Leave the past behind

Hi there, and welcome (back) to another standalone slow-burn friends to lovers story.

A little warning, there is mention of off-screen roofies being used against unwitting victims, and of a near-death experience. Nothing too heavy though.

I hope you will enjoy this story, that kept surprising me every step of the writing way.

F.

“Heeeey man!”.

“Roch! Didn’t think you would come!”

“What can I say, I’m a wild guy…”

His friends laughed, and Roch could scowl as much as he wanted, he still couldn’t blame them. Truth to be told, he was anything but wild. At eighteen, he was living like an old man. Study, work, sleep, repeat.

Oh, and live a little with your girlfriend, some moments in between. Sparse times nowadays.

But tonight, he wanted to have fun. The last argument with Miri had left him frayed. On edge. He was young, for fuck’s sake, and he just to needed a normal night. Breathe a little.

He grinned at Samir, who was definitively picking up his vibe and observing him too closely, before asking him. “Where did you leave your girlfriend?”

“At home.”

He hoped his friend would get the curt answer for what it was. Samir was a lot of things, but an idiot he was not, and he left him well alone.

As he walked around, greeting people already in various states of inebriation, answering their surprise and exclamations with a shrug and a smile, he tried not to mull over Miri, and her anger at him.

Yes, he knew he had a school exam on Monday. Yes, he knew it was important. Yes, he disliked Austin, who was an obnoxious nepo baby, currently showing off his penthouse that the famous F1 driver, his father, offered him as a birthday present. Who the fuck offers a two stories, eight bedrooms penthouse with art on the wall that would feed a small country for a decade to a seventeen old boy? Well, this man apparently.

But Austin invited their whole volleyball team, and for once in his life, Roch accepted.

Miri was pissed off at him. The whole day, she went on nagging, resolute on convincing him to cancel and study instead. And by doing that, prevented him from doing that very thing: he told her again and again. He would study today, have fun tonight, have a late morning tomorrow, and study the rest of the weekend. She thought he was gambling with his future, she thought he was irresponsible. Out of patience with him, she called him an idiot. That was when he called it quits. He locked himself in the bathroom, to take a shower and change, and stormed out of the small apartment they shared, ignoring her pleas to “Roch, just listen to me for a second.”

So now, he would smile at Austin, who was often irritating, and kind of silly, but all in all not the idiot he played out to be. He would thank him again graciously for the invite, get some of the punch everyone told him was amazing, and have some fucking fun for once.

He finally made it back to his friends, glass of punch in hand, winked at Samir, accepted Ryan and Aidan’s ribbing goodnaturedly, and drank, laughed, and let go.

This was fun. He heard the grumbles, “What the fuck is he doing here?”, glancing up to see Logan enter the room, cocky and loud.

“He was arrested this week, you know that?”, Ryan whispered dramatically, bending his head to them like a villain preparing a coup.

“Arrested?”

Ryan nodded, “Yeah, my dad told me. They’re sure he’s the one selling weed at school, and they saw him slip some little bags to a guy who gave him money, the other night on the town’s square, so they took their chance.”

Aidan blinked. “How is he here if he was arrested?”

Ryan scoffed, sounding for once like his always serious father. “You’ve seen Logan walk alone? His gaggle of goons probably got his shit out of his pockets before the police even put their paws on him, they found no trace of the money and no drugs, of course. The rest scattered as soon as someone spotted the blue uniforms. They’re assholes but they’re not stupid.”

Samir shivered. “I don’t like him, I always get bad vibes from the guy…”

Roch didn’t like gossip, didn’t listen to gossip, but this time he did, and answered his friend. “I guess you’re not the only one…”

The group looked around, and nodded. Lots of people were sucking up to Logan, although almost everyone was more or less scared of him. He left Ryan and his friends alone before he knew Ryan’s dad was a cop, but girls seemed to shrink on his path, smiling when he looked at them and shivering when he was gone. Logan was twenty, the bad egg at school and in town, and he was not renowned for his gentle behavior towards girls.

No history of abuse, nothing like that, but girls weak enough to accept his flirting spoke, afterwards, of a guy taking what he wanted, no pillow talk or gentle treatment from this one. He didn’t kissed, he fucked hard, and then ignored the girls.

How anyone still fell for the guy was a mystery to Roch.

This was fun. Dancing his way back to his group, after getting another glass of punch, his glass lifted in the air to keep it full, smiling around, Roch didn’t see the incoming unknown girls smile uneasily at Logan, one of them accepting a glass he handed to her with a polite smile, before making their way to Austin, who was chatting excitedly to Samir, making huge hand gestures, as usual.

Roch joined them just when Austin greeted the new girls with loud happy shouting, before grinning back to them.

“Guys, meet Romy, Mila and Leni. They’ve just arrived from Berlin. Romy’s father is friends with my dad, they’re here for the summer. They’re already done with their school year, lucky gals…”

Everyone greeted the girls, Ryan made his way to the punch to get the two others a drink, and Roch listened to the chatting and banter around him. The girls had a cute German accent, and accepted the guys’ teasing about it good naturedly. All that noise, the music, the drink, it was nice… Roch felt a pang of loneliness, thinking about Miri back in their apartment, but hey, they would make up tomorrow, talk about it and be ok again. At least he hoped. He understood that she was on edge, but they argued all the time, the last few months, and the fun of being together had slowly disappeared, leaving only dragging arguments and a growing bitter taste in his mouth.

Roch felt like he was gradually forgetting how to smile and laugh. They used to be fun. This obsession with homework and saving every cent was heavy. He agreed they had to study hard, work, and save money. Hell he worked even more than she did. But he also wanted to breathe. Have a life now, see his friends, next to a future later, for which he worked hard everyday. They still had time.

He shook himself. Come on, Roch, this is a party. Have some fun, that’s why you’re here. He sipped his punch, winked at Samir who was again observing him with a concerned look on his face, and answered a question from one of the girls, the one with the long dark hair, what was her name again? Oh yeah, Romy.

He was pleasantly loose, Romy was good fun, cute and witty, and apparently not immune to Roch’s smile, and without really flirting, Roch found it easy to talk to her. He forgot to tell her he had a girlfriend at home. Ah well. It’s not like he was going to cheat, just talk to the girl, for crying out loud. They were chatting for a while when he decided to get another drink, but she pushed the glass Logan gave her in his hands. “Here, I don’t drink that stuff, it’s too sweet, you can have mine.”

He accepted graciously, and felt mightily good. Free, even. The music was great, his friends were great, that girl was smelling good. He was laughing louder than usual, dancing looser than he normally did, so what, he was having fun. A little dizzy, sure, but hey, a little drunk was ok, right?

It was only when Romy slipped her hands around his waist to dance closer to him that he realised that she was heavily flirting with him and this was getting too close. When he stepped back to get her arms away from him, he realised something else as well. He was not buzzed, he was fucking drunk.

He decided to make his way to the bathroom upstairs, hoping for some more quiet, waving Samir’s concerned question with a shout. “Don’t worry, mother!”

He managed to find the bathroom, peed with a loud sign, leaning against the wall. God, he was more than drunk. He was thoroughly pissed.

He washed his hands, at least tried to, laughing at the mess he made, wondering what kind of soap this was, he’d never seen a soap so foamy. He shook his head, wondering why soap was so fascinating. Oooh, bad idea. Don’t shake your head, Roch.

Dizzy now, he walked out of the bathroom, and moaned at the edge of the stairs. Nope… Too loud down there. Too many lights.

He turned around. This was an eight bedroom penthouse, surely there was a room where he could get his eyes to rest just for a second? He heard his name, and turned around to see Romy hurrying his way to him. “There you are, you totally disappeared, I was wondering where you were!”

“Oh, I was looking for some quiet. I think I’m a little too drunk.”

He giggled and tried to remember in which direction he was going. His legs were wobbly as fuck, he was not sure how long they would carry him.

“You are drunk. Where were you going?”

“Just find a place to rest my eyes, you know, for a little while.”

“Here, let me help you.”

She was sweet, her cute face watching him as she tried to hold his weight, as they made their way along the corridor. Jesus Christ, how long was that thing? He giggled, and smiled at her.

“You’re sweet to help me, you know.”

“Yeah, and you’re drunk. Come on, let’s find you somewhere to get some rest.”

She opened a door, and there was heaven waiting for him. A bed. He thought he heard his name somewhere behind him, or downstairs, but turning around was not an option. He followed her, and fell on the bed, pulling her with him.

He closed his eyes, for a second, god, he was so fucking dizzy, this was not funny anymore, and opened them to find Romy’s face just above his, laughing breathlessly.

He tried to tell her something, couldn’t find his words, he wasn’t feeling so hot. Okay, he may have drunk a little too much, but he was not feeling drunk right now, he was feeling weird. Fuck, this was scary, what was happening to him?

“Romy, I can’t…”

She whispered. “It’s ok…” and came closer to him, their noses were almost touching.

“No, I mean, I have a…”

The face still came closer, she had nice eyes, brown and kind, nothing like Miri’s blue eyes, changing shades with her mood and how bright was the sun. Icy when she was angry. Jesus, Miri…

He tried to stop Romy, he wanted to put his hands on her cheeks, to tell her, but then her lips were on his, and he felt so weird and so weak, he couldn’t even muster the strength to push her away, his arms wouldn’t listen. He closed his eyes, wondering faintly if this was considered cheating, and if he was falling asleep or dying. He couldn’t even feel his legs, or the lips this girl was still touching with hers, and passed out.