I waved as I saw Angel, and made my way over to them. "Hi," I said. "Where are the others?".

"On a double date," Angel told me.

"Oh,".

I ordered a drink and sat next to Angel. I'd been meeting up with my new friends a lot since we met a few weeks back. We'd go out a few nights a week. I was really enjoying this lifestyle, I was happy for once.

"They went to the movies," Angel carried on. "I was gonna go with my boyfriend, but we've had an argument so... I came here instead,".

"K,".

We soon got up and danced, the DJ was playing one of my favorite songs. "That guy is eying you up," I whispered to Angel as I noticed a cute guy looking over in our direction.

Angel looked over and gave the guy a smile. He grinned back.

We danced our way over to him and his crowd. They began to speak, I felt left out.

"I'm getting another drink," I told Angel, then slipped over to the bar. I opened my purse and produced some money and my fake ID. Once of Justin's friends had made us all fake IDs that said we were 21. They worked effectively, since no-one had questioned me when showing it.

I paid for a cocktail and drank it quite quickly. I'd developed a taste for drinks recently, they livened me up and gave me more confidence while I was out.

Paying for all of it was no problem. I had access to my father's money and had a lot of money in a savings account, which I was eating away at. I could afford to go out as often as I liked, and pay for my friends too.

I was secretly scared that my friends would drop me. They were cool and popular, and I feared that if I wasn't careful, they'd drop me and I'd have no friends again. I hoped offering to pay for them would keep me in their good books.

I rejoined Angel, who was dancing closely with the guy. Didn't she have a boyfriend?! I stuck with them and the guy's crowd, but felt kinda left out still. Two of his friends were talking, over the loud music I could just make out what they were saying.

"Nick will be here soon, he's back from the tour now,".

"Cool it's been a while since we saw him,".

Nick? Tour? Could they mean..?

One of the guys looked up and saw I was listening. "Are you talking about Nick Carter?" I asked, giving them a smile. My heart began to pound. I hoped they were!

The guy nodded. "Yeah, he's our friend,".

"Wow," I breathed. "You'll have to introduce me to him. I haven't seen him in years, we won't remember me,".

"You know him?" the guy asked, speaking loud so I could hear him over the music. It was very loud.

"Kinda. We were at the same school,".

We got talking, it turned out that the two guys, Jake and Andre, had gone to the same school as me. We walked outside to the outdoor dance floor, where they were gonna meet Nick. My heart kept pounding, I was nervous. I was gonna meet Nick...

The first people I recognised in the club were my two pals Jake and Andre. I waved as I walked towards them, yawning. I was tired after the fifty-date tour I had just finished, but my tiredness hadn't kept me at home. I wanted to celebrate being back in Tampa and see my friends again.

"Hey guys," I said, "What's up?".

"Not much," Jake said, handing me a drink. "So, why isn't Mandy with you?".

I bit my lip and looked down. I didn't like to talk about her. "We broke up. For good this time,".

"Oh, sorry," Jake said, looking embarrassed.

"We'll find you a sexy babe tonight to replace her," Andre joked.

I laughed weakly. "Yeah...".

It was mid-evening and the club was crowded, full of happy people dancing. But I was too tired to dance. I sat down, motioning my pals to sit with me.

A tall, shy-looking girl was standing by my friends awkwardly, looking down.

"This is Jessica," Andre informed me.

Jessica sat down on my left. "Hi," she said quietly, her eyes briefly meeting mine.

"Hi," I said back. She looked kinda familiar.

"Jess was at our elementary school," Jake told me.

"You were?".

"Yeah," she said, tossing a few wavy light brown strands over her shoulder. "I was a coupler of years younger than you though,".

I thought back. "Yeah... I remember you kind of... from...".

I vaguely remembered and incident with a girl called Jessica, when she was crying in the corridor as some girls were picking on her. Was that this Jessica?

"...I wasn't exactly the coolest girl," Jessica said, still looking at the floor.

"Hey Nick," Jake said suddenly. "There's Brent and his girl. Come on,".

I stood up. "Talk to you later," I said to Jessica, before following Jake and Andre over towards my best friend Brent, who had just arrived.

Later that night, I got too tired and decided to go home. I said goodbye to the guys and made my way towards the exit.

I noticed Jess, dancing crazily on the dance floor. She looked like she'd had a few drinks. I knew one of the guys she was with, Karl. He noticed me and walked over.

"She's your friend?" I asked Karl.

He laughed. "Not really. We let her hang with us, she's handy for buying drinks and stuff, with all that money she has,".

"Money?".

"She's rich. You remember her from school don't you? The rich geeky girl who had no friends. Do you really think we'd hang with her if she didn't have anything to offer us?".

I was shocked at how cruel he sounded. "That ain't nice," I told him. "Don't any of you like her?".

"Only Angel, I don't know why,".

I looked over at Jessica again. She looked happy, like she was enjoying herself. I felt sorry for her, knowing that her 'friends' were laughing behind her back.

I had to go, so I said goodbye to Karl and went on to the exit. As I passed Jess, I gave her a little wave. She grinned and waved back.

I smiled back at her as I made my way out of the club. On the way home, I was thinking about Jessica. She seemed really nice, but I was worried for her. Her so-called friends were using her, only hanging out with her because of her wealth. I'd experienced people like that in the past, so I knew that situations like that could turn very sour. I would have to talk to her, let her know what was going on behind her back.

That was, if I ever saw her again.

"Guess I'll have to go back to the club again soon," I said to myself.

>>>>>

.