I know you guys hate cliffhangers, so I'm just going to apologize in advance for this one ;-) I don't own Jagermeister (though if I did, I would probably be drunk on Jager bombs 24/7) and any other brand name that may be in here. Thank you to everyone who reviewed! I'm issuing a challenge to everyone who reads this: I wanna hit 90 reviews before the next chapter. That's 12 that I need to get there. No new chapter until I get to 90, and I know you guys are gonna be impatient for the next one after the cliffy you get today so I'm counting on you!
Again--thanks to all my reviewers (well, everybody who reads this really) and enjoy!!
Ever since the night at the drive in, the other three had only seen Mikaela a handful of times. They knew from Tyler and Colton that Mikaela had taken to sleeping on the couch in their apartment. The only time she would come to the house is when she knew without a doubt that Sam wouldn't be there. Christian saw her at least once every day, always going to the apartment to see her, but they didn't talk a lot. She spent the biggest part of their time together holding her friend as she sobbed uncontrollably for hours at a time. Her heart broke for the woman who had always seemed so unbreakable.
Mikaela felt completely lost. More than anything she loved Sam but she'd cost them their future by keeping an enormous secret from him for so long. She wanted to fight for him, for them, but all the crying she had done had left her completely and totally exhausted. Between that and finals, it was a miracle she was still walking around. Whether or not she would pass the finals she'd tried to study for was a different story. Christian and Leo had helped her study as best they could, but they had their own finals to worry about. Colton was in her psychology class, so they'd spent a lot of time going over the review and everything they'd learned. Her algebra final that morning had been easy. The real test would be her government and A&P exams. Government especially because nobody else was taking the class and she'd been forced to study on her own. At least they were over though, that's all she cared about.
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Sam was miserable. There was really no other way around it. He was angry, he was hurt, he was just...empty. No matter what happened between them, Mikaela was always going to have his heart. There was no getting around that. He could never love any other woman the way he loved her. But was that enough anymore? The cheating on Trent he could forgive, and pretty much already had. She'd been drunk. Trent was enough of an asshole to take advantage of that, but it hadn't helped that he had been drunk too. Could there have been more to the story? What if...what if Trent had slipped something in her drink when she wasn't looking? No, Sam thought, that's not possible. She would have told me. Had Trent done something to her drink, Mikaela would have admitted it immediately because, for one thing, it wouldn't have been her fault she slept with him and, for another, she would have freaked out and been really upset. No, his biggest issue with the whole situation was that she'd never felt she could tell him. In the beginning he could kind of understand because their relationship had been fairly serious from the start. Bumblebee had brought them together that day as friends, but the battle at Mission City had exposed their attractions to each other. From the beginning they had both shared deep feelings. They had had the newness of the relationship, but the way they'd cared about each other would have lead strangers to think they had been dating for a while. Back then, how would she have known they date through the rest of high school and into college? So, he could understand not wanting to screw up a brand new relationship. Why then had she never said anything once it became clear that nothing, or so he thought, could break them apart? Sam didn't, couldn't, understand that part.
The night at the drive in had been a total asshole move on his part. Her slap bad been deserved, but he would be lying if he said it didn't shock the hell out of him. Bringing another girl to the drive in? They rarely ever even brought friends with them. It had always been just the four of them. Anna had only come because he had been feeling vindictive. The look on Mikaela's face when they had shown up...it had made Sam want to crawl under a rock. Regardless that she'd hurt him, he would never seriously want to intentionally hurt her to get some sort of revenge, and yet that's exactly what he'd done. He still wanted to be with her; he just didn't know how they could survive this latest turn of events. Her absence in the house was weird to get used to. It had been so long since she'd not been around. The strange part for him was that he knew she was staying with Colton and Tyler, knew they wouldn't hesitate to come on to her if she was single, but he had absolutely no worry about her hooking up with either of them even though she was technically free now. She'd cheated on him with her ex boyfriend, and yet he somehow instinctually knew she wasn't going to be dating anyone else despite the fact that they were obviously over.
There was a small part of him that wanted to go running to her and take her back. Despite everything, he didn't want to live without her. Even still, he wouldn't let himself do that. It wouldn't be good for either of them. If they ever got back together, they both had a lot to work through before they could make it work. Right now it would only hurt them in the end. There would be no happy endings if he ran back to her tonight. Sure, both of them would be happier but their issues would inevitably tear them apart since enough time hadn't gone by for them to sufficiently overcome this pain.
All that was left to do was try to hold his head high and keep living each day. His and Mikaela's future was out of his hands. Whatever was meant to happen would happen. He just hoped he could live with whatever that may be.
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It was the last weekend before finals and Christmas break. A friend of a friend of Andy and Balie was throwing a huge party and Christian had made Mikaela promise to go because she'd been so reclusive the last few weeks. As big as the party was hyped to be, she figured it would be easy to avoid Sam if he showed up. She didn't really want to go, but it would be the last real interaction she would have until after New Years. Before Sam had found out about her infidelity, they had planned for her to go home with him for Christmas. There was no way Mikaela could go home with him now and she hadn't talked to her dad since he'd shown up at Sam's on Thanksgiving, so the only other option was staying in Philadelphia.
Christian came barging into Mikaela's room at a quarter to nine trying to hurry her up. They had planned to make it to the party by 8:30. Leo had chosen to go with Sam so he wouldn't have to show up alone since Sam and Mikaela wouldn't go together. The guys had left half an hour ago and Mikaela was twenty minutes away from being ready. Even though she wasn't going to the party to hook up with someone, she still wanted to look good. Before Sam, she would have used a party to make an ex boyfriend jealous but she loved him too much to hurt him anymore. That's why she did everything she could to avoid him; every time he looked at her she knew he was thinking of what she'd done with Trent.
They arrived at the party an hour late and got drinks before Christian went off in search of Leo. Mikaela followed her until she saw that Sam was with him, and then went in the opposite direction to where Andy and Balie were talking with a few people she recognized from various classes or parties at Andy's house. Their close friends knew Sam and Mikaela were broken up, but so far the four of them had been able to keep the reason between them. Several guys asked Mikaela to dance, but she said no to all but those she was friends with. After awhile, she made her way to the game room and found Colton and a bunch of his fraternity brothers. Colton was like her big brother and would make sure none of the guys tried anything. Tyler was there too, and watched her back just like Colton did. The only downside of hanging out with Colton and his buddies was that at some point she'd see Justin again, and she wasn't looking forward to being in the same room as the cocky womanizer.
There were easily fifty people or more at the party. It was some guy named Ethan's parent's house and according to Andy, his parents were gone on some annual romantic getaway. The house was massive and in an upscale neighborhood on the outskirts of Philadelphia. At least the size of the house and the number of people made it easy for Mikaela and Sam to steer clear of each other. Tate, one of Colton's frat brothers, challenged her to a game of ping pong. He had come over to Andy's with Colton and Tyler a couple of times and he was a really sweet guy. It was easy to be comfortable around him and she knew he had no ulterior motives. She had teased him many times because he was so atypical of what most of their guy friends were like, and he teased her about being more manly than him because she worked on cars.
She noticed immediately when Justin showed up. He had this intimidating presence about him that couldn't be ignored. Her nerves went on alert when their eyes met and he had a strange glint in his eye. Mikaela shook it off as a product of her imagination combined with the alcohol she'd consumed. The competitive game of ping pong between her and Tate resumed. It was nice to hang out with a guy that had no expectations with her. Tate knew that he stood no chance with Mikaela, even though it was obvious she and Sam were no longer together, so he didn't even try to flirt with her. He treated her just like he would any of his frat brothers. Hanging out with Tate was a lot like hanging out with Leo, except that Leo knew everything that had happened between her and Sam. Leo had started acting real cautiously around her, as if he thought she was fragile and would break at any moment. Of course, he was right to a point but it was refreshing to spend time with someone who didn't know the story and would treat her like a normal person.
Part of her felt guilty for hanging out with a bunch of guys when the whole reason her and Sam broke up was because she'd cheated on him with Trent. It probably wouldn't do much in the way of proving to Sam that he could trust her not to do it again. She knew that she could never be with another guy as long as Sam was around, but it was a given that he didn't know that. He had trusted her all this time to be faithful, and then found out later that she had messed up very early on in their relationship. At the same time, though, who else was she supposed to hang out with? Christian would be with Leo all night and he would be with Sam. The rest of their friends would probably make their way towards the three at some point, and Mikaela didn't really know anyone else well enough to hang out with them.
At least Tate was really funny. His antics did a good job of keeping her mind off of the fact that she hadn't even wanted to come to the party in the first place. He had this really dry, sarcastic sense of humor that would either have her sides hurting from laughing so hard or volleying insults back and forth. Both of them were competitive, and more often than not insults would fly between the two of them as they tried to fluster the other into making a mistake. They couldn't ever stop playing ping pong because as soon as one would win, whoever lost would demand a rematch because losing was simply unacceptable to them. After a while, they started throwing out wagers that whoever lost had to drink so many shots of whatever alcohol the winner chose. It was agreed that neither would make the loser drink something they couldn't stand or would make them gag. Mikaela couldn't drink cherry vodka or tequila without throwing up and Tate couldn't stand the taste of Jagermeister and vodka glued him to a toilet for a good 24 hours puking his guts up. She was careful not to mention she really didn't like whiskey because she knew he would make her shoot it every time she lost just to make losing that much worse. It didn't make her automatically gag and it wasn't one she was absolutely adamant about not drinking, she just didn't like the taste of it and knew that if he used it against her she would end up throwing up all night.
Every now and then, she would catch Justin looking at her with that same strange look in his eyes, but she'd finally decided he must be either drunk or high off of something and tried not to let it get to her. It was creepy the way he always seemed to be staring at her, but she made sure her body language made it obvious that she was in no way interested in him. Everybody that knew her and Sam knew by now that they'd broken up, and she knew Justin would try to hook up with her. He was just that type of guy, and it probably didn't help that she'd turned him down flat at the restaurant because of Sam. She'd made herself a challenge to him that night, and guys like him never turned down a challenge. Justin was no different than the boys she'd dated in high school who only wanted to date her because of the challenge to take her virginity when no other boy could. She knew well the game he was playing, and it was one he wouldn't win.
By the time midnight came around, Mikaela had to pee because she'd been drinking since she got there. The two bathrooms downstairs were already occupied so she had to go to the second floor to find an empty one. She stopped to fix her hair before opening the bathroom door and walking into someone as soon as she turned the corner into the hall. Looking up, Mikaela realized it was Justin she had run into and quickly apologized before heading back down the hall. She had barely taken two steps before he grabbed her arm and spun her back around. He licked his lips and smirked and grabbed hold of her other arm. She tried to pull away, but his grip was too tight. Justin leered at her before shoving her against the wall and pushing his body up against hers.
"Justin let me go!" Mikaela said angrily.
"Quit pretending you don't want this," He hissed and leaned down to kiss her neck. She was still fighting to get away from him so he yanked both arms behind her back and held them there with one hand. His body pushed harder against hers to make sure she couldn't move.
"You're hurting me. Justin, stop it!" She wasn't going to cry in front of him no matter how much his grip hurt or how much he was scaring her.
"You're such a fuckin' tease, Mikaela. If you didn't parade around like a slut and flirt with every guy, this wouldn't happen," Justin's free hand slid up under her shirt and she started squirming to keep him from touching her.
"There's a fuck load of people here and if I scream, somebody's going to hear me. What are you going to do when someone sees you assaulting me?" Mikaela looked at him with hatred. "Perfect, little Justin trying to rape some girl in the hall at a party because she sees through your pathetic bullshit of a game."
She tasted blood when he backhanded her across the cheek. He forced his lips onto hers and she bit his lip, but it only made him slam her head against the wall and she saw stars from the impact.
"Trust me; you're not going to want to scream. You make a noise, and this is going to be ten times worse," Justin grabbed her breast and Mikaela couldn't help the painful groan that came out. She was praying that someone would come upstairs and stop him, but knew it was unlikely because Ethan's one rule was no sex in the bedrooms and there was no other reason to be on the second floor. They weren't even supposed to use the bathroom, but she had really, really had to go.
"Please, Justin, stop. Don't do this!" Mikaela was begging now and she hated the pathetic sound of her voice, but, really, it was the least of her worries. All she cared about was getting him off of her somehow, some way, and running as far away as she could. It was obvious he'd planned his revenge for her rejection, and she'd unknowingly played right into his hands by going upstairs alone. If she had had any inclination he was capable of such an evil, vile act, she never would have gone anywhere by herself. The worst part was the clarity in his eyes. Justin was doing this stone cold sober.
"Shut the fuck up," He snarled.
The realization of what was happening to her hit her when she felt his hand rip open her pants. His lips were on hers again so she couldn't make a noise and he slipped his hand between her legs. Tears streamed down Mikaela's face as she couldn't control the fear that ravaged her body. When his fingers touched her, she began fighting him again but his strength completely overpowered her own.