𝑆𝑡𝑎𝑟-𝑐𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑑

"Happy Birthday To Me"

Abby's POV

"So, what are we doing for your birthday?" Pansy muses, walking into my bathroom. "Rafe invited me over to a party. It's not for me so I agreed to go," I answer, putting my phone in my back pocket. "But I'll be back by midnight if you want to do anything."

Pansy nods. "Happy 17th." I give her a small smile. "Thanks."

"Well, tomorrow I need you at the beach by noon. I've got a little surprise for you there and don't worry. It will be simple, but I still have to get my best friend a gift. So don't be late," she tells me. I roll my eyes but smile, giving her a hug. "Thanks."

"Now, get to that party. I'm sure Rafe is going to have a birthday cake with a dick on it for you to eat," she jokes. I snort at her language. "Jesus, I hope not."

My car is in the shop getting some repairs because Pansy has the parking skills of a drunk Hellen Keller, so I take an uber to get to the party.

I don't know why Rafe wanted me to come to a party for my birthday. It's not like we can even hang out at the party without drawing suspicion  from others. When he took me to dinner three weeks ago, he told me he wanted to do something for my birthday, but he would keep it small. I didn't exactly have a house party where we can't even be together in mind but it's okay.

I hand my uber driver a fifty, thanking him for the ride. "Would you like me to wait, miss?" he asks, looking at me through the rearview mirror. "Uhm." I look at the house party filled with people. Smiling, I shake my head. "No, thank you." He nods and unlocks the car for me. Once I am safely out of the car, he drives off into the night. I swallow and intake a deep breath, nervous about tonight.

As I walk into the party, I see dozens of people around drinking, partying, smoking, and doing everything else you would expect to see at a party. Rafe stands in the middle of a circle of friends laughing. He glances at me and does a double-take once he realizes I am here. "Ah the birthday girl," he smiles, walking over to me. I stare at him, silently telling him to watch his tone. Might as well just announce to the whole party we are together. He gently grabs my shoulders, guiding me towards a singular seat in front of the large white sofa. He sits me down. "I got you a present." Rafe!

"And why would you do that?" I ask, eyeing him so he knows to shut the fuck up. He just smiles. "Just watch." He pulls out his phone and does something so his phone connects to the large flatscreen in front of me. His friends look at me with smiles, laughing amongst each other. Drunk idiots.

A video comes onto the screen, and it seems to be a video of Rafe as his face is on the tv. "What, are you going to flash the camera?" I laugh, knowing that is something Rafe would do. But not in front of everyone. "Just watch, Abby," he smiles, his smile making my own smile drop. He never looks at me like this...

Once the video plays, I see Rafe laughing with Kelce. "Nah nah, I bet that I can make her fall in love with me," Rafe laughs before doing a line of coke.

"Wait what?" a female asks, presumably  the female holding the phone who took this video. Rafe looks at her. "I bet I can make that new pogue whore fall in love with me," he clarifies. My heart drops and I look back at him to see him looking directly at me, his smile sinister.

"Give me a year. One year and she'll be in love with me," he smiles. Kelce slaps him on the shoulder playfully. "And once she is in love with you?"

"Oh, well that's easy," Rafe says. His eyes meet the woman behind the camera and then the camera. "I break her heart."

My eyes well with tears. "Turn it off."

"Oh but we haven't gotten to the best-" "Turn it off!" I yell, cutting him off. Rafe smiles, obliging. "Is that real?" I ask, standing up. He tilts his head. "Why wouldn't it be?"

I stand up, holding back my tears, not wanting to cry in front of him right now. Silently praying to God for this to be a prank and not real, I look at Rafe. From the look in his eyes, he is dead serious.

"So everything was a lie?" I ask, a single tear falling from my eye. "Don't be so sad, Abby. You should have known. It's not my fault you were such a love-sick teenager that you couldn't connect the dots," he laughs. His friends on the couches laugh with him.

"So every bit of it was a lie? Even when you did those things?" He tilts his head. "What things?"

"You know what things," I snarl. He knows I'm talking about Kai. He knows I'm talking about Kai and the other man he killed to protect me. He laughs. "It's not like I didn't do it before, darling. The first time is the hardest." He takes a seat on the couch, a girl sitting in his lap. "After that, it's easy. It sold the deal perfectly."

My God. He—he killed two people not to save me but to further his plan. He killed them. Just like he did Peterkin. He murdered them all to further his sick, sadistic plan. "Hey, gimme some of that," Rafe smiles. A girl tosses him a ziplock of white powder. He pours some of it on the coffee table, snorting a line of it. My God.

"How can you be so cruel?" I ask, my voice nearly inaudible, my tears no longer held back. He shrugs. "It was fun." He leans forward, looking up at me. "Tell me, Abby. Did I win? Did you fall in love?"

I keep my mouth shut, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of my answer and not wanting to lose the last bit of dignity that I have left. A dark chuckle escapes his lips. "So that's a yes." My only response is another tear which answers him well enough. "Happy birthday, Absinthe."

I wipe the tears from my eyes and reach into my purse. "You know, I was going to tell you something tonight. Something important. Looks like you weren't the only one with a surprise."

I grab the zip lock inside of my bag, throwing it at him. Inside lies a positive pregnancy test; the one that I took this morning when I realized I hadn't had a period in two months. He isn't the only one who can come up with a good surprise. "Go to hell." And with that, I walk out of the party, tears streaming from my face.

I don't have the energy to fight him or try to hurt him, which is what I should do. I just can't. On my way out, I see all of my friends staring at me, their eyes filled with disgust. He invited them all here.

I can't even look at them and instead, run out of the party, running down the street. I keep running until I physically can't run anymore. When my legs and lungs give out, I drop to the ground, tears streaming from my eyes and down my face, mixing with the rain falling from the black sky above.

My heart feels as though it has been ripped apart and stomped on. I can feel it bleeding in my chest and the only thing that can be heard are my cries. My cries and the agonizing scream that escapes my lips at his cruelty.

I never felt this with Kai. I have never felt such pain in my life and screams cannot even begin to explain how it feels. I did love him. Fucking hell, I'm still in love with him and that's what hurts the most. I should have known.

I don't understand how a person can be this cruel. Not even Kai would play with my emotions this way. Yes, he was an abuser and a rapist but not even he hurt me in the way that Rafe did. Rafe is worse than Kai and I should have seen that before. I should have known that nobody could love me for me. I don't deserve to be loved. I never have.

"Happy birthday to me," I mumble through my sobs.