A Slave to Love

Chapter 1: Dead End

The only thing worse than getting cheated on was being dragged to a house party by your friends to cheer you up, only to have said cheating ex-boyfriend also show up with the girl he was cheating on you with.  

I had already been hesitant about going out when I was in such a bad mood, my self esteem taking a serious hit and the wound still fresh from a week ago, but my friends had been oh so convincing. 

Come out with us! Get dressed up! Meet someone else tonight and forget all about that loser Derek! Show him he doesn't matter! Fuck him and his inability to keep his hands to himself! Go after his best friend, I hear he's supposed to be here tonight, and wouldn't that just be perfect revenge? 

Against my better judgement--really they caught me in a moment of weakness where I wanted to prove I was worthy and attractive and that anyone would be lucky to have me--I agreed.

I let Chelsea and Brianna go all out with my makeup and hair and had even borrowed one of Chelsea's more dramatic outfits since I didn't have any, a short little dress that had a deep V in the front to show off my tragically below average chest, mildly rectified by the help of a push up bra that was all kinds of uncomfortable. I'd even dusted off my singular pair of heels from the back of my closet. I was going full out.

Tonight, I didn't want to be me, because regular me was the type of girl who got cheated on by her boyfriend of six months and I'd swiftly gone through the stages of grief and had landed on a new stage called revenge, with support from my friends goading me along. 

Which left me made up and unrecognizable in the mirror as girly wasn't my style, I was always more comfortable in jeans or my gym gear to run in and my well loved but smelly running shoes. But I felt powerful in it, like I could stomp on Derek's toes with my high heels and maybe break a couple of them like he'd broken my heart with some help from a girl in our third period Math last semester without giving two shits.

Macey Tanner, another girl in our year, was hosting a big summer blow out for her birthday and everyone on the planet was invited, which included Derek apparently. Something my friends had either known about and neglected to tell me so I could rub my revenge in his face, or something they had been in the dark about too and were now severely regretting bringing me along to witness. 

When they spotted him, they gave me another pep talk and reminded me that he was a no good asshole and to have fun tonight and show him he couldn't effect me anymore. And I really wanted to believe it.

But an hour later, my friends were off with other people after I told them I'd needed a drink and I'd catch up later, and I was left standing by some unidentified plant near the corner of the staircase, a rum and coke in my hand (alcohol brought to us by Macey's older sister, who was legal), and debating whether I should just leave or see if there was way to 'accidentally' spill my drink on Derek. Ideally, all over his stupid good looking face. 

Macey's house was massive and positively packed to bursting with people. I only recognized about half of them from school, the rest were complete strangers, and I had no desire to interact with any of them. Everyone was drunk and loud and my momentary lapse in moping had restarted again. The thumping bass of some song I couldn't make out from some distant room and the loudness of everyone in here was giving me a headache. 

Or maybe it was the rum and coke. I'd never really drank anything before, so it was equally possible it was the culprit. My mom had given me some of her beer once at home but it had tasted so foul I hadn't been interested in drinking anything else and my mom had nearly peed herself laughing when I tried to choke it down. Though this was definitely less disgusting than the beer was, the more I sipped it, the more it felt like the floor was dipping and swaying like the musical beat was making the floorboards shake like an earthquake.