Pleasure

Chapter Three

I've been trying to avoid Jacob the best I can since our encounter. He gives me the same superior look and I hate it. He thinks I'm another girl who likes him. He's hot, that I will admit. But, he's an asshole. That much is obvious.

"Hey, Aria are you coming to the party this weekend?" Lucas asks, snatching me out of my thoughts about Jacob.

"What party?" I ask, looking at him and Natalie. "I'm not much of a party person."

"Come on, you have to go. Everyone will be there. Plus, we need you." Natalie begs, putting a hand over my arm. I stare at her with a hesitant look."Please please! It will be fun!" I smile and give in, agreeing to go.

**********

Saturday

I shower and grab some clothes for the party. I wear a black v-neck and blue skinny jeans. I get my rose gold faux suede sneakers and a black leather jacket in case I get cold. Once I'm done with my makeup, I make my hair wavy and grab my small purse. Natalie and Lucas come pick me up.

"You look so cute," Natalie compliments.

I smile. "Thanks, you too."

"Yeah, Aria you look really hot." Lucas blurts out, training his eyes to the road. We both look at him with straight faces before bursting into giggles. We get to the party and I immediately notice loud music and drunk teenagers. A couple people linger outside, but you can tell it's wild inside. I grab my phone and stuff it in my pocket before getting out of the car. When we walk in, a lot of eyes are on us.

"Why's everyone looking at us?" I ask loudly into Natalie's ear, trying to cope with the blaring music.

"Not us, you." She replies and smiles. She leads me to a table full of shots. It's not long before I get drunk. This is exactly why I hate parties. I'm not an annoying drunk, but I do definitely hate the feeling of being drunk. I lost Lucas and Natalie a long time ago, and I also gave up on looking for them a long time ago.

I stumble upstairs and look down the hall. I wiggle the knob of a locked door and I know what it means, so I don't make my way inside. I try the next door down, which is fine. I stumble into the room and squint at the balcony ahead of me. Fresh air.

I make my way to the edge of the balcony and catch my breath. I try hard not to let the alcohol I've consumed come back up. It's less noisy up here, I should've claimed this room as my own before I started taking those shots.

"Hey." A familiar voice sounds from behind me. I turn around and see Jacob standing with his hands stuffed in his pockets. He has on dark blue jeans that hang off his waist perfectly. His white t-shirt sculpts his muscles perfectly. He bites his lip and starts toward me.

"What do you want?" I snap, letting my drunk attitude come out. He laughs, which makes me arch my eyebrows. Even if I'm rude to him, he laughs? He doesn't make sense and I'm too drunk to figure him out.

"This was my quiet room, I should be asking you that." He leans on the rail of the balcony and looks out across the street. He looks at me up and down and raises his eyebrow again.

"What?"

He shakes his head and pokes his lip out. "Nothing."

"Stop looking at me." I demand, frowning.

"Why?"

"Because it's creepy?" I contend and swallow my alcohol once more. He smiles and looks back out into the street. There's an awkward silence that lingers over us and I consider walking away. I look at him out of the corner of my eyes. He looks so peaceful, I wonder why he's at this shitty party anyway.

"You have quite the attitude Aria." He notes, intertwining his hands. Once again, shivers go down my spine as he says my name effortlessly.

"I can say the same for you, Jacob." I retort, letting myself hiccup. He's about to reply with some witty comment when there's a scream and some commotion. We both turn to the door and see people running. Someone yells 'cops' and my heart skips a beat.

"Shit," Jacob mumbles, "We gotta get you outta here." He takes a hold of my arm and drags me downstairs.

"Hey let go of me!" I yell sloppily, scratching at his hand that holds me tight. His grip is hard and I start to feel the world giving way underneath me. Everything I've digested in the past 12 hours is about to come up and I want to pass out.

"What are you doing?" He barks at me as I stumble, grabbing my stomach. "Don't fucking throw up." He warns, but it's too late. I collapse to the ground and let it all come up. He groans and dips down, pulling my hair behind my ears. He curses himself and holds my hair with one hand, palming my back with the other. "We have to go now Aria." He whispers. If I wasn't so drunk I would feel the same shivers, except ten times stronger.

"I'm too sick to walk," I cry, swallowing the remaining vomit (gross, I know. Don't drink, kids). He scuffs and instantly swoops me off the floor. I groan from surprise, but don't resist. I'm as light as a feather to him, and he doesn't struggle carrying me. We walk speedily away from the house as all the people running away start to fade to little stick figures in my vision.

I hear Jacob's name being called by a girl. I look past him and see Courtney standing at the edge of the street waving after him. Then everything goes black.