No More Parties

Hey guys! So I went through with the plan of writing that werewolf book, *cue the screams*. It's called ONYX, and I updated the first chapter. Check it out. On your own time of course. 😘😘😘

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I desperately need to finish Onyx...

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"There's a party tonight at Joshua's," Sarah says with that look in her eyes that adds, 'We're all going'.

It's dismissal, and as usual, me and my friends are supposed to meet in the parking lot. I watch kids climb into their cars and buses as the others figure out their plans for this party.

"Are we going?" Amelia asks, picking at her nails. Obviously, she hadn't been paying attention.

Everyone agrees except me, causing them to turn their hawk-like stares on my fidgeting figure.

I shake my head at the unspoken question. "I'm not going." It's school time, and they know I don't go to parties excessively during the school year. That's my very valid excuse, but I really just... don't wanna go.

"I knew that," Richard retorts.

"Why not?" Kim demands. "It's out senior year, Grace. You went to damn near every party over the summer."

"You know I don't go to parties too much in the school year. Plus I have honors classes, I need to study, they love giving us pop quizzes."

"Oh, she's right." John backs me up, nodding, even though he sounds disappointed about it.

"Hmmm..." Kim, the only one not understanding, narrows her eyes at me, "You got homework tonight?" she challenges.

I meet her stare, amused. "English. I have to write a five to ten-page pap-"

"Okay, you can stop right there. You're not coming. Don't even step foot out of your house this weekend," she says strictly, making me laugh. "But you have to make up for it." She grins mischievously. Oh no.

"What?" I drag out slowly."Why?"

"You have to talk to Arthur." By now, she isn't the only one grinning like the Joker.

For some reason, Kim has always been more bothered than me about the fact that I'm single. She also hates that I'm constantly seventh wheeling in our friend group, along with Maya. Me and the only other single person in our circle talk about it a lot- we have no issues being single. She doesn't believe us.

"W-What- Why?" I say again, stuttering and flustered this time because even the thought of him does that.

"Because." AJ shrugs and I gape at him in betrayal. Was he not just rolling his eyes at what Kim said?

"I thought you were on my side!" I widen my eyes at him and he shrugs again.

"He makes you happy." He smiles at me

"I-I- no he d-doesn't," I stutter, taking an involuntary step back. "How can you even know that?" I stumble a bit while I'm backtracking. Amelia giggles as she grips my arm, steadying me.

My face goes up in flames and gets even hotter at the sound of their amusement. I huff. "I'm going home," I announce with my head held high as I turn my back on them, making them laugh even louder.

"Bye, babe!" Kim shouts after me and I wave her off over my shoulder.

It's a good thing I got out of there before Kim could bring up what happened today during gym. Really, she can bring it up, they're all my friends after all, I just prefer not to be there when that happens.

How dare they embarrass me like that! I am not talking to him, even if it's my last breath-

"Hey." Arthur magically appears in front of me.

It's only for a second. I feel his hands on mine and he's pulling me to the side, out of the road, and into the space between two cars closest to us. The last thing I hear is the sound of my friends hooting and hollering like a bunch of... I don't even know.

I can do nothing but gape at him when we're finally still. My hands end up between us, against his chest, and his resting on my arms. My chest is on his, his back against the sleek black car. What is happening?

"A-Arthur, what are you doing?" I ask breathlessly. Trying to give us at least an inch of space between our bodies. The heat running through my body is slowly melting away my self-control. I can't let that happen. Bad things will consume my thoughts. Really bad things.

"I can't do it," he says, sounding desperate. He dips his head and I feel his breath on my shoulder where my loose crop top fails to cover. "I can't," he whispers. His hands trail from my arm, down my sides until his arms circle around my back to pull me closer.

"I-" It's getting easier to breathe even though my heart's in overdrive. But I'm sure I can form a full sentence if I concentrate enough

"I miss you."

Everything inside me softens and my eyes go to the sky. He's not playing fair...

I slip one hand from between us and hesitantly place it on his hair. Slowly, I began combing my nails through his hair. We stood like that for a minute, me thinking the same thing: I miss you, too.

"Arthur?" He hums in response. "What are you talking about?" I ask softly, running my hand down the side of his neck. He holds me tighter.

He sighs softly and lifts his head from my shoulder. "I can't stay away from you for another year. I won't do it- like I physically can't, Grace." He shakes his head, seemingly scared of the thought. "Especially with all," he leans away a little to stare down at my body, "that."

I blink at him but then have to fight to hold back a smile. "What?" I sputter.

"Don't act like you don't know how sexy you are," he says, his tone knowing as if there's no doubt about it.

I sober up, looking up to connect our gaze, a smirk on my lips. "Oh, I know." A grin stretches across my face when his expression changes to astoundment.

"You cocky little-" His fingers dig into my side gently but it's enough to make me shriek. It doesn't help with my thin top either. "That's what you get." He smirks, one hand sliding down the line of my back and resting above my butt, dangerously close to the curve. Unless I'm feeling things wrong...

Both my hands are resting on the side of his neck now. How? I have zero clue. "Now, why are you groping me?" I raise my eyebrows at him.

He slides both hands to my hips, his touch caressing, until his open palms are safely resting on the sides of my butt. If he doesn't stop I'm about to start shaking like a leaf in winter. "Oh, so now you notice." He says smugly.

"I've noticed. I figured you needed something to calm you down." I hold his gaze challengingly.

"I assure you, it does nothing more than gets me excited." He grins, mischief burning in his eyes. God, I hate him.

He shifts his hips at the same time his fingers dig into my body, pulling me even closer.

My mouth falls open, equal parts appalled and turned on. "That's not funny."

"Didn't intend it to be." His voice is low, heated, as he brings his face closer to mine. "You can tell me to stop," he says gruffly in my ear. Something in my lower belly tightens, and I let out a shallow breath. My hands move to his shoulders because I need the help staying upright. "I promise I will..." His temple rests against mine and he begins rotating his hands in slow circles where they're resting.

My eyelids slide shut as I savor the feeling. I'm almost completely limp in his arms that I almost don't feel my hands slipping over his shoulders and down to his firm biceps.

"We're in the parking lot," I whisper, more as a reminder to myself. I'm too late at catching myself when I begin rubbing my temple against his. What am I, I lioness or something-

Arthur hums, clearly not caring. He tilts his face toward me. His lips brush across my cheek softly, making me stop breathing.

Out of nowhere, there's a low whistle. "You know, when I said talk to him, I didn't exactly mean this, but it works." Kim sounds like a person who's just won the lottery but with a lot more smugness than happiness.

Arthur leans away from my neck, straightening to his full height, and staring over at Kimberly. I hear multiple giggles, telling me that Kim isn't the only one there.

My face heats up, and I bury it in Arthur's chest, discreetly inhaling his scent until I'm calm enough to face them.

After gathering all of my courage, I peek up at them to see the girls grinning widely at me. I roll my eyes and try to pull away from Arthur. I sigh when he tightens his hold and glance at him out of the side of my eye.

"You all annoy me," I say, looking over them, including Arthur, who only smiles. Then he puckers his lips and starts leaning in. I laugh while trying to push his face away but he keeps coming anyway.

"C'mon, Gorgeous. One. Just one." He puckers his lips again. I narrow my eyes at him, unable to drop my smile. He's obviously joking because he never once tried to kiss me when we were alone. He's trying to put on a show for the girls. Fine.

"Okay." I grip his face with one hand and pull him in. I place a gentle, chaste kiss on his lips then have to fight not to go back in. Maybe I shouldn't have done that...

He blinks at me, taken off guard. I swear he wants to squeeze the life out of me. Then says, "That was our first kiss." His smile comes back full force, the most beautiful thing on earth.

Shaking my head, I avoid his eyes which is pretty hard with how close we are. "That doesn't count," I tell him matter-of-factly, but I don't believe it.

His eyebrows raised. "You wanna give me one that does?"

"I don't know..." I trail off, putting on a fake 'thinking face'. "I'll have to get back to you on that."

"It'll make both of us happy. Just admit it." He pulls his bottom lip between his teeth. "So happy," He mutters, his eyes on my mouth.

Shaking my head, I reach up to wipe the smudge of gloss off his lips. "Get it together."

"You guys... you do remember we're still standing right here, right?" Maya breaks into our moment.

Arthur and I turn to them again. "Oh." We say at the same time. I look back at him, the same time he looks at me. I giggle, while he drops his head to hide his face in my hair, chuckling.

"You two are so cute!" Sarah basically squeals the words

Arthur beams at her. "Thank you."

I make a face. "No, we're not." I have no clue why I say that, it's just the first thing that comes to my mind and... I dunno!

Arthur narrows his eyes at me. "Yes, we are."

"We're not."

"Grace. We are."

"Arthur. We're not."

"Stop disagreeing with me. We are!" he exclaims.

I squint at him. "Do not raise your voice at me-"

I don't have time to finish because he's attacking my face with kisses, making me erupt in a fit of giggles. I try to lean away from him and push his face away, but he follows the movement, moving forward until my back is bending and he's hovering over me.

"Yeah. They're cute." That's Amelia.

Arthur stops to give me a smug look. "Ha! I win!"

"It wasn't a competitio-"

"Yes, it was," he cuts me off quickly and licks the side of my face.

"Eww! Arthur!"

I slap at his face but he pulls back before it can connect. I begin hitting him aimlessly with one hand while the other wipes at the wet spot on my cheek. He seems to find this hilarious, laughing while dodging my weak hits. Eventually, he catches my hand in his easily, pressing his lips to my wrist. All I can do is blush.

"You're annoying."

"You love it."

"Why don't y'all just date. Damn." The guys have joined the party. Great.

"They forgot we were here twice," Maya tells them. The others confirm that this is in fact true.

I stick my nose up in the air, lying before the words even come out. "I didn't forget." I turn back to Arthur. "Let go of me. I'm going home. I have things to do, parents to see."

He drops my hands. I smile a little, knowing that he did mean it when he said he'd stop if I asked. I turn away, fully intending to leave.

"Arthur!" I groan in exhaustion when his arms wrap around my torso, pulling me back into his body.

"Ahh." He sighs, flexing his arms around me. "This is better." He leans down to whisper in my ear, "That ass, pressed against this d-"

"Aaaaah- la la la, I don't wanna hear it!" I press my palms to my ears, leaning forward, away from whatever filth he's spewing.

"What freaky shit are y'all up to?" Kim cuts in. " You better make sure you wrap it up. You put a baby in her, I kill you," she threatens. Anyone would think she's my mother. Or my father.

I gasp, my face going up into flames. I am tired of feeling like the inside of a preheated oven. "I-I would never-" For some reason, my voice came out sounding like a cowgirl's, which is slightly embarrassing.

"Really? I don't believe that," Arthur mutters so only I can hear, humor in his voice. "Could you guys give us a second?"

"I'm watching you..." Kim gives him one last look, before walking away with the others. The others who are giving me mischievous and not-so-subtle glances. Richard straight-up wiggled his eyebrows.

Once they're gone I turn on him. "Why are you so sure I'd have sex with you?" I ask sassily, telling myself that I'm angry when in reality, I have to clench my thighs together to get rid of the throb that's becoming all too familiar. I can't remember the last time anyone made me feel like this. Actually, yes, I can.

He reached for my hands and pulls me into him again before letting me go. I let him, then rest my hands against his waist, melting against his firm body. Arthur stares at me for a prolonged moment. Neither of us says anything. I don't even notice, too lost in his brown eyes to care. Until he smiles.

"For starters, I let you go a minute ago."

Realizing what he's saying, I quickly straighten, taking a measured step back from him. I busy myself by pretending to adjust my clothes so that I don't have to look at him, knowing he's wearing that idiotic but sexy smirk of his.

Clearing my throat, I cross my arms and look up again but not making eye contact. "What is it that you want? Really?"

I'm crumbling, and I blame the last few weeks after everything that happened between us at the beginning of the semester. We'd stayed away from each other successfully for an entire year, but just that first week undid all of that time of self-control and turned it into wanting. The guy is made of something lethal.

"Just wanted to see if you're going." He shrugs, crossing his arms over his chest.

My mouth falls open. "To the party?" He nods. It takes a second for me to collect myself, because all of that just for him to double down and say he wanted to ask me about a lousy party? Huh... Okay, Kingsley. Two can play that game.

"Let's see..." I trail off, tilting my head back in mock thought. "Homework. School year. Don't wanna go. Did I mention a lot of homework? So no. It's not summer anymore, and I'm not carving out time for it." I look back at him and I'm not expecting what I see.

His eyes are gleaming and he's smiling wide with pride. Pride. "That's my girl," he professes.

Squinting at him, I hold back my own smile--his is so contagious. "Bye." Then I finally leave and he finally lets me even though I feel his heated gaze following.