Chorus (Twelve)

Josie had left my house with Sebastian and I as we decided what to do for the rest of the night. She said that she wanted to hang out with me but Sebastian didn't want to leave me alone either, especially after what had happened when he walked in and I was basically unresponsive.

We all hopped in the car after Josie left my house through the front, telling my parents that I was tired and didn't want company and that I had gone to sleep. I stayed for a moment and waited on them to check up on me and tell me goodnight, and when they did, we stole away in the night and I made the bed look like I was still asleep in it.

Once I had successfully climbed out of my first story window, with a little bit of excruciating pain in my side added to the mix, we all slid into the back seat of the awaiting black SUV where Jason was jamming along to one of Sebastian's songs.

I gave a pointed look at Sebastian.

"Really?" I asked him, referring to the music that was playing in the car.

"Oh, come on Red. Don't tell me you don't just absolutely adore my music?" he asked me, his arms going to rest over my shoulders in the car.

I wanted to squeal like a little girl.

Josie gave me a look from the rear view mirror, since she was sitting in the front seat with his friend Jason. I saw her eyeing Jason and a thought occurred to me that I could set the two of them up together.

I loved playing Cupid for my friend, especially since her last boyfriend didn't turn out so well...

My attention was brought back to Sebastian when I realized I hadn't answered his question yet.

"Oh please, it's not like its the end of the world if I don't like your music..." I trailed off and he had a fake wounded look pained across his gorgeous features.

"Yes, I do believe it is the end of the world if you don't love my music!" he exclaimed and I just laughed at him.

"I thought you'd like hanging out with me because I wasn't a superfan up like Josie up there," I motioned to Josie who was signing along to the song at full volume.

He looked thoughtful for a moment, putting his free hand up to his chin and stroked it acting like he was deep in thought.

"Perhaps you're right. I don't know if I'd want a girlfriend like that..." he trailed off and then he froze as if he'd realized what he had just said.

I got awkward for a second but then decided to play it off.

"Oh please, I wouldn't be your girlfriend if you were the last man on earth," I joked with him and he cracked a smile, his signature smirk playing across his lips and I caught myself getting lost in his eyes, in his smile and everything about him.

He was everything that I wanted to lose myself in but couldn't.

"I'm going to make you eat those words, Holly Vickers," he said, an intensity burning within his expression that I'd never seen before.

"We'll see about that," I teased at him, breathless from the gaze that he had me pinned underneath.

We arrived at Sebastian's home shortly after that, and I was wondering what we were going to do when a young girl came bounding outside the mansion, her short platinum blonde hair framing her heart shaped face and she was wearing a skimpy little outfit that I recognized from the closet from when I had stayed the night at his house.

I really hoped that girl was his cousin, because if not, it would be hard to compete with her, especially with a body like she had.

I opened the door since I was on the outside and Sebastian was sitting in the middle and I felt him follow closely behind me. His body was directly behind me and I felt the heat from his body saturating into the air behind me, making my legs shake with premonitions of what could come between us, of what could happen between us.

"Holly, Josie, this is my cousin Blake, you two already sort of met on the phone earlier. Blake, this is Holly and Josie," he said motioning between all of us as she got closer to us.

She surveyed us with a dirty look on her face, but once she saw that we weren't going to cower under her gaze she smiled at us and I noticed that her eyes were green and blue, the bright green in her eyes reminded me of Sebastian but the dual colors made me think of myself and the chimera of colors that swirled around in my eyes at any given moment.

"It's nice to meet you," I said, holding my hand out to shake hers, but she disregarded that fact and pulled me into a bear hug, squeezing me a bit too hard and it made me wince in pain.

She pulled back sharply when she heard my protest of pain and looked at me with an expression mixed with guilt and barely concealed anger.

"I'm so sorry I forgot, I mean-I didn't mean to-"

"Its okay, it didn't hurt that bad..." I trailed off, wanting to assuage her guilt for hurting me.

"This is kind of why we came here. We're itching for a type of revenge only Blake Jennings can dish out, we need some pointers," Sebastian said from beside me and I was suddenly reminded of the pact that we had made earlier in the night about getting revenge on Dylan for what he did to me.

The ache hit me full force and there was a permanent frown on my face. No matter how hard I tried to smile at Blake, Sebastian, Josie or Jason, it was no use.

"Wait, wait, wait. No one told me about this. Bro I'm not just your driver, you know?" I heard Jason exclaim to Sebastian, I figured that dynamic must have been hard, where to draw the line between employee and best friend.

"Yeah man, we just thought of it earlier tonight. I wanted to tell you both together so we didn't have to repeat ourselves," he said to Jason in a calming manner, and the look of slight anger and hurt on his face went back to neutral and I was glad.

I absolutely hated conflict.

"So, what exactly did you have in mind?" Blake asked us as we began walking into Sebastian's house, parking ourselves on the couch in the massive living room.

"Well, we just know that we want to make him pay," Josie said and I just nodded in agreement.

"Okay, well first off let's start with what exactly happened so we know what we're dealing with," Blake said and pointed her look at me.

I froze up. I felt a clawing fear tugging in my chest that made me want to double over in fear, but I couldn't let it happen. I had to stay strong, otherwise I would fall apart and I wouldn't know how to get put back together again.

I took a deep breath.

"Well, I guess I should start from the beginning. It all started after he broke up with me. I came back to school soon after wearing cuter clothes thanks to Josie and he decided he wanted me again or something. He was mad because I didn't do certain things that he expected in the relationship so he thought he could force me to do them for him and that was when I kicked him in the balls, and that was when Sebastian was at the school that day..." I trailed off, preparing myself for the rest of the story.

They were looking at me with a mixture of different expressions on their faces.

Blake's was impassive, Jason and Sebastian's were varying degrees of anger and rage, and Josie looked like someone had just killer her puppy...

I took a deep breath to try and continue.

"After that he had it out for me even worse, he cornered me and hit me in the face and shattered my phone. I didn't tell anyone because I knew that his parents were too influential and I wouldn't be able to get justice without concrete evidence which I didn't have.

"So then I tried to ignore him as best as I could but it was easier said than done. About a week after that incident where he broke my phone, that was when he cornered me in the hallway and, well, I'm sure you all know how that ended. And then I woke up in the hospital and found out I was in a coma for a week and here we are."

Crickets. Dead silence. Mouths hanging open in shock.

It wasn't like I'd even told them the full extent of the torture I'd had to endure at his hands either, if I had I was sure Sebastian would be doing a lot more than just sitting there shell shocked. He'd be out for blood.

"Holly I...I didn't know that you had it so bad. I'm so sorry..." I heard Blake say.

Her words didn't really help, the aching hole was still there, doubling in size from retelling my story that I didn't know if I was ready to tell or not.

"It's not your fault. He's been my problem for a while now, I didn't know it would it would get to the caliber that it did. I know for sure if he sees me again he won't stop by just pushing me down some stairs, that's for sure..."

"Holly, can we talk for a second, in private?" Sebastian asked me, standing up from his spot on the couch and held out his hand to me.

His eyes were guarded but I could tell there was a multitude of emotions surging just beneath the surface.

"Yeah," I said unsurely, gripping his hand in mine and he helped me up.

He walked us out of the living room with our hands still linked together as the rest of the group trailed after us with their intrigued eyes.

He pulled us into a study off the side of the living room and once he shut the door his hands were encompassing my body in a tight hug and I immediately felt safe.

His arms made a protective circle around me and I melted into his touch, the warmth from his body seeping into mine so effortlessly and I automatically let out a contented sight and he pulled me back and held me at arms length.

His hand came up and pushed my hair behind my ear, the feather soft touch making my skin break out in chill bumps up and down my arms.

His face leaned close to me and he whispered in an anguished voice, "Why didn't you tell me? I could have protected you?"

I cast my eyes down to the ground, not wanting him to see me like that but he put his pointer finger under my chin and dared me to look back up at him, back into his unearthly green eyes that always trapped me the second I looked into them.

I inhaled sharply and suddenly the hole was gone, replaced instead by a feeling I couldn't quite describe.

My hands felt tingly and it felt like there were a thousand tiny pin pricks on my forehead, I could feel my heart begin to race at the idea of what was to come.

"I didn't think anyone could protect me from him, plus with your hot and cold attitude I didn't know if I could trust you not to act just like he did. I'm just used to doing things on my own and I figured protecting myself would be no different but I guess I was wrong..." I trailed off, not knowing how he'd react.

His face grew stormy and angry and I realized I must have said something wrong.

"Damnit Holly, if I haven't shown you yet that all I want is for you to be safe and happy then I don't know how else to show it. I apologized for acting the way I did and-"

"You might have apologized but that doesn't mean that I forgot everything, or the fact that you never even told me why you acted the way you did. You thought the apology would make everything okay but in order for me to trust you, you have to do the same and tell me these things otherwise this friendship or whatever we have going on together isn't going to work."

He seemed to contemplate something, but a resolve showed up in his face and I realized what he was about to do.

"Alright. I'll tell you everything."