[Warning: This chapter contains a bit of physical abuse. I just don't want to trigger bad memories for anyone]
*Hazel's pov*
"Here." Ivy threw an article of clothing at my face.
We were all at Ivy's house getting ready for Liam's party. Ivy was digging through her closet, picking an outfit for me since she was, and I quote "the fashion icon of the group". I couldn't argue with that, though. The other girls already came dressed so I was Ivy's last choice for a makeover. I peeled the piece of clothing off of my face and held it in front of me, giving it a good look. "Nope nope nopity nope."
"Wha-? Why not?" Ivy whined.
I deadpanned. "Look at it!" It was a two piece black tube dress with off the shoulder sleeves and fishnet lace connecting the two pieces. It wasn't really my style...
"Just try it on!" she begged me.
"Fine, but I'm not wearing it to the party." I trudged towards her bathroom and put on the dress. I paired it with the black strappy heels she gave me. I walked out and her smile was so big, I thought she would break a muscle.
"Ambrielle, you actually look hot for once! No offense, you're usually more adorable than hot." She clasped her hands together and pushed me into the chair at her vanity.
"W-wait! What are you doing?!" I panicked.
"Relax. An outfit like that needs makeup." She began working on my face and let's just say I ended up with a pretty dramatic makeup look. Okay not that dramatic, but a lot for me. After that, she put my hair into a slick, high ponytail and put hoop earrings on me.
I looked in the mirror once and turned towards Ivy. "Yeah, that's a no. It looks amazing, but it's not for me. Good thing I brought my own outfit, though. I was planning on changing here until you bombarded me. So, if you don't mind, I will be in the bathroom." I walked away and nearly broke my ankle with the stilettos she gave me. I'd worn heels before but dang.
After I finished changing and took off the makeup, I looked in the bathroom mirror. I was wearing a white t-shirt with gray stripes, dark blue high waisted shorts, and an oversized yellow cardigan. I paired this with black combat boots, golden cat earrings, and my white half of a yin and yang necklace. Lastly, I left my hair down.
I walked out of the bathroom and sat down in the vanity chair. "Don't be too disappointed, Ivy. You can curl my hair and do this makeup for me." I showed her a different look on my phone. It was less bold.
"Yay! I thought you were gonna leave me with the yearn for a makeover," she cheered. She started working on my makeup first then moved onto my hair, and soon she was done.
~~~~~~~
Ivy drove us to the party in her red jeep and we kept arguing over music so we each got to pick a song.
Honey chose 'Would You Be So Kind' by Dodie.
Violet chose 'Teen Idle' by Marina and the Diamonds.
Ivy chose 'Youth' by Troye Sivan.
Anikah chose 'Hey There Delilah' by Plain White T's.
Julia chose 'Gives You Hell' by The
All-American Rejects.
I chose 'Time to Dance"Â by Panic! at the Disco.
After those six songs, we arrived at Liam's house. We walked into a sardine trap filled with sweaty teenagers and pounding music blasting through speakers.
We had to link arms so we wouldn't get lost as we looked for the kitcken. It was a really big house. I was guessing Liam's parents were rich.
When we found the kitchen, we also found the boys in there and made our way towards them.
"Hey, guys," we all shouted over the music. They all gave us acknowledging nods.
"Glad you made it!" Connor yelled. He walked over to us. He looked us over and smiled, appreciating our outfits.
Honey was dressed in her signature yellow dress. Julia, of course wore all black. Anikah rocked her holographic look. Violet was dressed in her grunge fashion. Ivy wore the boldest look out of all of us. She was the one most accurately dressed for a party with her velvet dress and stilettos.
Connor was especially paying close attention to someone. If you know what I mean.
"Hey, Honey!" he shouted. He was looking right at her with a big smile before he turned to the rest of us. "Oh, right. You guys, too!" A collective amount of greetings were thrown around.
Suddenly, a noise made me whip my head around. On the speakers came on a song. A song that I really loved. The first verse passed as I stood, stunned, and finally the chorus came on.
"Dance, dance
We're falling apart to halftime
Dance, dance
And these are the lives you love to lead
Dance, this is the way they'd love
If they knew how misery loved me "
"Dance, Dance" by Fall Out Boy was playing.
"Oh! My! Gosh! Fall Out Boy!" I started jumping around like a happy dog until one of the boys said something.
"Ugh, this song? I'm gonna ask the dj to change it." Liam started walking away.
Next thing I knew, I was jumping on his back and giving him a noogie while scolding him. How did that happen?... "What do you mean 'ugh, this song?'" I mimicked his voice. "This song is amazing and you just have no taste!"
"Get off of me!" he yelled, whipping himself in circles to try to get me off his back.
"Take it back first!" I screamed. I guess you could say I was very protective of my boys.
"Fine, it's a good song! Now get off!" he yelled once again.
*Asher's pov*
Look at her, on his back. Playing with his hair like that. Look at him, spinning her in circles. Ugh, it made me sick.
She didn't know what it was like when it came to Liam. He was more of a player than any of us. I mean, I didn't care what she did, but as a decent human being, you tried to prevent these types of things... right?
Goddammit, Adler! Just stop!
"Fine, it's a good song! Now get off!" Liam yelled at her. She jumped off of him and stumbled a bit from being dizzy. For some reason, I felt my blood boil when he steadied her.
Dammit.
Dammit.
Dammit.
Nope! Not today!
You know what I needed? A hookup. That would make me get my mind off Hazel. Why the fuck was my mind on her in the first place?! I just needed to get drunk first and find a girl.
*Hazel's pov*
It'd been half an hour there, and everyone left me alone. I didn't even know where they were.
I was currently upstairs in a corner, reading the book I had taken just in case. It ended up coming in handy after all. Was it hard to see through the dark? Pshh, that's why I took a little flashlight. Always be prepared kids!
It was a bit disappointing how anticlimactic my first party was turning out to be.
Just as I was reading about Leo Valdez making veggie tacos in The Lost Hero, I heard a noise near me. I turned to see what it was.
A girl and a boy were making out as they tried to navigate their way into a room. I got a look at the couple. It was Hannah Winefield and... Asher?!
What was he doing hooking up with her? Well, from how sloppily they were kissing each other, I made the guess that they were drunk.
Surprise, surprise, I'd never been kissed, but I knew at least that much.
I walked over to rescue him from regret and tapped on his shoulder. We knew each a little bit better now to where we could help each other out... right? He whipped his head in my direction and glared at me.
"What." he seethed.
Woah. "Uh, Asher? Can I talk to you really quickly?" I asked and put my hand on his arm.
"Can't you see that I'm clearly busy?" he yelled and slapped my hand away.
I widened my eyes in fear as the memories came back to me. It was insane how any sort of aggressive touch could take me back.
~~~~~~~
"I'm sorry, Dad! Please stop!" nine year old me cried out.
"What? Do you want more?" my dad yelled as he raised his fist.
"N-no!" I sobbed.
My dad was clearly drunk. My mom had left to take my little, six year old brother, Finn, to his soccer game.
I accidently dropped a vase while playing and my dad was on seven cans of bud light. He snapped. He only ever hit me when he was either drunk or furious. So basically, whenever. This particular time, he was both.
He stopped when I turned twelve, though because my brothers began to take the blame for anything I did that my dad might've considered bad enough to hit me.
He left a bruise on my left cheek, my stomach, my upper arm, and gave me a black eye. He always made me cover it up afterwards with my mom's makeup. And she wondered why she always had to make so many trips to the makeup store...
My fifteen year old brother, Cameron, came from the hall out of his room and saw what was happening.
He scowled at my dad. "Leave her alone!"
"Oh yeah? What are you *hic* gonna do?" he mocked. I knew Cameron was scared of him, too, but he always put in a brave face for the rest of us.
"I'll show you!" he ran over and sent a flying fist to my dad. Unfortunately, my dad caught Cameron's hand inside of his own.
"Cameron! He'll hit you even harder!" I bawled.
He did.
And much, much worse than ever.
~~~~~~~
When I snapped out of it, Asher and Hannah slammed the door to a room behind them and I could hear noises from behind the door.
I didn't realize I was crying until a tear dropped onto my book. I crawled back into the corner and cried into my cardigan. I cried for what felt like hours even though it was only a bit over half an hour.
I wiped my eyes and walked downstairs. I went to the bathroom real quick to take off my already messed up makeup and wash my face. Walking out into the living room, I tried to rationalize my thoughts.
He was just drunk. He didn't mean to do that. He didn't even know what type of memories it would trigger. So, it wasn't his fault. Sure I was upset, but I wouldn't take it too hard on him considering he didn't even know.
I found Connor and asked him where the girls were. Apparently, they couldn't find me but they really had to be home before curfews, so they grudgingly left. They said they were sure I could just get a ride from one of the boys.
I didn't blame them, curfews were important. I was only allowed to stay out so late because my mom thought Asher was a sweet boy and trusted me with him. Huh, how ironic. Did she expect him to watch over me the whole time like a bodyguard?
I understood why they had to, but my friends leaving just added to my bad night.
I had to be responsible about this. I sat down on the couch next to some passed out dude and waited. I waited for Asher to come out so I could take him home safely. I waited and waited. I almost fell asleep, but slapped myself awake.
I was about to leave because I figured he was having a bit too much fun with Hannah and would probably stay there overnight. That was, until I spotted him walking down the stairs with no balance. He made it to the bottom and staggered a bit.
His dark blue button-up shirt was only buttoned half-way and his jeans were sagging low. His hair was a huge mess and he had obvious hickies on his neck.
Oh, dear Lord.
I sighed and walked over to him. "Asher."
"Princesssss...,"he drawled out,"you look really *hic* cuteee..." Talk about a drunk with mood swings, yeesh.
"Uh, thanks. Woah!" I caught him as he stumbled again. I knew how upset he had made me feel, but I didn't want to put that oh him when he didn't even do it on purpose.
"Woah, look at that!" he pointed at my face.
"What?" I asked in confusion.
"You have diamonds on your eyes!" he was tapping on my glasses. Well that was a sweet way to put it.
"Haha, yeah. Asher, I'm gonna take you home. Okay?" I looked at him for permission.
"What are you suggesting?" he smirked and gave me a suggestive look.
"I'm suggesting that I take you home so you don't crash your car." I said very slowly for him to understand.
He pouted in disappointment as I walked over to Eli.
"Hey, Eli." he nodded in response. "I'm taking Asher back to his house so don't worry about him."
"Oh, okay. Bye, Hazel." he waved at me. I smiled and walked back to Asher.
"Let's go, you little bug." I dragged him outside and he put all his weight on me, so I basically carried him to his car. Well, he was only leaning on me with my arm around him, but still. It was hard.
I put him in the passenger side and I got into the driver side. "Do you have your keys?" I asked.
He pulled them out of his pocket and handed them to me. "I want to drive though!" he whined.
"Not if you want us to live another day." I started the car and drove off.
Okay here was the thing. I'd driven before with a permit, but I wasn't the best at it. I also didn't have a license... But I had to get Asher home somehow.
I knew we weren't even that close-heck, I didn't even know if he'd do the same for me-but I was trying to do the right thing for my sort of friend.
It was 1:00 am. Hopefully, there were no cops around to see my sloppy driving with a drunk boy in the passenger seat. I turned on the radio and the song "Strawberries and Cigarettes" by Troye Sivan came on.
"Remember when we first met?
You said "light my cigarette"
So I lied to my mom and dad
I jumped the fence and I ran
But we couldn't go very far
'Cause you locked your keys in your car
So you sat and stared at my lips
And I could already feel your kiss"
It felt peaceful, just driving at night with a sleepy Asher leaning on my shoulder and listening to Troye Sivan sing calmingly on the radio. It felt...nice.
Tonight was a trainwreck, but unwinding from it, it didn't end completely horribly.
"Princess?" Asher mumbled as he drooled on my shoulder.
"Yeah?" I glanced at him. He looked so sweet with his droopy, glistening eyes.
"Can I tell you a secret?"
"Uh, sure."
"You're really boring."
"Wha- what?" I was really confused. That came out of nowhere. I accidentally drove out of my lane, but quickly made it back in. I actually thought he was going to say something nice to me for once!
"You're just taking me home and we're not even gonna anything fun." He pouted.
"Well, excuse me for not taking you to a park so we can play waterguns naked in the dark." I shot back sarcastically and rolled my eyes.
He lifted his head. "Ooh, is that an option?" his eyes lit up.
"Wha-? No!" I laughed. "You're just drunk."
"It's more fun that way." He mumbled.
He rested his head on my shoulder again and drifted off into sleep. Soon enough, we made it to our houses.
How the heck was I going to carry a big, muscular, six-foot two boy into his house?
I tapped on his head which was still on my shoulder. "Hey, Asher."
"Hmm?"
"Is your mom home?" I asked.
"Nah, she went to visit her parents in Oregon with Ava and my dad. She let me stay though because missing a few days of school would make me miss a ton of work. So it's just me and my brother, Jax. He's just here cause my mom thinks he needs to keep an eye on me." He started playing with my hair.
"Oh, so your brother's home?" I asked.
"Well, he's probably asleep already."
"Okay." I didn't want to run into anyone. It would be so awkward and hard to explain.
I took the keys out of the ignition and got out of the car. I walked over to Asher's side, put my arm around him, and dragged him out of the car.
"Five more minutes." he whined.
"You'll be in your bed pretty soon." I replied.
He clumsily unlocked the door with his key and I made sure to close it quietly.
I helped him as we stumbled upstairs, him from his drunk state and me from carrying a dude bigger than me.
I finally got to the hallway and made my way to Asher's room as he mumbled about how my hair was soft. Man, I thought he was a mean drunk at first, but he was just a big drunk dork, instead. I wonder what that was then when he snapped at me...
We got in and I helped him into his bed. "Goodnight, Asher. See you later."
"Night, Princess." he said as he snuggled up into his black comforter.
I was about to leave his room when I heard footsteps approaching.
Gosh darn it.
I slipped into his closet when a man walked into the room. He had light brown hair, sea green eyes, and sharp features. He was extremely handsome.
"Asher." He spoke low.
"What do you want, Jax?" Asher answered with his arm covering his face. Wait, that was his brother, Jaxon? He didn't look that much like Asher. I think he looked more like his dad while Asher looked like his mom.
"It's one-thirty in the morning. Why did you get back so late?" Jaxon raised his voice a bit. He sounded concerned.
"I was at Liam's." he grumbled.
"You can't just make me worry like that! What if something happened to you?" He was yelling now.
"Why would you worry about me? You don't care what I do!" Asher yelled back.
"Asher, I-yes I do." Jaxon sighed and stressfully rubbed his forehead.
"Jax, nothing happened to me. I'm fine." Asher turned in bed to face away from him.
"Just don't come home so late next time, please. It really does make me worry." He rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"Okay, whatever."
"Also, Asher?" his brother started.
"Hmm?"
"I can smell the beer from your breath. Someone drove you here, right? You didn't drive drunk...right?" Jaxon asked.
"Don't worry, I got a ride with one of the guys." Asher stated. Oh, thank goodness he didn't accidentally tell the truth!
"Okay, goodnight."
"Night."
Jaxon walked out of the room and I left the closet.
"That's your brother?" I asked.
"Sadly, yes." He glanced at me from the corner of his eye.
"He seems nice..." I could tell he wanted to stop talking about his brother. "Well, I should get going. Goodnight, Asher." I whispered.
"Goodnight."
I was about to climb out the window when Asher asked,"Can I have a goodnight kiss?"
I rolled my eyes and walked over as he smirked. I leaned over, and gave him a soft kiss on the forehead. I didn't even know if he deserved it at that point, but oh well.
I smiled at him. "Feel better, Asher."
With that, I climbed out of the window and jumped onto the tree. I almost lost my balance, but I grabbed onto a big branch and pulled myself onto my roof. I entered my room and turned on the lights.
I was sure nobody noticed I got back so late. I mean, I had six brothers. I doubted even my mom noticed. Which was good, I guess.
I changed into my pajamas and turned off the lights. As I tucked myself into my bed, I thought of only one thing.
I sure hope he doesn't remember that goodnight kiss. But if he does, I hope he's not a jerk about it.
Sleep came upon me pretty quickly considering it was past almost two in the morning.
A/N: Hey guys! I'm bad at updating consistently.ð Just so you know, Jensen Ackles plays Jaxon. Also, drunk Asher could surprisingly be kinda adorable? Well, when he's not being a jerk... And that forehead kiss! I blushed just writing it! This was a longer chapter than usual but I hope you enjoyed it! There was a bit of a touchy subject portrayed in this chapter but it's a bit of an opening to Hazel's past with her father. . Abuse is never okay and if you're being abused, you should tell someone. Hazel hasn't been abused since she was twelve so it doesn't happen anymore thankfully. I hope you liked this chapter! Please keep reading and vote! Bye lovelies!!!â¤â¤â¤
--Your author, Gen