“That was awesome! How are you coming up with these games?” I asked, looking at her in awe.

“I spend every Thursday night on the internet, researching drinking games. That one’s called, Russian Beer Roulette,” she said shrugging.

She started off a tag team drinking game in another one of the rooms, where they each had to drink a pint of beer quicker than the other team, with a ‘strip an item of clothing’ forfeit for the losers. In the lounge she started a game that she called ‘Where’s the water?’ Hiding one cup of water in amongst about ten cups of vodka. She really was funny and everyone seemed to be hanging on her every word.

When everyone seemed busy, she pulled me over and we danced for a bit. We had to stop every couple of minutes though, because someone wanted to talk to her. She had a fake smile on her face and chatted to everyone politely. I could tell that she hated this attention, why on earth she was head cheerleader I don’t know. This was all just an act, all of this forced friendliness, she was a really nice person but these people only wanted to talk to her because of who she was or what she was, not because they were her friends, which is really sad.

After a little while I excused myself to the bathroom and left her with a group of her friends. As I walked out of the bathroom, someone grabbed me and slammed me against the wall, face first. I instinctively went to into self-preservation mode, I shoved myself away from the wall, ramming whoever it was that was holding me, against the opposite wall. I heard a groan from him as the wind was knocked out of his body. His arms were tight around my chest, making my lungs burn with white hot pain from my broken ribs. I raised my arms, knocking the hands off of me, I didn’t even need to think about what I was doing, this kind of thing came naturally to me. I span around and had my hand around his throat before I even saw who it was.

“What the f**k are you doing, Mark?” I growled, putting my face inches from his, tightening my hand warningly, but not enough to actually hurt him.

He struggled, thrashing, trying to squirm out of my chokehold. “Get the hell off of me!” he shouted.

I let him go, pulling him away from the wall, shoving him away from me, watching as he stumbled and just managed to catch himself before he fell on his ass. “You little prick! You need to stay away from Ellie!” he demanded, raising himself to his full height, trying to look threatening as he glared at me.

I smiled, “When she tells me to stay away, I will. Until then, you touch either me or her again, and you’ll regret it. I’m not into all this, ‘I’ll f**k you up’ trash talk or anything, so I’m not going to make threats, I don’t think I need to…..do I?” I asked, cocking my head to the side. I could tell he was already a little wary of me, he knew I could kick his ass so he wouldn’t try and take me on his own, if he was going to do anything it would be with a couple of friends, even then they’d lose.

I had the edge in any fight, mainly because I just didn’t care. It didn’t matter if I died, it’d probably be better in the long run anyway. I think because I just didn’t care, it made me a better fighter, I didn’t have any inhibitions or worries. When I was fighting I was like a machine, I didn’t even feel it at the time.

He snorted and turned on his heel, storming off. I glared after him, shaking out my hands, wincing slightly at the burning pain in my fingers and ribs. I headed back into the bathroom, grabbing a couple of pain pills from the cabinet before heading back down to find Ellie.

She was still chatting to her friends, exactly where I left her a few minutes before. I weaved my way through the crowd to her side, when I got to her she smiled and slipped one arm around my waist.

“Hey, Stud,” she chirped.

I grinned and put my arm around her shoulder, pulling her against me, smiling proudly that I was getting affection from the prettiest and most popular girl in the room. We spent another hour laughing and talking with her friends, they seemed a nice group of people. These were her genuine friends, I could tell the difference from when she spoke to one of the ‘fame seeker’ friends that just wanted to feed from her popularity.

Mark was glaring at her the whole time, she either didn’t see him or ignored him, which made me smirk over in his direction a little. After a little while he came up to her, I stiffened, ready for more trouble. “So this is it? I can f**k who I want. It’s over?“ he slurred, still looking at her hopefully, as if she was going to suddenly fall all over him again.

“You can do whatever you want, Mark, or whoever you want. Go have some fun,” she said, shrugging.

“Fine, I will!” he hissed, walking off and grabbing a slutty looking blonde girl and kissed her. She kissed him back immediately, wrapping her arms around his neck.

“Ew… I hope he uses protection because Ruby is a real tramp,” Ellie giggled. “Right Jamie, want to dance some more?” she asked, looking at me hopefully.

I nodded and lead her back the lounge, pulling her close, loving that fact that she didn’t seem to see any other guy other than me in the room, even though by the look of it she definitely had her pick of them.

Her friend Stacey was happily making out against the wall with a brown haired guy. “Is that Stacey’s boyfriend that you said she’d make up with?” I asked, pointing at them and bending to talk in her ear because the music was so loud.

She smiled and nodded, “Yep, come on then stud, upstairs right now. You have some making up to do,” she flirted, biting her lip, looking so sexy that I couldn’t help but groan.