PROLOGUE
Anna
Twenty-five….Twenty-six….Twenty-seven….
Blinking back the tears that threaten to spill, I clutch my phone to my chest. I can’t believe what’s just happened. How could I have been so stupid and naïve? I’d gone to my first ever high school party, only to end up locked in a bathroom as I waited for my parents to come get me. This party was supposed to be my first date, and I was so excited.
I hadn’t told anyone about my date with Chase. I’ve never been to a party like this or even on a date before, and my parents would have insisted Lucas come with me. There is no way I was going to let Lucas, my notoriously overprotective best friend, come with me on my first date. He’s the reason none of the boys at school will so much as look at me. It’s why I agreed to go out with Chase in the first place. It’s not that I really even like him that much, he was just the only one who dared ask me out. I knew Lucas would be against it, so instead, I’d told him that I was meeting with classmates for a group project. I knew he had a shift at the convenience store across town, so he wouldn’t be able to check up on me. It’s the only time I’ve ever lied to him, and it made me sick to my stomach to do it.
Now, I wish I had insisted Lucas come with me. Actually, I wish I’d never come to this party at all. It had started out fun. Chase had met me at the door and gotten me a drink. He stayed with me the whole night, dancing with me and bringing me drinks. I’ve never had much to drink before, and I couldn’t taste the alcohol in the punch he’d brought me, so I hadn’t realized how much I was drinking. After a while, the room had started spinning, and Chase suggested I go upstairs to lie down for a bit. I’d followed him into an empty bedroom, and he helped me lie down on the bed. I’d closed my eyes for a few minutes, but forced them open when I realized Chase was undoing the buttons on my blouse. I'd bolted off the bed and sprinted for the bathroom, locking the door behind me before he could say anything. I’m amazed I didn’t crash into a wall in my inebriated state.
“Annie?” I’d heard Chase call, followed by a knock on the door and a twist of the door handle.
“I’m not feeling well. I think I’m going to be sick,” I’d called back.
I was so overwhelmed and scared. I didn’t know what to do, but I didn’t want to be alone with Chase anymore. I called my parents and begged them to come get me. They told me to stay in the bathroom with the door locked, and they’d see me soon.
So, here I am, sitting on the edge of a bathtub in a stranger’s bathroom, waiting for my parents to rescue me. Any chance I had at making friends at this party will die a swift death when my parents arrive. Suddenly, I hear a crash, like the bedroom door has been thrown violently open.
“Where is she?” I hear a deep, angry voice growl. My blood runs cold as I realize I know that voice.
“Where’s who?” I hear Chase respond.
“You know who. Annie!” Lucas shouts.
“That bitch?” Chase responds. “Don’t waste your time. Even drunk, she’s a prude.”
I hear a loud growl, then a thud, followed quickly by the sound of flesh hitting flesh. I rush out of the bathroom and see that Lucas has Chase pinned to ground beneath him as he slams punch after punch into Chase’s bloody face.
“Lucas, stop!” I cry. “You’re going to kill him!”
He stops mid-punch and twists to look at me. Chase’s face is covered in blood and nearly unrecognizable. It’s clear that he’s unconscious. Lucas slowly stands and moves towards me. He reaches for my face and wipes the tears from my cheeks with his thumbs.
“Are you alright?” He asks. Lucas’s soft, deep voice instantly calms me, and I reach up to swipe a hand across my wet cheek before meeting his eyes.
He reaches down and grabs my hand, pulling me into his chest. “I’m so sorry, Annie,” he grounds out.
“It’s okay. You were protecting me,” I say. “But we need to go.”
Lucas nods and leads me out of the room, ignoring Chase, who has regained consciousness, but is still on the floor, moaning and holding his head. We walk through the house and out the front door without a word. The party’s loud music must have masked what happened upstairs. No one even looks at us as we leave.
As we make our way down the driveway, I look up at Lucas. He’s dressed in faded jeans, black boots, and a leather jacket, as dark as the scowl on his face. The two of us have been best friends since second grade. We couldn’t be more different if we tried, but have somehow remained friends. No one understands how the sole heiress to a business empire can be friends with the kid from the trailer park, but that’s us.
He doesn’t care that we come from different social classes and, quite frankly, neither do I. We share everything…. until this.
“How did you know I’d be here?” I ask.
Lucas looks at me, a pained expression on his face, but he doesn’t answer. I’ve never seen Lucas look this way, so I follow him without question. His stormy gray eyes find mine as we stop next to his motorcycle, and he helps me with my helmet. He refuses to wear one, but he is insistent that I do, so much so that he had one custom made for me, and he keeps it on his bike at all times.
Lucas is tense as he helps me onto the bike, and I wrap my arms around his waist. I love riding his motorcycle with him, not because of the thrill of the open air, but for the excuse it gives me to touch him. I’ve been in love with Lucas since I was eight years old. At first, it was the love of a girl for her best friend, but over the last couple of years it has grown into the love of a woman for a man. I know he doesn’t see me that way. If anything, he sees me as a best friend or sister. So, sitting behind him on his motorcycle, my arms around his waist, is the closest I’ll ever get to holding Lucas the way I really want to.
He doesn’t make the turn toward my neighborhood as I expected. But after a few minutes, it’s clear where he is taking me. At our school, there is an area under the football field’s bleachers on the visitor’s side that has become our spot over the years. It’s where we eat lunch, where we sit after school. It’s in that spot that Lucas and I tell each other everything. Well, almost everything. I can’t help but suspect he is angry with me for not telling him about my date with Chase. I can only hope that he forgives me quickly when I explain why I kept it a secret.
Lucas parks his bike and leads me to the bleachers without a word. There’s a blanket we have tucked away, and he spreads it out on the sparse grass, then beckons me to sit next to him. Once we’re settled, he takes my hand in his and looks me in the eye. I can see how upset he is, but before I can say anything, he squeezes my hand and breaks my heart.
“Annie, I knew about your date with Chase because I overheard some of the guys on the football team when they came into the shop tonight. They said he asked you to the party because he’d made a bet that he could get you to fuck him. His friends said he was so desperate to win the bet, he planned to get you too drunk to say no. I got to the party as soon as I could, but I couldn’t find you. Your dad called me and said you were locked in a bathroom upstairs.”
I’m quiet for a long time as I think about what Lucas has just said. My parents adore Lucas and treat him like their own son, despite his less than favorable background. My father even helped him get his job at the convenience store. I realize now that must be where the local high school kids buy their booze. It makes sense that my dad would call Lucas. He trusts him, and he knows how protective Lucas is of me. He also knows Lucas would be able to get into the party with causing a scene.