Falling Into You. A Hollywood Heights Story.

Chapter 26. Party Animal

A/N: FINALLY HERE IS CHAPTER 26! I KNOW I HAVEN'T UPDATED IN LIKE TWO MONTHS, BUT I HONESTLY DIDN'T KNOW HOW TO CONTINUE AFTER THAT LAST CHAPTER! I'M SO SORRY, BUT THIS'LL MAKE UP FOR IT! HOPE YOU ENJOY!

Sixth months later...

Loren woke up with a pounding going on in her head. Last night, her and Mel had went to a party at Ian's, his birthday of course, and she'd had a little too much to drink. "Where am I?" she said out loud, not remembering where she was.

"You're here with me Loren!" she heard that so familiar voice say, who she hadn't spoken to in six months.

"Oh my god! Why the hell are you here?" she yelled, "In my bed!"

"You don't remember do you?," Eddie asked. "You finally spoke to me yesterday- after six months," he said with a little haste in his voice.

She was scratching the back of her neck now, "Has it really been that long?"

"Uh, yes Loren, it's been six months since you broke up with me."

"Oh, wow. Uh, why are you in my bed, Eddie?"

"Last night you had a pretty wild night Loren. I'm not surprised you don't remember."

She drew her breath when she heard wild. When in her life had she been the wild one of the bunch? Never because it was always Melissa. "Okay, so when you say 'wild', how wild do you mean Eddie?"

"I mean pretty wild," he said, and as he did, Loren's stomach was doing somersaults. How could she have let things get so apparently out of control?

"Well, do you mean like dancing on tables wild- or something even worse?" Please don't let it be something worse, please don't let it be something worse, she was thinking.

"So you don't remember anything that happened at all last night?"

"You've asked me like three times already. Do you think I would've remembered anything from this 'wild' night as you call it in the last five minutes? No, I wouldn't Eddie- but I'd like to know what really happened."

"Okay, you asked for it," he winked as he started the long story of last night's adventures.

"Are you sure you want to go to this party Lo? You never know, old lover boy of yours might be there?"

"Who?" Loren asked, zoning out and not hearing a word Mel was saying.

"Uh, Eddie Duran, your ex-boyfriend? He might be there, at Ian's party? And that means an awkward situation for you, since you haven't freaking called him in six months!"

"Wow, I can't believe it's been that long. We would be having our anniversary in a week," she frowned, trying to hold back the tears that came along with heartbreak.

"It's okay if you don't want to go Lo. I can call Ian right now, and I'm sure he'll understand."

"No, no, I'll go, because I don't want to make you stay home when it's your British boyfriend's birthday! So, let's get in the car and go already! Go on! Go!" she said motioning to her car. She could do this. If she ended up seeing Eddie, it wouldn't be that big of a deal, would it?

"So what did you get Ian for his birthday?" she asked, while in the car.

"Just some money, and a special surprise," she winked.

"Ah, I see. Good for you Mel!"

Now Loren had never really been to Ian's house before. Yes she'd been to his apartment, but since he'd moved, she's never seen it. She was amazed when they pulled into the driveway, but when she saw her house next door, she was certainly confused. "Mel, does Ian live here- is he my neighbor?" she asked.

"Yeah," she said.

"When did this happen and why didn't you ever tell me?"

"Oh, about three months," she said lowering her voice. "I didn't tell you because I just didn't want to make you feel any worse about what happened between you and Eddie with the news of me and Ian- that's all Loren. I just thought it'd be best if you didn't know. I hope you can understand that."

"Let's just go in," she mumbled. How could Mel not tell her this? I just need to get through the night, don't do anything stupid, she mentally told herself.

Totally ignoring what she had just told herself in the car, as soon as she step foot in the door, she took a drink. Never in her life had she had more than a sip or two of wine- nothing more. But tonight, tonight is different.

Not even twenty minutes into the party, she spotted Eddie from across the room, and he gave her a great, but fake smile. And to make things worse, walking over toward her, he kept that fake smile on his face, and Loren grabbed another drink. How can this night get any worse?

"Is that Loren Tate I see over there?" he yelled walking over to her.

"In the flesh." Why is he over here?

"And do I see a beer in her hand?"

"That would also be true, but do I see Eddie Duran right here, making a complete ass of himself?" pretending to look around for him, but he was right in front of her.

"Ah, I see how it is. You break up with me- six months ago- and now you don't even want to talk to me? Nice Loren, real nice."

"You know what Eddie?" she questioned him. And in that moment, she punched him in the face again.

"You're going to do this again? In front of all these people?" he said breathing heavily in her ear with his arms around her torso as a restraint. "Calm down Loren. I'd just like to talk to you without you punching me in the face, or without the two of us screaming at each other. Can you do that for me?"

"Give me fifteen minutes, and I'll be all yours. Where do you want to meet at?"

"There's a few guest bedrooms upstairs, so I'll be in one of those," he said as she started to walk away. "Hey Loren?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you."

"Don't push your luck mister. I'll see you in fifteen," she poked his chest.

"Aye aye captain," he joked.

Loren went and said hello to Ian and wished him a 'Happy Birthday' and he apologized for not telling her about the house. "You don't have to apologize for moving in to this beautiful house Ian. I'm really happy for you, and for Mel. Are you ever gonna ask her to move in with you?"

"Maybe one day, not to sound like a jerk or anything," he started before she interrupted.

"But you don't want the same thing to happen to you guys that happened to me and Eddie. I get it. We lived with each other for like a week, then we broke up. Yeah, I know- it sounds stupid."

"Hey, it doesn't sound stupid. You both had your reasons, and it happened. It happens- all the time. Don't blame yourself Lo, and remember to keep your head up."

"Thanks Ian. Look there's someone I need to talk to, and I'm gonna need to get a drink, so I'll talk to you later."

He gave her a large bear hug, and told her, "Remember what I said; 'don't blame yourself and keep your head up'. Let those words become your motto of the night. And anyway, thanks for coming tonight. I know it'll be tough when you see him, but stick to the motto, and you'll be on your way!"

She strolled across the house, wondering where that bedroom was. She eventually found it, and in it she found him lying on the bed, drinking his beer. "Eddie, what are we doing here?"

"We're just here to talk. Is that so wrong?"

"Well, it does Eddie. You see, I keep making all the wrong choices tonight. Like I don't know, drinking this beer that's in my hand. And you want to know a little secret Eddie? This isn't my first! You know what? I don't even know how many I've had because I don't want to talk to you because I feel so horrible about what happened six months ago. I'm sorry I never called you back, I just needed some time for myself. And now I've had that time, for myself, I need to apologize to you. You truly don't understand how much I hate myself for what I did."

"Don't say that Lo. I hated you for the longest time, honestly. But I got over it, and I was finally starting to get over you Loren. But since you're right here, come lay with me."

She walked over to the bed and sat on top of him with her arms around his waist. "Does this bother you?" she asked.

"No, not at all." He obviously sounded nervous.

"Now, what about this?" She took off her shirt revealing only her bra.

"Maybe a little Loren." He looked around and saw that the bedroom door was still open. He pushed her off him, and slammed it shut.

Loren, in a drunken haze rolled off the bed and whined, "Ow! What was that for?"

"You know what Loren? Screw it!" he locked the door and went to pick her up and lay her on the bed. "This!" he breathed heavily in her ear.

She planted a kiss on his forehead, then his cheek, lips, and she slowly made her way down to his stomach, and she finally took off his shirt. "You know I never stopped loving you Eddie, right?"

He suddenly stopped what he was doing and said, "I know Loren. I never stopped loving you either. Things just got too complicated and we just went through a rough patch. But I'm willing to make things work Loren. I want to- try again. We should be happy, and celebrating next week, for our one year, but instead we'd be sulking in our houses. I don't want to be sad and alone anymore Loren. Like you said- what feels like lifetimes ago- that I made you feel alive. Well Loren, sorry to steal your words, but you make me feel alive too. I can't imagine a life without you. Can't we just move on?"

"I think I can forgive you."

"Thank you so much Loren. I love you!"

"I know you do," she teased. "I'd like to continue this, but there's someplace I'd like to show you. So, put your shirt back on, and let's go!"

He was hesitant for a while, but he finally got up and put his shirt back on- of course with the assistance of Loren. "We should probably go say bye to Mel and Ian."

"Yeah, you're right. I'll go down first and say bye to Mel, then you can go and say bye to Ian. Okay, got it?"

"Aye aye captain!" he said as he held the door for her. "After you." A kiss on the cheek was all that he was getting- for now.

Walking hand in hand, down the beach, he had to ask, "Where exactly are we going?"

"It's a surprise, but it's just a little ways from the house." She started running towards the spot, when she turned around and teased, "Come on! Are you getting too old for a little good race?"

"Ugh, never!" he gasped and ran to catch up with Loren who was still sprinting. Once he was close enough, he tackled her onto the ground and laid on top of her. "Was this the spot you were talking about?"

"I can't tell you that!"

"Why not? It's not like I know anything about this beach."

After realizing that what he was saying is since they broke up only a week after moving in together, she said with a playful but hurt tone in her voice, "Ouch."

"Oh! I didn't mean anything by what I said! It's just when we lived together for that week, we didn't do much exploring of the beach, that's all!"

Maybe Eddie and I could really work this time, she thought. I feel so horrible for kicking him out of the house, and not even talking to him the past six months. "That better be it, if you're going to move back in."

"You really want that?" he asked curiously.

Moving closer, she spoke, "Yes Eddie, I really want you back in my life. You honestly don't know how many times I wanted to call you these past six months."

Taking a step back, "Then why didn't you?" he said in astonishment.

"I don't know Eddie. I guess I was just scared that if we tried to work things out that we might end up in the same place again."

"Hey, no we wouldn't. You want to know why?" he finally moved closer to her again, so their bodies were touching and held up her chin.

"Why?" she pouted.

"Because we've both learned from our mistakes- we've both grown over these six months. And we wouldn't make the same stupid ones. Like rushing someone before they're ready for something. Even though I thought you were finally ready to open up to me in the way that you did, I guess inside, you truly weren't. And I didn't know that, okay? I really thought that it was what you wanted."

"Oh Eddie, I thought it was, then I didn't, but now looking back I made the right decision."

"Opening up to me like that or leaving?"

"You know which one!" she said running off again to the edge of the shore and started taking off her clothes to where she was standing in just her underwear, waiting for him to catch up again.

"What in the hell are you doing Loren?" he wondered, pointing to her in her underwear. She was teasing him, that's what it was.

"Where I want to show you requires us going into the water. And to go in the water, I'd like to not go swimming in jeans, wouldn't you?" she giggled.

"Of course." He stripped down into his boxers and joined Loren in the water, and followed her direction as she led them to wherever they were going.

Eventually, they came upon a little island and Loren said, "Here we are!"

"How in the hell did you find this place Loren?" he said with amazement.

"Well the house we bought actually came with an island!" Loren said with excitement.

"Oh wow Loren, that's crazy! I don't know how I never knew that!"

"Probably since the realtor never told you! Anyway, Mel, Ian and I all went on their boat one day a couple of weeks ago and we found it! Can you believe that? It's weird right- that we own our own little island?" she said, sitting down in the sand, soaking wet.

"Yeah, I guess so," he paused, "but you know what it needs?"

"What?" she asked.

He turned sat down with her near the shore and said, "It needs a name."

"Oh yeah, what did you have in mind?"

"What about Île de la belle femme?"

"Now I've never took French before, so could you tell me what it means?"

He couldn't wait to tell her what it means. "Île de la belle femme means 'Island of the Beautiful Woman', Loren."

"Ooh La La," she giggled. "I'm hoping that beautiful woman you're talking about is me?"

"Who else would it be!"

Loren couldn't believe that this was happening- Eddie and her had their own island! And not just that, they were mending the cracks in their relationship, and it was like nothing had even come between them and they were still the same happy couple they were- six months ago.

She stood up and headed over to a little cooler that was in the sand and pulled out two beers. "You want one?" she yelled, pointing to the bottles in her hand.

He shook his head and walked over toward her to grab his beer. "Do you have any plans on doing anything with this?"

"Actually no. I think I'm just gonna leave it like it is for now. It's never bad to have two places to escape to- when you need time to think for yourself."

Loren went a few steps down the little island and found a small row boat and brought it to where the sand meets the water. "You wanna head back now?" she said, shivering because of her wet underwear.

"That sounds nice."

They each grabbed another beer for on the way back, and they spent the next twenty minutes rowing back to the house. They talked about what they've each done the last six months, about their careers, and how much they missed talking to one another.

They reached the shore, they pulled the boat out and grabbed their clothes they left in the sand and both sprinted back to the house.

"Hey, I have an idea," Loren said playfully opening the front door. She grabbed his arm and lead him into the bathroom. They both stripped down, and went into the walk-in shower. They just stood inside the shower, looking at each other, and there was an occasional kiss.

"This is nice," Eddie said, leaning in giving her a kiss on the forehead.

"Yeah, it is. I can't believe how stupid I was about everything."

He was pulling the wet hair off her face and reassured her that everything was okay, when she started to cry. "What's wrong Loren?"

"I know we've already gone through this like three times tonight, but you don't know how badly I feel. You keep saying that it's okay Eddie, but how am I supposed to know that it truly is? What I did makes me seem low and shallow, but Eddie- I never meant to not call. Time just flew by so quickly, and I just was so upset about everything," Loren said hyperventilating.

Eddie turned off the water and pulled Loren out of the shower. He wrapped her in a towel, and himself as well and they quickly got dressed. He looked her in the eye. "Loren, I understand how bad you feel, but I feel just as bad. I never should have walked out, and I shouldn't have let you have sex with me if you weren't ready." He could tell that he was starting to calm her down. Still talking to her and looking her in the eye he said,"But Loren, those things are in the past. If we're always stuck in our past, we'll never be able to move on to our future. The thing that makes us human is our ability to move on, Loren. And you not moving on from our past, six months ago, its destroying you right now. So Loren-for your sake- please just let that part of us go. The part who thought lust was wrong, that it was just a thing that would pass in time. The thing is Loren, that it'll never go away between you and me. We have such a strong bond Loren, and I could never stop wanting to love you. And I never did stop the six months we were apart- I couldn't. I've been waiting for the day that you would finally return one of my calls, but that day never came. But today, it's like fate tore us apart for that long, so that we would be reunited tonight, at Ian's party. You've got a hold on me, Miss Loren Tate, and all I want to do is keep you in my arms forever. Follow me real quickly."

"Where are we going?" she said holding his hand, going down the grand staircase.

"I need to grab something." He walked to the pot of flowers by the front door and grabbed something.

"Uh, Eddie, I don't think you're going to find anything in there," she spoke confused.

He turned back to Loren and held her hands again. "I know this might seem crazy to you right now, but I love you so much Loren. So much that it brings me great joy to ask you this. Miss Loren Tate," he paused getting down onto one knee, and pulling out a little box with a ring inside, "Will you marry me?"

Loren jumped into the air with excitement and squealed 'yes'! "Put it on!" She was impatient.

He slid the ring onto the fourth finger on her left hand and gave her a huge hug, and all the while doing that, spinning her in the air.

"What about my mom?" she suddenly realized. Her and Eddie had been on the rocks for six months, what would she think?

"We have her blessing. I called her up a few weeks ago and told her what I'd been planning to do. Now she didn't believe that I was trying to get in contact with you, but it was the truth. I told her that with no doubt in my mind, I felt it was right that you and I, we should be more. And with much more convincing, she said okay!"

And with this exciting news, they decided to celebrate by each drinking two more beers. And with that, they both passed out in Loren's bed, sure to forget the night's adventures.

A/N: So like I said, I'm really sorry about not updating, but I just had REALLY BAD writer's block! But hopefully this one made up for the lack of updating the last few months! So that shower scene between Eddie and Loren was a little like the end of the movie 'Like Crazy'! *FYI* Thanks so much for reading, and like always, if you have ideas, just let me know! And also reviews are always welcomed, and together, let's keep hoping for a Hollywood Heights Season 2! Thanks! c: