Simon rang my doorbell at 9:00 pm, not a minute late.

I rush down the stairs, nearly falling as I did so. My mom is waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs with crossed arms, "Careful, Azzy."

"Sorry," I smile. "I'll be back home in a few hours."

"Okay. Be safe," she kisses my cheek.

I wear a black leather skirt, with a white shirt. Simon told me that it was a casual party at someone's house, so I didn't wanna overdress and wear a dress and heels. 

I swing my door open and start, "Hey-"

My jaw drops seeing that this man is literally in a tuxedo. 

"Simon," my voice raises an octave and I give him an 'I'm gonna kill you' look. "You said it was casual."

He nods, "And it is. But, Bianca is gonna be there."

He popped his collar when he said that. 

I rolled my eyes with a smile, and stepped out of my house. 

Simon and I have been good friends for years. Honestly, he's probably my closest friend. I sit in the passenger seat, singing along to the song he played with him, but I slowly stopped seeing the house that we were approaching. 

"Um....Simon?" I say while turning down the dial. "Isn't this Max's house?"

"Yea," he nods while the car slows to a stop, my body jerking forward when he puts it in park. "You guys are friends, right?"

The crush that I had on him for years lingered a little in my chest. I spent the past two years idolizing him, looking up to him, smiling like an idiot whenever I was in his presence. I saw him through a glass which was a beautiful shade of rose. 

But the way he grabbed me. Told me I'm not special.

It shattered that glass.

"No. Not really."

We get out of the car at the same time. It's clear Max is throwing this with his parents away, and I knew for a fact he didn't know more than a handful of people here. They spill out into the yard, slurring their drunken words. 

And I thought about how maybe I'd rather be with Reese, than here.

"Lets stick together, okay?" Simon raises his eyebrows at me, speaking over the loud music. "No leaving each other."

I nod with a smile, "Deal."

The music reaches the road, and when we enter the house, it's even louder. It shakes the ground below you, and the lights in the house were dim. Some people sat making out on the living room couches, others leaned against the wall, and others danced. 

I already regretted coming.

"Do you want to drink?" he asks me. I shake my head. "Okay, that's fine. I'm gonna grab one, lets head out to the backyard. I'm choking on BO in here."

The drunken people part for us as we push our way through. Simon grabs a canned vodka drink before we step out into the backyard.

Max's house was the definition of elite. The backyard looked like it went on for miles, and even had a tennis court at the very back. 

The blue pool sat in the middle of the yard, but nobody touched it since it was colder. The blue lights lit up the yard, and the music felt just as loud back here.

We stand together in the grass, before taking a seat on some chairs around a small table. He opens his can and looks around, before quickly turning back around. 

"Bianca's coming up behind me," he whispers to me, an excited smile forming on his face. I look over his head, and see her approaching with a smile.

"Hey, Simon!" she says cheerfully to him. He acts surprised, as if he had no idea she was here.

"Oh, wow! Bianca! What are the chances," he smiles at her while I shake my head.

She takes a seat down with us, and starts asking him about work.

I'm not sure for exactly how long I sit in this chair. It's as if I am asleep with my eyes open. I just sit there, staring up at the sky, watching the stars.

Which Reese is probably doing right now. In his cell.

I nearly scoff as I look up. I've lived an extremely privileged life, which I'm well aware of. I attended the best schools possible, my parents bought me everything I could've ever dreamed of. Every single year on my birthday, my dad would spend a minimum of 100k. And I had never even questioned, what is he truly doing?

He's killing. He's using children. My perfect father whom I adored all my life no longer seemed that perfect to me. 

I laugh bitterly as look up at the stars. 

"Hey - Azalea?" Max's voice reaches my ears.

I lift my head up. Bianca and Simon still talk in front of me, but Max stands to my left.

His dark red hair is messy. His freckles that coat his face, stand out to me the most. With loose black pants and a tight black t-shirt, for a second, I had completely forgotten about our last interaction.

"Can we talk? Just over here?" he points behind him. 

I think for a moment. 

"Okay," I say quietly. "I'll be right back, Simon."

I stand to my feet, and follow Max a few steps away beside the pool. The blue glow shines onto us as we stand face to face. I ask him, "What do you want to talk about?"

"I'm real sorry for what I said to you last time we saw each other," he scratched the back of his head. "I was having a bad day. The car I wanted, my dad finally got for me, but he got a Telsa instead of a Mercedes."

I raise my eyebrows and say sarcastically, "Wow. That must've been so tough for you."

"Yea, it was," he nods, not catching my sarcasm. "So, anyway. How about we head up to my room? My hamster that you love so much is in there."

I just stand there, and force a fake smile. This is the kind of things he would always say to me. Lets go upstairs, I have a headache. Lets go upstairs, the music is too loud. But it always ended up the same way, with us hooking up. 

"You mean, you wanna hook up?" I say bluntly. This seems to take him by surprise.

He's used to me just smiling and nodding, doing whatever he says. 

"Well, yea," he laughs. "You're totally my favorite girl to hook up with."

A few weeks ago, as shameful as it is to admit, his words would've given me butterflies. I would've felt special, and like he liked me. 

He starts talking again when I'm not blindly following him inside like always. 

"You're super pretty, Az. Like, seriously. Your tits are perfect," he nods and smirks. "And when you do that thing in bed? Damn, is it hot."

I start to tune out as his sentence goes on and on. It's like I get lost in a tunnel. I see his mouth moving, I hear that he's saying stuff, but I don't listen. 

I only catch certain words.

You're hot.

God, my balls are full.

Can we just go upstairs already?

I snap my eyes back to reality. And with all the strength I have, I push him into the pool.

People around us gasp and conversations come to an end. I feel all eyes on me as Max breaks the surface of the water, the surrounding area, including my shoes, wet. He moves his arms around to keep him afloat and looks up at me with anger. He shouts, "What the hell is wrong with you?!"

I just keep staring down at him. The rap music continues to play loudly, but nobody speaks. He starts shivering in the water, yet his face was red from anger. 

"You lost your fucking mind or something, Azalea?!" he keeps shouting at me. 

I start to smile.

"Hey, I'm fucking talking to you!" he keeps yelling as I turn around. 

I ignore the people looking at me as I keep walking. I can hear him hoist himself out of the pool, and he starts yelling for somebody to bring him a towel. 

He adds as I reach the house, "This isn't the Azalea I fucking remember!"

And then I took a taxi home. 

«────── « ⋅ʚ♡ɞ⋅ » ──────»

Breakfast with my family is silent. I poke at my pancakes, stare at them, but don't put any into my mouth.

I can see my dad and mom giving each other glances out of my peripheral vision. 

"Everything okay, sweetie?" my mom asks me. I set my fork down and look up.

I nod, "Mhm. Everything okay with you two?"

They try to act casual and nod. 

I look back at my pancakes again. And stab them, again. 

"Hey, dad?" I speak up.

His eyes lift and he sets his cup of coffee down. He smiles at me, "Yes, Azzy?"

I keep holding my fork, but I lean back in my chair. 

"How come you want to kill Ricci?" I ask. "The guy in the cell."

My question looks like it catches him off guard for a moment. But my dad loves me. He wouldn't lie to me. He should give me the honest answer right now.

He clears his throat and looks like he's thinking for a moment.

"Well," he begins. "He's an evil man. He has killed hundreds, if not thousands of my men."

"Uh-huh," I nod. "Why'd he kill them?"

His mouth hangs open for a moment before he starts talking quickly, "Because that's just who he is, sweetheart. He's bad. You don't need to worry about this, though. You just stay over here, with your family, and leave me to deal with the bad side."

And he lies to my face.

The bad side. I watch him lie to my face with a smile, and then go back to sipping on his coffee. 

I force a nod, and put a piece of the pancake into my mouth. 

Lately, I've been questioning if maybe I am on the bad side. Or, if maybe, both sides are bad, but one is slightly less worse. Both sides have killing, death, and murder. Although, the reasoning behind them seems to be different.

"I'm gonna head to work now," I rise to my feet. "I'll see you guys later."

I can feel my parents giving each other weird looks behind me, but I keep walking, and shut the door.

When I arrive to work, I quickly go to the kitchen to talk to Simon. And when he sees me, he leaves the food he's cooking.

"Azalea! What was that about last night?" he asks me. 

"I'm really sorry that I left like that, Simon," I apologized. "Seriously. But I just really needed to be alone."

He sighs, but looks like he understands. He nods, "It's okay, I could tell something was off when you were talking to Max."

I nod and pick up the plate. I ask him a few questions about how it went with Bianca before leaving. And turns out, things went really well for him. They have a date for next weekend.

I enter Reese's cell, and being near him, it felt like the weight of everything I had been thinking about got lifted off of my shoulders. I smile at him, "Hey."

"Hey," his deep voice speaks. "I missed you yesterday."

The words make my heart jump in my chest. I hand him the plate, and sit down across from him, bringing my knees to my chest.

"So. I see a few new bruises...I'm gonna assume that was from killing that guy?" I question, and he bites into his food and nods. 

I pull the granola bar I stole from the kitchen when Simon was distracted out of my pocket and slide it over to him. He smiles.

"Surprised you didn't shoot them," I tilt my head at him and say.

"I can't let them know I have this gun. I need to save it, for the day I escape," he tells me.

I nod. 

"Tomorrow, you and Alec need to go and talk to Michael at that warehouse if possible. See if you can ask him any questions about the security here, that you can't ask your father," he says between bites of the granola bar.

"Okay. Seems easy enough," I say in a light tone. "But just one thing, Reese."

He stops eating to give me his full attention. I tap my nails against my knee before speaking. 

"I don't want to hurt anybody, okay?" I say softly. "I don't want to hurt anybody like my father does."

He nods understandingly. 

"Of course," his tone is as soft as mine. "I'd never ask you to hurt anybody."

His words make me smile. I stare at the ground in silence for a few minutes until he breaks it. 

"What'd you do yesterday?" he asks me.

"Went to a party," I tell him, and at first I was gonna just leave it there. But then I decide not to. "Pushed the guy that bruised me into the freezing pool."

The corners of his mouth slowly turned up.

"Good girl. Proud of you," he smiles. "But you still haven't given me his name."

"Max Brown," I decided to tell him. "Complete and utter asshole."

He nods. I quickly add, "But don't kill him."

His tongue pokes the inside of his cheek as he looks to the side, before looking at me again. He leans forward, his face nearly touching mine as the chains rattled. 

"I'd kill anybody that hurts you, Azalea," he states as if it were common sense. "And it's not a threat. It's a fucking fact."

His words stick in my brain as I keep staring at him. His brown eyes are darker than mine. Mine are light, like honey, while his nearly look black. And despite all of the horrible things his eyes have seen, they look at me softly. 

He moves forward more, his soft hair touching my forehead. His strong hand grabbing my chin and tilting it upward made my breath get caught in my throat. 

"You're so fucking beautiful, Azalea," his voice is gentle. With his free hand, he moves some hair behind my ear. 

His thumb grabs my bottom lip, and tugs it down. It makes my lips feel as if they were getting touched by pure electricity. 

"There's nothing more in this world than I want more than to taste your fucking lips," he whispered, his thumb releasing my bottom lip and making it snap up. 

My heart picks up in my chest, skips a beat, if you will. 

"So why don't you?" I whisper back.

I watch the look in his dark eyes. He looks like he's trying so hard not to. I want nothing more than for him to cave in, press his lips against mine. Just the thought alone gives me butterflies. 

While looking at my lips, he says quietly, "Because I don't deserve it."

His words make my eyebrows lower. He moves his eyes back up to look at mine.

"Maybe, if I ever do get out of here...." he trails off for a moment, cupping my face and brushing his thumb up and down. "Then I'll reward myself with being able to kiss the most beautiful girl I've ever seen."

My heart feels like it's melting in my chest. He pulls me forward, pressing a long and gentle kiss against my forehead. I shut my eyes while he does, goosebumps covering my entire body. 

When he pulls away, I already wish that he would do it again.

But he brushes more hair behind me, instead. 

"You're so special, Azalea," he says softly. "You deserve a better man to kiss you."

Although his words speak negatively about himself, it feels like my heart gets stabbed for a quick moment.

"And if I want you to?" I say without thinking. 

He stands to his feet, so I do, too. I look up at him under the harsh lighting. 

"If I did it once..." he trails off for a moment. He rubs his strong jawline. "It would be the start of something unable to stop."

He takes a step back, and away from me. I watch him as he turns his back to me, walks over to his small sink, and leans his arms on it. He hangs his head down at the sink for a moment, before moving it back up and looking at me through the mirror. 

Maybe I want that.

Word count: 2723