CHAPTER 37

Genesis's POV

                The air thumped with the music as the uproarious beats reverberated through every pore in my body. It was a harsh cacophony of hoots, hollers and wails as the crowd grinded sweaty skin against slimy flesh in response to the gyrating atmosphere. The windows were vibrating with music. I could hear some girls cackling. Guys yelled. A party was in a full swing and I wasn't invited. I ignored the heavy pang in my chest and strolled through the gigantic front doors.

The party buzzed around the kitchen but struck the lounge with full force. There was a couple on the counter of the bar making out. I wasn't sure if the guy was taking advantage of her but she was definitely not moving. I roamed my eyes across the faces of the wasted college students in search of Keegan. There were so many people drinking, dancing, smoking. Enough booze to murder an entire frat house. More people kept flooding in. People I didn't know. Faces I didn't recognize. There were now close to three hundred or more intoxicated adults wreaking havoc in my boyfriend's expensive apartment but no one sembled his features. I couldn't even spot any of his friends. The marble floors were sticky and full of hooker-shoe scuff marks.

I travelled up to the roof to find liquor bottles everywhere and my friend, Michael pissing off the building. This girl was topless and puking next to him with his genitals out. I stood there speechless and unable to bother saying anything and rushed back downstairs. 

Michael was here?

Then Amelia would have to be and still, I wasn't invited. This wasn't my kind of  party serenity but still, it did hurt that I wasn't asked to come. Moreover, it was hosted in Keegan's place. That intensified the hurt I felt.

The wine cellar had been ransacked. The dining room table had a dip in the centre filled like a bowl with river stones. These stones were removed and thrown around the house, including baseball pitches, interior light bulbs and anything that was made of glass. Somebody urinated in the centre filling the bowl with pee. I cringed and looked away.

Yup, definitely not my kind of party.

I rushed outside for a bit of air and sucked in a lungful but soon regretted it. The air smelled of marijuana and sex. I walked around and felt totally separate from all that I saw. My mind was altered. I felt as if I were experiencing everything with absolute clarity. I made my way back into the lounge and froze, wide eyed. How many minutes ago had I left? The couch was filled with naked girls having sex with one another and guys thrusting in and out of a few.

I took the stairs to the bathroom to fix my mind back up, all the while roaming my eyes around for a pair of silvery, blue eyes. Fortunately, no one was there. I took care of my bladder and washed my hands. Out of the blue, the door whooshed open and a blonde guy strolled in. I stilled for a second, shocked to see him in the female toilet. I figured he was drunk and probably didn't even know where he was. I made to by-step him but my breath leaked out of me when he unanticipatedly pushed me back into the bathroom. My back hit the wall hard and before I could say jack, his mouth came down on mine with fierce brutality.

My mind was racing and my brain was short-circuiting. The scene was playing so fast in front of me and I failed to process what was happening accurately. Then with one hand pinned to the wall against mine, he snuck his hand under my dress and began feeling my body. He groped my stomach, and raced his fingers to my bra where he yanked the silk material down and squeezed my bare breasts. I jolted and tried to knee him in the groin. He braced his arm over my throat, choking me. With his other hand, he began unbuckling his belt. Once down, I felt his hands inside my underwear, feeling my bottom and running his rough fingers over my slit. Then, he painfully squeezed my clitoris. I yelped in pain.

His scruff chin scrubbed my cheek roughly. I felt his alcoholic-laced breath across my nose as he whispered, "You'll thank me later for fucking you, bitch. You're hot as fuck, nice and thick on the hips just how I love 'em. That fucker has been pretty selfish having you all to himself and this big tits. Damn! I bet you gonna enjoy my white cock deep in your sweet pussy." My mouth was totally dry. I tried to scream for help but I physically couldn't. He was overwhelming me with his force. I was pushing back against him but it was doing nothing. I was in complete shock and horror.

I had no other choice but to let it all happen, but I hated it, I wanted it to stop. It probably was not very long but it felt like forever. Finally he let go off me and I fell to the floor like a sack of grain. A loud thud blasted over me and ear-spittling shouts and yells penetrated into my ears. I didn't bother to look up or find out what was happening. I just stayed curled up on the floor, bubbling with uncontrolled tears as the ruckus elongated. Then, I felt my body being lifted up and someone cradling me into a chest. It was warm and muscled and didn't at all smell like Keegan's cologne but with his embrace came an unfamiliar sense of safety.

He pushed open a door and dropped me but still braced his hands on my waist as I shuddered.

            "Did he do anything else?" He asked.

I tried to speak but emotions welled up inside my chest, making it hard to get a word out. I shook my head instead and a renewed flood of tears crashed open.

            "It's okay. You're safe now. At least, I showed up before he could do much."

            "I-I didn't....I didn't....expect that to....to...."

            "He's an animal and there are lots of them. You were looking for Keegan, right?"

I nodded, still shaken up.

            "He is upstairs. Come, I'll show you." He gripped my wrist and pulled me along. I breathed out and blinked furiously to get rid of the tears. If I was going to meet Keegan, I didn't want him or anyone else finding out what had happened.

I looked up at the person holding my hand and almost did a double take. Ian gripped my wrist firmly, directing me towards the elevators. I was surprised and shocked that it was him who had come to my rescue. We haven't had any serious conversations in the past nor had he paid any mind to me but seeing him holding my hand after rescuing me from the devil's spawn made me realize that I must have judged him a tiny little bit.

I shook his hand and he stared down at me.

              "Thank you." A corner of his mouth lifted and he looked away without a respond.

              "Please, don't tell Keegan about this." That was when he stopped walking. His brows crashed as he turned to look at me, staring at my face like he had just found the source for stupidity.

Then I began to explain, "I-I don't want him to know. I just don't want him to worry or start a fight because of me. Can you...keep it a secret? Please?"

He inhaled deeply and sighed. "Fine. If you wish."

             "And don't tell anyone as well. Please? I would prefer this private."

He rolled his eyes but nodded his head.

             "Ayee! Look who we have here. The Virgin Mary herself." Erika cheered in mockery at my presence while some of her companions laughed at her ridiculous attempt of a joke. There, she sat on my boyfriend's thighs with a red cup in her hands in which she sipped from. My mind failed to process what was going on and solid reasons as to why she was getting comfortable on Keegan's lap failed to come up. He made no attempt in pushing her away himself. When our eyes locked, his widened. His lips parted. For some reasons unknown, he was surprised to see me. My stomach sank when he looked away and didn't bother acknowledging me. I feared the worst.

             "You finally graced us with your presence, Virgin Mary. How nice of you." She curled up against his chest, swaddling her arms around his neck. He slapped me in the face when he let her grind into him.

             "We were just about getting on with this game. Sit." I must have been crazy because I started to lower my body onto a spare seat I had spotted, beside an unknown girl and in front of Lana who benched with a guy I must have seen her with but failed to recognize at that moment. "Truth or dare. You know that, right?" I ignored her and forced my eyes from her ridiculously over painted face and pinned it on Keegan instead. The fact that he deliberately ignored me completely was what hurt the most and something told me he was avoiding meeting my eyes. But why?

              "You in?" She asked with an arched brow and a mischievous glint in her eyes. Not to seem like a coward, I purposefully held her gaze and nodded. She grinned sardonically, burrowing her bare back into Keegan's chest, testing me, gauging my reaction. I looked away instantly and held back. I never fancied creating a scene.

A guy spinned an empty beer bottle on the table in front of everyone. It rolled and rolled and rolled and then landed on a pink-haired boy full of muscle. It seemed like every guy in this clique were all in some kind of sport or something that required a lot of athletic effort because they were all fit as fiddles. He chose dare. He was dared to show off his junk and stand in front of everyone for a hundred and twenty minutes. I didn't think he would do it.

Unfazed, he unbuckled his belt and pulled down his jeans alongside his boxer brief. His penis came bouncing out. Everyone cheered and laughed. He held it in his hands and began stroking it. I became embarrassed on his behalf. He stood there for two minutes and in that two minutes, he ejaculated, in front of everyone. The hoots and hollers became tremendous at this time and when the two minutes was over, he began to clad himself but two girls stopped him and got on their knees in front of him and began licking him off. I shrank back, covering my face. I caught Keegan's eyes but he immediately looked away. When they were done, he stuffed his load back into his pants.

Someone offered me a shot of something liquid and undoubtedly alcohol and I declined. Then, the seniors changed the game a little as more people wanted to participate. To enter the game, each willing participant had to pay the other person an amount of money and if he or she could do the dare, the person would have to pay you double the amount. But if the reverse was the case, the person gets to keep that amount of money. They seemed okay with it as they cheered and whistled in excitement.

A girl threw down a thousand dollars on the table and the entire crowd seated and those just watching went hay-wire. I grimaced at the splitting noise, wishing to be anywhere but here but I so desperately wanted to speak to Keegan, alone.

She was told to perform a strip tease in front of everybody at the party, fully nude and give the guys lap dances where they were allowed to touch her. There were more than half the amount of money she had desposited of people who had attended and the guys superceded the girls in number. She obliged without blinking and they cheered on more. Three guys immediately set up a make shift stage and she got on it and started performing a strip tease. Everyone had their eyes on her, including the boy I couldn't keep mine away from. She took off her pants and her off shoulder crop top, exposing her bra and thong and the guys whistled, cheering her on.

What she did next shocked me to my bone marrow. My eyes bugged as she took off her top and next came the thin material covering her womanly area. She ripped it off her hips, going completely nude and obviously basking in the massive attention catapulted solely at her curvy form up on the stage but something else told me she was doing it more for the two thousand dollars she would receive at the end of her show. She gave the guys lap dances and they groped her everywhere and she let them. I looked away, harking back to what I had gone through in the bathroom. I shivered in my skin as tears prickled my eyes. I was about to get up to leave when Lana slapped down half a thousand dollars on the table and then turned to me.

I froze in my seat. She grinned at me slyly.

            "Twenty minutes in the gents' restroom with Keegan?"

            "Wh-?"

            "No way!"

She didn't bother turning to face Erika.       "You doing it or you doing it?" Then, she turned to the others, whooping and screaming, "SHE'S DOING IT MOTHERFUCKERS." They whistled and hollered and I just sank to my seat with my eyes wide and mouth agape, wishing the ground could yawn and suck me in. From the corner of my eyes, I saw Keegan standing up.

Lana nudged me, beaming. "Go! Follow him."

With shaky legs, I rose up, truding after him.

           "Lana! What the fuck was that?" I heard Erika burst.

           "Oh please, shut up! Where did you even spring out from?"

I trailed after him silently. He went down the stairs and into a dark hall, non-illuminated. The silence hung like a thick blanket, hovering over us. I had so much to say before seeing him but now, it seemed like all I had planned to tell him had gone with the wind. He came upon a door and wrenched the door handle.

It was dark, except for the dim light bulb hanging over us. I entered and he shut the door gently. The space appeared manageable for two but his body took up almost half of the restroom, leaving almost nothing for me. I pressed my back to the wall to avoid touching him if he didn't want me to. I could feel the tension but I couldn't understand it. I just stood, rooted to the ground, mortified. His eyes were stuck on the floor and his hands buried deep inside his pants. The silence was sickening and I wanted nothing more than to trash it.

I hugged my sides and glanced up at his face. We locked eyes and he instantly looked away again but I had my mind made up already. I planned to use the best of the twenty minutes we were allocated.

             "You seemed pretty....cozy with Erika down there?" I choked out, blinking back the tears already forming.

He squizzed at me. "It was nothing."

I nervously chuckled to ease some of the tension I felt, "It didn't...It didn't seem that way to me though."

He said nothing.

I sadly smiled up at him, "You didn't invite me to your party."

             "It ain't mine. I just let him have it here."

But you'd always pick me up anyway.

I closed the distance a few steps. He stiffened and avoided my eyes.

            "You are avoiding Keegan?" I sniffed. "Why?"

            "I ain't avoiding you."

            "You are."

            "I ain't."

            "Yes, you are. You are avoiding me and I don't even know why. I tried reaching out to you. I tried calling you but it rings and goes straight to voicemail. You blocked me."

He jerked back as his brow furrowed in what seemed to be a dose of confusion. "I didn't block you."

             "You did. That's why I haven't been able to call you."

He sighed, "Look Genesis...." Not Genny anymore. "I didn't block you. Damn! Why would you even....I haven't even been in school for days. I just got back at exactly six pm today."

            "Why? Where did you go?"

            "I went back home. I had to run a few errands for my dad."

Okay. "But you didn't tell me. I was worried about you. So worried something bad might have happened to you."

           "I-I told you I would be out of campus."

I frowned, "You didn't."

          "I sent you a text."

          "Oh God! Keegan. I would have seen it and replied immediately if you actually sent me a thing."

          "Genesis, I told you. I did. Check your phone." I dug out my phone and flicked the screen. I immediately went to my messages and the first text on the screen was one from my Mom. There was nothing from the boy standing in front of me. I turned the phone to his view and showed him.

            "Fuck." He cursed and whipped his out, tapping the screen furiously. "Damn! I thought...I thought it sent. It's in my draft." He keeked at me. "I didn't send it. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Goddamnit! Genesis, I'm so fucking sorry."

            "Why are you apologizing?"

            "Genesis...."

            "Keegan, it's fine. Totally. I'm not upset or mad at you. I'm just happy you are okay. That's all."

            "Fuck." He scrubbed his hair.

I slanted my head to the side, "What's wrong? Is everything okay?"

            "Genesis, we can't go on with this."

My pulse quickened. "Go on with what?"

He squeezed his eyes and when he opened them again. They were glossy.     

His breath caught and his voice cracked, "We can't continue to be together. We can't go on seeing each other. We just can't...go on from here...together...I...Genesis, I think we should break up." All this while, he refused to look at me.

I staggered and caught myself on the door knob. It felt like a thousand blades to the chest and a sharp pain cramped up with shattered promises. I felt my heart tear apart as I watched him spill out more words. I could see his mouth move but what he was saying was of little coherence to me. Those last four words left behind a huge black hole and an imploding ache inside my heart. Red-hot tears slid down my cheeks as my brain slowly comprehended what he had just uttered.

              "You're..." I gulped, clutching my chest tightly, terrified it would rip open and my heart would fall out. "You're jok...joking, right? You don't mean anything you just said, right?" I chuckled, desperately hoping he would join me and tell me what a huge idiot I was for believing him but he didn't.

A tear slid down his cheeks, followed by another. He choked back a sob, "I'm sorry. I..."

            "You're not...You're not joking?"

            "I'm so so sorry Genesis but this has got to end."

I gasped harshly, gripping my chest fiercely. It felt painful to just breath. My own breath felt like a huge burden. I was unable to think straight. A mountain of weight was pressing hard on my chest. My heart began to beat faster and louder, so much that I could hear each thud in my ears. I felt the heat and energy leave my body through my cold hands and toes as my mind felt utterly disconnected from reality.

              "Please. Genesis, I...."

              "It's her." Through blurry vision, I looked up at him. He wiped at the tears on his face. "It's her now, right? It's her you love now and that's why...and that's why you are breaking up with me." Pin-point needles stabbed my heart consistently with no end in sight. "It's her you love, isn't it?"

He came up at me. I tried to back away but my spine hit the wall behind. There was no way out.

He took my face in his hands, forcing our eyes to meet. "What are you saying?" I squirmed in his hold but he didn't let up.

             "Let go off me Keegan. You are breaking up with me because of her."

             "Genesis, you know that isn't true."

             "Then what's this? Why are you doing this to me? Why are you wrecking me? Why do you choose to break my heart this way?" I felt shattered. No words could describe the pain in my heart.

He leaned his forehead against mine, holding me close. I closed my eyes as I let the tears fall.

             "Genesis. It ain't like that. It's not....Fuck, I love you. I love you so damn much. You're my world. You're my first love. You're all I see and think about each moment of my life. You're everything to me and it hurts just as much as to do this but I've got to. I don't wanna keep on wasting your time. I'm not good for you. You're too good for me. Genesis, there's so much I wanna let you know but I can't."

He stroked my cheeks with both thumbs. I leaned sadly into his touch, sobbing without control. "Why?"

He sniffed and whispered. "I just can't."

             "Why are hurting me so much?"

             "You won't understand."

             "You haven't even tried me yet."

             "It's complicated."

             "So much that I won't get it?"

He groaned and pulled back, "Genesis, I can't tell you. I just can't. I wish I could but I can't tell you shit."

              "But you always tell me everything. Why not this?" I screamed.

              "You wouldn't understand dammit." He yelled back.

              "Stop saying that. How are you so sure? I've got a brain, you know and it works just fine."

              "Genesis, please. Just forget it okay? Please, I...."

              "Oh God!" I panicked. "You played me." My shoulders shook with uncontrolled tears and my stomach spun painfully. "You played me. I'm such an idiot and she told me. She told me. I should have known. I should have known this was all a game to you. Just a stupid, senseless game you always play with innocent girls' hearts."

He reared back like I had just slapped him. With a new found hurt in his eyes, he stared at me incredulously as fresh tears rolled from his lids. "Are you fucking kidding me? What the...? I played you? What the fuck do you mean by I played you, huh?" He screamed, charging at me.

             "What. The. Hell. Do. You. Mean. By. I played you, Genesis?" He roared, backing me up against the wall. "Who the heck told you that?"

             "It doesn't matter. It's done anyway."

             "How did it feel like when I kissed you for the first time because for me, it felt like I had just hit the fucking jackpot. It felt like I had won the freaking lottery, like I was on top of the world." He gripped both sides of my face, staring into the depth of my eyes. "Genesis, kissing you that day after the party, in your room was akin to coming home after a hard day's work and felt so much more the days after that. You finally saying yes to me intensified my love for you and the days which morphed into weeks and then months I got to have you as mine is something I wouldn't dare trade for anything else. Nothing else beats that for me. Those moments with you were no doubt the best moments of my life and now, you are saying I played you? Genesis, I fucking love you. You are my first true love. How could you even think that?"

I wriggled free from his strong hold and latched onto the knob to run but he jerked my arm forcefully and pinned my hands to the wall, trapping my body in between his body and the wall pressed against my back.

             "Let me go." I fought him.

He fisted my hands in his, pinning them above my head. "I don't wanna end this with you hating me. Genesis, please I can't possibly leave with that."

             "Lord Jesus! Let me go now! This minute."

             "Genesis, please, what do you want me to do? Say the word and I'll do it. This very instant. No questions asked."

Don't break up with me. "I love you." I wailed, unable to keep it in. "I love you Keegan. I love you so much."

            "God." He cried. "I have been waiting to hear you say that to me."

            "I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love...." In a second, his mouth descended on mine. His lips lingered and our lips moved together and turned into a more passionate kiss. I tangled my fingers in his hair, caressing his neck because I felt as though I needed something to hold on to, I wanted more of him but our lips couldn't get much more physically closer than that. His hand slowly travelled up my chest as he slanted his head, taking me in much deeper. My heart was racing and I was breathing very deliberately. Our mouths fitted together perfectly. Like they were made as two parts of the same item. A pleasant jolt of electricity passed through me but it instantly went away as soon as I remembered what was to come.

I pulled away with a tear-striken face, staring up at him. "Why did you get me to fall in love with you if you knew you were going to break up with me just as soon as I did?"

             "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean for any of this to happen. I love you Genesis and I'm never gonna stop."

             "You just broke my...."

Someone yanked the door open with brute force. The guy who had spinned the bottle showed up, eyes bulging out and hair wild. Behind him, people were running hysterically in various directions, screaming and yelling and a distant, "call 911 dammit!" thrown carelessly in the air.

Something had horribly gone wrong while we were in the restroom.

            "Where the fuck have you been? Get the fuck out. Now!"

Keegan didn't need to be told twice. He ran out. I followed after him as my heart pounded so hard in chest.

            "What happened?" He asked the guy leading us to God knows where.

            "Shit, I think he's dead." Someone cried out.

The whole place was in scrambles, complete disarray as people sprinted up and down the entire house, worked into a frenzy of hysteria.

            "What the fuck happened?" Keegan jerked the boy back.

            "He's not breathing. That's what."

I felt him panic. "Who?" His voice rose.

            "Your buddy. Dario. They found him in his room that way."

He shoved the guy back and made a dart for the stairs. I rushed after him, barely keeping up. We rounded the stairs which led up to a familiar place. He pushed through the crowd, making a beeline for the finish point. There was a large gathering in front of a door I instantly recognized. A girl who wore little to no clothing stood beside a skinny looking boy in boxers. It seemed like there were just about going at it.

Keegan weaved through the throng of students peeping through the opened door. Once in front, he dashed inside. I made to follow after but immediately stopped in my tracks.

The sight in front of me made the world spin, making me dizzy for a split second. I almost crumbled to the ground as I watched the scene unfold before my very eyes.

Lana sat on the floor, performing CPR on someone while at the same time, pressing hard on his chest as Erika and Ian and few others I didn't know ran here and there helping out. Tension infused into my body. She moved a bit and I saw who it was that was sprawled out lifelessly beside her.

Dario laid in an awkward position, breathless or fighting for his life.

It was hard to tell.

***

I had a hard time writing this chapter as I wanted to bring all the emotions in and now reading it, I feel like I did justice to it.

The ending was kind of unexpected to me though because I never planned it but anyway here we are. Though, I know some of you might probably curse and pull your hair out at KeeGen's break up but I hope you understand that it's all part of the story and it was meant to happen from the beginning. I almost didn't want to do it because I've come to love them too much.

Anyway, please leave some comments down below. I love reading them. They brighten up my day.

Don't forget to vote as well. It's important to me🙂