I pulled up into Ethan's driveway and immediately heard music blaring through the speakers, so loud, I could hear it and I was standing at the beginning of the driveway.

I parked my car nearby and walked into the house with Grace by my side. "Not exactly your scene huh?" she yelled as we entered the house, trying to raise her voice above the music's volume. "Not really, I'm here for you. You owe me one." I yelled as we walked out into the backyard, where the music got a lot softer. It was at a very low volume now, finally, I could talk in my normal voice instead of having to yell. We looked around for Ethan and saw the house pretty much empty. Why was he blasting music if not one guest was here yet? "Thank you for coming early ladies. Help me fix the music system? I can't turn the volume down." he pleaded as he tried extremely hard to turned the music down from his phone, but it wouldn't work. "Lead the way." I chuckled as I told him to start walking to the music system. We walked back into the house, immediately going deaf. He pointed to the music system that wouldn't seem to shut up.

I reached for the plug and immediately pulled it out. "That's so much better." I said as I let out a breathe. "What about when the people get here?" he asked, carelessly.

"It will be fixed by then." said a voice from the stairs, Ryder. "You know how to fix this too?" Grace asked challengingly. They have a bittersweet relationship. Mostly bitter. She never liked him that much, he didn't like her either. "I can do anything. Ask Mia." he winked at me as he laughed and disconnected the bluetooth from Ethan's phone and reconnected some wires and when he started playing the music again, it was at the perfect volume. Not too loud, not too soft. "Told you." he said as he jogged back up the stairs. Did I mention he was shirtless? I forget to mention things a lot don't I? He loves rubbing it my face that he's not with me anymore. He does it as a joke and tries not to hurt my feelings because if he wanted to, I would be the saddest person on the planet.

He's got me right in the palm of his hand, and I don't think he even knows it.

Just then, we heard a few cars pulling up and parking nearby. "I'll take care of the welcoming." I said as I walked over to the front door and got everyone inside. For the next few minutes, I stood there, I was later joined by Ethan, and we got all the attendees to come in and move over to the backyard since everywhere in the house, except for the bathrooms is off limits. Except for to Grace, Harper, me, Ryder and Daniel. We can go anywhere we want. We've come here thousands of times. "All right everyone! Pool is available. Time for the highlight of the night... Circle of dares!" he yelled and everyone ran and jumped into the pool. Harper and me went in after everyone was done with the splashing and drowning each other part. I went and took a seat on the little bench thing in the pool, kind of like the border. I was sitting between Harper and Grace when Daniel came and took Harper to sit with him. "And then there were 2." Grace chuckled as she looked at the now empty spot to my right where Ryder decided to come and sit.

"I'll give you two time." she winked and swam away and stood with Ethan. Traitor!

"And then there was 1." I mumbled to myself.

"Hey! There's still 2." Ryder whispered in my ear, making the hairs at the back of my neck stand up. He has no idea how much I hate him and the fact that he still has an effect on me. I don't like him. I can't. Because we all know, history repeats itself, and he'll break my heart, again.

"Why are you sitting next to me? Isn't Bella over there?" I asked as I pointed to Bella. She's the highschool bitch. Typical, blonde hair, blue eyes, perfect red shade of slut painted across her lips. No offence. "I'd prefer you over Bella any day. Simply because, what we had was real, what I had with her, wasn't." he whispered before Ethan declared that we were starting the game, saving me from any further conversation with Ryder.

We had been in the pool for almost 15 minutes and almost everyone had done their dares except for me because no one had called on me yet. There were dares from giving someone a lap dance to eating a spoonful of mayonnaise. Oh and there was Bella's dare, to take a dip underwater, which she refused to do and left the party. I guess the makeup would swim away. I love makeup but who wears it to a pool party. Grace had just finished her dare of sitting on a guy's lap that Harper gave and hence chose the guy for her, she chose Ethan. I swear they flirt and the other is always oblivious. "Ok, I pick... Mia." she said with a mischievous grin across her face. "Ok." I said as I waited for her to give me a dare. "I dare you, to kiss-" she said, causing my eyes to snap up and meet hers. "The person, on your right." she said knowingly since she wasn't blind, that the person to my right, was Ryder. "What's the forfeit?" I asked nervously. We followed the rule that if the person didn't want to do the dare, they could forfeit and do a consequence. "Ask Jeremy on a date." she said.

"Grace, he's my dad's best friend's son!" I whined. It was gross to think of him like that.

"He's cute I don't know why you wouldn't take the forfeit?" she shrugged.

"Honestly, at this point I'd rather just do the forfe-" I was saying but Ryder cut me off, not letting me finish. "Kiss me." he said demandingly, making me turn to face him. "It's just a dare." he shrugged. "And you're ok with that?" I mumbled, so only he could hear. "No, I'm not ok with it being just a dare, but I'm most certainly not ok with you going on a date with Jeremy either. So, kiss me." he demanded. "For 10 seconds." Grace added. I am so going to get her back for this.

"I said kiss me." he said as he grabbed my waist, forcing me to turn to him as he crashed his lips onto mine. 10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1...0

I immediately pulled away as my mental timer hit 0. "10 seconds are over." I said as I pushed him off of me and faced everyone else, who was looking at us wide-eyed. "Someone else can choose the next person. I'm done playing." I said as I turned around and stepped on the steps, and out of the pool. I am leaving this party. I'm kind of mad at Grace. She knew I didn't want to come because he would be there and she made me kiss him!

I walked into the living room and grabbed my things along with my keys and walked out to my car. I unlocked the jeep, and threw my stuff in the back seat. I could feel my eyes stinging from the tears I was trying so desperately to hold in. I took a seat in my car and just sat there. I just sat there, trying so hard to not cry and pull myself back together, just so I could drive home safely.

And then the front door to Ethan's house opened, and out came Ryder.