Between Love and Hate

Self-Control

*Violet's POV*

When we go up to the room to change, Stella says, "Alright, let's see what bathing suit options you have."

"Options? I only have one," I tell her and pull out my black one piece bathing suit that I've never even worn. Well that's not entirely true. I put it on once under my clothes when I went to the beach with Jace, but I couldn't work myself up to taking my clothes off.

"Um, no. That's not happening. Where did you even get that? Nevermind, you can borrow one of mine for today, but we're adding bathing suits to our shopping list for next time," she says as she starts pulling out a variety of different coloured items from her drawers.

"Here, try this one. It's your favourite colour" she jokes, throwing a ball of black strings in my direction. I unravel it and see that it's plain black bottoms, which I put on and then two triangles and so many straps that I can't even tell which way is up.

"Stella, I am not wearing this. I can't even figure out how to put it on. Are bathing suits always this complicated?"

"Come on Vi, just try it on. Here I'll help you. Just put this bit over your head and then I'll tie the bottom." I do as she says and hold the triangles to myself and she takes the straps and starts criss-crossing them around me.

"I am never going to be able to get myself out of this," I whine.

"You won't have to. I'm sure Kane will do it for you," She tells me and I know without even seeing her face that she's smirking. When she finishes tying the knot in the back, she walks around to my front and says, "Girl, you look great in this. For real. I can't believe you were gonna wear that grandma suit," She tells me and I stick my tongue out at her.

"It's not a Grandma suit, it's just...conservative." Although as the words leave my mouth I realize she may be right. I go to our mirror and look at myself. Oh boy. This is a lot. A lot of chest, a lot of bum showing...a lot of skin in general actually.

Strangely enough, I don't feel like I'm about to have a panic attack. Maybe that's just because I'm comfortable with Stella. There will be so many people at the party though and that has me a little worried, but I figure we're wearing jean shorts and t-shirts overtop anyway so I can just leave them on if I really don't want anyone to see this.

I look over and Stella has on a pink version of the one I have on. I'm impressed that she managed to tie that onto herself.

"Look, we match!" She says and I smile. That actually does make me feel a lot better. We throw on our clothes over top and I quickly change out the clothes in my bag that I'm basically living out of these days.

When we get to the house, there is almost nobody here which isn't a surprise. The party isn't supposed to start for another 30 minutes. Plus nobody ever shows up on time for these things.

After we drop my bag in Kane's room, we head downstairs and find most of the other guys in the kitchen putting out booze and tapping the kegs and some more in the backyard laying down a giant tarp, setting up tables and blowing up little inflatable pools. I also see many water guns lined up near the faucet.

A guy in a very tight tank top and an orange and green striped bathing suit jogs over to us and says, "Hey man! You're finally joining the kegger game?!" to Kane with a smile.

"Apparently," Kane replies shortly. The guy then looks at me and says, "Hey, you know I've seen you around here a lot but I don't think I ever got your name. I'm Cole,"

"Hi, yeah, sorry about that. I'm Violet," I say and shake his hand. He then looks over at Stella and she sticks her hand out and says, "I'm Stella, Vi's roommate slash BFF obviously." I giggle and then ask, "Is there anything we can help with?"

"No, I think we've pretty much got it under control. Besides, you've done enough by getting Kane to actually show up to one of these things," he jokes and I laugh and when I look up at Kane he's rolling his eyes.

"Let's go get a drink," Kane says and grabs my hand.

"Sure. I guess I'll see you around. Nice to meet you Cole," I say and then wave as Kane starts dragging me back into the house. He makes us all drinks and we sit on stools around the island. Kane drags mine unnecessarily close to his and glares at all the guys that come up to introduce themselves.

I have to admit that it's a touch embarrassing to be recognized as the girl who spends a bunch of time in Kane's room. I cringe when I realize some of them have probably heard us. I take a big gulp from my cup. Alcohol is definitely the answer here.

People start showing up just as we're finishing our first drinks. Stella decides we should head to the backyard so that we can get in first for the games. I'm just happy it's super warm outside today and the sun is shining brightly. I really have spent way too much time indoors lately.

"Time to work on my tan," Stella says and peels her shirt off, depositing on a chair near the house. "You too Vi." The one drink must have made me brave because I follow her lead and lift mine over my head, placing it with hers.

When I turn to face Kane, he's giving me a very intense look as his eyes roam my body and it makes me both nervous and turned on at the same time, which is very confusing.

"Here take a picture of us!" Stella says handing Kane her phone. He blinks a couple times and then takes it and holds it up to take a picture. We pose and then he hands the phone back to her and she checks them to make sure they're good. She smiles in approval and then posts one on Instagram and tags me in it.

I walk over to Kane and he pulls me into him, wrapping his arms around me and placing his hands in the pockets of my shorts. He leans down and whispers in my ear, "If I didn't know any better, I would say you were trying to test my self-control today darling."

"What do you mean?" I say in my most innocent voice possible.

"I mean that not only do I want to tear this off of you, but I also want to murder every man at this party looking at you right now."

"Hm, unfortunately, I can't let you do either of those things. Stella would kill me if anything happened to her bathing suit," I say back, standing on my tiptoes to place a kiss on his cheek.

"Do you remember what I told you about teasing Violet?" My cheeks flush and I just nod.

"Good girl. I'll remember this later."

"Alright alright you two. Get a room or play some games," Stella says from beside me just as we get hit with cold water. I squeal a little and look over to see Stella pointing a water gun at us.

"Okay, okay!" I say through my giggles.

We spend the rest of the party playing games and drinking, Kane never once straying from my side. At one point I end up letting Stella talk me into playing slip and slide flip cup, which I actually had a lot of fun doing.

The party lasts well into the evening and at some point, somebody orders pizzas. Eventually, once the crowd starts thinning out, Stella decides to head back to the dorm and Kane practically drags me up the stairs.

Stella was right: I did not need to know how to get myself out of the bikini.