“Don’t you love me, baby? I don’t know why you’re being like this,” his drunken words slipped off his lips, his hot breath against my neck. I squirmed, his grip on my wrists tightening while simultaneously pushing them harder into the mattress. I winced at the sharp pain that shot up and down my arms.

“Please don’t do this,” I whimpered between short, labored breaths. The strong smell of whiskey poured out of his mouth as he chuckled in my face. He pressed his lips against mine before I could turn my head. I screamed against his mouth, hoping somebody from the party downstairs would hear me. He quickly took both my wrists in one hand, tightly grabbing my face with his free hand.

“Nobody is going to save you.”

He went from laying on top of me to now straddling my waist. He continued to hold my wrists with his left hand and began to undo his belt with his right hand. I now felt tears freely streaming down my face and I silently prayed to God that this would be as least painful as possible. I couldn’t stop him, he was much stronger than me. I was too weak, too intoxicated to fight anymore. I pleaded one more time.

“Zack...please stop…” a mischievous grin spread across his face. He leaned down to my face and kissed me sweetly.

“No amount of begging is going to make me stop.” He placed his free hand over my mouth as he shoved his member inside of me. I felt pain surge through my body and I let out a bloody scream against his hand before losing consciousness.

I shot up, breathing heavily. I patted all over my body, my shorts and t-shirt clung to my sweaty body. I looked around my room, observing my surroundings as my breath slowed. I let out a deep sigh and fell back in my bed. I rubbed my face, feeling the familiar sticky sweat and dried tears. The clock across the room read 5:38am.

I had these dreams often- no, not dreams. Not nightmares either, but flashbacks. But they had never involved anyone besides the original perpetrator. I laid in my bed for a few minutes, trying to piece together why my brain took one of the sweetest humans I’d met, and turned him into this evil monster. I shook these thoughts from my head. I knew it was just my mind trying to fuck with me, and I refused to let it. I got up and decided a shower would be a good way to clear my mind.

An hour later, I walked down the stairs to see my brother sitting at the kitchen table eating breakfast and my mother standing at the stove. I said my good mornings and sat down at the kitchen table across from Clayton. He slyly smiled at me, knowing tonight was the night.

“Guys, I’m not going to be here tonight. I’m going up to a resort with some girls from work. I won’t be home until Sunday,” our mother said as she set a plate of scrambled eggs and toast in front of me. I grinned down at my food and glanced up at my brother. Everything was going just as planned.

I quickly ate and put my dirty plate in the sink. I grabbed my backpack from the floor and kissed my mother goodbye, Clayton following suit. We walked out into the autumn air, and Clayton began to walk with me to school. I let my mind wander until I realized he was still walking with me, when he definitely shouldn’t be.

“Wait, are you not getting it until after school?” I asked Clayton quietly, as if someone would hear us. A sly grin spread across his face.

“Worry about yourself, little sister,” he winked down at me. I rolled my eyes and continued walking, pursing my lips slightly. I hated when he called me little sister. I was only seven months younger than him, and he held that over my head. “You’ll get your Jack, don’t worry.” A wave of relief washed over me. Good, very good.

I spotted Matt standing by his car in the parking lot of the school and knew this was where they must be meeting. Clayton began to jog to Matt before turning back to me.

“Jack is all you want, right?” He took a couple steps backward towards me.

“And Coke?” I shrugged my shoulders and looked at him stupidly.

“Duh, fucktard. Any other alcohol?” he sarcastically replied.

“Do you even know me? Miller Lite, duh fucktard,” I lightly shoved him, laughing. He nodded and picked up his pace towards Matt. Matt looked up when he heard Clayton’s heavy footsteps and looked past him at me, a slight smile.

“Hey CJ, you ready for tonight?” he asked as I passed. I decided to stop and chat, because why not? I was in no hurry to get to class.

“Fuck yeah! It’s gonna be so fun, I’m pumped. I’ve got my costume picked out and everything,” I crossed my arms and smiled proudly. He shook his head, chuckling simultaneously. Matt turned his attention to my brother.

“Some buddies of mine might come tonight, that cool?” Clayton nodded. The more people, the better. I said my goodbyes and walked into school as Clayton and Matt climbed into Matt’s car.
I could barely contain my excitement when I walked into my first class, Autumn waiting in the seat next to me like always.

“Tonight’s the night, bitch! What’s the final verdict, you comin’ or no?” I asked her excitedly as I sat down in my seat, not even caring about how loud I spoke. She glanced up at me and shook her head only once before looking down, obviously trying too hard to look busy.

“Oh, okay then. That sucks,” I said, genuinely disappointed. Autumn and I had never hung out outside of school due to her parent’s strict rules. They barely let her wear what she wanted or let her listen to what music she wanted, so I could see why they wouldn’t let her come to a party with the new girl at school.

Class went on and Autumn didn’t speak a word to me, let alone look at me. I thought maybe she was just as disappointed as me about not being able to go to the party, but I began to think she was mad at me for something. I attempted to recall everything that had happened in the past twenty-four hours that she could possibly be mad at me about. Absolutely nothing came to mind.

The bell rang and Autumn didn’t waste a second packing up her things and walking out the door without a word. Alright then. I quickly walked out the door after her, looking down the hallway. She was gone before I could even ask her what was wrong. I shrugged it off. She was probably just having a bad day.

I absentmindedly sat through all of my classes, not really feeling the whole school thing. I was just ready to put on my costume and start drinking. I was slowly trudging through the hallway to my gym class when I felt a hand tightly grip my left shoulder. I jumped and turned around quickly to see bright green eyes laughing down at me.

“Did I scare you?” he laughed and grabbed my other shoulder, causing me to look up at him.

“Jesus Christ, Zack! This isn’t a horror movie, you can just say my name. You scared the shit out of me!” I breathed heavily, letting a giggle slip through. He apologized and continued.

“Do you mind if we skip our study date- uh I mean, tutoring- homework thing tonight?” he quickly corrected himself. He was so cute when he got flustered.

“Actually, I’m glad you asked. I have to go home and get ready for tonight. Party time!” I raised the roof with my hands. He laughed wholeheartedly, showing off his pretty smile featuring one deep dimple.

“Cool. What do you say we get out of here now and get a headstart?” Zack winked, gesturing towards his backpack. I raised my eyebrows and smirked before he loosely grabbed my hand, pulling me out of the school. We started quickly walking away from the school before he stopped and pulled out the most beautiful brown liquid in a square bottle with the black and white label. He noticed my excitement, letting me take the first swig. Oh, how it burned so good.

“My buddy got it for me for this party tonight. Hopefully it lasts,” he put emphasis on his last sentence before ripping the bottle from my mouth. “Fuck CJ, you’ve got all night. Slow down,” he laughed. I smiled and turned to start the walk home, hearing Zack’s footsteps attempting to catch up to me.

“So what’s your costume? Something scary? Ooh, you should have been Dracula. That would have been pretty badass,” Zack excitedly asked. I laughed and shook my head. This was the one day a year you could dress like a slut and nobody could say anything. Why in the world would I miss out on this opportunity?

“Um no. Definitely not,” I said, refusing to give away my costume. Not as if he would see it, but I’m sure he would hear about it come Monday. We continued to walk in the comfortable silence for some time until Zack seemed to remember something important.

“Fuck, I have to go. I totally forgot about something I have to do tonight. Bye CJ, be safe tonight!” He turned and began to jog, his Converse slapping the concrete. He slowed and looked back at me, his full set of beautiful teeth showing.

“Thanks for the drink, Baker. Maybe you can share that with me tonight,” I winked and turned, continuing to march home. Wait a minute...Did I just flirt with Zack?

Damn, Jack really was liquid courage.

Notes

Hi guys! Chapter six, let me know what you think! This is quite a filler chapter to me but oh well.
Thank you for all the birthday wishes! It's been a good one, and I got to see one of my best friends from high school propose to his first love last night, so yay for cute stuff!

Also, I'm in the beginning stages of starting another story and I'm needing characters. So if you would like to be a character, message me your name, a little bit of background and personality info and we'll go from there!

As always, your feedback is much appreciated. :)

Title credit: Easton Corbin "Guys and Girls"