Things Change

Chapter Three

"Hey, Kayleigh."

I stared at up at him speechless, an overwhelming sense of hurt and betrayal filling my whole body.

"This is for you." He continued -- despite my silence -- he handed me a single red rose. "Happy birthday."

A smile lit up his face as he leaned towards me. Before I'd even known what was happening; I felt his lips press against my cheek sending a warm sensation throughout my body. The exhilaration of the feeling instantly made me forget all resentment that I felt towards him.

"Kayleigh!"

I pulled away suddenly, startled by the sound of Colby's voice. I looked to see him walking towards us.

"There you are! I was so worried."

He pulled me close to him in a suffocating hug before holding me at arms length and looking me straight in the eyes. Beau cleared his throat. Colby's blue eyes were ice cold with an anger that his faux smile failed to portray as he turned towards Beau.

"Oh, I didn't see you there." Colby said.

Although his voice didn't show any signs of falsity, I knew he was lying.

"I'm Colby, Kayleigh's boyfriend. You must be Beau."

Colby emphasized the 'boyfriend' part.

"Yeah," Beau nodded "Nice to meet you."

"Kay's told me so much about you." He commented continuing his sweet boyfriend facade.

Kay. He called me Kay. He's gonna hit me when we leave here, I just know it.

"Oh, really?" Beau asked, glancing at me. He seemed surprised.

"Yeah," Colby nodded. "But I'm sure you've heard a lot about me too."

Beau opened his mouth to speak, but I beat him to the punch.

"Uh, we should probably get back to the party. I think Liam said that we're going to play games next." I said.

"Yeah, I think you're right." Beau agreed. "Let's go."

He started walking towards the basement door and I followed him. Colby came up from behind and wrapped his arm tightly around me.I tried to wiggle out of his grasp, but he only held on tighter making me feel claustrophobic. Sure enough, Liam was starting to have everyone gather around to play a game.

"Here's the birthday princess." He said when he saw me. "Now we can get started!"

I sat on the floor with Beau on one side of me and Colby on the other. Colby reached over and grabbed my hand. He squeezed it so tight, I thought he was trying to break it -- which, he probably was. I could tell by his breathing that he was mad as hell. He was always super possessive around other guys and I usually just ignored it, but with Beau around it made me uncomfortable.

"Kayleigh, you're supposed to sit up here on your throne!" Ryan said, gesturing to a chair that had been decorated.I stood up gratefully and sat down.

"Alright," Liam said. "In this game, each of you are going to get a piece of paper that looks like this." He held up a white paper that appeared to be a quiz.

"It's filled with questions as you can see. You have to fill out the questions the way that you think Kayleigh would answer and then after you're done, we'll ask her the same questions and see who got the most right. You've got five minutes." Liam continued. "Any questions?" Everyone shook their head.

"Alright, go for it!" Liam shouted.

I watched as the guests' tapped their pens and pencils against their legs scrutinizing every question.