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"You are equipped to handle everything that is before you." –Pythagoras

Recap:

I felt like I was sent back a year. My stomach churned uncomfortably.

My ex boyfriend and my sworn enemy, kissing. Again. I couldn't see this. Not again.

I spun on my heel and ran to my car, ashamed to admit I had hot tears welling in my eyes.

Once an asshole, always an asshole.

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One Year Ago

"Quit being a hog!" Brooklyn slurred, reaching for the almost-empty vodka bottle in my hand.

I jerked back, a sloppy smirk forming on my lips. "Hey, it's my half now!"

"Is not!"

The idea of going halves in a bottle had seemed logical at the time. But now we were both drunk and didn't want to share. Plus, I was in a sour mood because I was meant to go to the party with Jacob, but he ditched me for the "boys", as usual. Not that Brooklyn wasn't fun to party with, but it would have been cool if we could have done pre-drinks with a larger group, rather than just her and myself.

"Ugh," I scowled, shoving the bottle into her waiting palm. I folded my arms over my chest and stared down at my outfit. I was wearing my usual high-waisted black jeans, dr martens and my signature leather jacket. My fiery red hair matched the intensity of my red lip gloss. "I'm ready to go now, anyway."

After pouring the last of the vodka into her cup, Brooklyn nodded agreeing. "Okay, I'm just going to call Derek and see where the boys are."

My eye roll came naturally. I had to, every time she mentioned Derek. He was such an idiot.

Soon enough, Brooklyn's older sister, Samantha, had picked us up and we were on our way to Thomas Herold's "end of semester" gathering. He usually threw one at the end of each school term, to celebrate that we all made it. It was basically just an excuse for everyone to come over and get drunk, as he only lived with his older brother and his brother was a bigger party animal than he was. None of us complained though, his parties were generally pretty fun.

I stumbled out of Samantha's car, deciding that I probably shouldn't have done those shots after all. I hadn't really felt the effects, so I'd thrown back a few more. Now I was hit with them all and felt like I could hardly walk straight. After throwing a thanks over my shoulder, I began wobbling into the party, my vision considerably blurrier than it had been half an hour ago. Brooklyn stumbled beside me, her cold fingers clutching onto my arm.

"Babe!" Derek called out in his usual, over-the-top, loud voice. An irritated sigh left my lips. When you walked into school, it was Derek's voice and laughter that you could hear. The sound literally bounced from the roofs and walls. It was beyond annoying. Especially if you'd been to school with him since you were five. "Finally!"

She moved into his arms. I pushed through them and stared up into his dark eyes. "Where's Jacob?" There was no point being polite. We both didn't like each other. Okay, well, I mainly was the one who didn't like him, but anyway.

"Um, he split early."

"What do you mean?" I asked, focusing on standing upright and not swaying.

"He left pres and came to the party early. Thought he must have been meeting you."

Frowning, I withdrew my phone. Taking longer than it should have, I slowly dialled his number, impressed I could still remember it, in this state. Derek jumped when Jacob's familiar ring tone blared from his pocket.

I narrowed my eyes. Derek, in his usual moronic state, answered the phone. "Hello?"

I stared at him. "Derek."

"Oh, Faith," he said and for a second, seemed really confused. He stared over at me. "Why are you calling me when you're right next to me?"

This is what I had to deal with. For a smart girl, Brooklyn seriously chose the dumbest person ever to be with.

"I didn't," I snapped and didn't miss the warning glance Brooklyn gave me at my tone. "I rang Jacob. Why do you have his phone?"

"Oh," he chuckled, hanging up and chucking his iPhone at me. It hit my shoulder and fell to the ground. I glared at him. "He left it at my house."

Swooping to pick it up, I grabbed it. I froze.

Under the name "Emily", which was his sister, it said, "Come to the party early, I'm in the basement. Bring protection this time." I stood there, highly disturbed. Why would Emily send...? Before I could even finish my line of thought, realisation dawned on me. My stomach lurched. Jacob was cheating on me.

That's when I emptied my entire stomach onto Derek's shoes.

"Faith!" Brooklyn cried out. "What the hell!?"

Derek made a sound, which I could only presume was gagging, as he fought off his own urge to vomit. I didn't intentionally vomit on Derek's shoes, but I didn't exactly go out of my way to avoid them, either.

Ignoring Brooklyn's shrill voice, which is what happened when she was mad, I turned, moving through the swarms of people, ignoring the fact that I could feel my chin wet. I probably had a chunk of my dinner sitting there.

I probably should have apologised, but that would mean I gave a shit. Which I don't, when it comes to him.

Finally finding some peace and quiet, and feeling slightly soberer, I began guessing what Jacob's pass code was. I had never really been the over-jealous type. Well, I probably am - I just didn't think I had to worry when it came to Jacob.

He told me he loved me... I thought we were happy.

Finally guessing his pass code, after disabling the phone for ten minutes and it being the four-digit code to his bank card, I got in. There were only a few messages, as most had been deleted. He must have put whoever it is, under his sister's name, in case I ever checked. I wouldn't think to go through messages between him and his sister. That was pretty smart, I'll give him that.

I won't go into the details, because some were gross, but it was mainly just them talking about what they were going to do to each other at the party. I stared, completely appalled, at the screen. Jacob never spoke like that with me. And I'm glad. I felt like I was suddenly reading some Fifty Shades of Grey erotica. I was almost sick again.

Finally tearing my eyes from the messages, after not being able to read them due to the tears in my eyes, I hastily wiped at them and went to his photos. In an album listed "Guitars", which the first about twenty were of different types of guitars, after that, there were pornographic photos of the one person I hated more than anyone else. Other than Nancy, my dad's annoying as hell girlfriend. Megan. Photos and photos of her... doing very disturbing things met my eyes and I really was sick again.

Holy shit. Jacob was actually cheating on me. With a girl I've hated ever since we were little.

We were best friends, Megan and I, through primary school. Until athletic carnivals became competition and boys even more so. She had to be the best at everything and with my competitiveness, it didn't go down well. Once we hit high school, the most typical thing happened. She rose to the top and turned into the biggest bitch ever. Ever since then, I whole-heartedly hated her. We could have just stayed out of each other's way. She didn't need to use her girls to bully me. I'll never forget what she did to me. Especially now.

This just does not happen in real life. What the actual hell.

More furious, than actually upset, surprisingly, I shoved his phone far too aggressively into my pocket and stomped into the house. Boy, was I pissed. I ignored the few, "hey Faith"'s I got and marched down to the basement. Just as the door came into vision, I saw Megan emerge, her cheeks crimson and her hair messy. Other than that, she looked pretty composed as she stepped out, re-adjusting her shirt. As if nothing had just happened, she walked towards a group of people playing the game "Never Have I Ever". I will deal with that skank later.

Quietly, I slipped into the room. I was met with stairs. The lighting was dim, so I could see where I was going, but not that well. Focusing as hard as I could, I took the stairs one step at a time, at a painfully slow rate. I was still pretty drunk.

Successfully making it down the stairs, I let my eyes roam. They landed on a familiar body. He was doing his pants up. The blood inside my veins went cold. Although I didn't see it with my own eyes, the evidence was right there in front of my face. The messages, the photos, her leaving... I wanted to be sick again, but there was nothing left inside me. I felt dead.

"You prick." My voice was so cold and venomous, it actually surprised me.

Jacob whipped his head up. "F-Faith, what are you doing down here?"

"You're such an asshole," I whispered, my voice hardly audible. Tears openly gushing down my cheeks. I couldn't hold them in anymore.

"What are you talking about?" he asked and actually managed to somehow look innocent.

I felt like punching myself. Everything was an act. How could I have been so blind? I guess he was the first boy that really paid attention to me before. Maybe I saw some signs and chose to ignore them? Maybe I knew he was a bad boy, all along. Maybe that's why I liked him in the first place.

"I thought I loved you," I said, my voice hoarse. The crack in it made me flinch. I was so vulnerable. My heart was actually aching inside my chest.

"Faith, this isn't what it looks like. Just calm down." He looked pleading enough, but his voice sounded like he didn't have the time to deal with this. Which made me feel ten times worse.

"Calm down?" I didn't expect my voice to come out as loud as it did. He flinched, stepping back. "I can't calm down!"

I strode towards him. My palm connected with his cheek. The crack that met my ears was satisfying.

It took me a second to realise that the over-whelming scent of alcohol I could suddenly smell was coming from him, not me. I had been so worked up, I didn't realise how drunk he was. He probably couldn't have even done the deed with Megan very well, in this state.

"How long has this been going on?"

"Look, not long, seriously," he said in a panic, his voice coming out fast. He held his hands up defensively. "I'm sorry-"

I shoved him and he fell back. "Piss off, Jacob."

Turning on my heel, I planned to leave it at that. But he had other ideas, clearly.

He staggered to his feet. "Well if you weren't such a bitch, maybe I wouldn't have been with her."

And there it was. The typical, drunk Jacob that I had come to know so well.

I knew he was saying this because he was drunk. When he had been drinking, it really brought out the worst in him. His dad is great, don't get me wrong, but he was a severe alcoholic. I think Jacob was going to head down the same road. He could be very nasty when he drank, which was the same with Jacob.

The only time we ever fought was when he drank. He would say things, make me upset and then the spend the next three days trying to make it up to me. Why I stayed with him, I have no idea. We usually didn't drink this much. I don't know why we both decided to tonight.

"Oh, wow," I said sarcastically, whirling around the face him. "Oh, she has an attitude, let me just stick my dick into another girl instead of communicating with her like a normal person!"

I was livid. White, hot, anger pulsated through my veins. I honestly thought I could see my vision turning red. Redder than my hair.

He was really going to try and turn this around on me?

"She puts out, unlike you."

My mouth fell open. That hurt. We had sex. Plenty of times. I just didn't want to do it every second of the bloody day, like he wanted to.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me. Bitch."

That was such a poor excuse. He was just pulling at straws now. He was trying to find anything to use against me. That was the best he could come up with.

"I can't believe I put up with your shit for this long."

I'm not one hundred percent innocent in this, either. My anger fired up more rapidly when I drank as well. Jacob and I were a pretty unhealthy match, when we both drank. Well, drank this much, anyway. But at least I never cheated on him. Hell, I used to feel guilty talking to another guy, let alone doing something like this...

"Likewise."

I rolled my eyes. I walked towards him, tantalisingly slow. I pressed my face right up to his and jammed my finger into his chest.

"Ever thought there might be a reason why I don't want to sleep with you all the time? Maybe if you were bigger, it would have actually felt good."

That was kind of a lie, but I said it anyway. My anger had riddled inside my brain and had me saying stupid things. I should have just walked out, but my anger held me to the spot I standing.

What happened next, I did not expect.

His hand swung towards me, striking me in the face. I lost my balance, falling back. The hit on my face was hard, but not as hard as it was hitting the cement ground behind me. A cry left my lips as pain muddled my head.

"Shit," he swore, somehow sounding angrier than I felt.

I tried sitting up, but the pain inside my head doubled. Black dots danced across my vision. After cursing a few more times, Jacob rose to his full height and stepped over me. He literally, walked over me and left.

I guess I could say this was by far, the worst night of my life.

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Pretty heavy chapter but I just wanted to give you an insight of what happened between them. Please comment what you think and vote if you liked it! I'll post another chapter soon because this one was short. :-)

Thanks for reading!

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