Hey guys! Thanks for all the lovely reviews you've been reading. You guys rock. Just so it's not confusing, Vaughn's text messages are in bold and Syd's is in italics. Enjoy the chap! Thanks again!

Chapter 24.

Syd's POV

By the time Sunday night rolled around, studying was kicking all of us in the ass. We were so tired of trying to contain impossible amounts of information in our heads. All the reading I was trying to catch up on made my head hurt and my eyes blurry.

Vaughn was fast asleep on the couch with his legs on my lap while I continued to review some of my notes for English. Unexpectedly, Weiss came out of his room looking for a late night snack. Taking a peek over the edge of the couch, he started chuckling to himself.

"Looks like you wore your man out, Syd." He said jokingly.

"Shut up… You know we're all tired from studying."

"Can I ask you something?" He asked, walking around the couch and taking a seat on the coffee table.

"Sure, what's up?"

"See, I've been trying to give Francie signs to show her that I want to be more than friends with her. Either, she's completely oblivious, or she's trying hard to ignore me. I just don't know what do anymore."

Placing my notebook down on the arm of the couch, I sat up, trying my best not to wake Vaughn.

"Honestly Eric, I don't know what to tell you. Francie was deeply hurt from what Will did to her. It's going to take her a long time to be able to regain that trust with any guy. It's not you. You're not doing anything wrong." I explained.

"Are you sure? Because I know we have a great friendship and all. But, I want more. I'm trying to be patient with her, but I don't know how much longer I can wait. You think I should talk to her?"

I stayed silent for a moment pondering how I would answer him. In all other circumstances, I would tell Weiss to go for it. But, because Francie is having issues with guys right now, I didn't think it was such a good idea. Weiss would most likely be shot down and none of us wanted that.

"Give her a little more time. I think she needs it." I answered.

"I was thinking the same thing. But, we're all going to be leaving in a week and going back home. I can't go into the summer having regrets of not telling her, you know?"

"I understand. Ok, how about this? Wait till finals are over on Thursday and then talk to her. She'll be less stressed out and open to talk to you."

"Alright, that sounds good. Thanks Syd." He said, patting my leg and lifting himself off of the coffee table.

"No problem. I think that's the first time you've ever been serious, Weiss."

"Not for long. I'll refrain from making comments about the 'noise' you and Vaughn make late at night. These walls are thin around here, Syd."

"Weiss!" I hissed.

"Hey, hey. You said I was being too serious!" He responded as he stuck his tongue out at me.

The next morning, I woke up refreshed and ready to start the week. Francie made us all delicious French toast that Weiss absolutely adored. He must've wolfed down three or four whole pieces. At first, Vaughn and I thought he was only doing that because he wanted to show Francie that he liked her cooking. But, after the third piece we realized he was just being Weiss.

Sitting in my English class, I patiently awaited for my professor to pass out the essay topic when I felt my phone vibrating in my pocket. I smiled seeing that I had a new text message.

Hey Syd. Just messaging you to wish you luck! You'll do great.

I hid my phone under the top of my desk and hit the respond button.

Thanks Vaughn. Good luck on your final too. You fell asleep on me last night. :)

I know, I'm sorry. I was exhausted though. I promise, I'll make it up to you tonight. Even though you can't see me, I'm doing my eyebrow thing you like.

Attempting to stifle my laughter, I put my head down on my desk to cover up my face.

I'm going to hold you to that Vaughn.

I'm looking forward to it.

I have to go before I get caught. I'll talk to you later.

I had a hard time wiping the smile off of my face from Vaughn's cuteness. I'm sure the whole time I was writing my essay I had a stupid, silly smile plastered on my face. But, I just couldn't help it.

I ended up writing 9 and a half pages for my English final. By the time I finished, my hand was so sore that I couldn't even open it. My hand was permanently balled up in a fist and it couldn't stop shaking. My essay was long. Like Vaughn would say, it was Tolstoy long. I didn't know how I would be able to write for the rest of the week.

Vaughn's POV

Finally, it was Thursday morning and our last final. They saved the hardest one for last. We were all cramped in the big lecture hall that morning. Since everyone had to take it on the same day, we had to take it in the big hall with 300 seats. The seats were so close together that every time I wrote, my elbow would bump into Syd's. You know, on account of being left-handed.

Not that I minded bumping elbows with Syd. Every time I accidentally did it, I'd look to my left and she'd give me a big smile. She made it quite difficult to focus on the final. That and the banging of Weiss' head on the small desk made it nearly impossible to concentrate.

Watching Weiss made it apparent that the test was a bit too hard for him. I took a peak at Francie to the right of him and she was writing away. Well, not really writing since you have to fill in the bubbles. But still, she was answering like 3 questions a minute. All I was doing was sitting there watching other people.

By the time we finished up the test and were walking out of there, all of us were thrilled it was all over.

"Ok… so tonight we're celebrating. Vaughn and I are going to go get the drinks, you guys have to go get the food." Weiss said as he pointed to Francie and Syd.

"Alright, that sounds good. How can you get alcohol when you're only 19 Weiss?" Fran questioned.

"It's called a fake ID Hun. Any preferences?"

"Nope." Syd answered.

"Good. We're all getting drunk tonight."

Dropping the girls back off at the apartment, Weiss and I made our way to the store to pick up the drinks. I've been with him to buy drinks before, but sometimes it just feels overwhelming. Two full aisles were filled with all different kinds of hard liquor, malt drinks, wine, and beer.

"Heineken or New Castle?" Weiss asked me.

"Heineken."

"Heineken it is then." He said as he picked up two six-packs of the popular beer.

Weiss handed me the cases of beer while he went to grab two bottles of Jose Cuervo Tequila. It was the cheap tequila and not the best, but it got the job done. I was ready to drink any kind of alcohol. After the week with finals and all the stress, I was ready to let loose and finally relax.

"I don't know Mike. You know when I get hammered I start spitting out all of this ridiculous stuff." He said chuckling as were walking to the checkout counter.

"Yeah I know. Just try and not make a fool out of yourself, ok?"

"ID, please." The suspicious Safeway checker requested.

The middle aged worker eyed Weiss apprehensively while she looked at his ID. From the looks of her, she probably knew he and I were underage, but couldn't do anything about it since the ID looked legit. Handing back his ID, Weiss swiftly stuffed it in his wallet and glanced sideways at me.

"Do me a favor. If I start confessing my undying love for Francie tonight, go ahead and shut me up. I think that's probably the worse way to let her know, don't you think?"

"No problem. I'll make sure you don't." I responded.

We carried the heavy bottles out to the car and stuffed them in the trunk carefully. There was a note on the counter from Syd and Francie when we arrived home. It was just notifying us that they were at Costco picking up the food.

Wasting no time, Weiss popped open the bottle of beer and handed it to me.

"Dude, it's 3:30 in the afternoon and the girls aren't even back yet with the food." I said, not accepting the bottle of beer.

"All the more reason to start early. C'mon Mike, it's just a beer. Drink up." Finally taking the beer, I nodded my head.

"Alright. I'll have one. I want to wait for Syd after this."

"Fine. Bottoms up!" He yelled and lifted the bottle to his mouth, taking a long swig. "Oh, that tastes good."

Syd's POV

Since it was still early in the afternoon, Costco was empty aside from the few senior citizens strolling in and out of the aisles. Linking my arm through Fran's, we made our way to the snack area.

"Ok. What kind of snacks would the guys want?" She asked as she scanned through the different variety of crackers.

"I dunno. You can't go wrong with Chex mix." I added.

"Oh, good idea. We should just get a bunch of finger foods so we could snack on them all night instead of having to warm up meals."

"That sounds great. C'mon, lets go to the frozen foods section."

After picking out bagel bites, mozzarella sticks, chicken wings, French fries, taquitos, and egg rolls, we figured we had enough food for the tiny party.

"So Weiss talked to me a few days ago." I informed her.

"Yeah? What did he say?"

"He was telling me how he's trying to send out signals and that you're not responding to him." I explained.

"I've noticed. I just don't know what to do Syd. I really like Eric. I mean, he's a great, sweet, funny guy and I'd love to maybe start things up with him. But, right now, I don't want to be attached."

"I see."

"Syd, it's not all because of Will. Sure, what he did to me makes me want to question every single guy I date for the rest of my life, but part of not wanting to date right now has to do with me. Since I was 15, I've always been dating guys and looking around. I haven't been single for more than two months since I was in high school. I want to be single right now. I want to be independent and concentrate on my studies. I'm staying in the city this summer so I can take a couple more classes. I just don't want to deal with guys right now. You know?"

I understood completely what Francie was saying and I respected her decision. How Weiss was going to react to it was what worried me.

"I get it Fran and I support you 100. But, I'm warning you that Weiss is going to want to talk to you about this. Let him down easy, ok? He really cares about you Fran."

"I will. Thanks Syd."

While walking in the door with the groceries, both Vaughn and Weiss were sitting on the couch with their feet on the coffee table. They looked to be pretty comfortable there with their beers and watching the baseball game.

"Oooohh! Bagel Bites! Alright! Good choice guys." Weiss shouted while he jumped off of the couch and grabbed the box out of my hands.

We placed all of the food on the kitchen table and began warming up the bagel bites in the oven. As I was putting the extra food away in the freezer, I felt two strong arms embrace me from behind.

"Can you believe we're finally done? I thought we'd never make it Syd." Vaughn murmured as he placed a kiss on the spot between my neck and shoulder.

"I know. Now we can just relax and hang out this summer at home. We can go to the beach and take Donovan to the dog park. We could barbeque at your house in the backyard and have your mom and my dad with us." I said as I closed the freezer door and turned around in his arms.

"That sounds perfect." He responded.

Bringing my hand up to his forehead, I smoothed out the wrinkles and lines that were forming. I got lost staring into his beautiful green eyes. Vaughn always had this way of making me blush just by the way he looked at me.

Instead of kissing him, I placed my arms around his neck and pulled him in for a tight hug. We held each other close as I closed my eyes and relished in his embrace. It felt more special than kissing at the moment. Somehow, the way we were holding each other put us at a sense of ease. Breathing in his unique scent, I turned my head slightly to plant a kiss right under his left ear.

"Hey you two. There will be time for that later. Get over here and let's party." Weiss shouted from the family room.

"You know… we could ditch them, grab the bottle of tequila and have our own little party somewhere else." Vaughn said seductively.

"Save that idea for later. Let's go." I answered, pulling out of his embrace and leading him to where Weiss and Francie were sitting.

Vaughn's POV

Several hours later and a few beers too many, everyone was buzzed up good, including myself. Weiss was standing up in front of everyone telling a ridiculous story as Francie watched him with amusement. Syd and I knew better than to listen to one of Eric's stories so we were cuddled up on the other couch and enjoying the light atmosphere.

"Ok, take a sip of this." I told Syd, pushing my bottle of beer towards her.

"Vaughn, you know I hate the taste of beer."

"Just try it. If you don't like it, then give it back. But, you have to take a big gulp. Beer doesn't taste good if you just sip it." I instructed.

Taking the Heineken out of my hands, she looked at me apprehensively before throwing back a big gulp.

"Alright, I'll admit that it's ok. But I still don't like it." She added.

"See, I told you it wasn't that bad." I leaned over and placed a kiss on her temple. By that time, Eric just about finished his dumb story and had Francie doubled over, laughing like crazy.

"Hey, how come you guys aren't laughing?"

"Cause it wasn't funny. Francie's just being nice." I joked.

"Ok. We're going another round." Weiss said as he lined up the four shot glasses on the coffee table and filled them to the top.

Clinking our small shot glasses together, we all threw back the sour taste of tequila into our mouths. The alcohol burned at the back of my throat as I laid the shot glass back on the table. At that point, I lost count of how many shots I had. All I knew was that my vision was getting hazy and for sure I would have a nasty hangover in the morning.

Syd traced the top of the glass lightly with her fingertip before looking up at me. Her eyes were red and puffy circles were starting to appear. Several stubborn hairs were loose from her messy ponytail and sat on the edges of her face. Bringing my hand up to tuck her hair behind her ear, I was taken back by her beauty.

Taking me by surprise, she threw her arms around my neck and started kissing the side of my face. Amused, I sat there, placing my hands on her hips and enjoying what she was doing. Weiss was the one to break me out of my haze when he began speaking to me.

"Hey Mike, check out this play." He slurred, pointing to the TV.

"Hmm?" I managed to squeak out. By that time Syd has stopped kissing me and started slowly massaging the top of my shoulders.

"God, I wish I had a girlfriend." Weiss murmured.

My eyelids were starting to get heavy and I knew Syd would soon be falling asleep in my lap. Bringing her hands down from my shoulders, she curled up on my lap and laid her head down on my chest, right under my chin.

"C'mon Eric. Change the channel. I don't want to watch sports." Francie whined while trying to grab the remote from Weiss hand.

"No! You'll change it to Lifetime and watch some sad, sappy, romantic movie."

"I will not!" She shouted back.

"Yes you will."

Rising from the couch, Francie threw herself at Weiss and attempted once again to grab the remote out of his hand. They rolled around on the floor for a minute with Weiss holding the remote high up in the air and Francie throwing elbows and kicks.

Finally, she managed to pin Weiss down and swipe the remote from his hand.

"Aha! I got it! Take that." She shouted triumphantly.

Instead of responding or fighting back, Weiss reached up, grabbed her from behind her neck, and pulled her in for a kiss. I sat there wide-eyed not knowing what to do. My one job was to prevent Weiss from doing exactly what he was doing at the moment. Drunk or not, I had a responsibility.

Breaking off the kiss, Francie stood up, placed the remote on the coffee table and silently made her way to the kitchen. Weiss threw his head back on the floor, immediately regretting his actions.

"What have I done?" He asked himself quietly.

Reviews are welcomed and appreciated :)