Chapter 7

When they arrived at the party, Paige and Phoebe hurried in, but Sydney grabbed hold of Piper's arm and pulled her aside. "Listen, thanks for what you did before." Sydney said smiling gratefully at her friend.

"Don't worry about it. Paige can get a little carried away at times." They both laughed. "But erm...what's the deal with you and Michael?" Piper asked playing with the bracelets on her wrist. Sydney opened her mouth to reply but she was interrupted by Francie and Will.

"Hey you two!" She said giving them both a hug. "Are you guys coming in?" She asked puzzled at why they were standing outside when the party was inside. Sydney and Piper looked at each other momentarily, both secretly agreeing that this discussion would be continued later. "Yeah sure." They finally said in unison, and all four of them entered the house together.

Luckily Leo's parents had agreed to go out for the evening, obviously not wanting to interfere with their son's party. The house was already getting full of people, music blearing out from the stereo in the living room. Francie and co made their way over to Leo, smiling happily as he spotted them.

"Happy birthday!" They all said, each giving him a hug.

"Thanks! I'm really glad that you all came." His face was glowing with happiness.

"Here...this is from all of us!" Francie handed over the gift as Phoebe, Paige and Cole joined them. Leo took hold of the envelope and opened it, revealing two tickets to the opening game of the new baseball season. Leo's eyes lit up as he held the tickets in his hands. "Oh my God! You guys...I don't know what to say!" He looked at them speechless. "Thank you so much!" He said laughing. He had been a huge baseball fan for years, but he had never found the time to go to a game. This was the perfect gift for him.

They all began talking amongst themselves as Syd secretly scanned the room for Vaughn. At a first glance she saw no sight of him, but this didn't bother her too much, as she knew that Leo's house was relatively big, so finding Vaughn would be a task. But for now she was stood next to Will as she chatted away to him.

"So, how's things going between you and Francie?" Sydney asked curiously nodding over into Francie's direction. Will blushed slightly.

"It's going great..."

Something caught Syd's eye making her attention shift from Will. He didn't notice as he carried on gushing about how great Francie was. Looking over into the corner of the room, she spotted Michael talking to Lauren Reed. Sydney didn't know Lauren all that well, but Leo had always been good friends with her. Vaughn was wearing dark blue jeans, accompanied by a black shirt. She couldn't help but gaze at how cute he looked. She looked back at Will and acted like she was listening to him, but she soon found herself glancing over at Vaughn again.

Vaughn had been talking to Lauren for about fifteen minutes, when he had noticed Sydney walk in with her friends. He had wanted to go and talk with her, but she seemed to be busy with her friends and he didn't want to interrupt them. He kept glancing over at her, amazed at how beautiful she looked. He finally made eye contact with her and they both stood at opposite sides of the room, staring intently at one another. Vaughn smiled at her, and mouthed the word 'hey' to her. She returned his smile, marvelling in the fact that his green eyes were still visible from the other side of the room. She lifted her hand and waved at him, which went unnoticed by Will who was still chatting to her and looking around the room.

Realising that they were both staring at each other, they looked away each blushing. But when Sydney looked back over at where he had been standing, he had gone. Looking around her in confusion, she couldn't figure out where he had gone. She shrugged her shoulders thinking that she would catch up with him later.

"I'm just gonna go and get a drink. You want anything?" She asked Will.

"No I'm ok." He replied. She walked into the kitchen, smiling at the people she knew. She began pouring a drink when she heard someone walk up beside her.

"You look beautiful tonight Syd!" He whispered only loud enough for her to hear. She knew straight away who it was. The sexy voice had become one that she would never get tired of hearing. She turned around smiling at the sight of Michael standing beside her.

"What can I say? I guess I dress to impress!" She said jokingly.

"Well, I'm truly impressed." He replied his smile widening. He loved the flirty conversations that they had with one another.

"I'm really glad you came." She didn't know what it was, but everytime that she was around him she seemed to have so much fun.

"Me too actually!" He admitted shyly to her.

"Come on, I want to introduce you to some people!" She took hold of his hand, shivering slightly as he closed his hand around hers. She smiled before leading him out of the kitchen. They walked through the crowds of people, as Syd searched for the people she was looking for. She finally found them in the sitting around the settee laughing and joking. Michael had no idea what she was doing, but he continued to hold her hand and follow her across the room.

She stopped as she stood behind the beige couch. "You guys, there's somebody that I want you to meet." They all turned to look at Sydney. Piper noticed immediately that Syd had hold of his hand, and gave her friend a 'you like him' kinda look. Sydney realised what she was doing, and quickly released his hand.

"I know that you all haven't been properly introduced, but I thought that it was time that you were. Everybody this is Michael Vaughn, Michael this is Leo, Phoebe, Cole, Piper, and Will." She said pointing to each person in turn. They all smiled and said hey to him. "Erm...I guess Paige and Francie are around here somewhere aswell, but you can always meet them later." She shrugged, smiling at him.

"It's good to meet you all!" Vaughn said politely. Just by looking at Syd's friends he could tell that they were close. The way they acted around each other made it obvious that they were really close friends. He really hoped that him and Syd could have that type of friendship, if not something more. But then that would never happen because she still had a boyfriend.

"So Michael, how are you liking California?" Phoebe asked, turning to face Syd and her friend.

"I'm loving it here. I've made some good friends..." He smiled at Syd, "It's been great so far." Sydney smiled and turned to her friends giving them a 'be nice to him' look.

The conversation continued, until another one of their friends joined them. "Hi" Danny had just arrived at the party, and he didn't look so pleased to see Sydney with Michael. He glared at Michael and then looked at Sydney as if he was trying to figure out where she was there with him. The group remained silent, everyone looking around the room feeling uncomfortable with the tension which had surrounded them. There were things that Syd and Danny had to say to each other, but they both knew that Leo's party wasn't the place.

"You wanna go and get some fresh air or something?" Sydney suggested looking at Vaughn. It wasn't that she needed to go outside, but she just couldn't stand the awkwardness.

"Sure." Vaughn could see how much Danny was getting to her, and he didn't want her to feel that way. He turned and began to walk outside, receiving a cold look from Danny.

"We'll see you guys later." Sydney said glancing around all of her friends, and then she looked at Danny. She could tell that he was jealous of Vaughn, but right now she didn't care. She wasn't in the mood to be dealing with Danny and his issues. He would have to wait.