Just as Quistis finished parking the car, Selphie jumped out like nothing had happened. She stood beside it bouncing from foot to foot waiting for the others to follow her.
"Wow, Selphie," Rinoa said closing the car door and looking up at the building across the street, "your cousin owns this club?"
"Yup," Selphie replied clapping her hands together in delight, "it's the best club in town, well according to the radio it is."
Her friends followed her across the street and as she passed the long line of people and skipped up to the bouncer holding a clipboard. The giant muscled man dress in black with sunglasses, put a hand in front of Selphie. "I'm sorry, little girl," he said, "but the playground it that way," he pointed off to the left and many people around them in the line laughed.
Selphie, who didn't seem at all affected by him, replied, "my cousin owns this club. My name is Selphie Tilmitt. It should be easy to find at the top of the list."
The bouncer glared at her. He pretended to look over the list, "I'm sorry, little girl, but you're name's not on it. Now run along home, it's past your bedtime."
Selphie glared back at the bouncer before turning to Quistis. "Can I please borrow your cell phone, Quisty?"
"Sure," the blond replied, fishing though her purse for the small devise. She handed the blue phone over to Selphie.
When she finished dialing a number, she turned back to the bouncer. "Hello cousin," she said into the phone. "Yes, something is the matter … No, it's not that, it's you're very kind bouncers … No … Yes, I did," She smiled brightly, obviously very pleased with herself, "Okies … Love ya … bye-bye."
She handed the cell phone back to Quistis and just as she finished putting it back in her purse the doors to the club opened. A blond man with a tattoo on the left side of his face stepped out the doors and looked glared at the bouncers. His blue eyes look briefly at Selphie and her friends before returning to the bouncer holding the clipboard. "Can you read," he asked them.
"Yes," the bouncer replied.
"Ok, then please read to me the first name written on the list."
The bouncer glared at Selphie before he held up the clipboard. "Selphie Tilmitt," he read.
"Now, what is written after it?" the man asked.
"'And four friends'," he mumbled.
"Good," the man said, "now that I know you can read, you're fired. I don't want to see your face back at this club."
"You don't have to fire him," Selphie said looking at the blond man.
"Well what good is a bouncer if he won't even let in the guests of honor?" he replied as they went into the club, "besides, your cousin told me too."
"Oh well, I just kinda feel bad for getting him fired," Selphie said looking around as the walked up a staircase at the back for the club. It led them to a room above the dance floor that was over looking the stage where a band was currently playing.
"Don't worry about it, I didn't like him anyway. And aren't you forgetting something?"
"Am I?" she asked tilting her head to the side, "What is it?"
"You owe me a hug," he said opening his arms for her. She laughed a walked to him, hugging him back.
"Anyways," she said as she was released, "Everyone, this is my cousin's best friend, Zell, he's like a brother to me." She walked over to the girls and put an arm on each of their shoulders, "This one is Rinoa," she said looking at the girl, "and this is Quisty."
"Quistis," she corrected, "and it's nice to meet you Zell," she said to the blond.
He nodded at Quistis and let Selphie continue as she walked over to Seifer, "this badass is called Seifer, and this," she shoved Squall forwards, "is the one and only, super cute, seventeen-year-old birthday boy, Squall."
Squall winced at the slight pain from Selphie, but nodded at Zell as he said, "happy birthday."
"Thanks," he replied, watching Zell curiously.
"Well, I will go look for Mr. Club Owner for you Selphie," Zell said walking to the door, "he wants to see you and meet your super cute friends."
"Okies," Selphie smiled.
"And in the meantime, make yourselves at home," he said gesturing to the couch and chairs decorating the big room, before walking out the door.
"Wow, Selphie," Rinoa said plopping herself down on the couch after Zell left, "he's really hot."
"I thought you were in love with Squall, Rinoa," Seifer said settling himself in a chair in the corner that overlooked the dance floor. "You're hurting poorly Squally's feelings hitting on other guys like that."
Selphie giggled where she was sitting on the back of the couch, and Quistis cracked a smile from her place standing beside her. Squall ignored the comment as he walked over to the big glass window and stared down at the dance floor.
"I did not hit on him," Rinoa said defensively, "I was just commenting on his good looks."
"Who's good looking?" a voice asked from the door. Everyone turned to see a tall brunet with a cowboy hat on enter the room followed closely by Zell. Some of his wavy brown hair fell out of his ponytail to frame his face.
"Irvy," Selphie called out and jumped into the cowboy's arms. "Thanks for letting us celebrate Squall's birthday here."
"No problem Selph," he replied hugging the small girl back. "It's fine as long as you don't get too drunk and have a ride home."
"Quisty's driving so she's not going to drink," Selphie said pointing at the girl.
"Oh yeah," Seifer said from his spot on the chair. "Quisty is going to be a good little girl and is going to be the only one not smashed."
"Of course I'm not going to drink Seifer," Quistis snapped, "I'd like us all to arrive home in one piece."
"That's a shame," he replied, "I would be happy if one of us didn't make it at all." He glared at Rinoa.
After the little argument and Selphie's introductions, all kinds of beer and various types of alcohol were brought to them. Unfortunately, Irvine and Zell had to leave five minutes later to take care of business; but it didn't matter too much to the group in the lounge above the dance floor because they were too busy getting drunk to care.
Throughout the night, Squall found himself staring out the window at a certain brown haired man in a black cowboy hat. He watched the older man as he danced to the loud music with all the pretty girls in the club. Soon Squall gave up his watching and walked over to the coffee table in the middle of the room and grabbed a beer. He sat down in the chair that Seifer had previously been occupying and relaxed opening the beer and taking a sip.
A few minutes went by and once again Squall was gazing out the window. Selphie, in her drunken state, noticed he was staring at something and wobbled her way over to where he was sitting. She grabbed onto the arm of the chair to keep herself from falling into the glass.
"Have some more beer, birthday boy," she said when she saw the empty bottle in his hand. She shoved her half-full one in his face. "You only turn seventeen once, so drink up and enjoy."
"I think you're drunk enough for the both of us," Squall said, glancing at her for a moment before his eyes returned to her cousin. "How much have you had?"
"Oh, I don't know," she replied, scratching the top of her head with the hand that held her beer bottle, and almost dumped its contents onto her hair. "I stopped counting after five beers."
"Selphie –"
"What are you looking at anyway?"
"Nothing."
"No, you're looking at my Irvine." Selphie said.
"You mean your cousin," He corrected her.
"Whatever," she said waving her hand and spilling some beer. "The point is, that you think he's cute."
"No, I think he's gorgeous," Squall replied without thinking. "Wait, I mean –"
"You have a crush on Irvy," Selphie giggled and turned to walk away.
What Squall missed was the smirk the small brunet had on her face. He also missed her whisper, "don't worry Squally, it's time for operation: matchmaker, Selphie style."
AN: Thanks to everyone who reviewed. And I am not going to change the ages. I didn't just randomly do it just for the hell of it. I changed them for a specific reason. I would also like to point out that this is indeed an AU (Alternate Universe), which means everything doesn't have to be exactly the same as the game. I could even fuck with their genders if I wanted to (which I won't but I'm just saying that I could). Oh, and a special thanks to GothicAngelEyeS for the support. It was greatly appreciated.
Now for more ages:
Zell: twenty-five
Irvine: twenty-seven
Again, the ages are there for a reason, not because I like pairing teenagers with older men ... well I do, but that's not the reason. It just worked very well with the type of story that I'm writing, and hey, it amuses me. And that's the whole point of me writing. And I hope my readers will get some form of amusement out of this too.