kellie

WORD COUNT - 861

“Babe, I’m home!”

I look over at the front door from the living room couch to find my boyfriend of three years lugging his suitcase from Australia through the door.  

“Oh my God, you’re home early!”, I squeal and jump over the coffee table, rushing over to his six-foot self.  “I thought you were going to stay in Aussie for another day with Kyle and Gray?”

He smiles down at me when I wrap my arms around his torso, barely able to wrap them all the way.  “It’s New Year’s, babe.  I wasn’t going to miss spending it with you for the world.”

“I love you so much,” I sigh happily and press a kiss to his cheek.  “I missed you so much.”

“Love you more princess, and I’m pretty sure I missed you more.  I have your pillow in my other suitcase,” he chuckles.  He always loved the natural smell of me and couldn’t go to sleep without it.  Thus, E took my pillow before boarding his plane to Australia.

I giggle as he moves his suitcase into the closet in the hallway and closes the door.  “Do you want me to make you mac and cheese?”

He groans and kisses me on the forehead.  “I missed your food, Gray’s tastes like shit compared to yours.”

I shake my head and chuckle as I head to the kitchen, E trailing behind me.  He watches me take out the ingredients out of the fridge and wraps his arms around my waist as I prepare the vegan cheese.

“Need any help with that, babe?”, he asks as he buries his face in my neck. 

I smile and look over my shoulder at him.  “Now that I think about it, can you take down the Christmas decorations?  The Christmas lights are still all over the living room walls and the tree is still up.”

Ethan whines as he shakes his head.  “But I love your decorations, they make me feel like home.  Plus, nobody else lives here- we don’t have to take them down till January.”

“Tonight’s January, babe.”

He chuckles and squeezes my hip.  “You know what I mean, can we leave them up?  Please, bubba?”

I chuckle as I put the cheese in a glass bowl.  “Alright, alright.  Can you wash the dishes and set up the table, then?”, I ask as I put a piece of cheese in his mouth.

“That,” he begins as he chews on the cheese and sticks his tongue out at me.  “I can do.”

I lift my head from his chest and look at the red alarm clock on my nightstand. 

11:58 PM.  

I sigh in content as I run my fingers through E’s hair and chuckle.  We both fell asleep to Rick and Morty quietly playing on the T.V.  after dinner around seven.  We acted like one of those cute old married couples in movies, and I wouldn’t trade him for anybody else.  

“Bubba,” I whisper into the dark living room.  “Bubba, it’s almost midnight.  I love you and all but the New Year’s kiss is our tradition.”

He chuckles quietly, his raspy-sleepy voice never fails to send chills down my spine.  “Five more minutes…”

“It’s 11:59 right now, E.  If I gave you five more minutes, you would miss the ball drop,”  I say as I get up to grab the remote.  

Ethan whines and pulls me tighter against his warm chest.  “Nooooo, don’t leave me.”

Jetlag always made him into a big human teddy bear and this time it was no different.  He sniffs my hair gently, taking in my scent and I slowly try to grab the remote on the coffee table with my foot.  I succeed, surprisingly, and I grabbed it with my hand. 

Turning on the channel that displays the ball drop in Times Square, I grin as I see a bright timer displaying “FIFTEEN [15] SECONDS,” on the big screen.

E stirs in his sleep and I notice him opening one eye, looking at the T.V.  

“It’s almost time babe!”, I whisper excitedly.  “Look at the people chanting!”

“You’re so cute when you get excited about these things.  I love everything about you babe,” he chuckles and buries his head into my neck.  “I promise I’m going to marry you someday.  And we’ll start a family, move away from the big city, and have one of those cute houses in the suburbs.”

Heat rushes to my cheeks as I start to dream about our life together.  

Shoving me out of my thoughts, the sound of people screaming startles me. 

“THREE….”

Ethan kisses my forehead and I feel him smiling against it.

“TWO….”

His lips touch with my cheek.

“ONE….”

He kisses my nose.

“HAPPY NEW YEAR!”

I pull his hoodie down and connect our lips together in a gentle and sweet kiss.  

When we pull away, he studies my face for a second and I see something flicker in his eyes.  There full with an emotion I can’t put into words.

The blinding disco lights are shifting rapidly around the room, along with the disgusting odor of marajuana and booze.

“Why in God’s earth did you drag me here, A?  I can already tell this is gonna suck.  Look, there are people trying to conceive babies on that ugly ass bright purple couch.” I groan at my best friend.

Amanda tugs her shirt down a bit, revealing her cleavage as she looks at me with a quirked eyebrow.  “Because you, my dear friend, need to be laid.  You haven’t got any action since you broke up with Cameron and that was four fucking months ago.  Don’t worry I’ll stay with you the whole time.”

She grabs two solo cups and fills them up with some sort of unknown alcohol in a bowl and hands one to me.  I sniff it and grimace.  “Fine but I’m an independent woman that doesn’t need a ma-.”

“That’s not what you said when you were crying last week after you watched the Notebook.” I scoff as the sound of Tame Impala’s The Less I Know The Better blasts through the expensive speakers in the middle of the large living room.  At least the host of the party has good taste in music.  I can’t say the same about their taste in home decor.

As I stare at the large group of people dancing, I take the smallest possible sip of the liquid in the cup.  “I don’t even know anybody he-”.

I furrow my eyebrows, noticing that Amanda wasn’t next to me anymore.  Instead, she was batting her lashes at some random guy.

So much for “staying with me the whole time.”   I look around uncomfortably, not knowing what to do now.  Deciding to head out to the pool, of which seems empty for the most part, I tug down the miniskirt Amanda forced me to wear and start walking to the back door.  

I start to push myself through the crowd, desperately wanting some fresh air to clear my mind.  I look at my feet the whole time, not trying to make any eye contact.  Being my usual clumsy-bitch self, I bump headfirst into somebody’s back, the impact making me drop my drink.  

“Oh my God!  I’m so sorry, it got all over your shoes!”, I gasp.  “I know how to clean shoes, or I can buy you a new pair, o- or I’m so sorry!”.  I start to panic, realizing that I couldn’t pay for a pair of shoes like that especially with student loans breaking my back.  

I look up to see who’s shoes I ruined and I’m met with one of the most beautiful faces I’ve ever seen.

Holy fucking shit.

He grins at me, displaying his perfect smile, as his eyes shine from the disco lights.  His hair looks so soft.

“It’s alright, they’re only shoes.  Anyways, it’s not everyday that a beautiful girl spills her drink on you.”

Ignoring the flush in my cheeks, I grimace.  “How can I pay you back?  I’m sort of struggling with finances right now but I can give you my contacts and I’ll pay you back when I can-  I’m so sor-”.

The beautiful fucking Greek God smirks at my rambling and cuts me off.  “You don’t need to give me money, but if you want to make it up for me, how about your number?” Is he talking to me?

I turn around to see if I’m mistaken and turn back around when nobody’s behind me.  When he looks at me with a quirked eyebrow, I nod stupidly.

“Were you trying to go to the pool?  I was heading there too,” he asks.

I nod again stupidly again.  Stop fucking nodding, Y/N.

The stranger takes my hand in his and starts to push through the crowd, his large frame easily doing so.  He opens the back door, a whoosh of crisp, cold air rushes through the door as we step outside.  We walk towards a miniature gazebo with two outdoor couches and a cute coffee table and take a seat.

“So, what’s your name?”, he asks.

“Y/N.  Y/N Y/L/N.  What about you?”

“Grayson.  Grayson Dolan,” he grins.  The name is familiar to me, but I can’t pinpoint where I’ve heard it from.  Amanda probably ranted about how he was before.  Not that I disagree.

A few seconds of awkward silence pass through and, considering the fact that I just spilled vodka on his shoes, I think it’s normal.

“So,” he starts.  “I have a feeling that you were dragged to this party.”

I look up quizzically at him.  “How did you know?”

“I have a sixth sense,” he says mysteriously.  “Just kidding, I know Amanda she’s talked about you in the past.”

Of course she did.

I roll my eyes.  “Yeah I was dragged to this party.  She said that I need to be laid but this party sucks and I don’t know anybody here.”

“I can help with that,” Grayson states.  

I stare up at him with wide eyes.  Did he mean he could help me get laid?  He’s hot but I don’t even know the dude.  He could be a serial killer for all I know

He looks up at me with realization on his face.  “Oh shit!  I-I meant about you not knowing anybody.  You know me now.  Anyways, let’s ignore that just happened.  You think this party sucks?”

“Yeah, it’s not just the people.  It’s just so fucking big and people with big houses probably have big heads.  It just comes with privilege, y’know?  Also, I don’t know who owns the house but their taste in home decor isn’t the best,” I ramble.

Grayson smirks at me and is about to say something, but the sound of rapid footsteps interrupt him.

We both look up and see Amanda running towards the two of us.  “Y/N!  I’ve been looking for you everywhere!  Where’d you g-”

Amanda looks at the two of us.  Stares at me, then Grayson, then me, then Grayson.  “Oh hi Gray, do you know Y/N?  Sorry that’s not important.  Anyways, thanks for inviting me tonight, it’s been a blast but we got to head back home.  My mom’s blowing the shit out of my phone.”

Wait.

What does she mean by inviting her?  

I look up at Grayson as he nods at A, standing back up.

WORD COUNT: 461

It’s exactly 3:40AM when my phone starts to blow up. 

The excessive “ding-ing” makes me groan as I try to reach for the phone on my nightstand.  

My boyfriend, Grayson, was in Australia with his brother and I had a horrible week, trying to fall asleep without him by my side.  Guess all my hard work paid off for nothing tonight.

5,671 notifications from my Twitter.  Wow that’s new, I’m not usually getting five fucking thousand tags in the middle of the night.  

I use my finger-print to open the phone as click on Twitter.

“#GRAYSONDOLANISOVERPARTY” shows up to be my number one on trending, with “#Y/N” as number two.  What the hell did he do now?

I click on the first result and there are fans tweeting things like “OH MY GOD,” and “hoLY SHIT THIS IS WHAT I WOKE UP TO?!,” but there isn’t anything that tells me what happened exactly.  

I keep scrolling and my eyes widen when a picture finally shows up.

It’s Grayson, on a bed.  He’s holding a phone towards the mirror and he’s naked.  Completely naked.  It’s nothing I haven’t seen before, but it’s shocking.  Who leaked his fucking nudes?  I’ve never seen these either.

The fan account that posted it recently posted another picture.  I click on it and it’s another nude, but this time it’s a different pose.

It’s him with another girl.

It’s him with my best friend.

They’re both naked, embracing each other in our bed.  The bed that I’m sitting in right now.  How old is this?  When was this taken?  How could Emily do this to me?  How could Gray do this to me?  How long has he been cheating on me?  How could I have not noticed?  Am I this stupid?  

Millions of questions run through my brain, and I collapse from my sitting position- salty tears falling down my face.  

We’ve had so many conversations about our relationship.  We were a secluded couple, but not totally private.  People knew about me and asked about me, but Grayson never said anything about me.  

Was he ashamed?  Of me?  Was I not good enough for him?  Of course I’m not, I’m nothing compared to the famous, millionaire You-Tuber that he is.  

He always told me that he would never break his heart.  He always told me that I was the one for him, that we would get married and live in those cute houses in the suburbs with a front lawn and a tree-swing.  He always told me that we would have the perfect family with a boy that looked like him and a girl that was a miniature-me.  That I’m the love of his life.  That we’re soul-mates.

WORD COUNT: 461

It’s exactly 3:40AM when my phone starts to blow up. 

The excessive “ding-ing” makes me groan as I try to reach for the phone on my nightstand.  

My boyfriend, Grayson, was in Australia with his brother and I had a horrible week, trying to fall asleep without him by my side.  Guess all my hard work paid off for nothing tonight.

5,671 notifications from my Twitter.  Wow that’s new, I’m not usually getting five fucking thousand tags in the middle of the night.  

I use my finger-print to open the phone as click on Twitter.

“#GRAYSONDOLANISOVERPARTY” shows up to be my number one on trending, with “#Y/N” as number two.  What the hell did he do now?

I click on the first result and there are fans tweeting things like “OH MY GOD,” and “hoLY SHIT THIS IS WHAT I WOKE UP TO?!,” but there isn’t anything that tells me what happened exactly.  

I keep scrolling and my eyes widen when a picture finally shows up.

It’s Grayson, on a bed.  He’s holding a phone towards the mirror and he’s naked.  Completely naked.  It’s nothing I haven’t seen before, but it’s shocking.  Who leaked his fucking nudes?  I’ve never seen these either.

The fan account that posted it recently posted another picture.  I click on it and it’s another nude, but this time it’s a different pose.

It’s him with another girl.

It’s him with my best friend.

They’re both naked, embracing each other in our bed.  The bed that I’m sitting in right now.  How old is this?  When was this taken?  How could Emily do this to me?  How could Gray do this to me?  How long has he been cheating on me?  How could I have not noticed?  Am I this stupid?  

Millions of questions run through my brain, and I collapse from my sitting position- salty tears falling down my face.  

We’ve had so many conversations about our relationship.  We were a secluded couple, but not totally private.  People knew about me and asked about me, but Grayson never said anything about me.  

Was he ashamed?  Of me?  Was I not good enough for him?  Of course I’m not, I’m nothing compared to the famous, millionaire You-Tuber that he is.  

He always told me that he would never break his heart.  He always told me that I was the one for him, that we would get married and live in those cute houses in the suburbs with a front lawn and a tree-swing.  He always told me that we would have the perfect family with a boy that looked like him and a girl that was a miniature-me.  That I’m the love of his life.  That we’re soul-mates.

The blinding disco lights are shifting rapidly around the room, along with the disgusting odor of marajuana and booze.

“Why in God’s earth did you drag me here, A?  I can already tell this is gonna suck.  Look, there are people trying to conceive babies on that ugly ass bright purple couch.” I groan at my best friend.

Amanda tugs her shirt down a bit, revealing her cleavage as she looks at me with a quirked eyebrow.  “Because you, my dear friend, need to be laid.  You haven’t got any action since you broke up with Cameron and that was four fucking months ago.  Don’t worry I’ll stay with you the whole time.”

She grabs two solo cups and fills them up with some sort of unknown alcohol in a bowl and hands one to me.  I sniff it and grimace.  “Fine but I’m an independent woman that doesn’t need a ma-.”

“That’s not what you said when you were crying last week after you watched the Notebook.” I scoff as the sound of Tame Impala’s The Less I Know The Better blasts through the expensive speakers in the middle of the large living room.  At least the host of the party has good taste in music.  I can’t say the same about their taste in home decor.

As I stare at the large group of people dancing, I take the smallest possible sip of the liquid in the cup.  “I don’t even know anybody he-”.

I furrow my eyebrows, noticing that Amanda wasn’t next to me anymore.  Instead, she was batting her lashes at some random guy.

So much for “staying with me the whole time.”   I look around uncomfortably, not knowing what to do now.  Deciding to head out to the pool, of which seems empty for the most part, I tug down the miniskirt Amanda forced me to wear and start walking to the back door.  

I start to push myself through the crowd, desperately wanting some fresh air to clear my mind.  I look at my feet the whole time, not trying to make any eye contact.  Being my usual clumsy-bitch self, I bump headfirst into somebody’s back, the impact making me drop my drink.  

“Oh my God!  I’m so sorry, it got all over your shoes!”, I gasp.  “I know how to clean shoes, or I can buy you a new pair, o- or I’m so sorry!”.  I start to panic, realizing that I couldn’t pay for a pair of shoes like that especially with student loans breaking my back.  

I look up to see who’s shoes I ruined and I’m met with one of the most beautiful faces I’ve ever seen.

Holy fucking shit.

He grins at me, displaying his perfect smile, as his eyes shine from the disco lights.  His hair looks so soft.

“It’s alright, they’re only shoes.  Anyways, it’s not everyday that a beautiful girl spills her drink on you.”

Ignoring the flush in my cheeks, I grimace.  “How can I pay you back?  I’m sort of struggling with finances right now but I can give you my contacts and I’ll pay you back when I can-  I’m so sor-”.

The beautiful fucking Greek God smirks at my rambling and cuts me off.  “You don’t need to give me money, but if you want to make it up for me, how about your number?” Is he talking to me?

I turn around to see if I’m mistaken and turn back around when nobody’s behind me.  When he looks at me with a quirked eyebrow, I nod stupidly.

“Were you trying to go to the pool?  I was heading there too,” he asks.

I nod again stupidly again.  Stop fucking nodding, Y/N.

The stranger takes my hand in his and starts to push through the crowd, his large frame easily doing so.  He opens the back door, a whoosh of crisp, cold air rushes through the door as we step outside.  We walk towards a miniature gazebo with two outdoor couches and a cute coffee table and take a seat.

“So, what’s your name?”, he asks.

“Y/N.  Y/N Y/L/N.  What about you?”

“Grayson.  Grayson Dolan,” he grins.  The name is familiar to me, but I can’t pinpoint where I’ve heard it from.  Amanda probably ranted about how he was before.  Not that I disagree.

A few seconds of awkward silence pass through and, considering the fact that I just spilled vodka on his shoes, I think it’s normal.

“So,” he starts.  “I have a feeling that you were dragged to this party.”

I look up quizzically at him.  “How did you know?”

“I have a sixth sense,” he says mysteriously.  “Just kidding, I know Amanda she’s talked about you in the past.”

Of course she did.

I roll my eyes.  “Yeah I was dragged to this party.  She said that I need to be laid but this party sucks and I don’t know anybody here.”

“I can help with that,” Grayson states.  

I stare up at him with wide eyes.  Did he mean he could help me get laid?  He’s hot but I don’t even know the dude.  He could be a serial killer for all I know

He looks up at me with realization on his face.  “Oh shit!  I-I meant about you not knowing anybody.  You know me now.  Anyways, let’s ignore that just happened.  You think this party sucks?”

“Yeah, it’s not just the people.  It’s just so fucking big and people with big houses probably have big heads.  It just comes with privilege, y’know?  Also, I don’t know who owns the house but their taste in home decor isn’t the best,” I ramble.

Grayson smirks at me and is about to say something, but the sound of rapid footsteps interrupt him.

We both look up and see Amanda running towards the two of us.  “Y/N!  I’ve been looking for you everywhere!  Where’d you g-”

Amanda looks at the two of us.  Stares at me, then Grayson, then me, then Grayson.  “Oh hi Gray, do you know Y/N?  Sorry that’s not important.  Anyways, thanks for inviting me tonight, it’s been a blast but we got to head back home.  My mom’s blowing the shit out of my phone.”

Wait.

What does she mean by inviting her?  

I look up at Grayson as he nods at A, standing back up.