The music inside was already pumping, the kind you could feel in your chest. I was an hour late. Half of that time had been spent shopping for ideal clothes, second-guessing whether this was even a good idea. My heart had raced with a hundred reasons not to come, but now, here I was, standing at the door, trying to shake off the last shreds of doubt.
I stepped inside, nerves bubbling under my skin, but they evaporated as soon as I spotted them—my three friends, among the familiar faces scattered across the vast living room. It had been six years, but in that moment, it was as though I had stepped into a time warp. A strange mix of nostalgia and anxiety hit me all at once. Seeing them—faces I’d shared laughs, secrets, and stupid high school drama with—made my heart twist in a way I hadn’t expected.
The living room was alive, full of people dancing, drinks in hand, laughing like no time had passed since school. The place was big, but all I could see were those faces from my past; Jade, Laura and Katy, standing by the bar, mixing drinks like it was still a Friday night, and we had no worries in the world. Arock formed in my chest as I walked towards them, every step bringing a flood of memories and a nervous anticipation.
Laura saw me first, and the scream she let out was monstrous, snatching everyone’s focus. Katy and Jade turned and joined immediately, and suddenly, the trio were jumping, half of the room staring at us. When they rushed to me at once, we almost tripped and fell, a joy I’d not felt in years filling me.
With the way they wouldn’t stop jumping and screaming, I could tell they were tipsy. I interacted with people I was familiar with, hardly, the three girls never wanted to let me go.
We went to a corner and settled down, and I watched them as they filled me in on what I’d missed. They laughed,welaughed, but I was quiet and let them speak. They wouldn’t stop talking. They had a lot to say. A lot to tell me.
Laura had never stopped rocking her afro, she rarely braided her hair. And Jade had dyed hers pink like she said she would in school. Katy’s hair was the same, but she had piercings and tattoos now. It suited her. They all looked new, fresh,rich.
I took a deep breath in and sipped my drink, nodding to what Katy was saying. It went on for a while until they suddenly had nothing to say. They went quiet and began to stare at me.
“What?” I chuckled, my heart racing. I knew what. It was my turn to share what I’d been up to for two years.
Jade offered. “You’ve been quiet. The Ainsley in high school would have finished this cup and gotten drunk by now. What’s wrong? Tell us about...everything. Why didn’t you try to reach out to us?”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. I missed you guys so much, I just didn’t know how to reach you.”
“Lies. You know my family came here after we moved out of South Highland.” Katy frowned.
“That’s not the point. I’m just glad to see you aren’t dead. So tell us about you. Your life, boyfriend, job,” Laura said.
It was funny. I didn’t have any of the things she wanted to hear from me. No life, no boyfriend, no job. If I understood them correctly earlier, the three of them had decent jobs. In fact, they had their dream jobs and were doing so well. And I found myself questioning what I did wrong, where it all went wrong.
I graduated college two years ago, had gotten rejected by sixteen companies, and been on seven waiting lists. I was happy for them. I was happy because they deserved it. They were lovely people who wouldn’t cut people off at the slightest inconvenience.
Laura was the first to understand the look on my face, clapping when the silence dragged on for a while.
“Come on, girls! Let’s party like it’s Friday night again. You’re drinking to death today, Ainsley. No leniency.”
The others were quick to pick up, rising to their feet and dragging me to stand. We went to the bar, and Jade did what she was best at—concocting drinks.
Everything was going smoothly. So fucking good. Until Theon walked in.
The living room that’d been humming and howling with the guys’ laughter quieted a little, whispers and murmurs taking roots as more than half of us stared at him in awe. The other half were trying to figure out who he was.
The energy in the room shifted.
His black hair was a perfect mess, like he’d just run his fingers through it, leaving it slightly dishevelled but in a deliberate, effortless way. It gave him that rugged, bad-boy edge—wild, untamed, and maddeningly attractive.
He wore an unzipped black leather jacket, revealing a fitted black shirt underneath that hugged his chest and shoulders in ways that should be questionable. His jeans were dark, snug enough to hint at his athletic build. Theon’s sleeve tattoo—that I’d seen once—was hidden beneath the jacket, but it didn’t makehim look any less dangerous, like he didn’t belong here, yet commanded the attention of everyone in the room, including mine.
“Look who is here. He’s so hot, he makes me want to die,” Jade said beside me.
“How is he here? Didn’t he like...dropout of school and disappear?” Laura passed around another round of Jade’s concoction. She paused when she got to me, her brows shooting up.
I shook my head. “No. I didn’t invite him.”
Katy burst into laughter, her eyes wide. “That means you’ve been keeping in touch with him.”
“What? No.”
“I mean, the first thing you were supposed to say is, ‘I haven’t seen him in years’, and not that. Unless you’ve been seeing him.”
The trio pressed in.
