Page 30 of Past

"Leave the bags, I will get them in a bit. I want a drink," I say to Maisy as we get out.

"Sure." She smiles, opening her front door.

The house is silent as she walks into the living room, and she stops as everyone shouts,"Surprise!"

The room looks great with banners and balloons. The dining room table is full of drinks, which I can see through the door. The people are close friends from school, who all walk up to say congratulations to Maisy and to chat. I go to walk past to get a drink when Maisy stops me.

"Thank you, how did you do this?" she asks, pulling me into a hug and then doing the same to Izzy.

"It was with Emilia and Harley’s help." Izzy grins and waves a shy-looking Emilia over.

"Thank you," Maisy says, hugging her too.

"Don't thank us yet. We tried to stop Allie, but that’s nearly impossible,” Emilia says, pulling on her long, black top.

“What did you do?” Maisy looks at me with wide eyes as I chuckle.

“Allie ordered you an insanely hot stripper," Izzy says, and Maisy’s jaw drops.

"You didn’t! I told Sebastian no lap dances at his stag do! I can't have a stripper. He will kill me, and you," she says, going red.

"Time for a drink, it will make you feel better." I laugh, pulling her over to the drinks while she follows me.

I make us both a glass of wine and give her a glass while she chats to some girl I don’t know. I think some of the girls here are from her old work.

She turns to me and before she can say a word, I get out, "Tell you what, we don't tell him about tonight. The guy is so hot, you can thank me later." Then I quickly walk off.

My phone buzzes.

Elliot: We need to talk. Angel, reply to me. I don’t get what’s going on. X

My heart hurts from the need to reply to him. I swallow the rest of my drink quickly. I want to speak to him so much, to tell him everything. I see Lily come into the room and give Maisy a hug.

"How was it?" Maisy asks with a smile as we sit with our friend, Lily, in the school library.

"All right." I shrug.

"It was your first time, tell me. I need to know," Lily asks, leaning forward.

"Look, it was a drunken mistake. I shouldn't have slept with him," I whisper back before looking down at my books.

"Sorry, Alliecat." Maisy hugs my side.

"There she is," Sebastian sits next to Maisy and kisses her cheek. They’re so cute together, making me regret my decision to give it up to a complete stranger. The sex was over in what felt like a minute, I felt nothing but a lot of pain, and then he passed out on his bed. I left a few minutes later with tears in my eyes, and, honestly, I don't want to repeat it now to my friends. Losing your virginity to a college student at sixteen is a bad idea; lesson learnt.

"What are you girls talking about?" Sebastian asks, getting his own books out.

"Allie losing it." Lily grins, and I scowl at her when I see Elliot dropping into the seat next to her.

"So she finally became a whore as well as a bitch, then." Elliot smirks. Elliot's one eye is hardly open and is covered in a massive, black bruise. I can see the shadows under his eyes, making me know he hasn't slept, but my anger wins out.

"I would punch you, but it looks like some lucky fucker got the job done for me. Can I have his number?" I ask as I slam my book shut.

"Baby, let's go." Lily tries to pull him away, but we both stand our ground, glaring at each other.

"Bro, be nice," Seb urges, leaning forward.

"Why would I be nice to her? She isn't worth it," he says, never looking away from my eyes. I can't help it when I stand up, grabbing my books and leaving, because I hate when he says those words to me. Just before I shut the door, I hear the words that hurt me more.

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