually he avoided everyone and simply stayed in a corner, going through old messages and pictures on his phone and switching beer for water. Clearly alcohol wasn't doing him any good and he still have to drive later that night.

And here it goes again – Mara plagued every last one of his thoughts. As if it wasn't enough already, she entered his view field. Chris could have dealt with that – he thinks – but her attempt at walking through the crowd was disturbed by some guy suddenly grabbing her from behind and groping her. It was meant to be teasing, but he was obviously hammered and she wasn't receptive to his advances of poor taste.

Chris saw red and rushed forward before he could give it a second thought. Chris had endured two weeks of Mara hitting on several different guys – which he now knew was a scheme of hers to get his attention – and it might have been unpleasant but at least she was the one initiating it. This was downright gross and she wasn't enjoying it. He was familiar enough with the art of flirting to recognize the signs when a girl was into him and when she wasn't. Mara's twisted, embarrassed grimace and her attempts at freeing herself from this dude's grip wasn't enough for him to take the hint though, and Chris was just buzzed enough to attempt a reckless heroic gesture. Before Mara's horrified eyes, he punched the guy right in the face as he went to sneak a hand under her skirt. Suddenly the crowd dispersed and everyone stopped dancing to watch the two boys fight and Mara, standing there, her mouth covered with her hands.