Chapter 33 Mia #2
Ava and I hadn’t spoken since yesterday, and not only was that not like us, but I was nervous about seeing her without her mom as a buffer. I was nervous about seeing any of them. About seeing him.
“Wait, I don’t think I should go in.” I pulled Shane back as Wade and Bea headed up the path.
“Why?”
“I, um, Ava and I had a fight.”
He looked surprised, and then he looked annoyed. “What, because she’s fucking a Devil, she’s suddenly too good for you?” he sneered.
“What? No.” I shook my head. “Ava’s not like that.” And she really wasn’t. She was just in her very first relationship, and her first relationship just happened to be the “forever after” kind.
“Then why did you have a fight?” When I said nothing, he made his own conclusions. “Exactly. You’re with me, not them.”
I was? I hadn’t thought of it like that, and I knew I needed to have a talk with Shane. With a firm hold on my hand, he pulled me up the path and into the house.
The heat hit me first. The house was hot and packed. I shook off Shane’s jacket and handed it to him. My hands fluffed my hair as I tried not to look too obvious as I scanned the room for Ava. But it was so busy that it would be impossible to find her.
Shane linked his fingers with mine, and he led me to the kitchen. I recognized Casey and Alden, and I gave them a wave. The water and the feeling of wrongness were sobering me up rapidly.
“Hey, Mia,” Alden greeted. “Haven’t seen you recently.”
“It’s been three days, Alden.”
“Where’s the beer?” Shane asked, and I realized he was drunker than I thought.
Before anyone could tell him, he spotted the cooler, and then he was handing me a beer.
“Losers.” He tipped his bottle to the guys, and then he was taking my hand and leading me away.
I mouthed sorry to the guys over my shoulder.
Bea and Wade were dancing, and I wanted to dance, but I wanted to know where Ava was first. And then I saw her with Quinn. Always with Quinn.
Ava’s hair was in a high ponytail, her blouse black and fitted, her dark jeans ripped at the knees.
She looked amazing. Quinn’s hair was down, swept over one shoulder, her halter top a deep red that matched her lipstick.
Who even got that shade of red to match?
They were laughing together, and I didn’t need to see any more.
Ava and I were in a semi-okay place, and I didn’t want to mess it up any more than it was.
I was jealous of their friendship, and I needed to accept that before Ava and I could move past this bump in our road.
Bea grabbed my hand, and I turned to her as I drank deep from my bottle of beer. Beer was okay, no more tequila for me. Not here. We danced, and the guys kept the drinks coming, but I was drinking more water in between, keeping a nice buzz and not becoming a drunken mess.
When the lights went out, I screamed. I wasn’t drunk, but I was admittedly a little unsteady on my feet. I’d made sure I’d kept my back to where Ava and Quinn had been; I didn’t want to ruin either of our nights, but mayhem changed everything.
Moving, I stumbled. I felt hands grab at my ass before they circled my waist. “Hey, Mia, I got you,” Shane slurred. “Come on, follow me.”
Follow? It was dark. Where would I go?
“No, stay still, they won’t chase if you don’t—” I bounced off of someone. “Oops. Sorry!”
I heard the frantic noise of the others at the party as Shane moved me through the bodies. His hands kept wandering, and I kept chasing them, pulling them off my ass.
“You don’t run in Mayhem,” I told him loudly as I banged my hip off something else. “Ow.”
“Come on,” he urged me as he pushed me forward. Stumbling, I knocked my knee off something hard, and I cried out again.
“Ow!” Trying to pry his hands off me, I squirmed. “Can you let me go? I keep hitting things.”
“Just walk,” he giggled as his hands pawed at me again, his hands were on my chest, squeezing, twisting, hurting.
“Seriously, will you quit,” I hissed, pushing him away from me, and I half fell up a stair. “Wait, no, where are we going?” I knew the house; the stairs led only to bedrooms. I was not going up. “I’m not going up the stairs,” I said loudly as I stopped moving.
All around us was the sound of other people shuffling forward, crying out, falling. Mayhem was stupid, reckless, and pointless, I decided. Shane grabbed my boob again, really hard, and I’d had enough.
Turning, I pushed him away from me, and I felt him fall. “Stop touching me like that.” My voice was louder than I expected.
“Mee?”
My head snapped up in the dark. “Ava?”
“Where are you, are you okay?” I could hear moving.
“Can you get your Devils to turn the lights on?” I shouted and then hiccupped.
“It’s not Mayhem, the lights went out.” Ava sounded like she was moving closer. “Jesus, Mee, where are you?”
“Come on,” Shane grabbed me again, and I yelped when he twisted my arm.
“Will you quit it,” I shouted and pushed harder, so hard that I fell backward and landed hard on my ass. “Ow!” I cried out. “Ow ow ow.”
“Mia!” Ava cried out. “Mia!”
“I’m okay, I fell flat on my ass.” The whole thing was suddenly preposterous, and I laughed out loud, and lay my head on the floor, feeling all of the aches from Shane’s hands and my fall. “Ow.”
“She’s wasted?” I heard Quinn say over the noise and the push of bodies.
“She’s going to be crushed if we don’t pick her up,” Ava snapped. “Hey, whoever you are, have you got a phone?”
Moments later, I had the bright light from a phone searching for me. “Ava?”
“Jesus, Mia,” Ava criticized me as she shoved the phone at whoever owned it and bent to help me up. “Are you wrecked?”
“No,” I giggled nervously. “I’m just tipsy. Well, I was.”
“We’ll take you upstairs,” Quinn said to me.
“No, Shane wanted to take me up there. I don’t want to go,” I resisted Ava’s hold on my hand.
“Mee?” Ava was in front of me as I was pulled to my feet. “Sweetie, it’s me, I’m not going to hurt you.”
And it was suddenly too much.
“You already hurt me,” I told her as I pushed away, my eyes filling with tears at my outburst. Ugh, this wasn’t what I wanted. This wasn’t the time to have this conversation. “This party blows, I’m going.”
The lights came on with sudden brightness, and I jumped, but I saw the door, and I knew it was best to go home.
“Mia, please! Can we talk?” Ava called behind me.
I snapped. I was so tired of feeling like this. This outsider.
“Mia, please,” I mocked as my arms flailed around wildly.
“Mia, do this; Mia, do that. Mia, don’t talk about this.
Mia, don’t mention that. Mia, sing. Mia, don’t sing.
Mia, don’t sleep with the drummer. Mia, don’t sleep with the manwhore.
Mia, don’t get pregnant, it ruins lives.
Mia, I’m leaving you. Mia Mia, Mia.” I screamed out my frustration.
“I am so sick of being told what to do. I’m not listening to anyone else. ”
I yanked the door open so hard I lost my balance at the ease in which it opened, and stumbled, dangerously close to falling over again. Regaining my balance, I cleared my throat. “I’m fine, see, I’m good. You don’t need to worry about me.”
I stopped and stared at my hand and my chipped nail polish. “Fudge balls. I just painted them.” Straightening, I yanked at my top to pull it down. It was several times before I remembered I was Sandy Slut. I heard a shocked gasp and realized I’d spoken out loud.
“What’s a Sandy Slut?” someone asked, someone whose voice I knew.
“Ugh, of course you’re here,” I mumbled as I made my way out of the house. “I need to go home.”
Someone coming up the stairs didn’t move to let me pass, and I half fell down the stairs, but I didn’t fall completely, and that was awesome, because my pride wouldn’t cope if I fell in front of them all. At the bottom, I dared not look behind me, and I started to walk home.
A warm hand caught my elbow, and I turned quickly, my hand up and ready to slap. “I told you, Shane, stop touching me!” My hand was caught, and I looked up at Ash. “Oh. It’s you.”
Ash looked me over and then raised an eyebrow. “Red, are you wasted?”
“No.” I tugged my hand from his, but he held tight. “I’m pleasantly buzzed.” However, the fresh air wasn’t helping me much.
“What are you doing?” he asked me.
“I went to a party and had a few drinks.”
“I see that.”
“I’m having a good time.”
“I’d hate to see you having a bad time,” he said with a smile.
“You hate me.”
“Do I?”
“And Ava hates me. And Quinn stole Ava.”
Ash looked over his shoulder. “Ava’s right here, Quinn’s right here. We’re all here for you, Red.”
“My mom’s left me to go to LA.”
“Oh, Mee.” I heard Ava as she stepped around the Brute. “Please come back inside.”
“I’m all alone,” I wailed loudly, and then, thanks to the fact I’d been drinking and was maybe tipsier than I thought, I burst into tears and sat down on the ground to sob. Sometimes you just needed to sit and cry it out, and I decided my time was now.
“It’s okay, I got you.” I was lifted, and then I was carried back inside. I cried into Ash’s shirt like a complete drama queen.
Gloria would be so proud.