"So did you have fun?" Carter asked Jade, who was sitting on the couch with her, watching the Time Square footage on MTV. It was 1:32 in the morning, and most of the guests went home for the night. All that were left was Carter, Jade, Nique, Melissa, and of course, Isaac, Zac, and Taylor.
"Lots. Cept for the... you know." She laughed and held the ice pack up to her cheek.
Carter nodded. "Can't believe we had to separate you too."
"Yeah well, you know how it is."
Carter put her head down on the arm of the couch and tried to make sense of what happened at midnight. Zac of course, ran around hugging everybody, screaming "IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD!" Taylor and Nique kissed, Isaac gave Melissa and Jade each a kiss on the cheek.
The only thing that was completely unpredictable was what happened between three people. After the kiss between Taylor and Nique, Jade went into the kitchen to get some more soda. The only thing Carter knew was that Taylor followed her and they ended up kissing. Nique, being extremely jealous, grabbed Jade by the hair and pulled her away from him. Jade shoved Nique, and Nique punched Jade. Then, Jade started to pound on Nique as hard as she could. Taylor tried pulling them apart, but Isaac eventually had to help. The whole incident resulted in Nique dumping Taylor with the words, "FUCK YOU FOREVER ASS HOLE!"
"So where do you think Nique is now?" Jade looked around the room. Zac was sleeping on the floor without a pillow or blanket. Taylor was sitting in an armchair, staring into space, repeating, "I can't believe it."
"I think Melissa and Isaac took her upstairs. You made her lip bleed pretty mad."
"She deserves it. It was just a New Years kiss."
Carter laughed and shook her head. "Ha! I saw part of that kiss. That was no 'Hey how ya doin, it's the year 2000' kiss. It was more of a, 'Do me right here right now before 12:01', kind of kiss."
"I'm not like that. Taylor isn't is he?"
Carter shook her head. "No."
"Good."
"You like him."
Jade shrugged. "I don't know him well enough to like him."
"Everybody has a thing for Taylor. Why is that?" Carter sighed.
"Everybody has a thing for you too."
"Like who?"
"Zac, Tay, Todd, Isaac... Trey."
"TREY!?" Carter laughed. "That's just funny."
"Ok, so maybe not Trey. But..." Jade stopped suddenly. "I think I'm gonna go see how Nique is doing."
Carter nodded and sat down on the floor next to Zac, watching him sleep.
Nique went upstairs to Taylor's room where Nique was laying with her head in Isaac's lap. She was sleeping, but she could see the remains of tears, and bruises. There was a small cut on her lower lip, luckily Jade mostly punched her in the back. "Is she ok?"
"Yeah, you?"
"I'm fine. Zac's sleeping on the floor downstairs. Taylor looks kinda upset. You're not mad at me are you?"
"No. Nique overreacted. She hit you first. You were using self defense."
"I guess you could call it that." Jade laughed silently and looked down at Nique. "I care about her, you know. She's my cousin."
"Then why did you kiss Taylor? Or did he kiss you?"
"I think I kissed him first. He just.. looked really good. I didn't know I was gonna do it until after I did."
Isaac lifted Nique's head from his lap and laid it lightly on top of one of Taylor's pillows. Then, he covered her with his blanket and left her to sleep. "I'm gonna go to bed, ok?"
Jade nodded. "I'll see you later."
"Happy New Year."
Jade walked very slowly down the steps. She found Carter, asleep on the floor next to Zac. She had put a pillow under his head.
Taylor was still sitting in the chair. "Can I talk to you?" She asked.
Taylor nodded.
Jade sat down on the arm of the chair. "Are you mad at me?"
"No."
"I'm sorry I kissed you."
"It takes two to kiss."
Jade nodded. "Nique hates me doesn't she?"
"Probably about as much as she hates me."
She sighed. "Do you mind if I stay here tonight? I wanna be here when Nique wakes up, so I can talk to her."
"Sure." He smiled.
Jade leaned over and put her head on his shoulder, they both fell asleep before 2:00am. Isaac on the other hand, stayed in his room all night, talking to Melissa through a small hole in the attic wall.