Stella

I should get out of bed and figure out what it is exactly that I'm going to do with my life but instead I’m wrapping myself in an even tighter blanket cocoon and ignoring the buzzing of my phone. Someone has been calling repeatedly for the last several minutes, but I just didn’t have the energy to get up or care. I was utterly exhausted physically but even more exhausted mentally and emotionally.

The excessive buzzing of my cell phone stops, and I wait for it to start back up again, but it doesn’t. I breathe a sigh of relief and pull the blankets around me even tighter and snuggle deeper into them. I just want to sleep until I magically come up with a solution to the problems I have in life, why can’t people just leave me alone until that happens?

My body is wavering between sleep and consciousness when I hear my hotel room door swing open. Frantically, I roll out of bed and land on the floor still wrapped up in the blankets. I look for something to defend myself but the only thing on the nightstand table is a lamp and bottle of water. Before I can grab anything, however, the intruder rounds in the corner bearing coffees and a bag with the coffee shops logo on it.

“Jesus, Stella! Why aren’t you answering your phone and what are you doing on the floor?” Vivian asks me as she puts everything in her hands down on the closest counter.

My lungs burn from the lack of air, so I take a deep breath. “You scared the fuck out of me. How did you get a key to my room? Wait, what are you doing here?” I begin to untangle myself and throw the blankets into a pile on the bed.

“I’ve been calling you for the last hour to tell you I was here. Did you not get my text last night? I texted you right before I got on the plane,” Vivian tells me.

“No, I’ve been…busy,” I lie rubbing my face.

Vivian shoots me a look. “Yeah, right. I had to flirt with the dude at the desk to get a key to your room because you wouldn’t answer your phone. I had to make sure you hadn’t offed yourself.”

I sigh and sit back down on the bed. “No, I’m fine. You never said what you were doing here.”

Vivian grabs a coffee and the bag of pastries. She hands them to me before sitting beside me on the bed. “It was the only way I could Liam to back off for a little while. He was gassing the jet up and about to head this way. I was able to talk him into letting me come talk to you first see if I could get you to come back home.” I shoot her a look and open my mouth to object, but she shakes her head. “Don’t worry, I have no intentions to make you come back to Manhattan. You said your card would be here in a week, right? Well, I’ll stall until then and you can disappear if that’s really what you want to do.”

“It is,” I tell her taking a sip of my coffee. “You know I can’t go back to him, Viv.”

She shrugs. “I know.” Vivian gets off the bed and walks over to the window, pulling the curtains open. The sunlight burns my eyes. “But I can’t let you stay cooped up in this room all week either. You know Disneyland is right down the street, right?”

“Yes, I do know that,” I laugh. “And I haven’t been cooped up here. I went to the bar down the street yesterday.”

“Okay, that hardly counts as social interaction,” Vivian laughs as she makes her way back to the bed. She pulls a donut out of the bag and takes a bite. “Did you even talk anyone?”
I shrug. “This girl sat beside me vented about her boyfriend that kind of sounded like a douche –”

“Aren’t they all?” Vivian asks rolling her eyes.

“Yeah, anyway, I guess she wanted to have a party and he didn’t. But she’s going to have one anyway…she even invited me to make up for venting but –” Vivian’s eyes grow wide and I instantly regret what I said. “No,” I tell her, but she keeps staring at me with those large eyes. “No,” I tell her again more sternly. “No way. I can’t go to that party. It’s in Huntington Beach and –”

“So?” Vivian asks. “What’s wrong with Huntington Bea…oh. Ohhh.”

“Yeah,” I tell her as she realizes the reason I don’t want to go. “Anyway, so we can go to Disneyland if you want.”

Vivian chews on her lip for a moment. “I want to go to the party,” she whines. I groan but she continues. “Come on! When was the last time you’ve been to a party that didn’t require your diamonds or pearls or served hors-d'oeuvres? Plus, what are the chances that Zack will even be there anyway? I mean, didn’t you say he was some big rockstar touring the world and shit now?”

I groan again. “Yes, but that doesn’t mean he’s on tour right this minute. He grew up there, Viv. He probably knows everyone at this point and you know everyone knows him because of his success. You never know! He could be there.”

Vivian shakes her head. “What band did you say he was in?” She’s pulling out her phone as she asks.

“Avenged Sevenfold,” I answer.

I listen to the clicks of her keyboard as she types into her phone. After a moment she says, “Okay, so they’re not on tour right now but we should still go. Come on, it will be so much fun!”

I sigh and stare at her for what seems like hours. I didn’t want to go but Vivian really did, and it was the least I could do after she flew across the country for me. She was right, too, there were thousands upon thousands of people that lived in Huntington Beach and only a small fraction of those people could fit in a house, so surely, I wouldn’t run into Zack or anyone else I knew. “Alright, fine.”

“Yay!” Vivian jumps off the bed. “You just wait! We are going to have so much fun! I can’t remember the last time I went to a house party, even before etiquette school.”

I don’t reply to Vivian as she rambles on, but I knew exactly when the last time I went to a house party was. As a matter of fact, it was only a few weeks before I was shipped off to Manhattan and was at Matt’s parents’ house.

Vivian watches me as I text Gena to tell her I’ll be at the party with a friend. I hoped she wouldn’t text back but almost instantly, she replied with an enthusiastic “Yay! Can’t wait for my friends to meet you! Thanks again for letting me rant yesterday! You’re a great friend! See you tonight!”

“Wow,” Vivian raised her brow. “You really made an impression on her, didn’t you?”

I shrugged. “I just listened to her and was polite.”

Vivian takes another donut from the bag. “Whatever. As long as she doesn’t try to replace me we will be fine,” she jokes.

I laugh and start going through my bags. If I was going out tonight I needed to find something to wear and should also probably shower. Vivian helps me go through all my bags and soon, they’re empty and covering my floor, bed and other areas of the room. Out of all the bags I packed, I couldn’t find one outfit appropriate for a house party. Honestly, nothing in my wardrobe was appropriate for anything less than a social event with my grandmother – complete with a blazer or, like Vivian said, diamonds and pearls.

“I’m in serious need of a new wardrobe.” I rub my temples and silently wish I could crawl back into bed.

Vivian laughs and stops messing with a shirt and pencil skirt she was attempting to pair together. “Yeah, now that your grandmother is dead and you’ve got that inheritance check, you can stop dressing like her.”

I laugh and shake my head but I know she’s right. With Grandmother Saint-Clair gone and no longer able to hold my inheritance check over my head I could dress however I wanted. I could even be whoever I wanted to be. In a week, once I leave this place, I really could just start over and build my life however I wanted.

“Come on, we can head to the mall and buy you some clothes,” Vivian suggests.

I think about it for a moment and then shake my head. Vivian has the right idea. She’s dressed in jean shorts, a shirt with a logo I don’t recognize and some flip-flops. I don’t even think I own a pair of jean anything let alone a pair of flip-flops. “No, that’s okay,” I tell her. “My inheritance check is being held for another day or two so I only have a limited amount of money. I’ll just borrow something of yours.

“Okay, fine,” Vivian laughs. “But I am so taking you shopping before I leave for Manhattan!”

---

The house is completely packed by time Vivian and I arrive. Gena is nowhere to be seen but we find our way inside and to the kitchen anyway. We pour ourselves something to drink and then find our way around the house until we find space to talk until I see Gena.

“What did Gena say her fiancé did?” Vivian asks looking around the house.

I know where she is getting at. Gena’s house is so nice I think my parents and grandmother would approve of it. “She didn’t,” I tell her looking around. “She just said that he worked out of town a lot.”

“Well, whatever it is that he does, it has got to be something awesome,” she tells me and I silently agree.

I feel awkward and even though we’ve only been here for about half an hour, I'm ready to go. I watch Vivian as her wide eyes scan the room. I'm not sure what she is looking for but I hope she finds it soon so we can leave.

“Oh, my God!” Vivian exclaims suddenly. My eyes snap to the direction she’s staring in but nothing – or rather, no one – catches my eye. “The guys in California are ridiculously hot! I can’t believe you ever left this place! I mean, you’re right by the beach here so you know they’re shirtless at least half of the time!”

I roll my eyes and take a gulp of beer. “I didn’t have a choice, remember? My parents shipped me off.”

“Oh, right,” she says but she’s not paying me much attention.

I suppress a groan and glance around the room for Gena. She was nowhere to be found and I halfway wondered if she failed to show up to her own party for some reason. Maybe her fiancé really didn’t want to come home to a party and so she’s somewhere with him, stalling and any minute now someone is going to announce we need to leave immediately. Something told me that my luck isn’t that good.

“Hey girl!” I hear from beside me suddenly. Gena stands beside me with a tall glass of what looks like a type of punch and a smile on her face.

“Hey, Gena!” I grin back. This catches Vivian’s attention and she finally looks in my direction.
Gena glances at Vivian, still smiling. “You must be Vivian! It’s so nice to meet you, thanks for coming!”

“Oh, thanks for inviting us. Your house is gorgeous!” Vivian replies.

Gena beams. “You’re so sweet, thank you! My fiancé knew it was my dream house, so he bought it for us a couple of years ago.”

“Is your fiancé here?” I ask her. The sooner I meet her fiancé and friends, the sooner I can
leave.

Gena is taking a sip of her drink but nods and eventually replies. “Yeah, he’s upstairs getting ready. He should be down shortly. I can’t wait for you to meet him and the rest of my friends.” She pushes herself up on her tiptoes and looks around the room. “They’re around here somewhere. I’ll be right back; I'm going to find them.” Then she disappears into the crowd.

“Well, she seems nice,” Vivian shrugs.

I nod. “Yeah, she really is. It sucks that she’s marrying a guy that is a jerk though.”

Vivian rolls her eyes. “You don’t know if he’s a jerk. He actually sounds really sweet. Did you hear what she said about the house? It’s her dream house so he bought it for her! Jerk’s don’t do that.”

“Yeah, a couple of years ago. It’s possible that he’s changed since then,” I tell her. Just like my ex-fiancé changed over the course of our engagement.

“Your grandmother would be so disappointed in you,” she tells me with a smile. “Stay out of Gena’s business.”

I laugh a shrug. “She’s the one who started ranting to me, remember.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Vivian waves and then turns her attention back to the crowd.

Gena doesn’t come back, and I begin to grow impatient. “I’m going to go dance with that guy that keeps eyeing me,” Vivian tells me after several minutes.

“What?” I ask her, shaking my head. “Oh, don’t leave me alone.”

“Oh, you’ll be fine. Walk around, find some friends,” she tells me before adjusting her shirt and walking into the crowd.

I groan and look around. As soon as my eyes spot the closest exit I begin to make my way towards it. I need fresh air and an excuse to leave this party. The door leads to Gena’s backyard. There’s a huge pool in the middle of it with several people swimming and drinking. I find a chair and take a seat pulling out a pack of cigarettes from my purse. Up until when I left Manhattan, I hadn’t smoked a cigarette since high school. The last several days have been so stressful, though and nicotine seems to take the edge off. I just want to get back to my life. The problem was, I don’t have one anymore.

I finish my cigarette and decide to go back in and find Vivian. I know what she was trying to do by forcing me to come to this party. She thinks I am depressed and figures some human interaction will make me feel better, but it doesn’t. I just want to go back to my hotel and binge watch television.

Before I can open the door leading me back into Gena’s house, though, someone else opened it and nearly fell out.

“Fuck!” the guy curses as his bottle of vodka slipped out of his hand and shattered on the cement right in front of my feet. Glass and vodka shower my heels and bottoms of my jeans. “I am so sorry!” he tells me.

I shake my head. “No, it’s my fault. Are you okay?”

The guy laughs and he bends down, beginning to pick up the pieces of glass. “You’re the one covered in glass and vodka.”

I open my mouth to reply but a girl walks out of the house. She’s smiling at first but then frowns when she sees the broken vodka bottle. “Jason Berry! I know you did not drop my bottle of vodka!”

The guy picking up the glass laughs and I begin to slowly inch myself away from the two. I hear him apologize to the girl as I manage to squeeze back into the house.

“Alright, new plan,” I tell myself as I squeeze through the crowd. First, I’ll find a bathroom and attempt to clean up my shoes and pants and then I’ll find Vivian and tell her I’m ready to go.
I find my way upstairs. I’m not sure if there is be a bathroom up here, but the halls are empty, and it is easier to navigate than downstairs. I find the bathroom easily, walk in and lock the door behind me. I take a few seconds to enjoy how much quieter it is before I begin to clean myself up.

On the bright side, getting something spilled on you is a perfect excuse to leave a party early. However, now I was going to drive home and enter the hotel smelling like an alcoholic. I clean my shoes, feet, and bottoms of my jeans off as much as possible before washing my hands and exiting the bathroom. As soon as I walk out, looking down at my feet trying to decide how noticeable the wet spots are, I bump into someone again.

“Oh, shit,” they say as I apologize.

I back up and run my hand through my hair. “Sorry, I wasn’t watching where I was going.” My breath gets caught in my throat when my eyes connect to the ones staring at me.

“Zack, don’t walk out on me while I’m talking to you!” Gena is saying as she walks out of the room Zack must have just walked out of.

It is him. He looks different, but he still has the same boyish charm he had years ago. Zack doesn’t answer her but just stares at me. I wish he would look away because my lungs are starting to burn.

I got my wish as there was a crash downstairs and everyone’s head snapped to the direction of the stairs. “Oh, for fuck's sake!” Gena cursed. “I put all the photos and breakables up. What was that?” She squeezes past Zack and takes off downstairs leaving the door of the room wide open.

Slowly, I begin to realize what this means. Gena said her fiancé was upstairs getting ready. Gena is engaged to Zack and Zack is standing directly in front of me. Zack – my old boyfriend, the boyfriend that took money from my parents and stopped speaking to me – is standing in front of me and is now staring at again.

“Nora?” He asked quietly.

His voice gives me chills that run down my spine. My brain can’t handle what’s going on, so it sends a message to my mouth to say, “Who?”

Before Zack can reply, someone else speaks behind me causing me to turn around. “Stella, let’s go. A fight broke out downstairs, Gena is kicking everyone out.”

I nod and turn back to Zack. I need to get one more look at him, so I can know for sure that it is him, but as I turn, I hear a door slam and Zack is no longer standing there anymore. I stare at the closed door for a moment before I begin to walk briskly down the hall.

“What’s wrong? Who was that?” Vivian asks me concerned.

I shake my head. “Let’s go. I’ll tell you in the car,” I tell her as I race down the staircase.

Notes

Hey guys! sorry for the lack of updates last week, if you read Changed by You you'll know i was having computer problems and meant for this to come out early, but it's late again because i suck. haha. anyway, thank you so much for reading! Zack has finally made an appearance and now we can get this show on the road! We will see much more of him for the rest of the story starting with the next chapter! don't forget to comment, subscribe and vote!

Thank you Holly, SevenfoldSweetheart and kiss my sas for commenting on the previous chapter!

Title credit: She Wants Revenge “Red Flags and Long Nights” Altered Line