As soon as I opened my car door music, laughter and voices met my ears. People were milling around the front of the hall. Cups of what I guessed were alcoholic beverages were in their hands. I couldn't figure out why they were outside seeing as it felt like minus twenty degrees.

"Man it's cold!" I exclaimed. Danielle laughed.

"You'll get used to it. Does it snow in Australia?" She asked.

"Nah.. well.. not in the main cities... in the moutains it does sometimes... this is the first time I've ever seen or been in real snow.. " I explained. Danielle raised her eyebrows, surprised.

"Really? What do you think?". I thought for a moment.

"It's cold." I finally said. Danielle rolled her eyes and grinned. I noticed that she smiled and laughed a lot. Might have had something to do with the company she had.

"Come on.. let's go inside.". I followed her though the front doors of the hall, catching the eyes of some of the guys standing around the door way. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I'm not that bad looking. Sure, there are a lot of other girls prettier than me, I'm not a drop dead gorgeous female specimen. But I'm not a 'plain Jane' either. I was different.

"I'm gonna ask you once again, you gotta tell me once again do you love me. I'm gonna ask you once again, you gotta tell me once again do you love me"

The sound of a half husky voice filled everything in me. Looking striaght ahead, I saw three boys set up on a stage. One behind a drum kit, one playing lead guitar and the lead singer behind a keyboard. Off to either side of the drummer were another guitarist, rhythm and a bass player.

"Agh! I love this song! Common, lets get up to the front, I want to see Taylor!" Danielle exclaimed, grabbing my hand and leading me to the front of the crowd. The one I was guessing as Taylor, seemed to be watching the two of us making our way to the front. Our eyes locked. This gave me a rush. After nearly a week of no real contact with a guy, this was big.

"Do you love me, do you love me, do you love me little pretty yeah Can you tell me, can you tell me, whats going on in the city?"

With a cheeky, yet extremly sexy grin, he broke our eye contact and swept his eyes over the crowd. The song finished and they went straight into another one. This time, the lead guitarist started to sing.

"You're suposed to give more than you take, you had my heart on your plate, you stopped loving me so fast, There are stories left untold, but you act like they're all old, but then you and I we belong together again and I said.."

"Ahh, this song is great! But we better go find Amanda... she'll be pissed if she finds out I'm here and haven't said Hi or Happy Birthday to her yet.". I nodded. Giving Taylor one more look, I turned and followed Danielle to the right side of the hall. There a long table was set up with drinks (alcoholic and sodas), chips, some hot foods and chocolate. "Amanda! HI!" Danielle shrieked. Both girls squealed and hugged. I guessed they hadn't seen each other for a few hours.

"Hi... I'm Amanda... you must be Elizabeth." Amanda introduced herself. She held out her hand to shake and I gingerly took it. I wasn't sure what to make of her just yet. I usually get these gut feelings about people. My feelings about Danielle had been good. But I wasn't so sure about Amanda. Smiling though, I shook her hand.

"Yeah.. but please, call me Liz...Elizabeths so formal.. I hate it!" I told her. She smiled. Turning to Danielle she said,

"Your right... her accent it pretty stong... it's hard to undertand her a bit isn't it?". There it was. The reason for the bad feeling. She was a rich bitch snob. I rolled my eyes and Danielle shot me an apologetic look. I shrugged it off.

"Amanda... don't be a bitch... her accent is fine!" Danielle scolded her friend. Amanda waved her hand in the air.

"Sure, sure... anyway.. I better go mingle... you know, I don't even know half the people here.. so much for 'invite only'." The girls said their goodbyes and Amanda walked away from them.

"I'm so sorry about that.. she must think with her ass sometimes, I swear." Danielle said, shaking her head.

"And what a mighty cute ass that is... just makes me wanna bite it." A male voice said from behind me. Danielle's gaze was directed over my right shoulder.

"I'm sure..." Gesturing to the figure behind me, Danielle said "Liz, this is Jason... who thinks that he stands a chance in hell with Amanda.. who thinks of him as an insect that should be squashed."

"Aww... that hurts Danni.... Amanda will come around one day and realise her true feelings for me." Jason said, placing a hand over his heart. I turned around and looked Jason over. Not bad. I had seen better, but he didn't look like a complete loser. He held out his hand. "Hi Liz... haven't seen you around here... are you new?" He asked. I smiled, taking his hand and shaking it. He had a firm grip.

"Yup. Moved here last week."

"You've been here a week and this is the first time I've seen or even heard of you? Dang..I always miss out on the pretty ones.." He said, winking at me. Droping his hand, I resisted the urge to screw up my nose and roll my eyes.

"Oh please Jason.... give the girl a break, you've only just met her and already you wanna take her to bed!" Danielle exclaimed. Turning to me she said "Lets go back up to the stage... I think they'll be finishing up that set soon.. I want to say hi to Taylor."

"You know him?" I asked.

"Not really.. we've met a couple of times, but I'm hoping to change that very soon." She said, a seductive look crossing her face. I raised an eyebrow and a corner of my mouth into a half grin.

"Oh yeah?.."

"Yeah"

"Ok then.."

"You don't believe that Taylor would want me.. do you?" She asked. Trying not to laugh I pointed something out to her.

"Most of the female population at this party... from what I can see anyway, is in front of that stage, hoping to catch his eye."

"Yeah... well... I'll be the one who does!" She said, smiling. I rolled my eyes and followed her back to where we had been standing before. Once again, catching Taylors eye. He grinned, as though happy to see me back. Sure Elizabeth... why would he be happy to see you? he doesn't even know you! .... then again... maybe thats it.. I'm a new face...thats probably why he seems interested. I thought. I smiled at him and started moving a little to the music.

"You can't say I didn't give it, I won't wait another minute

We're on our way, this time around

And we wont go down, and we wont go down...."

And the song finished. "Ok guys, we're just gonna have a break.. we'll be back soon! Enjoy the party!" Taylor said into his microphone. Everyone claped and cheered. Taylor stepped away from his keyboard, bent down and picked up a bottle of water. The lead guitarist set his guitar down on a stand and stepped over to Taylor.

"That's Isaac.. Ike for short... and the drummer is Zac.. he's a little younger than us...the only reason he's here is cuz he's in the band.." Danielle explained to me.

"Ah.. and I'm guessing by the looks of things.. Isaac's older?"

"Yup.". Music filled the hall. Looking over at the stage, I saw that Zac had turned on a portable CD player that was hooked up to an amp. Danielle took hold of my arm. "Let's go over to the stairs..." Before I could say anything, she was leading me over to the bottom of the stairs. Just as we reached them, Taylor was half way down. Seeing us, he smiled.

"Hey Danielle... good to see you again. How you doin?" He asked. She flashed a smile at him.

"Great. Haven't seen you around much.. been busy?" She asked.

"Yeah.. recording and rehearsals for gigs are pretty much keeping my social life ratings at a steady zero. We've had some more interest from some record companies in LA, so we'll be flying over there soon." He explained. Extending his hand to me he said "Hi... I'm Taylor... I don't believe we've met.". I eagerly took his hand. It occured to me that hand shaking was a big thing around these parts.

"Hi... Liz... and no, we haven't. I just recently moved here." I told him. He was still holding my hand.

"I'm thinking from a different country... let me guess.. Australia?"

"Bingo." I smiled. His face lit up.

"Serious? I love Australia..." When he said Australia, it sounded more like Awstraliah. It was incredably cute. "I've been there a few times actually... where abouts did you live?" He asked.

"Adeladie. In South Australia." . He thought for a moment then shrugged.

"Nope... can't say I've been there... I went to Sydney the first time and then to Melbourne and Canberra the second.". We continued to chat about different things in my home country and I noticed Danielle beginning to get impatient. Crossing her arms infront of her, she sighed.

"I think I might go find Amanda... see you around Taylor." Danielle announced. She was obviously pissed and three guesses as to why. Taylors attention had been focused on me since he came down the stairs, and Danielle didn't like that. At all. Before I could protest to her leaving, she flounced away, in search of her friend. Great. I thought The one friend I've got here and I manage to piss her off. Good going Elizabeth!

"Hey, Tay... we gotta start again.... this'll be our last set...." Isaac called out from the top of the stairs. Taylor grinned.

"Ok Ike... hey, this is Liz.. she's just moved here from Australia.." He told his brother. Isaac smiled.

"No kidding... well, I'm Isaac, nice to meet you Liz.." He said.

"You to.." I smiled. Turning to Taylor I said "Well, I better let you back up there... it was nice meeting you Taylor."

"Hey, it was great meeting you. Maybe we could hang out here after I finish up." He suggested. I smiled and chewed on my bottom lip.

"That would be great... but I think Danielle would kinda like that more than me... she's pissed at me right now and I know that if you give her some attention, things'll be ok... she's kinda the only sorta friend I have right now..." I trailed off hoping that he would get the message. He did.

"Sure, no problem... well, I'll see you later then."

"Sure.". Taylor left then, trudgging back up stairs.

Four
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