It's a Beast Thing | On Hold

Prologue | The break-up

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It's a Beauty thing to put herself first.

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Ira Brown doesn't shy away from parties.

But, she was in no mood for this one.

Ira walked inside the party house and recoiled at the smell. It smelled like weed, alcohol and sweat, a combination that made her want to hurl. Everyone around her was lost in the sea of young adults trying desperately to forget about their woes. But she didn't care about everyone. She was here to find one single person. 

Ozias Van Everly.

Aka her boyfriend and her current pain in the ass.

Oz and Ira were the type of couple singers wrote songs about. Being together since high school, they had their ups and downs, but nothing they couldn't overcome. They were the couple everyone admired. They were each other's homes.

Until college arrived.

Oz's life revolved around soccer, even in high school. He often joked with Ira that she was his second love. The first was always soccer. The statement held a certain degree of truth, and Ira understood that, hence accepting the position. Oz was Ira's first love, her only love, and nothing gave her more joy and filled her with pride than seeing her love work towards achieving his dream.

And it paid off. Once in college, he got selected for their university team. And as a surprise to no one, he quickly rose the ranks from rookie to pro. Oz excelled at Soccer. Tremendously. So much so, he was soon known all around campus as the best soccer player they'd had in years. Ira couldn't be happier for Ozias. 

But with the pros also came the cons.

It started slow. Oz had started acting a little irresponsibly. Maybe a little careless every now and then. But it wasn't anything Ira couldn't handle. But then he got worse, the fame swallowing him up. He started cutting classes, his grades dropped and he was almost in no contact with his family, who was growing increasingly worried for him. Ira was close to Oz's family, as was he with hers. But, she was much closer to his sister, Alydia, as she was almost the same age as them, minus two years. The only communication his family had with Oz was through Ira, and even that wasn't much.

So when she had gotten a call from Alydia earlier this evening, she had assumed it had something to do with Oz. But upon answering the call, Alydia told her that her car had broken down half an hour from their college. Ira had agreed to help, and had instantly grabbed her car keys when Alydia said something that made her stumble.

"Could you bring Oz along? I need to tell him something and I would really like it if you were there too."

Which brought Ira to the party she had no interest in attending. Nor was she invited. But since everyone on campus knew her as Ozias's girlfriend, she entered without anyone protesting against. She had one goal, find Oz and get him out of there.

Almost immediately, she saw her person of interest leaning against a wall, smoking. It irritated her, as Oz had promised her and himself that he won't ever smoke as it wasn't good for his health. It was a personal decision of his and he was breaking it.

Almost immediately, Oz's eyes met hers and a drunken smile took over his features. He stumbled towards Ira, eyes intoxicated. He smelled like smoke, Ira thought, as she took a step back from him to avoid the smokey scent. His eyes darkened at that but he quickly put on a mask of indifference.

"What are you doing here?"His slurred speech didn't bother Ira, nor did his dry emotionless tone.

"We have to leave," Ira said calmly, holding her stance.