Hey, Red.

The look that she was giving him was making him uncomfortable. The pure fury in her eyes made him take a couple steps away from her. He hadn’t seen her this pissed since he had first met her and tried to pry her off his friend.

“Gwen?” Dan questioned, there was no reason for her to be this ticked off. Unless… unless she found out.

“Where were you last night Dan?” She seethed circling him like a hawk circling its prey. Rolling his eyes he grabbed his girlfriend’s arm and sat her down on her bed. He was seriously going to have to work to calm her down. No point in having a decent conversation with her when she was pissed.

“Gwen, I was with you the entire night. What’s wrong with you?”

His voice was sweet and alluring, but she knew better. She had known him for years and the way he was speaking to her right now was the way that he typically did so that he could calm her down first before finally telling her all the bad news.
“You were not with me last night Dan.” She whispered, still staring at him intently, gaging his reaction to her words. She watched as he stiffened and looked toward the door. “This is obviously not working. I think we should stop what we are doing.” She continued, still watching his body language.
“What are we doing Gwen? You are never here.” He snapped she could feel the annoyance radiating off him. He was never good at handling break ups. Right when she had agreed to get back with him, here she was breaking it off with him once again.
“Well even when I am here you obviously aren’t. Take last night for example.” She said, her voice rising.
Neither knew how it happened, one moment they were both sitting down on her plush bed facing each other and talking and now they were both standing up with their fists clenched. Dan couldn’t help but be a bit frustrated. He hadn’t meant to leave her alone for as long as he did the night before; he had practically paid off her older sister to watch her knowing that his girlfriend would get into some sort of trouble.
“Didn’t Rory take care of you?” he asked.
There was no way that she could have gone home with some random guy when she had her sister with her the entire night. But the way that she wasn’t looking at him told him something different. Something happened when she had got home. But there was no way, no way that she could have got on with any guy unless…

His eyes snapped to hers and he couldn’t help but growl a little.

“What the fuck happened last night Gwen?” He fumed, not bothering to move away from her. She as still looking down at her feet. Something that was so completely unlike her.

“You weren’t here Dan. You promised.” She whispered looking up at him and he felt his heart drop a little as he took in her appearance. Tears were pooling in her eyes and her face was blotchy. Grabbing a hold of her arms he tried to pull her toward his chest to hug her. But instead of letting him she shoved him away from her. Stumbling backwards he regained his balance and stared at his girlfriend. She was staring at him with a level gaze. She seemed completely emotionless the only clue to tell him that she was feeling something was the tears falling down her face. “I didn’t want to go to the god damn party, but nooo you and your fucking sister had to bribe me. You promised me Dan! You promised that you wouldn’t leave my side the entire fucking night!”

He didn’t know what to say, he had no idea how to comfort the crying and angry girl that stood in front of him. Gingerly taking a step forward, he raised his hand to touch her.

“Gwen, tell me what happened.” He made sure to say the words calmly and sweetly. He was usually great at calming down the angry girl but for once he was lost. He had no idea how to calm her down when she wouldn’t even tell him what happened. But he had a lingering feeling that even if she did tell him that he wouldn’t be too happy about it.

“Because you weren’t here like you promised someone took advantage of me. You fucking promised me Dan!”

He didn’t respond. Actually he had no idea how to respond. The girl in front of him was a mess, and it was somewhat his fault. But the chance that he had last night he just couldn’t pass it up. The girl that he had been chasing for years had finally gave him the time of day and he couldn’t help but go for it. Why she had suddenly decided to talk to him he had no idea why. But he didn’t actually think that something would happen to the red head that stood in front of him. Not when she had her sister taking care of her. Her overprotective sister. The only way that someone could have done something to her was if one of the assholes that she her younger sister had brought a long had done something.

The pieces were clicking together like puzzle and he couldn’t help but feel rage boil up in his body. The bastards had taken advantage of her when she had been drunk. Not bothering to say anything in response to her he turned and headed through the door. Her screams for him to come back not reaching his ears as he walked quickly down the stairs. He knew her father was home, so were her sisters and the two bastards who had taken advantage of her.

Who the fuck takes advantage of a drunk girl?!

He yelled inside of his head. The dudes really had some balls to fuck with the girl. Not only was she violent but he was too. That was what had made their relationship so great. If he hit her she could easily come back and punch him leaving him with a black eye. It was the first healthy relationship that he had been in in ages. And the fact that she got taken advantage of by a couple of jock douchebags was something that he couldn’t handle.

Hitting the ground floor he headed toward the back yard. It was a nice day out and he was pretty sure they were all outside in the heated pool swimming and playing around. Barging through the French doors he instantly sought out the two faces that were the newest to him, he knew that Gwen was right behind him. But he didn’t want to bother with her just yet. He would in a little bit after he was done with the two fuck heads.

“You two!” He shouted once he spotted them. Both guys turned their attention away from the girls and looked at him. The older one looked uninterested and the younger ones eyes sparked at the thought of confrontation. Walking right up to both of their half-naked and wet forms, Dan shoved the youngest and said the words that Gwen had hoped he wouldn’t say. “Which one of you fucked my girlfriend?”

*~*

She had to stop him. If he laid one hand on either brother then she knew that he would most likely have a one way trip the hospital. Neji wasn’t someone that anyone would want to deal with in hand to hand combat. She knew from just the way the two had fought.

“Dan!” She yelled, he was already facing both of the brothers and Gwen couldn’t help but stop and stare at the oldest body. The way he stood, she had no idea how he was becoming so much more attractive than before. The entire day she had kept getting flashbacks of the night before. And she couldn’t help but feel embarrassed at the way that she had come onto him while drunk. He was her sister’s boyfriend for crying out loud. But obviously that didn’t stop her drunk self. She just didn’t care when she was intoxicated, if they had a penis well hell yeah might as well jump it.

Honestly.

You’d think that she would be able to keep it in her pants. She did a great job whenever she was sober; it was just when she was under the influence. It was the sole reason why she had never got drunk with her friend Reese. The girl’s lack of control frightened her. The way she didn’t care who she slept with. She had always told her that it was just an itch that she had to scratch, sometimes it was good and sometimes it was bad. But for Gwen it was different. She only had sex with people that she was in love with, she was in love with Dan and yet she had slept with Neji. She would have to have a very long talk with her friend about her feelings. She wasn’t used to this type of thing. Usually she was so in control of herself, but at this moment she wasn’t.

“Dan!” She screamed once again as she watched him push Brody, she couldn’t hear his words but she knew that he had said something that had shocked everyone. Especially her sisters. Neji just stood there with the same look on his face, except this time he had a bit more of a bite to it. He wasn’t taking it too kindly that Dan had targeted his younger brother. Looking quickly away from his younger brother and glancing up at her she could feel the heat. He knew that she had said something and for some reason that bothered her. She didn’t want people to know that she had slept with him, especially her younger sister.

God damnit! She thought, why did Dan have to have such a temper!?

Rushing over to where they were all standing, Gwen hurriedly grabbed ahold of her boyfriend’s arm and twisted it behind his back causing him to howl in pain. He was pissed right now and the fact that she had stopped him from causing the two guys in front of her pain she knew that they were going to have it out later.

“You don’t listen.” She whispered, “I never said them.”

She didn’t know why she was protecting him from her boyfriend’s rage. She didn’t know why she was protecting him from her younger sister’s anger either. But this was just something that she wanted to forget about. To never talk about again and to move on from. But she could tell from the look on her older sister’s face that it wasn’t something that she would be able to walk away from without some intense questioning. And the way that she kept glancing at Neji and back to her made her feel uncomfortable. It was like she already knew that something had happened. Closing her eyes she inhaled and tried to count to ten. She could do this. Even though she didn’t want to do it in front of everyone.

“It wasn’t anywhere here that I hooked up with Dan.” She said calmly. She was not going to look at the faces behind her. She was not going too; she could only imagine the look on Neji’s face. Probably mixed with shock and god knew what else. “It’s over Dan.” She said, her voice cracking at the word ‘over’.

Letting him go she watched as he turned around and faced her. He was still boiling over, and she knew what he was going to do. After all this is what their relationship mostly consisted of, it’s why they worked so well together. She could take out her anger physically on him and he could do it to her. She could handle it. He never would do it if she didn’t have any training. She was prepared for him to hit her, to slap her. But she wasn’t prepared for the hand that shot out and caught her ex-boyfriends hand right as it was about to make contact.

She knew the body. She somehow remembered how it felt through all of her drunken haze. She could feel the heat radiating off him. He was so much warmer than Dan. She inhaled deeply as she fought the urge to not lean back into his and letting their bodies mesh together.

They all stood still in silence. No one had expected Neji to stop the hand from hitting her. But they could all feel the energy coming off his body. Gwen didn’t even want to look up at him. She could feel the pulsating anger.

“Let me go!” Dan spat at the older boy. But Neji only gripped his hand tighter causing Dan to clench his teeth in pain. After a few minutes he finally let him go, only to put his hand in front of Gwen and push her behind him. She had never experienced this before. Never before had someone tried to offer protection to her. She had always stood up for herself. She couldn’t help but feel a bit annoyed and a bit, well she didn’t know. Something unfamiliar churned in her stomach. She had never felt this way before. But it wasn’t a way that she was supposed to feel, especially about her sister’s boyfriend.

“Leave.” The dark haired boy murmured. His voice came out sounding like melted chocolate, and Gwen wanted to scream. Why the fuck was she so enamored with him now? She didn’t used to be! She always knew that he was attractive, hell she knew he was gorgeous but why the fuck now did she have to have this feeling sprout up out of nowhere.

Dan took one last long look at her before turning around and walking away. No one said anything; no one asked if she was okay. Because the moment that Dan exited through the front doors and everyone turned to look at her, wanting to demand answers from her she was already through the back doors and heading up toward her room. She couldn’t deal with this shit.

*~*

The rest of the week passed by quickly, and not once did Gwen talk about what had happened the night of the party. She was going to keep it that way. She didn’t want to talk about it; she didn’t want anyone to know about it. The only thing that she was remotely worried about now was the fact that she didn’t know if he pulled out or used a condom.

After the fight she had searched her room for the rubber that she had hoped that he had just discarded, but after not finding one, she just hoped that he pulled out. She wasn’t on the pill like her younger sister. She wasn’t as promiscuous as her younger sister, she wasn’t anything like Jezbelle. But with the way things were going she was starting to wonder if maybe she was.

Before she knew what was happening she was packing up all her things and loading them into the car and heading for the airport to fly back to her house in Oregon. Her new house, the one without her psychotic mother. Her father had gone through great difficulties to make the house the best that he could. Paying people an arm and leg so that it would be finished by the time that spring break was over.

The entire trip was silent; her sisters had finally stopped trying to figure out what Dan had been talking about. And Neji hadn’t so much as talked to her since the night of the party. She wanted to speak to him, to ask him about the rubber. To make sure that she didn’t have to worry. But with a sickening feeling she knew that he wouldn’t even talk to her about it. So all she could do was wait for her friend to come visit from California.

At least Gwen had other things to think about, like her new friend Rosa. She would have to go visit her and see what had gone on for her to send such an upsetting text to her. All Gwen could make out from the message was that she had got jumped by a group of girls. It pissed her off when she read it and it still pissed her off every time she had thought about it.

Gwen sighed in her comfortable seat and slid to unlock her phone. Quickly texting her blonde haired friend telling her that she would be home in five hours and for her to spill when she got home. She would take care of it all. She couldn’t take care of her own crazy life, but by gods she could protect her friends.