PRE-GRADUATION PARTY

LIA'S POV

What was worse than the hottest boy in school finding out that you have alopecia?

It was probably realizing that your mom served as a maid in their home.

My mom took care of my injuries that day, but the hole that opened up in my heart when I saw her moving around, working, cleaning and slaving away for the very boy I had a crush on, made me realise that any dream or hope of life granting me a chance to stare into those dreamy blue eyes forever was just that - a dream.

Nevertheless, Elian and I became best of friends, mostly because he refused to stay away from me, and how could I refuse?

When all he had to do was stare at me with those ocean blue eyes and smile.

Elian became my unemployed protector. He picked me up from home to school everyday, drove me back home after school, and i helped him get his grades up, while he focused on football and learning how to fly an airplane with his father.

I even got to meet his parents, his over fashionable young mother and his business focused father, and they seemed to love and appreciate my presence in his life, which was comforting.

Even though my mother warned me severally to be careful and not get too comfortable in Elian's life, I chucked it down to her being too wary because she worked for them and did not want me to be looked down on.

But Elian never treated me like that, and when things got tough for our family, Elian's mother hired me to work for her events management team as one of their waitresses, just so I could end extra cash for school, and while I believed it to be a huge favor, my mother stated that it was simply class marking.

But I had not been bothered by that either, as long as Elian was proud to call me his friend, even while I worked at events hosted in his family's house.

I had fallen hopelessly in love with him - and those eyes.

"Lia! Come on! I can't wait all night!" Elian called out to me from outside our house on the night of our high school pre-graduation party.

Thanks to Elian, high school had become less tormenting for me. Bullies left me alone and I had never felt more appreciated in the eyes of a man.

"Be careful, amor, make sure you drink responsibly and don't forget that these are not your class of people, Lia."

Mother warned me for the upteenth time that night, as she fixed the choker on the neck of my rather tight, short, club dress.

I heard father scoff from our small living room, where he sat marking employment opportunities off a newspaper.

His reaction made me chuckle.

"Let the poor girl go and have some fun, Lolita." He murmured.

Mother merely shook her head in response. "Didn't you just say poor girl? Exactly, we are poor! Kingston high, Elian Dunst, those are all rich people's worlds. Opportunities we associate with by privilege! Never forget your roots! And your place!"

I slammed the front door shut, and Elian's eyes rose with a sigh from his phone, but at the same time, his jaw slacked open at the sight of me.

A giggle almost escaped me, but i held it back with a smile. I was dressed in a short navy blue rhinestone embellished, choker mini dress, which he had gifted me earlier on for graduation.

My dark blonde wig was packed in a ponytail and I wore my mother's only pearl earrings.

"Wow, you look..." he swallowed.

"Thank you." I blushed, for the first time, I felt like I had Elian Dunst in a choke hold.

"Let's go get wild!!" He howled finally, making me laugh.

The party was held in an underground elite club and both Elian and I were drunk by the end of the night.

Elian stayed guard with me and literally refused to let any other guy dance with me, as though i was his own porcelain doll.

The only time one guy came close to dancing with me was when Elian went to do shots with guys on the football team.

"Come on sexy, let's get out of here, what'd you say?" Damian from the rugby team said, grabbing my waist.

I was too drunk to resist him, and so, I followed staggeringly, as he led, mildly protesting under my breath.

"Are we leaving?" I murmured slurrily when we got to the corridor leading out of the club.

"No baby, we just want to have some fun." Damian's grip on my waist tightened.

"No, listen--" i tried to say, but Damian's mouth was on mine in no time. The taste of alcohol and almond slipped into my mouth along with his prying tongue.

I held back the nausea that crept up to my throat at that point. In my mind, I was pushing against him as hard as I wanted to, but in reality, my arms were too limp to make any impact.

Yes, I was horny as hell, but the guy kissing me repulsed me to no end.

Next thing we both knew, he was yanked off me, and punches started flying.

The next thing I knew, I was being dragged by my arm out of the stifling club corridor and out to the open air.

The night air came rushing into my lungs before I realised what was happening to me.

"Are you crazy?! Why would you go out with him?!" Elian shook me violently.

"I didn't...go...willingly. " I managed to say in a slurry mess.

"I was worried. Do you know how scared i was that someone may have laid their filthy hands on you?" I had never seen him so mad before.

He searched my body for injuries or bruises frantically, but there were none.

And when he looked down at me, with those dazzling blue eyes, I knew -- I swore i knew i had found my soul mate.

And perhaps, if I had looked away at that moment, then he wouldn't have...

"Lia Hallman, you drive me crazy." Elian murmured and kissed me.

It was slow at first, but the moment I responded, it became intense, like he was tasting me, not drinking.

His tongue pushed into my mouth, in a way that was asking and not demanding like the other guy whose tongue repulsed me.

We were drunk, it was the alcohol, that was what I told myself.

Or maybe - he was finally crazily in love with me.