#-throws confetti-

Ellie swayed back and forth to the thumping music, sipping quietly at her water bottle as she looked around. She’d dressed simply, in a little white sundress and yellow ribbon wedges with a sunflower choker, but now she was starting to regret the decision. Twice already she’d had to dodge a too-far-gone frat boy before he managed to slosh beer all down her front, and with so many drunks in the crowd, it felt like only a matter of time before her dress became stained.

A gentle hand alighted on her left shoulder, and she looked there and then to the right as she realized it was Arne placing his arm around her shoulder. He’d been the one to invite her out tonight after she’d mentioned her interest in maybe going to college in America if she ever had the money for it. It had been his suggestion to scope out the local campus, his friends whose party it was. 

“So, how are you enjoying the party so far?” He asked, shouting a little to be heard over the music.

“Oh, uh, It’s not bad.” She shouted back, cheeks flushing as he leaned in to hear her better. “But wow, these uh, these frathouses really are as wild as they make them seem in the movies, huh?”

He laughed at the comment, a warm, earnest sound that was very easy on the ears. “Not quite that wild I think! As far as I know, no one’s been arrested yet, and nobody’s caused any major property damage.”

“I guess,” She laughed along with him, her eyes traveling down to the floor as she shyly scuffed her shoe against the old wooden floors. “Still, it’s a bit much. Being in this huge crowd and not really knowing anyone.”

“Probably a little overwhelming, huh?” He said, squeezing her shoulder as his usual friendly smile softened into something caring and genuinely sweet. Glancing from her to her water bottle, then finally his own red solo cup, he held it out to her. “Do you maybe want to have a sip of something a little stronger? It might calm your nerves a bit to have some alcohol.”

“Couldn’t you get in trouble though?” She asked, her eyes widening as she looked back up at him. “I mean, I’m way below the legal age here…”

“It’s just a little beer,” He told her, shaking the cup as he grinned down at her. “Not good beer, mind you, but you’ve definitely survived drinking stronger.”

“Well…” She hesitated, taking the cup from him in both hands and holding it up to her lips to take a small sniff. It certainly didn’t smell strong, just cheap and maybe a little stale. An experimental sip found that it definitely didn’t taste good, but it wasn’t undrinkable. Pausing, she took a much bigger sip this time, closing her eyes to get past the taste.

“There’s my adventurous girl…” He said as he rubbed her back, his praise making her giggle and blush as she took yet another gulp of weak, sub-par beer. His eyes seemed to light up at the sight of it, the chestnut brown shining so warmly it made her heart flutter. “Feeling better now?”

She nodded, pushing a small section of her hair back into place as she graced him with a smile so genuine and sweet it softened every aspect of her expression. “Yeah, I definitely-”

Suddenly someone bumped into her from behind, sending her body pitching forward before she managed to catch herself by planting a hand on Arne’s chest. 

“Woah, you ok there Ellie?” He asked, his hands clasping her shoulders to help steady her.

“I, I’m good! Just a little rattled.” She said, making sure she’d regained her footing before she looked back up at him. She caught sight of his shirt when she did, instantly blurting out: “Your shirt! Oh my God, Arne, I’m so sorry, I totally didn’t mean-”

“Hey, hey, relax!” He said, rubbing his hands up and down her bare arms in a soothing manner that made them feel warm and just the slightest bit tingly. “It’s no big deal. I’ll go clean this up and grab myself another drink.”

She bit her lip, still feeling a little guilty, and peeked up at him through her lashes as her blush finally reached her ears.

“I’ll even get you your own this time if you like?” He smiled, the playful suggestion making her feel special in a way she couldn’t understand.

“That sounds nice…” She said, her voice coming out softer and much more feminine than she’d meant it to.

“Alright. I’ll be right back.” He told her, his thumb trailing up to rub against the strap of her dress. “Don’t go anywhere, ok?”

“Yeah, ok…” She felt too shy to look at him, though she squeezed her hands against his chest as he pulled away. She watched him as she went, sighing internally at how considerate he was when suddenly she felt a sharp pull on her wrist that spun her around.

“…Rahim!?” She gasped, not quite believing her eyes as his harsh and resentful face came into view, his hard glare boring into her. “What are you-?”

“Come with me.” He said, his words rough and slightly slurred as he pulled her along through the crowd, taking her up the stairs and into a seemingly random room that left them surrounded by a pile of unwashed shirts and a half-made bed. 

“Seriously, Rahim, what are you doing here?” She asked, barely putting up any resistance despite her irritation at his surly attitude. “What the heck is this about? You can’t just show up out of nowhere and drag me off into some room without an explana-” 

Before she could finish speaking, he yanked her towards him by her captured wrist. His lips pressed against hers, tongue caressing her mouth so insistently she almost didn’t feel the way their bodies crashed together. She was too preoccupied with the feeling of his hand on the back of her head, keeping her in place as their lips met in an intimate dance neither of them could deny. 

It didn’t help at all when they stumbled towards the bed, his form falling on top of hers in a way she never would have let happen, a way that must have been an accident because for all his faults he wasn’t the type of boy to get drunk and force a girl down on a bed like this, to run his hand eagerly up her thigh…   

She pressed her hands up against his chest, meaning to push him away, but her fingers only splayed gently out across his pecks, feeling them easily through the thin fabric of his shirt. It didn’t feel like Arne’s chest, the muscles lean rather than bulky, and while the senior’s chest had been pleasantly warm, Rahim’s was radiating heat like a furnace.

It’s different.

He broke their kiss only to trail more of them along her jaw, open-mouthed and full of teeth and tongue. His canines scraped just right against the underside of her jaw as she gasped for air, making her shudder as a tingling sensation spread across her skin.

“…Stop…” She whispered, her voice so quiet even she could barely hear it beneath the sloppy sound of his wet lips dragging along her skin.

He didn’t, moving down to the side of her neck and biting viscously right at her pulse, his tongue running over the area as it throbbed, the blood pounding far too hard as it shot through her veins.  

She tried not to moan but failed as the hand on the back of her head tugged on her braid, forcing her to stop scrunching her neck and give him full access to what delicate skin that sat there still unbruised. 

“Sto-” She tried again, a little louder this time, but he cut her off by thrusting his tongue back into her mouth, the rest of the word becoming muffled and lost as their lips moved together as if made for kissing. 

His tongue down her throat, his hand on her thigh, his weight pressing down on her… It all felt like she was drowning, drowning in his lips, his touch, his scent. It felt like drowning, uncontrollable and inevitable and impossible to breathe…

It’s too much…

And then his hand snaked up beneath her skirt, his fingers caressing the inside of her thigh as they moved to grab something even higher, and her whole body jumped as an electric shock ran up her spine at the sensation.

“I said stop!” She managed to blurt out as she pulled her lips from his, finally shoving him away from her and catching her breath as she tugged her dress back into place and tucked her legs beneath her so he couldn’t get at them.

He stared at her from the edge of the bed, expression shifting from angry to confused as he glared, hands held up stiffly in surrender. 

“What?” He asked, eyes narrowing as he gathered himself back up, rather admirably given how he’d nearly toppled off the side of the bed. “What’s yer fuckin’ problem?”

“I can’t do this.” She said, wrapping her arms around her shoulders as she shivered. “I can’t do something like this!” 

“Something like what?” He asked, irritation leaking into his voice as he stared at her in bewilderment. She wondered how she must look to him now, with her skin flushed and the bruise from his hicky slowly forming along the side of her neck. His own posture was so tense, wary like he was forcing himself to keep still. “Will ya stop being so damn vague and just tell me what I did wrong already?”

“What do you mean ‘what’!?” Her voice went up higher than she meant it to, her cheeks flushing further. “Dragging me around, kissing me like that-”

Touching like that.

“God, El, it’s just a little making out!” He was rolling his eyes now, his body relaxing in what she might have mistaken for relief if he hadn’t sounded so frustrated. “I ain’t gonna make ya do it if you don’t wanna, but me kissing you’s not the fuckin’ end of the world. Like, it’s not like we don’t already do this type of shit all the time.”

“That’s, that’s not the point here…” She said shaking her head, suddenly having trouble looking at him as her mind summoned up the memories of all the other times they’d found themselves locked in too-hot kisses, their tongues wrestling for dominance, his hands firm on her hips…

“Then what is the point, exactly?” He asked, throwing his arms out to either side of himself. “You’ve never been bothered about it before, so what the fuck? Christ, last week you even let me-”

“Because I don’t want to keep doing these things with someone who hates me!” She shouted, so loud she drowned out whatever it was he was about to say.

Stunned silence covered the room for a few seconds, the still too-loud music of the party blanketed under the sudden heaviness surrounding the two of them. 

“So… so fuckin’ what?” Rahim asked incredulously, his hands balling up into fists. “Who cares if I hate you. I mean damn, what does that even have to do with this!? We… we make out, and we yell at each other, and I call you a bitch and you call me a brat and… and we go back to making out anyway because we both find each other insanely hot. That’s it, right? That’s what we do.”

“But… but we’re supposed to feel something!” She cried desperately, an ugly feeling twisting inside her stomach. It felt tense and sort of sick, not really nausea but equally unpleasant. “Something good, not just anger and dumb teenage hormones. We’re supposed to actually like each other, aren’t we?”

“Like each other? Yeah right.” He scoffed, shifting forward on the bed and glaring at her darkly. “Face it El, ‘like’ ain’t a part of this. We’re just friends with benefits, hell, ‘enemies with benefits’ is more accurate. You don’t wanna be that anymore then fine, but don’t act like it’s ‘cause you’re pining for us to get all sweet and lovey-dovey. Cause like ya said, I hate you, Ellie, and you’ve made it pretty clear you can’t stand me.”

Then something in his expression changed, taking his face from angry to cold and resentful, and his next words came out so bitter they almost sounded cruel, dripping into her ears like poison. “In fact, I know for sure you hate me way mo-”

It hurt…!

A loud smack rang out, sharp and clear as her palm came into contact with his cheek, and already she could feel her hand stinging from the impact. She could feel her eyes stinging too, and she wasn’t sure why her vision was suddenly blurry, her head dizzy and her breath short.

The only thing she was sure of is that he was right: She really couldn’t stand him right now.

She was dashing out the door before he had any chance of stopping her, already headed towards the stairs leading back to the first floor. Shoving past a few people on the landing, she felt someone try to grab her shoulder but shrugged them off, moving instead in the direction of a familiar voice calling her name.

“I’m over here!” She choked out, finally pushing through the last couple people in the crowd to meet him. Arne seemed relieved as he took her in a tight hold, keeping her at arm’s length as he quickly looked her over.

“Ellie! Where were you? I came back from the keg and you were…” His eyes lingered on the creases in her dress, the red marks on her neck and the way her lipgloss was smeared across her swollen lips. “Is that a- wait, hang on, are… are you crying?”

Was she? She blinked, and the wetness that streamed down her cheeks seemed to tell her that yes, she was. She buried her face in his chest, that warm, safe chest that felt nothing like Rahim’s, grabbing fistfuls of his shirt to try and keep steady.

“What happened?” He asked, his voice hardening with fierce, protective anger as he wrapped an arm around her waist, his other moving to gingerly touch at the light bruises that had already started forming on her right wrist, his eyes narrowing in suspicion. “Did somebody attack you? They did, didn’t they? I swear to God, whoever it was-!”

“I don’t- I don’t wanna talk about it.” Her words came out muffled in his shirt, and she hoped that somehow that might help disguise the way her voice was shaking. “Can we, can you please just… just take me home?”

“Ellie, if somebody here tried to force themse-”

“Please…” That please, that one little word is where her voice finally broke into a full-blown sob, and that alone seemed to make him relent.

“I… Yeah. Yeah, ok. I can do that.” He squeezed her tighter, gently stroking her hair. “C’ mon, let’s get you out of here.”

Still holding her, he lead her carefully over to the front door, casting one last glance back over the rest of the party before they left. Whatever he saw there made him stiffen, stopping dead to glare as the arms around her pulled her body closer.

She clung to him, tugging on his shirt and whispering his name to get him moving again. When he did, it was to kiss soft reassurance against her ear as they finally walked out.

Unlike him, she didn’t look back.

_______________________________________________________________________

Rahim laughed as Jason’s attempt at a party trick fails miserably, the bottle flip he was trying to land instead falling on his foot and breaking open. “Aw fuck!” 

“Ha! Knew you wouldn’t be able to do it! Pay up, man.” Henry, another one of his friends, motioned for Jason to hand the cash over.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. I’d have got it if I was sober.”

“Please,” Summer rolled her eyes, taking her own share of the money. “Your clumsy ass couldn’t have pulled it off with a whole three weeks of training.”

They were up at a frat party up on the local college campus, a good opportunity to cruise some free beer and get blitzed for the evening as long as you managed to crash. Which wasn’t too hard if you dressed a little older and brought a fake I.D.

Suddenly out of the corner of his eye Rahim caught sight of someone he’d never expected to see there in a million years. Ellie, looking more feminine than usual in a white dress and opened toed heels. 

“Oh hey, is that who I think it is?” Henry came over to see what he was staring at, Summer and a still limping Jason following soon after. “Man, I almost didn’t recognize her, haven’t seen her in a dress since Homecoming.”

“Oh yeah, she looked hot!” Jason laughed, forgetting about the pain in his foot in favor of his usual idiocy. “Not like this though. I mean, she’s still lookin’ hella fine in white, she just looks more, y’know…”

“Delicate,” Rahim muttered, finishing the thought. And she did. It wasn’t a word he’d ever associated with her, not the tall, headstrong, surprisingly violent girl that he knew. But here, dressed like this, the way she held her body all slight and uncertain in the big crowd, she suddenly did look delicate.

“Aaaanyway…” Henry said, swiftly shifting the topic of conversation before anyone could say something else less appropriate. “What do you think she’s doing here? I didn’t even think she’d have been able to get in.”

“I’ll give you three guesses,” Summer spoke up, jerking her chin at an incredibly tall figure making his way through the crowds. 

Arne, all 6′4 of his broad-shouldered, square-jawed, classical handsomeness easily parting the people in front of him as he came over to Ellie and put his arm around her in a way that made even her 5′9 manage to look tiny.

With such a big, hulking figure pressing against her, she looked even more delicate and soft, and Rahim instantly decided he hated it. 

His jaw tightened as he watched Arne lean in towards her, watched her blush and turn shy as she looked down at the floor. This wasn’t her. This wasn’t how she acted, not around him, not around her friends, not around anybody. Shy, and meek, and… vulnerable in how happy she seemed to be.

Fucking Arne.

“Well, I guess we know who invited her here,” Henry said, taking a sip of his beer.

“Think they’re on a date?” Jason blurted out, and for some reason, Henry winced and glanced at Rahim.

“What? Nah, he’s like, way too old for her! ‘Sides, wouldn’t she get all dressed up for something like that?” 

“Who says she isn’t?” Summer snorted, pouring herself another drink. She’d brought her own stuff to the party, a surprisingly high-end bottle of raspberry vodka she’d been taking shots from all night. “Eyebrows carefully plucked, black mascara when she usually uses brown, plus she’s curled her eyelashes. Add to that the blush, the soft coral lipgloss instead of her standard, much subtler tinted lip balm… The clothes might be pretty casual, but she definitely did herself up for this.”

Rahim’s stomach did something funny as she pointed out those details. Maybe his beer wasn’t sitting well with him. Or maybe it was the way Arne was looking at Ellie like he had noticed all those details too and decided he liked them. Either way, it felt heavy and strangely hot, like a ball of overheated lead. 

“Whatever.” Jason rolled his eyes. “Date, not a date… College-age dudes don’t ask high school chicks to these kinda parties without plannin’ somethin’, bro. Five bucks says they end up goin’ home together.”

“Maybe he’s just being nice,” Henry offered, though something in his tone seemed to indicate he wasn’t 100% sold on the idea. “You know what kinda guy Arne is, ‘always happy to help’ and all that.”

“He’s laying it on pretty thick for ‘just being nice’.” Summer said dryly.

With the way they were flirting over that shared cup of beer, it was hard for Rahim not to agree with her.

Ellie really was blushing now, tucking a few loose strands of hair gently back behind her ear. And God, the way she was smiling… She’d never smiled at him that sweetly. Not once.

‘“She’s my responsibility, you know?”’ The memory of those words echoed in his mind as he watched the older boy push her to take another sip. ‘“I just don’t want her to get hurt again…”’

That fucking lying sack of shit.

“Shit though, man, can you blame him? If I was in an older dude’s shoes, and I had a chance with a hot little number like Ellie…” There was the sound of somebody smacking Jason upside the head, followed by a sharp ‘ow’. “Hey, I’m just sayin’! Have you seen the way her ass looks in a pair of skinny jeans?”

Suddenly she stumbled into him, and the way Arne held her close and ran his hands along her skin while she braced against his chest, flustered and dismayed, made Rahim’s hands twitch.

‘“She’s a good girl. Sweet, even.”’

Neither of them pulled away, even when Arne’s fingers moved up to the strap of her dress, playing with it right there in front of everybody… Making her bite her full, pink lips, peeking up at him from between those delicate, softly curling lashes…

That goddamn fucking cradle robber.

Instantly he crushed the plastic cup in his hands, the last few dregs of beer spilling out through the cracks. 

“Dude, Rahim,” Jason said, gaze shifting back over to him and eyeing the crushed cup with a confused expression. “Why are you even watching them anyway? Like, why do you care? I thought you said she was a total bitch.”

“She might be a bitch, but she’s my bitch.” He growled in response, shoving his cup into his friend’s hand and stalking over to her. She was alone again as Arne headed back to the drinks table, and he grabbed her wrist, yanking on it to spin her around towards him.

“Rahim?! What are you-?” She asked, her pale grey eyes widening in surprise and recognition. 

“Come with me.” He demanded, not offering up any explanation as he pulled her through the crowd and up the stairs to the second floor. Finding an empty room, he stepped inside, dragging her in behind him.

“Seriously, Rahim, what are you doing here? What the heck is this about?” She said, voice angry as she tugged lightly against his grip. “You can’t just show up out of nowhere and drag me off into some room without an explana-”

He didn’t even bother to close the door before he spun around and kissed her, stuffing his tongue into her open mouth as he yanked her body up against his and moved a hand to firmly clutch the back of her head.

The kiss was already deep when they made for the bed, Rahim using his weight to shove them both down onto it so he was on top. The hand wrapped hard around her wrist finally let go and shifted down to her knee, moving quickly up her leg before taking a firm hold and jerking her forward.

Now freed, her hands moved to his chest, feeling him up at the same time he did her. She seemed to enjoy the feeling of his toned chest, the lean yet muscular build of his swimmer’s body.

He pulled back from the kiss only to make sure they didn’t run out of breath, taking in a quick gasp for himself before diving in against her jaw to scrape his teeth over the sensitive spots he knew ran right beneath it. 

She rewarded him with a shudder, letting out some murmur or whimper that he couldn’t catch, but from the rest of her reactions, she must’ve been feeling good.

Next came the attack on her neck, rough biting with his teeth and hard sucking with his lips in his sudden urge to make her feel it even more. He yanked her head back to get a better angle on her neck, and the way she moaned as her pulse raced against his tongue made his chest swell with a smug sense of satisfaction.

Suck it, Arne.

Wanting to taste her lips again, he drove his tongue back inside as she parted them to speak, cutting off what had probably been some kind of praise about how good he was making her feel. 

He groaned into the kiss, starting to feel pretty damn good himself. The intensity of their lips locking together was making him feel warm in a way all that beer he’d gulped down earlier couldn’t match, and the way she panted and squirmed beneath him as he rubbed her thigh was making him just plain hot.

Eager to grope a little higher, he slid his hand past her skirt, searching for the nice, firm curves it was hiding beneath the light fabric.

His fingers had nearly managed to discover the area he wanted when he found himself trying to kiss air, and he was suddenly pushed back to the edge of the bed as he stumbled to catch himself.

“I said stop!” It was Ellie’s voice, shouting at him angrily and slightly panicked as she sat up and tugged everything back into place, tucking in on herself defensively.

Had she said stop? He couldn’t remember that happening at any point, but she was definitely saying it now, and he had already instinctively raised his hands in the air to show her he wasn’t planning on touching her anymore.

“What?” He asked as he squinted at her in complete confusion, brows furrowed. “What’s yer fuckin’ problem?”

“I can’t do this.” She shivered, and the way she hugged herself, crossing her arms over her chest, made him feel shitty in a way that was totally unfair. “I can’t do something like this!”

“Something like what?” He asked again, not able to help his frustration at her dancing around the issue. Sitting there, looking all hot and bothered with his marks all over her. It should have made him feel good seeing her like that. And it did, in a weird, vindictive sorta way. But that defensive posture, and the way she looked at him… those didn’t sit well at all. “Will ya stop being so damn vague and just tell me what I did wrong already?”

“What do you mean ‘what’!?” She snapped shrilly, turning even redder. “Dragging me around, kissing me like that-”

“God, El, it’s just a little making out!” He sighed, shoulders slumping in relief as he rolled his eyes. Kissing. Thank God. It was just him kissing her she was mad about. “I ain’t gonna make ya do it if you don’t wanna, but it’s not the fuckin’ end of the world. Like, it’s not like we don’t already do this type of shit all the time.”

“That’s, that’s not the point here…” She turned her eyes downwards, shaking her head. Acting like she couldn’t face him head-on like she always did whenever she had a complaint about one of his fuck-ups.

“Then what is the point, exactly?” She was being all… meek, again. Not like her. Not like his Ellie. Not the Ellie who had a killer right hook and mixed up her languages when she got excited and almost beat him a couple times in swim races. “You’ve never been bothered about it before, so what the fuck? Christ, last week you even let me-”

“Because I don’t want to keep doing these things with someone who hates me!”

Stunned silence covered the room for a few seconds after her outburst, the blaring hip-hop from downstairs seeming muffled by the sudden heaviness hanging in the air.

“So… so fuckin’ what?” Rahim asked, the momentary shock giving over to anger as he clenched his fists. “Who cares if I hate you. I mean damn, what does that even have to do with this!? We… we make out, and we yell at each other, and I call you a bitch and you call me a brat and… and we go back to making out anyway because we both find each other insanely hot. That’s it, right? That’s what we do.”

“But… but we’re supposed to feel something!” She insisted, and the way she sounded when she said it almost scared him. “Something good, not just anger and dumb teenage hormones. We’re supposed to actually like each other, aren’t we?”

“Like each other? Yeah right.” He scoffed, moving closer to her on the bed and getting in her face a little bit. “Face it El, ‘like’ ain’t a part of this. We’re just friends with benefits, hell, ‘enemies with benefits’ is more accurate. You don’t wanna be that anymore then fine, but don’t act like it’s ‘cause you’re pining for us to get all sweet and lovey-dovey. Cause like ya said, I hate you Ellie, and you’ve made it pretty clear you can’t stand me.”

Something twisted inside him as he looked into those sharp grey eyes of hers, the ones that were so bright and lovely they struck his heart like lightning every time he saw them. Something that made his next words come out sounding way more bitter than they should have been. “In fact, I know for sure you hate me way mo-”

And then suddenly he wasn’t looking at her anymore, because his head had jerked to the side, the whole left half of his face flaring with sharp, stinging pain as his mouth hung open. 

The sound of the slap was still ringing in his ears as he slowly turned to stare back at her, just in time for that same awful, stabbing twist to happen as he caught sight of her trembling lip and the tears filling her eyes before she bolted out of the room.

And he just sat there, dumbfounded, not even able to think straight until one tiny little thought managed to wriggle its way into his consciousness. 

‘I made her cry.’

He’d just made Eleonora, Eleonora fucking Middle Name Even More Unpronounceable Falk, cry.

What.

The.

Fuck. 

How had he even managed to do that?! No one had seen her cry since those assholes on the football team spammed her phone non-stop with a bunch of unsolicited pics six months ago, and he’d been one of the only two people who’d even seen her do it then!

He flopped down onto the bed, utterly astounded as he tried to figure out what the hell he could have done that was so horrible he’d managed to reach the level of that whole ordeal.

So maybe he’d kissed her without her permission. Well, not maybe, he had, and that was kinda shitty of him, but she hadn’t disliked it! She’d kissed him back for fuck’s sake! Even after he climbed on top of her and started getting a little handsy she hadn’t stopped him, at least not right away. And she’d definitely had the chance to. 

No, she’d only gotten really pissed off once they started talking about their feelings. With her bringing up shit about feeling good together, and not being all angry and hormonal, and how they were supposed to actually like each other. However the fuck she’d ended up getting that crap into her head. 

And then, even then, she hadn’t slapped him – actually fucking slapped him, not a punch, or a kick, or even a good old knee to the family jewels… She hadn’t slapped him until he’d brought up the fact that she hated him, which she did, and it made zero fucking sense unless…!

Unless…

Unless she didn’t hate him. 

She didn’t hate him at all.

Realizing just what he’d done, Rahim jumped out of bed and rushed out into the hallway, leaning over the banister as he looked down at the lower floor. Desperately searching the crowd for some sign of that pretty white dress, that telltale blond braid that meant she was still here somewhere, that he could maybe catch up to her and- he didn’t know what, but God, just do something before he lost the chance!

And then he caught sight of her, and the whole world ground to a halt.

Still here, yeah, still at the party, but all wrapped up in another man’s arms. The arms of the last man he ever wanted to see her with. Arne’s hands were low on her waist, guiding her towards the front of the party and softly stroking her hair as she leaned on him and clung to his chest. He turned back to sweep his eyes over the rest of the house when they reached the exit, and his gaze locked with Rahim’s.

He stopped in his tracks, his eyes hardening as he pulled Ellie closer, and for a few seconds, they stared at each other.

Then she whispered something to him, and he returned whatever affection it was with a kiss so intimate it made Rahim’s breath stutter and hitch in his throat before the twenty-something ushered them the rest of the way out the door.

Ellie didn’t look back, not even for a second. Not even to see if he’d tried to come after her. Not even to check.

The finality of it hit him like a ton of bricks, and he collapsed to his knees, barely managing to hang on to the banister. His friends caught up to him, babbling as they pelted him with questions, but he didn’t hear any of it.

He was too busy thinking about how horribly he’d just fucked up.

And God…