A/N: Here we are again with Chapter 22. I look at my calendar and by the time this gets posted it will be Election Day. I encourage my voting-age readers to go out there and vote! Aside from US current events I have nothing else to report and I hope you all enjoy Chapter 22. :)

22.

Louis was actually trying to look nice for the party. He stood in front of his mirror and checked over his wardrobe. He was wearing a blue plaid shirt with a white one underneath it. He thought, nah, it's too warm. He just found a nice t-shirt and a pair of khaki shorts. Then he changed again. Why change what's always worked? he thought. So, he reverted back to his Hawaiian shirt. It was just after nightfall and he quickly said goodbye to his parents. But first, he called Twitty to make sure he was coming along, just in case there was trouble. It was affirmative. They'd meet at the party. When he arrived, Louis waited in his car for Twitty to show up. When he saw Twitty coming up walking around the corner, Louis jumped out. "Hey, you made it!"

"Yeah, dude, I didn't want to miss this. C'mon. Let's go in."

Music could be heard booming all the way from the street. There was a horde of people in Corey's house. Louis and Twitty could barely move around in there. They went in the kitchen looking for a little snack. There were plenty of chips to eat. There was also plenty of beer. Just tubs full of beer. Almost everybody was drinking something. One guy pulled out a beer and handed it to Louis. He declined. "Hey, Twitty, I'm gonna go look for Tawny and tell her." Twitty patted him on the back, wished him luck and sent him on his way. Louis decided that he was going to tell Tawny how he felt.

So, he went searching all over the place, but no sign of her. Having already had a few beverages before he left the house, Louis had to go to the bathroom. After waiting for a few drunks to finish their duties in the bathroom, Louis walked in. Once he finished his own business and while he was drying his hands, he overheard something through the door. He cringed because he could tell it was Corey. But what was he saying? Louis placed his ear up against the door and could faintly hear him saying, "Yeah, the chick couldn't make it. Said something about getting called in to work. Sounds like a load of crap to me. So, tomorrow I'm gonna nail her. She doesn't suspect a thing."

"What if she resists?" another voice asked.

"I got some pills. I'll drug the hottie up if I need to, but hey, who could resist me? I'm the best-looking guy around."

Louis was in shock. He didn't know what to do or say. He was in the middle of unlocking the bathroom door when Corey swung it open. "What are you doing here, Fluffy?" he asked Louis.

"I was, uhh, just, you know, opening the door."

"No, I mean, why are you at this party?" Louis looked blank. Corey started swearing and said, "Ahh, man. I'll bet Tawny asked you didn't she?" Louis still didn't answer. He still had a shocked look to him. Then Corey got suspicious and grabbed Louis by the collar. "Say, you wouldn't happen to have heard a word being said on the other side of this door, would you?"

Very nervously, Louis blurted out, "I did not hear anything about you and Tawny!"

He pulled Louis closer. "So you did, huh?" He threw Louis into his buddy Chuck and said, "Bring him here." They were brought into a dark, unoccupied room. Louis asked what they were going to do, but Corey just kicked him. Louis started squirming when they were wrapping him up with some rope. "Hey, what's with the limp, Fluffy?" Corey asked very condescendingly, already knowing the answer.

Louis squinted one eye and said, "It's nothing. I just took a hard fall the other night."

Corey tightened the rope. "Gee, that's too bad." Then he and his friend Chuck carried Louis out and stuffed him in a closet and gagged his mouth. "Now you just hang out here for awhile, OK?" Louis didn't answer, not that he could and just stood there in the dark closet.

After a couple of hours they party began to die down little by little. Perhaps it was getting late, or perhaps most of the people had taken in too much alcohol. Whichever it was, the party was clearly wrapping up. Twitty was still there. He kind of danced around the house looking for people. He wasn't really looking for anyone in particular at first. But after awhile he began to wonder where Louis was, or Tawny for that matter. Maybe they hit it off and are talking somewhere, he thought, but maybe not. Finally he asked someone in the hallway if they had seen either Louis Stevens or Tawny Dean. The person shook his head and staggered off. But this was right in front of the closet where Louis had been stashed. Unable to open the door because he was tied up and gagged, Louis began beating on it with his head viciously. Twitty may not be the brightest one in the world, but a beating sound coming from a closet is definitely suspicious. He opened the door to find Louis all tied up. "Dude, what happened to you?"

Louis made some inaudible noises because Twitty asked him that without having taken out the gag. "Hey, there's something in your mouth. Maybe if I take it out you'd be able to talk better, man."

"Ya think?!" Louis blurted out. "Now get me out of this. We've got to get out of here," Louis said bouncing up and down, though still tied.

Twitty quickly untied Louis and asked him what happened. "I can't tell you now. We've just got to get outta here," Louis said.

Louis darted off leaving Twitty behind, but not before Twitty was caught by Chuck, but not Corey. "Hey you! Somebody went to an awful lot of trouble to tie him up like that. It was a good job. Just who do you think you are?" he demanded. When Twitty didn't answer, Chuck said, "What's your name?"

Twitty definitely didn't recognize him, so he figured he'd be safe by not giving his real name. "The name's Honeytoast. Lars Honeytoast."

Chuck started to threaten Twitty. "No you're not. You're the Twitty guy. C'mere!!" Then Twitty made a mad dash for the door. Louis was already in the car and had it running when he saw Twitty come running out of the house. "Twitty, come on!!" Twitty opened the door as fast as he could and before he could even buckle his seat belt Louis had spun the tires and taken off.