Chapter 2

Laura's POV.

For a split second, after my palm connected with Chad's face. People stared at me in awe, like no one trusted what they had just seen.

The old Laura would have apologized by now. She would have cried. She would have begged him to understand. She would have folded herself into something small and forgivable. But I didn't.

Chad looked at me with a stunned expression. His cheeks were already turning red.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” he snapped at me. I stepped closer to him.

“Never,” I said. “Never in your life speak to me with that kind of disrespect again.”

Someone gasped at my warning. I didn't look to see who.

“You don't own me. You don't get to humiliate me and then act like I should be grateful. Move on chad. There is nothing between us, she was the one who forced herself on me, right? That's what you said?” 

The words felt unreal coming out of my mouth. Like I was borrowing someone else's courage.

“Laura, you are drunk. Don't embarrass yourself.” he said and I laughed out loud. I actually laughed at the damage control he was trying to play at me.

“I just got into the party. So how can I possibly be drunk? You are the one embarrassing yourself.” I replied and before he could even think of the words that he was going to use to respond to me, clapping echoed behind me.

I turned and saw Zara walking towards us. Her eyes were widened with shock and something like pride. She clapped again, shaking her head.

“Wow.” she said. “This is my best friend.”

Zara slipped her hand inside of mine, pulling me into a hug. “I’m so proud of you. Do you know how I have waited years for this version of you?”

“I don't even know who that was.” I whispered and she smiled at me, pulling our bodies away from each other.

“I do know. That was finally Laura choosing herself. Anyways let's go enjoy the party. You have done enough damage to him that it will take him years for him to be able to recover from tonight.” she replied, and just like that, we walked away.

The rest of the night turned into light and sounds and bodies moving too closely to each other. We danced like we didn't care who was watching, until my feet hurt and my throat burned from laughing. 

I drank too much. I didn't think at all. For once, heartbreak didn't feel like drowning. It felt like freedom. Every time my mind tried to shift back to Chad, I pushed it away with another shot of alcohol, another spin, and another beat.

We moved as one. Zara and I were jumping to songs we loved and pretending we didn't notice the looks thrown our way. People watched me differently now. Not with pity. But with curiosity. With something close to respect.

I felt lighter, like I had shed a skin I had been suffocating inside for years. At some point, Zara pressed a glass of alcohol into my hand and yelled over the music. “To new beginnings!”

I clinked my glass against hers. “To not settling.” I said and Zara laughed.

“To Laura finally snapping.” she said and I smiled at her. The old Laura would have flinched at it. But this one owned it.

We left the graduation party when it was almost close to dawn. Our heels were in our hands, our makeup was smudged, our voices were almost gone from singing along to songs that we barely knew.

Zara's place was closer, so we crashed there, collapsing onto the couches and floor like we had survived something together.

Sleep didn't come easily to me. My body was tired but my mind was still turning around in circles. I kept replaying the slap, and the sound of it, the look on Chad's face. And I didn't even know when I dozed off.

I woke up on the couch with my head spinning and my mouth dry. My body felt heavy, but I had a lot on my mind.

I needed to drink water immediately. I slipped out of the couch quietly and stumbled downstairs, following the faint light from the kitchen. 

When I reached the doorway, I stopped when I noticed a figure. He stood tall with confidence. His broad shoulders filled the space like he belonged there. His chest rose and fell steadily with each breath revealing the hard lines of his abs. 

He was so hot looking. Unfairly hot. He was hotter than Chad and hotter than any man I had ever wanted.

“Gosh” I bit my lower lips. Not up to twenty four hours since my ex- boyfriend broke up with me in the most messy way you can think of and right there was his karma. Six feet Five of temptation standing in front of me, like a personal apology from the universe. 

He finally turned and our eyes met. His blue eyes were unreadable but intense enough to make my knees weak as my drunk brain struggled to process him as a real person. He looked like a total doll. 

“Who..” he dragged the word, eyeing me from head to toe “are you?” His voice was deep, in his hand was a glass of water, a droplet dripping down his finger. For a moment, it felt like I was in a damn movie scene. 

“Your submissive- the word slipped out of my mouth. I didn’t want to believe that I was flirting already- with a stranger I knew nothing about. I was supposed to be worried, he could be a thief, a kidnapper but I wasn’t bothered. 

Instead, all I could think was how badly I wanted to touch him. Maybe it was the alcohol or the heartbreak, or probably the fact that I was done being careful.

“Wait-what?!- his eyes widened. Probably wondering what kind of a syco I was but who cares. 

I locked my eyes on him as I carefully closed the gap between us. My hand now on his broad shoulders, tickling my way around his abs. 

“What do you think you are doing?”- he grabbed my hand, staring into my eyes. 

“I want you to fuck me” I said in a very seductive voice, gently close my eyes and bit my lips. 

“This is sick” he said, letting my hand off. 

“Yes, I am. And only Your dick can make me whole” I didn’t give any more room for discussion when I grabbed his dick.

No man can escape a grip of a lady on their dick, not when you grabbed it firmly squeezing it like your life depended on it. 

“Fuck- he grabbed my neck. “Nobody wakes the little monster without being punished” his eyes were dark, his voice were deep as he slammed me to the wall. 

“I like being punished. Punish me till I lose my voice to pleading for mercy”