The Bad Boy Hero

Chapter 8

The house was already extremely noisy when Tess and I walked up to the front door, we were only an hour late yet the rest of the party seemed to have been there for hours. “You look nice,” Tess smiled to me motioning to the red dress I had borrowed from her. It was puffy to my mid-thigh and fitted around my chest, my cheeks burned as a thank you and we began to wade through the crowd to get Tess a drink, for courage, before she found Jamie. She still had no idea what was going on in their relationship, and I had a horrible feeling that he was just using her for events like this. I couldn’t see Mattie anywhere so I guessed he’d be having fun with the lads where the music was playing loudest.

“I’m going to find Jamie,” she grinned “Wish me luck,” she disappeared, leaving me stood alone in the kitchen surrounded by overly drunk and clingy people. I slipped out trying to find a place that was quieter but there was no such luck, the place was bursting with people. Surely this was a fire hazard.

“Wow you took my advice,” I heard the almost calming voice of Jasper and spun to find him frowning. “I kind of wish you hadn’t,” he crossed his arms and I swallowed

“About yesterday,” I quickly began feeling the thumping music pulse around us

“Don’t worry about it,” he waved me off, I could tell he had his ‘I don’t give a crap about anything’ face on “It’s not like I care, is it?” He shrugged and with that he disappeared into the crowd like Tess had. I sighed to myself and continued on my quest to find Mattie. I was bumped and bashed, which didn’t help my bruises, by dancing bodies of people I thought I knew from school but I could never be sure in the dimly lit rooms of whoever’s house I was in. That’s when I saw him across the living room that had transformed into a dance floor he was laughing with a guy, I think it was Zach from the team they were congratulating each other, I could see it from the look on Mattie’s face. I made to push through the crowd to his side when I saw him capture a girl in his arms and pull her lovingly closer. I stopped. Everything stopped. It was Kelli. I could tell from the sway of her hip at the music. They were just dancing. Just dancing. Just dancing and snogging. I was so stupid. How could I be so stupid? As they broke apart I saw the smile on Mattie’s face fall as he saw me in the parting crowd, obviously everyone had seen what had happened and seen me stood there in the middle of the crowd. The music seemed to dim.

“Annie, I...” he began but I was already turning to run out of the place “Annie!” The cold air that wasn’t cold before hit me as I took off running; I heard people yell my name but didn’t turn back. Didn’t stop. Couldn’t stop. I just had to keep going.