AND THEN THERE WAS ONE.

two.

"What about him?" Her lip curled at the thought of Blaze.

"Is he handling that?"

"I wouldn't know and I don't give a fuck to be honest. You know me, I'm not into all the drama especially over dick. She can have him, I had my fun."

Jonas nodded, taking everything in. He took his bottom lip into his mouth, and a moment of silence lay over them before he allowed his thoughts to take over once more.

"I know I didn't treat you all that great but no bitch ever put their hands on you, over me In. You deserve better than that."

"Better like getting cheated on all the time? Like my boyfriend and my closest friend fucking behind my back?"

"Indie."

"I'm not tryna hear it, Jo. You better be glad I haven't caught up with that bitch, just yet. As long as she continues to hide from me, I'll never stop this fighting shit."

Indie was relentless—always had been. It's what sparked the initial attraction between the two. An illicit crush turned crash was a more than fitting title to describe their relationship.

Close to four years ago, she approached him during an off-campus party. At the time, Jonas co-owned a lounge with his cousin, and here and there they would allow college kids to rent it out for parties or events.

This one took place during homecoming, an afterparty specifically. He was in the DJ booth, keeping a close eye on everything, when Indie set her sights on him.

Despite being told no by both security and Ivie, she climbed up into the booth with him and wasted no time spitting her game. Jonas was twenty-one at the time and determined to pay her no mind; she was eighteen, younger than his usual type, but Indie's allure pulled him straight in; it was something he just couldn't ignore.

And so it began—Indie's time at Rutger's was spent like your average teen/young adult, miles away from their parents for the first time in life. She took part in any and every exhilarating activity that she could.

Parties, sex, drugs, and Jonas.

Classes had been pushed to the back burner; her professor's would be lucky if they even got an email response out of her, let alone her signature within the attendance book.

Fake ID's and alcohol nips coated the bottom of her bookbag as opposed to her textbooks, and Jonas consumed every free minute throughout her day.

Together, the two were electric. Fire and fire. Their relationship never saw a dull moment. In him, Indie experienced her first love. There wasn't anything she wouldn't do for Jonas. In her, Jonas experienced a love he had yet to—one that he never saw to let go of.

Despite this, he was still very much a man. The ending to their love affair presumed the day she caught him in bed with her peer mentor, someone she considered to be a close friend—a junior biology major by the name of Amil Noble or Milly for short.

Not long after was Jonas arrested.

You see, Jonas's lounge was only a front. Drug dealing had been his vice since the age of fourteen. No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't go legit.

He was well known around South Jersey for his true business dealings, and pushing pills and other narcotics around the state's college campuses had been on Jonas's agenda for a long time. No client was better than college kids, and after meeting Indie, he had his in.