Burn

Rae stiffened, every muscle in her body coiling with distaste and hatred. It felt like she was clenching every tendon, every fiber as she peered through the dimness of the club, not sure how she was able to pinpoint her least favorite person so easily. It was like she had radar for assholes, and hers was going haywire.

Behind her she felt Niall straighten and take a step to the side of her, his hands falling from her waste. Breaking her gaze from Harry, she looked at the boy she had been dancing with, seeing the way he was studiously not looking at her, which puzzled her. Why the lack of interaction all of a sudden.

Shaking her head, she decided she didn’t care. Even though she was filled to the brim with alcohol and could still feel the heavy impact of it, she didn’t want to be in a hundred foot radius of the likes of Styles, and she would be damned if she stayed here only to have him ruin it for her.

Moving unsteadily on her feet, she went to Trystan, trying to yell over the music that she wasn’t staying if Harry was there. Trystan was both too drunk and too into dancing to understand or try to understand what Rae was saying, much to Rae’s displeasure. She didn’t want to leave Trystan again; she felt like she was doing that constantly as of late.

When Rae finally snarled in annoyance, Trystan got the hint and broke away from her dance, latching her hand around Rae’s wrist and following her to the bar where she could finally hear what her friend was trying to say.

“We’re leaving,” Rae stated, no room for argument in her voice. Trystan did not look like she was going to reject the idea, her eyes casting nervously over Rae’s shoulder. “Please tell me he isn’t walking over here.”

“Who’s walking over here?” a deep voice asked, it’s speech slurred slightly. Rae’s hands clenched and then unclenched, turning around to stare into a pair of green, glittering eyes. The darkness of the club around them made them all the more beautiful and yet terrifying with their intensity. “Louis got you to come out, did he?”

Rae narrowed her eyes. “Unlike yourself, your friends seem to actually be worth spending time with.”

“You know nothing about me.”

“And I would very much like to keep it that way. Now get out of the way.”

Rae shoved past Harry, not meaning to be so brash, but she couldn’t help it. Something about him terrified her, so she reacted with a very bitchy, rude exterior. She found that if you faced something you fear with a snarl on your lips, it often left you alone. That was not the case with him, seeing as he caught her wrist before she got far. “I really don’t like when you do that.”

Rae tried not to look down at his grasp on her wrist; it was extremely tight. “If you would be so kind as to unhand me.”

“If you would,” he slurred, leaning against the counter, not dropping her wrist. “Would you tell me what it is about me that you loathe so entirely? Truly, a women of your caliber should happily be with someone like me.”

“If you don’t let go of my wrist you’re not going to enjoy the type of caliber you receive,” she snapped. She knew that the threat was not the best things to be said, but she couldn’t help it.

He smiled lazily, making her wonder what he was intoxicated with on this fine night. He smelled of liquor and cologne, though it was still alluring. Before Harry could reply to her threat, the bartender set a drink down, sliding it to Rae, completely unaware that the girl was trapped in the strong grasp of the other boy. “This is from the man down the bar,” he said, gesturing behind Harry. She craned her head around him, spotting a very attractive guy nodding in her direction. “Said it’s on him.”

Rae thanked him with a smile as he left. Harry finally let go of her wrist, watching her as she took the drink happily and empty the contents within a few gulps, not even tasting it. His eyes glimmered with disapproval. “You shouldn’t have drunk that.”

“Who are you to tell me what to do?”

He snorted. “A man, and a man who has been out drinking before. A girl should never accept drinks from a stranger, you don’t know what’s in it.”

“Sorry, I don’t think all men drug girls like you,” Rae scoffed, looking around Harry and seeing that her drunken friend had wound up on the dance floor again, sandwiched between Louis and Niall. Rae bit her lip, wondering if she should leave her. “Now if you’ll excuse me.”

Harry said nothing as Rae stumbled to Trystan, mumbling to her that she was leaving and she would see her in the morning. After fifteen minutes of fighting them about leaving, Trystan, Louis and Niall all placed sloppy kisses on her cheeks, which made her giggle slightly before she made her way towards the exit.

Outside in the cool air, she felt extremely hot. Blinking a bit, she noticed things around her were starting to slow down and she was beginning to feel very strange, like she couldn’t tell which way was up or down.

Rae had every intention of getting a cab home, but as she walked onto the sidewalk, she began to forget why she was there in the first place and decided to walk aimlessly along the side walk, her head feeling heavy and lulling to the side as she stumbled along, her heels barely able to hold her clumsiness.

The girls green eyes drifted upwards as she got a little further, stumbling and holding herself up on the wall. She noticed how beautiful the stars were, watching as they glittered and swirled around one another, their constellations making absolutely no sense to her. “Stars,” she mumbled to herself, shaking her head vigorously. “I don’t understand what you’re saying, stars. You don’t make sense.”

“Oh bloody hell,” she heard a voice say, but she was too busy blinking dully to listen to the voice. Her hearing was impaired it seemed, as she trying to listen to the stars. “Rae, Rae.”

“I don’t get why the stars are so loud,” she complained, covering her ears and closing her eyes. “They don’t make sense anyways. I mean come on, the tossers really don’t know what they’re doing.”

Something held her arms tight, but she couldn’t focus her eyes, feeling extremely confused and befuddled. Her world was beginning to tilt and she felt herself falling, making her reach out and clutch whatever was holding her. It felt strong and tense, though somehow it made her feel safe, like the stars wouldn’t yell at her anymore.

“Fuck. Let’s get you home.”

“They can’t come,” she murmured, feeling her feet go from under hear. She was resting against something then, something that smelled very good, and felt strong. “Don’t let the stars come.”

*

Harry saw her the moment he walked into the room, though he was sure that no man could walk in that room and not see her. Rae was moving against Niall, her hips enticing as he watched her, the hem of her dress riding up and revealing her silky smooth legs. Her dark tangles of chocolate hair were falling over her shoulder, her tresses wild and beautiful.

And then she had looked at him, the music and rhythm leaving her face to be replaced be a grimace, her agonizingly beautiful movements transforming to a rigid standing position. Something inside of him lit with anger at the fact that she wouldn’t dance for him like that, that she refused to let him see her like that.

Ever since he had seen Rae at the party the night before, something about her caught his attention. It was besides the fact that she was stunning in features; there was an innocent sort of fire about her, like she was a very proper girl brought up in a proper world, but had this kind of light in her that made her biting.

Harry of course, knew instantly that she detested him, which was very unusual for him. Most girls didn’t stand a chance when he set his sights on them, but her… he knew that getting her would be absolutely impossible, though he was sure as hell going to try.

Clenching his fists at the sight of Niall dancing with her, he was deciding whether he wanted to march over there and start a fight with Niall, who well knew that Harry was driven nuts that she didn’t like him, or if he should just drag her away from him. Neither happened, for she moved across the dance floor.

Rae and Harry had exchanged fighting words of sorts, and though he had warned the girl not to drink what the man down the bar had bought for her, she did it anyways, and he let her. If she wasn’t going to take his advice, he was going to let Rae find out the hard way, what it was like to be drugged.

The knowing boy had waited as she talked to her friends on the dance floor, buying his time by studying the mans face that had bought her the drink. He was one of those rich blokes, probably trying out drugging a girl for the first time, by the looks of it. Harry commit his face to memory, having every intention of beating the shit out of him later to teach him a lesson.

Drinking a glass of whiskey, he waited about ten minutes until Rae had walked through the door before he set his empty glass down, tossing money on the counter. He knew that she wouldn’t make it far, and he would probably find her on the floor or on the wall somewhere, hallucinating or just passed out, in a drug-induced stupor.

When he found her, she was three blocks down, which was rather impressive given the height of her heels. She was leaning against a brick wall, her eyes a strange aqua color as she stared at the sky, mumbling to herself about stars. It took everything in him not to laugh, knowing that it wasn’t really funny at all.

He decided it was time to do something when she started arguing with the sky, taking her and picking her up. As her head fell against his chest with a heavy thud, he felt himself smirking and saying, “I told you so.”

Her response was, “Don’t let the stars come.”

Thankful she was light, he carried Rae to his car, sliding her in the passenger seat and closing the door. She slumped against the door slightly, her eyes shut but eyelids fluttering with life. Incoherent sentences were falling from her lips in light whispers.

The drive to her home was a rather boring one, seeing as the only person he had for company was a girl who was roofied. To distract himself, he studied every inch of her body, and how her legs were actually quite long for her short stature, and that her torso was short.

Part of Harry was extremely annoyed that he had to take care of her. if she would’ve just listened to him, she could have gone home bloody well on her own and he wouldn’t have to babysit. If it was any other slag, he wouldn’t have cared; he just wanted her too feel absolutely ridiculous when she realized he had helped her.

Once at her home, Harry removed her from the seat, her dead weight not very heavy at all. He waltzed up the drive and up to the porch, where he set her down on the floor for a moment to dig through her purse for keys. He found them easily and opened the door, picking her back up swiftly and carrying her inside.

“Did you let the stars in?” she asked, the first sentence he could make out in the past fifteen minutes. He found himself laughing at her, he couldn’t help it. “Because I don’t want them. They really are being chatty tonight. Pipe down!”

“Dear god,” he muttered, too sober to be dealing with her grades school behavior. Not knowing what else to do, he walked up the stairs with her and checked both rooms, deciding the later looked like her; it had books strewn all over the bed, and he didn’t tag Trystan as one to read books.

Knowing she couldn’t really feel anything, he tossed her onto the bed, wincing as she let out a small shriek. He forgot that in that state, everything felt a lot different, and she probably felt like she was falling through a black hole.

Harry stood there as she lay sprawled on the bed, mumbling. Her hair was fanned out across the sheets, and even though she looked a mess, he couldn’t help but feel the need to take her right there and then. He tried to decide whether he should change her or not, finally deciding against it. She would be screaming enough in the morning as it was.

Walking over to the couch that was in her room, he removed his shirt and helped himself to lying across it, watching her. The best thing for her to do was sweat it out, and watching her roll and tangle herself in the sheets, he knew she would.

“Maybe next time you’ll listen,” he muttered angrily, scowling as he settled himself for the night.