beauty behind the madness | the weeknd

25

Rose

The next night, Jeremy calls me and I answer straight away.

"Wanna go out?" he asks.

"Sure," I answer. I pause before talking again. "Are there any parties we can go to?"

I hear Jeremy frown at the other end of the phone. "You wanna go to a party?" he asks.

"Um, yeah," I mumble.

"I don't think that's a good idea, Rose," Jeremy says. I roll my eyes. "Is something wrong? You can talk to me."

"I don't want to talk, Jeremy," I say, sighing. "I just want to go out to a party. Look, it's not like I'm gonna drink or anything." I bite my lip, waiting for his answer.

He sighs. "Okay," he says finally. "I'll pick you up in half an hour."

"Cool." I hang up and sigh heavily. Yeah, going to a party sounds bad, but I just need to get out of the house and stop thinking about Abel. I can't believe that bitch Bella blackmailed him into being in a relationship. And worst of all, when I asked him what he was gonna do about it, he didn't even answer me! He just told me to go home.

I've spent the whole day just sitting here and thinking about him. He hasn't even texted or called since yesterday and I've tried texting and calling him, but he hasn't answered.

I shake the thoughts out of my head and quickly get dressed. When Jeremy texts me that he's downstairs, I grab my leather jacket and quickly apply some lipstick. I get in the car and Jeremy looks at me, concern written across his face.

"You sure you really wanna go to this party?" Jeremy asks. "After what happened yesterday?"

I nod. "Yeah," I say. "I just really need to take my mind off things."

Jeremy looks at me thoughtfully. He doesn't ask any more questions, which I'm grateful for. "Okay," he says, starting the engine and driving.

Twenty minutes later, we're standing in the middle of the crowd. Everyone has drinks in their hands and are laughing. The smell of alcohol makes my body tremble a little.

Tyler the little bullshitter walks up to us, grinning. "Hey! Rose! You came!" he shouts over the loud music.

"Yeah," I say. Tyler wraps his arm around my waist and shoots Jeremy a smirk, who is glaring. I peel away Tyler's hands away from my waist and return it to his side.

Tyler laughs. "I'll be right back, babe," he says into my ear. I almost choke. Babe?

When he leaves, I look at Jeremy and roll my eyes. "Is he like this with every girl?" I want to know and Jeremy laughs.

"Tyler's a pervert," he says and I laugh.

I grab Jeremy's hand. "Come on, let's dance!" I say.

"What? No. I don't dance," Jeremy says quickly, but I ignore him and start dancing with him anyway.

"Come on, Jeremy!" I say, laughing at his awkwardness. I continue dancing and he joins in too. I stop when I feel someone behind me. I turn around to find Tyler holding two red cups in his hand.

"Want a drink?" he asks, holding out one of the cups.

"She's fine," Jeremy says.

"You're not her dad, are you?" Tyler snaps and Jeremy clenches his jaw.

I bite my lip, looking down at the cup. It's only one drink. What harm will it do? Plus, I could do with something to get my mind off Abel and that bitch.

I smile at Tyler and take the cup out of his hand.

"Rose? What the hell?!" Jeremy says from beside me. He looks concerned. "Rose, give me that! You don't need it!" He tries to take the cup out of my hand but I smack it away.

"It's just one drink," I tell him.

Jeremy pulls me to the side. "Yeah, and one drink can turn into two and then ten," he snaps.

I roll my eyes and take a sip from my drink, ignoring him. It instantly makes me relax. God, I've missed this.

Someone tugs at me from behind and I turn around to see Tyler. "Come on, Rose,' he says. "Dance with me!" He grabs my hand and I follow him, before being yanked back.

"Rose!" Jeremy shouts. "Let's just leave, okay?"

"I don't want to leave," I snap. I start to walk away but he pulls me back again. "Jeremy, just let me go!"

"No!" he shouts back. "Something's wrong and you're not telling me."

Yeah, my boyfriend is being blackmailed into being in a relationship he doesn't want to be in, I think bitterly to myself before taking another sip from the cup.

"Nothing's wrong," I lie, ltrying to make it believable by looking him in the eye.

"Oh, yeah?" Jeremy retorts. "You wouldn't be acting like this if nothing was wrong."

I feel my blood boiling. "Why don't you just leave, Jeremy?" I spit out. "You're killing my vibe."

He looks me in the eyes and shakes his head.

"You coming or what?" Tyler says from behind me.

"Yeah," I say, shooting Jeremy a cold look. "I am."

A couple of hours - and drinks - later, I'm still dancing with Tyler. His hands are wrapped around my waist. "Wanna go upstairs?" he whispers in my ear. "I'm sure Jeremy won't mind me having you tonight."

I pull away from him. "What?" I ask.

"Come on," Tyler says, pulling me away from the crowd.

"Wait, no," I slur. "I don't want to."

Tyler ignores me anyway. He continues to pull me away from the people.

"Didn't you hear her?" someone says. "She doesn't wanna go upstairs with you."

I whip my head to the side to see Jeremy, fists clenched. He's so angry I can practically see the fire around him. He's been here the whole time? I thought he left.

"This is none of your business," Tyler  snarls. He starts pulling me up the stairs and I quickly come to my senses and jerk back my hand.

At the same time, Jeremy punches Tyler across the face, causing Tyler's lip to bleed. They start punching and kicking each other. People start to come out and watch them.

"Stop!" I yell. I try to step in between them but someone pulls me back. "Ew, get your hands off me!"

Two boys grab Jeremy and Tyler and pull them away from each other.

I quickly run over to Jeremy and clumsily shove him out the door, almost tripping on my own feet.

Jeremy kicks something and starts swearing. "Fuck!" he screams and I jump at the anger in his voice. He turns to me. "See? This is why I didn't want you to drink! Imagine if I wasn't there - you'd be upstairs with him doing God knows what!" His voice starts to fade out as he continues lecturing me. I end up vomiting. "Fuck, Rose!" Jeremy says. I hear him sigh and walk over to me. He starts to rub my back and I vomit some more. "Well, that'll be a nice present for Tyler," Jeremy says and i laugh. He starts half-carrying, half-dragging me to the car. "Come on, let's get you home."