"So is this a routine for you guys?" Jen asks, "Going to Nicky's friday night, playing foosball and pool, getting into fights and then going home?"
She is walking towards the car with everyone after spending the night alternating between sitting at the table, cheering the foosball fight on, and watching the Tyler and Reid beat some suckers at pool. Then having a fight about the pool break out and getting kicked out.
"With how small this town is?" Reid asks, "Of course. It's nothing but parties and Nicky's. There's nothing else other than old houses."
"Fun." She sighs, biting a nail and sounding as if it were not fun at all. No wonder Reid was such a dick, if this was all he did all the time.
"And what do they have in fancy-ass California? Sorry there're no waves you'd want to ride over here. Just lakes."
"I don't know how to surf." Jen rolls her eyes, "Shit, everyone at home would always just go somewhere else when we were bored. Isn't there a city nearby?"
"Boston?" Kate offers, "It's only a few hours away, and it's got a few swanky clubs."
"You want an impromptu roadtrip, California?" Pogue asks, giving Jen a daredevil grin.
"That's not going to be my new nickname, right? Cause I'll hate you if it sticks." Jen warns.
"Of course not." Caleb reassures her, then gives her a wicked grin, "California."
"I hate you all."
"Don't worry babe," Reid says, leading her to the car, "I'll make it there in less than an hour."
"Yeah, that'll be fun."
"Oh come on," Sarah bumps shoulders with Jen and then climbs into the back of Tyler's hummer, "Once you get into it, Reid's driving is fun."
"Yeah." Pogue says sarcastically, "I mean, who minds having a heart attack on the road?"
"Pussy." Reid mutters, pick-pocketing Tyler for the keys and sliding into the driver's seat. "Come on, babe, you're riding shotgun."
Jen starts sliding into the backseat when Reid hops out of the car and throws her over his shoulder.
"What the hell, man?" She smacks him hard on the back.
"I thought I told you to ride shotgun?"
"I thought you were talking to Tyler."
"You just want to be difficult, don't you?"
"A little bit." He throws her into the passenger seat and at least has the common courtesy to make sure nothing is sticking out before he slams the door closed.
"So, California," Pogue starts, leaning into the front seat and grinning at her, "You're bored of the small-town life and you want to go to a big city. What's first on your list?"
"I don't know Boston. What places do you usually hit up?"
"In the company of women?" Reid snorts, gunning the engine and starting their epic adventure, "Five star restaurants."
"And without the estrogen?" Jen asks.
"It all depends on who's turn it is." Tyler explains.
"Turn?"
"Yeah. We all take turns on where to go."
"And who's turn is it this time?"
"Mine, bitches." Reid says at the same moment Caleb shouts, "No strip joints!"
Kate rolls her eyes, "Of course. And the rest of you guys?"
"With Pogue it's biker bars, and Caleb just plain bars. Both with rock music." Tyler puts in.
"And then with Baby Boy here, it's headbanging bars." Pogue makes a go for Tyler's hair, but he ducks out of the way. It takes a lot of hair gel to make it stick up like that.
"And then with Reid it's naked women and vampire music."
"And bars!" Reid adds.
"How about headbanging bars?" Jen suggests. Reid smirks and is just about to suggest a place when Kate speaks up.
"I'll pass." Kate wrinkles her nose, "What about just a club?"
Jen snorts, "I want to see Caleb rave. Fuck, I want to see Caleb roll. It'll be hilarious."
"Not those kind of clubs, babe." Reid smirks, "She's talking about just a regular ol' dance club."
"Oh." Jen is a little disappointed.
"It's fine." Tyler reaches forward and rubs Jen's shoulder, "We can go everywhere."
"Alright." She is appeased.
And a little excited.
It's a little past two, they're dancing, and Jen is a little drunk.
It takes a moment for her to realize she's being dragged away, but once it's quiet and dark, she realizes that she's pinned by the blond nuisance in her life and he's... glaring at her?
"What do you expect of Baby Boy, huh?"
She giggles a bit, realizing that he was jealous. Of who, she didn't know, but her and Baby Boy, who really was a big boy, were dancing just now. She thinks. Maybe a little before that. And Reid was jealous.
"Why? You wanna be in my position?"
"Please," Reid sneers cruelly and rolls his eyes, "I don't know who you're trying to fool, babe. Tyler's single for a reason."
Jen rolls his eyes in a drunken mimic of his attitude.
"He's waiting for someone special, sweetheart. And you are not."
She glares, tearing up a bit because okay, alcohol made her act emotional and shoves him away.
"I know that!" She shouts, getting another drink (thank God for fake IDs and apathetic bartenders,) and making her way back into the heavy cloud of dancers.
She starts dancing again, and when a partner once again appears she doesn't know if it's Tyler, Reid, or just some stranger.
But when the hands feel comforting and the head murmurs soft-sounding words, she doesn't care.
She comes back to herself when she is in the car, under a warm arm with someone's chest as a pillow.
She notices how soft their shirt is, and briefly pets her pillow for thanks, then nods back off.
She wakes up when she's in her bed with a hangover, and curses whoever got her that fake ID.
"Hey, girl." Kate grins at her once Jen is awake, showered, and eyeing their bed greedily with the intent to get another day or two of sleep in.
"Hello." She nods at Kate and Sarah, then looks back at the bed.
"We're going to Amici's for lunch. You're coming with, right? We made Tyler bring a girl so it's a quadruple date."
"Tyler has a girl?"
"With no name or place in his heart, yes. Before you, Reid always had a girl, too. They're always a little dumb, a little blond at heart, and never mind that we never know their name."
"Ah." She feels a little depressed about the girls.
"It sounds a little messed up," Sarah says, "But sometimes they complain about all the double dates that me and Kate go on."
"They do?"
"If you ask me," Sarah says in a whisper, "Reid was always a little jealous of Caleb and Pogue."
"Caleb especially." Kate grins, giving Sarah a hip-check.
"I think they both really wanted a strong relationship with someone like we do, so they would always bring girls to our quadruple dates instead of just hanging out in a group like we normally do."
"You are painting them in a very pathetic light." Jen notes.
"But not as pathetic as what you're wearing." Kate says, looking up and down at Jen, "You're wearing pajamas!"
"No I'm not." Jen protests, "This is not what I slept in."
"Putting a cardigan over everything isn't disguising the truth. You are wearing a Snoopy shirt, sweats, and uggs."
"They're comfortable." Jen pouts.
"They're ughs." Sarah says.
"Uggslies." Kate adds.
"What do you want me to wear?" Jen glares, "I'll go out naked if you two will stop talking."
"I'll get one of Sarah's dresses."
"A dress?" Jen whines.
"Oh please, I've seen your closet. You are a dark-haired Taylor Momsen."
"You take that back!"
"What? Gossip Girl is wonderful!"
"And Madonna was my middle school God. I'd rather be Kelly Osbourne."
"Right... Anyway, where this sundress and these wedges. Look bohemian, not... sloth."
She looks at Kate, then the floral dress and the sunny wedges. Instead, she goes for Kate's closet and picks out a black skirt and white pumps.
"Hey, what was wrong with my selection?" Kate pouts.
"I am not Taylor Momsen or Vanessa Hudgens." She complains, taking off her flip flops and sweats and donning Kate's clothes, tucking in the Snoopy shirt and glaring at Kate, "Snoopy is comforting."