"Hey, Casey and Tay, glad you could make it!" Laura yelled to them as soon as she saw them arrive at the house. She always stood outside and greeted people until Tay and Casey came, then went inside with Casey to go meet guys and do whatever.
"Hey Laura! Thanks for calling me and telling me about it!" Casey grinned at her friend.
"Yeah, lots of hot guys are here tonight. Are you ready to have some fun?" she asked.
"Have I ever said no to this question?" Casey replied, as both girls began laughing.
"Tay, we're gonna go inside. I promise I'll keep track of Casey."
"Fine, you'd better!" he said to her, jokingly. "Do you know if Chris or anyone is here yet?"
"Um, yeah, he and Greg came a little while ago. I think they're in the back with Ian. Um, someone told me Pat and Nick were here, so they're probably upstairs already, and Erick should be somewhere, but Nicole couldn't come, and Amy is sick with the flu so Glenn stayed home with her."
"Thanks." Tay said to her, grinning. "I'll go find Chris." Tay waved at the girls as they walked inside the house and he wheeled himself to the back to look for his friends.
"Hey!" Tay called out, waving to Ian, who he saw over on the deck, talking to some girl he'd never seen before.
"Hey, man, what's up?" Ian asked him, walking over.
"Nothin much, who's that girl?"
"I dunno, I just met her like, 5 minutes ago. She's pretty hot, isn't she? I think she wants me. How much do you want to bet she'll go upstairs with me by the end of the night?"
"Ian!" Tay laughed at him, "I can't believe you. You're becoming just like Nick and Pat!"
"No way!" he replied. "You know I don't drink." Ian grinned at Tay.
"You're such a loser. I'll let you go back to that girl now, but have you seen Chris or Greg or Erick?"
"Um, yeah. Erick is over by the keg with some guys from somewhere, I forget how he knows them, and I haven't seen Chris or Greg in a while. They might be upstairs, or maybe somewhere back here. Sorry."
"It's OK, it doesn't matter. I'll see you later." Tay called to him as Ian walked away and he left to look for Erick.
"Casey, want another drink?" Pat asked her as he got up off the couch.
"Sure, definitely!" Casey told him. Pat was a guy that Casey met about an hour previously at the party. He was really nice, and they had been hanging out since they met. He went to Columbia also, and Casey thought he was really hot. He had brown hair down to his shoulders, and was a really cool guy. He looked like someone she had met before, but she couldn't put her finger on who.
"Here ya go babe!" he said, giving her another drink.
"Thanks." Casey replied, grinning. She knew she really shouldn't be drinking so much, because she knew that the 11 she had was too many already. But Pat seemed to be able to drink that much with no problem, so she figured that it was OK for her, also.
"Hi, Lucie." he told her, with a confused look on his face. "How are you?"
"I'm doing OK." she said, giving him a hug and a quick kiss on the cheek. "I didn't expect to still see you here at these things."
"I always come with Casey, you knew that."
"Oh yeah, her." Lucie replied, sarcastically. Since Tay had known her, she had never liked the idea of him living with Casey. She just didn't understand the situation. He didn't even know why he was talking to her now, with all the shit she had put him through in the past, he couldn't help it. For some reason, he really liked this girl.
The strobe lights in the club flashed brightly, shining lights on the people on the dance floor. Taylor and Casey were having a great time at the club, even though Tay couldn't really get out there and dance."Hey Tay?" Casey asked him, her arm around a guy she had met. "Do you mind if I go hang with him for a while?"
"Nope." Tay told her. He didn't mind what she did, as long as it didn't seem dangerous to him. Besides, he wanted her to have a really good time, and didn't want to stop her from doing that. After all, they were here for her 18th birthday.
As Tay watched the people, a hand tapped his shoulder. "Hey." someone said to him.
"He turned around, to see a really pretty girl smiling at him. She had shoulder length blond hair with pink streaks in it. She was really tall and skinny, and wore a tank top and shorts. "Hi." he replied.
"My name's Lucie." she told him, still smiling. "You looked kind of bored over here all by yourself, so I figured I'd come over. Do you want me to buy you a drink?"
"Sure," Tay told her, even though he wasn't 21 yet, and she didn't look like she was either.
Lucie came back soon with a beer for herself and one for Taylor. "Here you go!" She cheerily told him. "By the way, I didn't catch your name."
"Taylor." he told her.
"Cool." she grinned. "I was watching you before, and you looked pretty lonely after that girl left. Is she your girlfriend?"
"No," Tay replied laughing. "I've known her forever, and now I live with her. She goes to school around here."
"Oh," Lucie smiled, innocently. "It's a little hot in here, do you want to go outside?"
"Um, OK..." Tay told her, trailing off.
"Good." She held his hand as they went outside the club, where they stayed, talking, for most of the night.
"Taylor?" she asked. "It's kinda late, I should get back to my apartment. It would be really nice if you could come with me, so I'm not alone at night. It's only a few blocks away, I mean, and then you can take a taxi back to where you live."
Tay really knew that he shouldn't be doing this, but he was really attracted to Lucie, and figured that nothing could go wrong. She seemed like a really nice girl. "Hold on, I have to tell Casey first."
"Come on, Taylor, she doesn't own you." Lucie replied, slightly annoyed.
"She'll freak out if she doesn't know where I am, hold on." he told her, wheeling himself in the club, and finding Casey at the bar. "Casey, I'm walking this girl home, I'll take a taxi back to the apartment. I shouldn't be too late."
"Who, Tay!" Casey demanded. "Do you know her?"
"No! I met her a few hours ago here. But come on, Casey, she's really nice, and, damn, she's hot!"
"Tay," Casey said, shaking her head. "I don't know if it's a smart idea."
"Casey, I'm 18 years old, I think I can make my own descisions now."
"Fine." she told him, "But don't come crying to me if something happens and this girl's not as nice as she seems!"
"Don't worry, I won't!" he replied, rolling his eyes and wheeling off.
"You ready?" Lucie asked him when he got back outside.
"Yeah, let's go."
"Oh shit, where the fuck is he!" Casey yelled out loud to no one, checking her watch. "I'll be home soon." she said, mimicking him. "Tay, where the hell are you, it's 4 in the fucking morning! I knew I shouldn't have let you go home with that girl, I knew it!"
The phone rang as Casey paced around the kichen. "Tay!" she yelled as she picked up the phone. Hearing his voice on the other end, she started yelling, "Where in God's name have you been! It's 4 o'clock! Do you know how worried I have been about you! Things can happen in the city, you could have been kidnapped or killed or something! Couldn't you have called me? I've been home for hours!!!"
"Casey, calm down." he said in a very subdued voice. "I'm sorry I didn't call you earlier, I didn't think you would be so worried, or home so early. I'm fine, and I'm still at Lucie's." Casey could hear laughing in the background.
"Yeah, I don't even want to know what you were doing there." she replied, disgustedly.
"Come on Casey!" he yelled, "Give me a break!"
"No Taylor, I was so worried about you for hours just because you were at some slut's house who you met at the club, and only God knows what you were doing there that made you too busy to call me or leave me a message so I would know you were OK!"
"Calm down, I'm coming home now, OK?"
"Be home in 15 minutes." she growled at him. "We'll talk about this when you get here." Casey hung up the phone.
"Well, Tay, I haven't seen you in a while." she said to him, smiling.
Tay always melted when she smiled at him, it was just something he couldn't resist.
"Is your friend Casey here?" she asked him, bitterly.
"She's always with me, you know that." he told her. "She's with her friend, inside somewhere."
"Getting drunk and high, as usual?" she asked.
"Lucie, please don't do this to me, OK?"
"Do what, Taylor. I'm stating the facts, and you know it."
"Why did you all of a sudden decide to come and talk to me again?" he asked her, sadly.
"I still like you." she told him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders.
"Sure you do." he bitterly told her.
"You know that when I broke up with you, it was a big mistake."
"Whatever, Lucie," Tay told her, trying to act like he knew he should, but succumbing to her talking every second.
"Tayloe," she sweetly said to him, please don't be mad at me. I made a stupid descision that day to go out with some bum drummer. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. I broke up with him though, he was a dick."
"Yeah, I know." Tay bitterly told her, remembering when he had met her drummer boyfriend.