Then he spoke, "What makes you think that it's spiked?" I raised an eyebrow at his question. I repeat my previous statement when I said he was just that stupid, but admittingly, a cute stupid. "Alright, I'll taste it and prove to you that it's not spiked." He lifted one of the cups to his lips and took a drink.

At first his expression was unreadable, then I noticed the look in his eyes that told me I had been right, followed closely by a grimace. He swallowed, rather reluctantly it seemed, and looked into his cup, "Wow, okay, so that's some spiked..." He stopped, swirling the liquid around a little, "...something. Can you tell what it is?" He tilted the cup towards me so I could get a look and I shook my head. "Okay then, ten points for the cold heartless bitch."

I laughed, "Are you going to call me that for the rest of the night?"

"I wasn't, but now I am." He answered, flashing one of his signature grins. "So, we abandon these," He held up the cups, so I could get a better look at them or something, then set them down on a nearby table, "And go into the kitchen and get a canned soda." I hesitated at first. He noticed and continued, "You know they seal those cans pretty tight, I don't think you can spike them." Smiling, I nodded, and followed him into the kitchen.

For some stupid reason, the loud banging that was starting to get on my nerves, from the stereo was very hard to hear in the kitchen. It was just a steady pump like it had been outside the house, even though we were in the next room. I let the solid looking oak door closed behind me and suddenly became aware of how much cooler it was in the kitchen. Probably because there were less bodies in the kitchen, try only two, me and Vaughn, in the kitchen as opposed to the endless number in the next room.

"Quiet, isn't it?" Vaughn commented, handing me a Dr. Pepper, still sealed, I might add.

I nodded, "Why is it like that?"

"His parents sound proofed the walls on the inside, just not the outside. So you can stand across the street and hear every word of an argument and yet somehow, stand in the next room and not hear a damned word," He explained.

I wanted to say more but my cell phone that I had stashed in my handbag in case I needed to call home for a ride, started to ring. I sighed frustrated before fishing out the ringing phone and studying the caller ID.

"Who is it?" Vaughn asked, noticing my quizzical expression.

"I have no idea," I admitted.

"Answer it." He said, a hint of excitement in his voice.

"What?"

"See who it is," He replied with a shrug, trying to pretend that he wasn't excited about it even though his voice said otherwise.

I shrugged and pressed the 'talk' button and raised the phone to my ear, "Hello?"

"Sydney?"

"Dad?" I questioned. Instantly I regretted that. I should have been more sensitive than to mention my dad in front of Vaughn but getting a call from my dad was the very surprising. I gave Vaughn a look that said 'I'm sorry'.

Vaughn just shrugged and returned the look with one that said 'forget about it.' He turned around and started to busy himself in the cupboards, looking for...something.

"Yes, Sydney it's me."

"Why are you calling?" I asked. "I thought you were in the Bahamas or wherever you went."

"We got back today. I told you that we would last week."

I searched my memory quickly, trying to think of something but nope, nothing. "And...?"

"I was calling about dinner on Wednesday..." Damn, I forgot about my weekly dinner with Dad on Wednesdays. It was nice, not remembering. "I have something to do this week, does Sunday sound okay?"

I nodded, "Yes, Dad, dinner on Sunday sounds fine." Why don't you just cancel the damn thing? You're really good at that. It wasn't until after I hung up that I realized that now that Dad was married again, that would probably mean that Jen was coming along. Oh, great. "I'm sorry about that. My Dad's forcing me to have dinner with him and Jen on Sunday."

"Jen?"

"The evil stepmother," I answered. "When you meet her, you'll see what I mean." He smiled slightly when I said that and I was mentally kicking myself. "Not that you are...going to meet her. I mean...if...you meet her."

He stopped me. "I would love to meet your evil stepmother. Sounds like fun."

"Fun?" I asked. It was sweet of him to say that he wanted to meet my insane family but wouldn't that mean we'd be dating if he did? Ahh, too complicated.

Vaughn shrugged and handed me a Hershey's bar, "Here, this might cheer you up."

I studied the Hershey's bar in my hand. How did he know that I loved, more like was addicted to, chocolate? Half of me wanted to throw my arms around him and thank him for the chocolate, while the other half was wondering if he had stalked me or something. "Where'd you get this?" I asked.

Vaughn smiled and opened one of the cupboards. I swear my jaw dropped and my eyes widened seeing an entire cupboard stacked to the brim with Hershey's, Milky Ways, Snickers, and other various chocolate bars. It was like chocolate lover's heaven.

"I take it you like chocolate," Vaughn teased.

I nodded, "Yes!" I closed my open mouth and smiled at him, "How'd you guess?"

"Your face lit up like my sister's when I give her some kind of chocolate." He answered.

"You have a sister?"

"Well, half sister." My head did a little tilt to the side and he obviously was trying to laugh at me, "Like four years after my dad...passed on...my mom married this guy and got pregnant with my sister. And then the guy took off and yeah, that's pretty much it."

"Oh, I'm so sorry."

"The guy was a creep, anyway," He shrugged before grinning again, "What happened to being a cold heartless bitch?"

I laughed, "I'm not really good at being a cold heartless bitch."

"Good, I don't like cold heartless bitchy Sydney."

I smiled and looked down at the chocolate bar in my hand. "Where is your sister? Is she staying with Crazy Aunt Trish too?"

He shook his head, "Nah, she's four and obviously not in school. So she's in France with Maman. Lucky little brat." I laughed. You could tell Vaughn loved his little sister, too. No matter how he tried to hide it. "You'd like her." I smiled when he said that and he started to correct himself, "If you do meet her...that is...I mean you don't have to."

I stopped him, "I would love to meet your sister."

He smiled, "Good. So, I like hanging out with you."

"Me too."

"And I would love to continue it past tonight." He hinted.

"Me too." Any comments from the peanut gallery? Anything? Anyone? Hmmm, that's odd. Nothing. Does this mean I'm falling for him? Ahh, that's too complicated too. I'll think about that later.

"So, tomorrow's too soon, and you're doing something on Sunday," I nodded with a roll of my eyes, and he tried not to laugh at me, "and I have stuff to do on Monday, so how about Tuesday. What are you doing on Tuesday?"

I wanted to ask him what "stuff" he had to do on Monday but decided that I didn't want to know. I had to work on Monday anyway but I had nothing to do on Tuesday. "I was planning on sitting on my couch, watching movies." I answered.

"Want some company?"

I smiled, "Sure."

"Alright." The music in the next room suddenly changed to a slow song and an awkward silence fell between us. He broke it by setting the soda in his hand down on the counter and holding out his hand, "Wanna dance?" Without meaning to, I frowned slightly at the thought of going back into the other room. Loud music and many people was much less appealing than soft music and just me and Vaughn. "What? Do I have cuties or something?"

I smiled and shook my head, "No, I just don't want to go back into there. The music tends to give me a headache and I like it in here."

"That's okay. Truth is, I hate the mass of people too." Another silence. Damn them. "Wanna dance in here?"

He was persistent. I had to give him that. So persistent that it was adorable and not annoying. "Sure." I set my soda and candy bar down on the counter and took a step towards him. He met me first and instantly his hands went to my hips. I stepped into his arms and wrapped my arms around his neck.

Is it normal to feel like you're on fire when a guy's touching you? Cause that's what I was feeling with his hands on my hips. I just about died when his arms snaked around my waist and pulled me closer. And it wasn't from distaste. I really liked the feeling of being in Vaughn's arms.

I wanted to push him off and demand that he take me home because quite frankly all the feelings he was invoking in me was freaking the crap out of me but at the same time I couldn't bring myself to move beyond the slight swaying of my hips back and forth in sync with his. I had to remind myself just to breathe. Does he know that he has this affect on girls? That's probably why he's so damn cocky and sure of himself all the time. Nah, he's not cocky, just happy with life. Lucky sexist pig.

Four hours and miraculously not a headache later, Vaughn and I were sitting in his car outside my house. Talking, not anything else. Just talking.

"I had fun tonight." Oh my God, do I sound pathetic but I couldn't think of anything else to say.

He smiled, thankfully, "Me too."

"So..." I started. I noticed his smile and stopped, glancing down at my hands. Think of something besides him. Anything but him. I need to repaint my nails. There that's not about Vaughn. What color should I do this time? I wonder what color Vaughn would like. Or maybe I should use green this time, like his eyes. Ah! That's thinking about Vaughn. Stop doing that. "I'll see you on Tuesday."

His smile faded, a little but a noticeable little, "Okay, Tuesday."

I smiled at him and got out of the car. He waited a couple seconds after I reached my front door before speeding off down the street.

Mom was in bed, as usual and Aimee was on the phone with Jeremy fighting over some stupid little wedding detail, just as normal. Only Kady seemed to MIA but then again, she was working. That was probably a good thing, I didn't want to answer all her questions about the party and what it was like because all I could tell her about was Vaughn and the conversation we had in the kitchen that lasted for three and a half hours. And that would start a whole bunch of questions that I really didn't want to answer.

"So where'd you go off to tonight?" Aimee asked, suddenly appearing in my room.

I looked up from my math (uggh!) homework and gave her a weird look. Why did she care where I went or not? "A party."

"What were you doing at a party?" Ah, that sounds more like the Aimee that's annoyed with me 24/7.

"Talking."

"With who?"

Does she suspect something? Yeah, probably. "Vaughn."

"Who?"

"A guy," I answered, turning back to my homework. I really did not have the time to deal with Aimee playing mom again.

"Was it bad?"

"Was what bad?" I asked.

"Your date."

"What? No...no...it was good..." She raised an eyebrow at me and I continued, "Okay...fine, it was perfect." She smiled triumphantly, finally prying some information out of me. "Why do you care?"

"No reason." It was my turn to raise an eyebrow and for her to continue, "Kady wanted me to ask, that's all." Since when does Aimee care about what Kady wants? That girl is up to something. "Okay, so goodnight."

"Night," I said. I waited until after she closed my door before adding, "You crazy woman."

A/N: Okay, so unfortunately school has started again and for me that means that I need to take a break and step back from the fanfiction world and get reorganized. In other words, that means that I'm taking a hiatus for at least a week, quite possibly two and maybe even three. I know it sucks but I can't screw up my classes this year because of fanfiction. You can be mad, that's okay but I'm not changing my mind. When I come back, I will have a new chapters and most likely new stories. So, see y'all soon. And thanks in advance for your reviews, they really keep me inspired.

Charmed-angel4- i replied to you first this and the last time cause yours was the first review i got for the chapter. that's how i do things. gets things organzied, for the most part.

generva- i'm not offended. really i'm not. i had doubts about how well this story would go but i suppose it's going good...for now. and you're welcome for the dedication. i meant it. you really helped me.

largemarge416-i think that you're the only one to guess about the chapter title and you got it right! so now for the prize business. so do you want it over email or some other way? let me know, okay?

Laura- okay, so i'm blonde and i have no idea what 'lmao' means. can you tell me please? and glad you liked the aunt trish thing.

SpyKid18- well, um there's your answer in the chapter. lol. i know i'm wierd and pepper says hi.

angryapplepie- yeah...there's the answer. i would be weirded out too. and that's probably why vaughn was as well. hehe. yeah, she's quoting...it's love. a weird strange love but love nonetheless. lol.

dolphingurl1- i know what you mean about the computer being weird thing. mine does it all the time and i hate it. i've called it names and then it cooperates even less. lol. it's crazy.

chickiee-dee- you fell into a river? lol. that's funny. fun no, but very funny. and syd's resolve not to drink is pretty much because she's underage and i dont know...i'm going off of my beliefs and yeah. i've confused myself again...as usual. lol.