THEN CAME YOU

Chapter SEVEN: We are here to party

Suze

"Would it kill you to leave it on one station for more than five seconds?" Jesse asked, somewhat annoyed with the fact that I had changed the radio station at least ten times since we had gotten into the car back at my house.

I didn't think he was going to show up…. I really didn't. I mean, he was a smart guy and I hadn't been answering his calls so I thought he would be able to figure out that message, but of course, I should have known better. This was Jesse, Jesse had promised me to go to the party with me and he was going…. And nothing in hell, heaven or anything in between that was going to stop him.

Knowing I wouldn't get rid of him easily, I just said "FINE" and walked to my car, got into the driver's seat and opened the passenger door. He wasn't pleased, he absolutely HATES the way I drive, but I wasn't getting in his car… where it smelt strongly of him… that crisp masculine smell, almost like cinnamon, that always made me melt and jump his bones at the same time.

So no sir! I wasn't getting in his car, and I wasn't going to let him drive mine! Besides, I knew where Heather lived, he totally didn't.

We arrived at the party and it was already in full swing. Alcohol was flowing quite freely and Heather was running around shrieking her head off trying to prevent people from breaking vases of destroying furniture. I couldn't help to laugh a little at that. But as I scanned the room, Jesse standing right by my side and looking bored already, I noticed that:

Slater was no where in sight.

Alan McTavish was standing dejectedly by a corner.

Hailey was, also, nowhere in sight.

Brad was making out with Debbie Mancuso.

Normally I don't care were Brad sticks his tongue – though he did came down with Mono last summer thanks to Debbie, but he just never learns – but he was supposed to be tracking Hailey!

I made my way towards Brad and smacked him hard in the back of the head.

"Hey! Whatever that was for?" He said in his pissed-off voice.

"Where's Hailey?" I demanded right away.

"Over there with David's friend," He said waving casually towards where Alan was standing.

"Look again, Brad." I said dryly.

"Suze… I'm telling you they are right over…" Brad looked and saw that Hailey was no where around. "Shit." He muttered and removed Debbie from his lap. "I look upstairs; you look in the back of the house."

I nodded and turned to Jesse. "You grab a soda and look pretty."

Jesse gave me a very sarcastic look and disappeared among the crowd.

Now all I had to do was find Hailey.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Hailey

Here's the one thing I learned about Paul: he's not such a good conversationalist in other topics aside from himself. I had never had a chance to talk to him for such long a time and I couldn't help thinking of Alan, he at least could talk about something else, geeky as that else might be, it was something.

"Hailey!" Suze's furious voice reached my ears in a second and I tensed completely.

Oh, dear, how mortifying this could get?

"Suze! I didn't know you were coming…"

She caught my arm and pulled me aside none to gently, my temper flared. "Would you mind? You know I bruise easily."

"As I recall," Suze said, cutting to the chase as usual. "Your date was Alan, not Scum-bag. Am I correct?"

"Well, yes…"

"And then why, pray tell, you're here standing with Scum-bag, while Alan is all alone by the couch?"

I narrowed my eyes at her. "You don't get a say on what I do Suze! I'm old enough to know what I'm doing."

"Are you? Really? Because right now you're acting like a petty little girl. It's not a game, Hailey! You're hurting that boy in your quest to date Paul-Serial-shagger-Slater."

I wanted to answer but my jaw was clenched shut. "Is she bothering you, Hailey?" Paul said coming to my side.

I nodded mutely as Suze snapped. "Stay out of this,"

Paul wrapped his arm around my waist and began to stir me away from Suze, then he paused, gave me a little push forward and returned to say something to Suze to which she answered with an angry hiss of "Fuck off."

I smirked; Paul always made Suze lose her composure, as stated by the fact that just after Paul reached my side again, I saw Suze grab one of those vodka-jelly shots they were passing around.

As Paul and I joined the group of his friends I saw Alan in a corner… and all the triumph I felt over Suze died away, and I felt lower than low. Yep. For the first time in my life, I, Hailey Simon-Ackerman, felt like dirty scum.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Jesse

So… the music sucked, the drinks sucked, the whole party was boring and I hadn't seen Susannah in over an hour since he told me to "Grab a soda and look pretty."

I decided to look for her. I don't know why, I just got one bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. I knew when, a few moments later when I saw her drinking straight from a Tequila bottle. I stalked towards her and tugged the bottle out of her gasp.

"Hey! I was drinking that." She said in a drunken slur.

"I think you have had enough. C'mon, I'm taking you home."

"No!"

"Yes, now!"

"No, I don't want to." She said, digging her feet on the rug so I couldn't drag her towards the door. She crossed her arms over her chest mutinously and stared at me challenging. I stared down at her.

"For your sake, I hope you're wearing underwear." I told her with a smirk.

"What?" She asked puzzled half a second before I picked her up and swung her unceremoniously over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes. She kicked and screamed a little but I didn't loosen my hold on her until we were out in the garden and I dumped her over a stone bench.

"Did you have to do that?" She demanded, still more than a little bit drunk.

"Because you were being a very bad drunken stupid girl."

"Hey! I might be drunk… and I might be bad and I'm most definitely a girl but I'm not STUPID so don't call me that."

"It's hard not to when you're acting stupid."

"Hey!" she said and attempted to sucker punch me, but I had to merely move aside and she walked right by me, tripped and nearly fell, only that I caught her before she could kiss the grass.

"Oh dear…" she said, hanging limply from my arms. "I'm going to throw up."

I let her fall to her knees and held her hair as she threw her guts up. Not a pretty sight but at least I didn't get any on my shoes and she didn't threw up all over herself, which would have been inconvenient since she would stink all the way to her home. After wards I dug my pocket for a handkerchief and whipped her face clean. By then she was crying in this big sobs that rob your breath.

My anger died swiftly as I pulled her away from 'the scene of the crime' and threw away my handkerchief. We sat in the hood of her car and I pulled her close, she kept crying and buried her face in my shirtfront.

"Why do you do this to yourself, Susannah?" I asked quietly as I stroked her hair over and over.

Eventually she calmed down and if not completely sober at least a good deal less drunken, she told me she wanted to go home. Before I could ask she gave me the keys of her car and I opened the passenger door for her and then sat behind the wheel. Susannah curled herself up in the seat and opened the window to let the cool night air sober her up a bit more.

I parked the car on her driveway and helped her out, gave her back her keys and walked her to the doorway. "Thanks," She said quietly, not meeting my gaze. Then she nodded and stumbled inside, her balance not completely back yet.

I sighed and shook my head; she could be such a stubborn piggy-head. She was tough, tougher than just the obvious I-can-pull-out-your-guts-and-use-them-as-earrings kind of way, but then she would so something or say something and you knew she was also sweet and caring –even if she denied it – and sometimes… like now, she just seemed so lost and vulnerable and it really wrung my heart to see her that way.

I turned from her doorway and went down to my car. The good long drive home would help to clear my head.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Alan

"This party is so dead." I heard Kelly Prescott, one of the popular seniors, said to her group of friends, among them Paul Slater, and by his side was Hailey.

"You're so right," Another random guy said. "I say lets go to my beach house."

"Yeah," Slater said.

"Uh, I gotta go, my curfew is in half an hour." Hailey said shifting her weight from one foot to the other.

The seniors laughed and began to move in group to the door, and Hailey was standing there.

"Paul," She said quietly. "Could you drive me home?"

Slater stopped for a second, then grinned and shook his head. "Sorry babe, gotta go."

Hailey's jaw dropped and stood as if frozen for two full minutes. Then she looked around, searching for someone to take her home, I'm sure. When she saw me she smiled brightly and walked over me.

"I'm ready to go." She said as if we had been hanging together the whole night.

I frowned at her but took her out of the party and drove her home. And then we sat in silence for ten minutes at her driveway. "I had a really nice time," She said, again, all bright and sunny.

I laughed and it wasn't a nice sound. "I'm sure Slater is very entertaining." I pointed out.

"Alan…" She said softly, kind of ashamed. Good.

"Look, Hailey, I'm tired, it was a long night and… I thought you were different, I thought I was so lucky that I could take you out and hang with you… but now that I've actually done it, let me tell you something: it's not something I care to repeat. You're just one more of the bunch of popularity hungry girls of our grade. And I for one am not going to spend night after night waiting for you to look my way."

I looked at her and she had an expression on her face such as if I had slapped her, I wanted to feel bad about it but my pride wouldn't let me. "You better go inside," I said in a monotone.

"Alan…"

"Hailey."

"I'm sorry."

I nodded and let her go without further commentary.

.-.-.-.-.-.

End of Chapter Seven