AN: Very important! This chapter contains various graphic and explicit details that people under sixteen should not be reading about. I have marked the section where people under sixteen should not be reading about. Please honor the code. Thank you, and enjoy.

When the World Fades Away

The throbbing crowd cheered as Caitlin Lambert got up onto the kitchen counter, teetering dangerously in her four-inch heels, and pole danced with the lamp they'd brought over for her little stunt. Even though there was no actual pole, she certainly didn't care, and neither did her audience, who were getting eyefuls of her behind every single time she crossed one leg over the makeshift pale.

Blake laid reclining on the couch, his mind blissfully empty of all unpleasant thoughts. Even though he'd probably pay for it tomorrow morning by suffering from another all-too-familiar hangover, he at least wanted to enjoy this one good night.

"Blake," Calvin Kelso exclaimed and came over and threw an arm over Blake's shoulders like they'd been friends since way back, when they were still in diapers and everything. "you're the man. I still can't believe how fucking unbelievable that was. Even I never got my own parents stoned."

"Let alone four hundred other grownups," Tony Peterson added, and the boys all looked on with newfound respect in their eyes. Something in the social order was changing, and they all knew it.

Blake smiled indulgently, finding that tolerating these Beverly Hills rich kids wasn't so hard after all. Besides, it had been hilarious watching four hundred upstanding socialites get high, so he figured he might as well enjoy the recognition they heaped upon him. Plus, it had been one of his more brilliant ideas, and he was rather proud of it himself. As for the results, those had been just priceless.

The first one to go had been some bald psychiatrist by the name of Doctor Willy. He'd started giggling uncontrollably at the Chinese oriental dragon design vase displayed in the hall, and it had snowballed from there.

Blake was still trying to decide which moment had been the best so far in the evening. It was either a tie between watching old lady Grandmother Cicero get stoned or seeing an out of control Mark spill his wine all over his pristine, white shirt.

No matter. He'd seen the photographer taking tons of pictures, so he was bound to relive the finer moments sometime tomorrow morning anyway.

Yawning, and ruffling his hair messily, he popped his feet onto the table, and waited for the victim to do another stupid task.

Somehow during his drunken haze, he'd ended up in the double suite at the end of the hall, where a group of teenagers were playing some weird version of Truth or Dare.

Whoever was up had a choice of picking between doing a dare or taking a chug of beer if they decided it wasn't worth it. Backing out in the middle of a dare meant you had to give the person who dared you any sexual favor they asked in the privacy of the adjacent bedroom next door.

He'd heard rumors that the preferred favor was oral sex, but Blake hadn't been stupid enough to put himself into that kind of a situation to find out if it was true or not.

When he'd first found out the rules of the game, he'd actually thought it amusing that a group of people had to basically come up with the nastiest possible thing to either get each other pissed or to get their needs fulfilled by some random, drunken stranger.

His amusement stretched out far enough to make him considering playing the pointless game. However, it had faded abruptly once he realized that his baby sister was part of the drunken crowd, hanging next to her new friend, Ryder or whatever the hell his name was.

Blake glared, having clearly remembered to have told Ryder to stay away. Somehow, he must've not been effective enough to make a deep and lasting impression.

It might be time to remedy that little problem.

Chase looked up, caught her brother's evil eye and gave him a stern look, letting him know that in no way was he allowed to compromise Ryder's evening. It had been hard enough to get him out of the house in the first place. Now that he was starting to have fun and forget about his troubles, she didn't really want to ruin it. Ryder was so much more enjoyable when he was pumped and hyper than when he was morose and gloomy.

"I don't think your brother likes me very much," he told her, not even looking like he was remotely wiped out, and ready to faint from all the alcohol that must've been cruising through his veins by now.

"Well, I like you," Chase told him seriously, feeling her face scrunch itself up in a funny expression. "And since you're my friend, he's just going to have to deal with it."

"Kind of like how you've had to deal with me for the past two days?" he commented jokingly, even though she could make out that his words were anything but in jester and good humor.

"Well, friends help each other out in times of need," Chase told him, quickly tacking on a lie. "Besides, I liked hanging out with you. I had a good time."

Except for the fact that a dead cat ended up in my bag, she added silently in her mind. She'd originally debated telling a grown up about the things that had happened to her. But, the first incident didn't have any proof, and she'd thrown the proof from the second incident out the door, so there was a dead end there too.

In the end, she'd decided to drop it and keep it to herself. After all, she didn't need her mother coming after her in worry over something small, not when her mother already had a wedding to plan.

Besides, Chase was sure that this incident would amount to nothing, and she'd be able to laugh about it tomorrow.

Chase looked over to her brother and sighed. She wished she could tell him what happened, but he would only blow it out of proportion. While a part of her was scared to death, the other, dominant part was just waiting for it to blow over. Maybe it was some kind of hazing period that everybody had to go through in high school.

She conveniently ignored the fact that nothing had happened to Connor or Blake. It's sad when some people can't accept the truth, even if it's already been laid down before them.

Blake looked at his sister from across the circled and folded his arms crossly. There was no way Chase should even be at a party like this. When'd she grow up so fast, anyway?

Beside him, Calvin Connors was nudging Blake in the arm. "You want some?" Blake looked down at the powdery white substance and the rolled twenty dollar bill. Cocaine.

"No. I'm good," Blake waved his hand and Calvin shrugged, resuming snorting his former activities. Blake shook his pack of Merit Ultra Lights and fished out a cigarette, lighting up. It was already expensive enough to keep buying cigarettes on the sly. He didn't need to go and screw himself over by getting saddled with another addiction to support.

He lazily blew out a cloud of smoke and flicked the ashes into an empty wine glass. Blake watched as a random blond made out with his little brother, and was suddenly reminded of Arielle.

Checking his cell phone—the only thing he'd accepted from Mark, because he'd actually wanted it—for the time, he stood up to meet Arielle in Room 1209 for whatever it was she wanted to show him.

Without bothering to even say good-bye, he stood up abruptly and made his way through a small group of teenagers at the door taking Ecstasy pills. He rolled his eyes. With so many drugs out here tonight, it would be a surprise if nobody got busted for it in the morning.

It was strange walking down the silent hallway. He occasionally paused to see if anything big was happening behind any other closed door, but it seemed silent for the most part. A few people were scattered about the floor, and that was that.

When he reached Room1209, it had been propped open with a book to prevent the door from automatically shutting itself. Kicking his way in. Blake stopped at the door war and blinked in surprise. The hotel room had been transformed slightly. There were scented candles spaced accordingly throughout the room, and the ground was littered with flower petals while classical music played in the background.

Was this what Arielle wanted to show him?

"Arielle?" he called, frowning as he looked into every room and found no sign of the blond.

Wondering vaguely if she'd forgotten, he quickly fired her a text message.

Blake: Arielle, I'm already here in Room 1209. Didn't you want to show me something?

Satisfied that he hadn't let his impatience show in his text message, he hit send and double checked the time, just to make sure he hadn't accidentally misread the numbers.

Shrugging out of his tuxedo jacket, he neatly hung it on the back of the nearest chair, and mussed his hair up a little while rubbing his eyes; he wasn't entirely sure how long this was going to take.

Blake didn't have to wait long. A few minutes later, he heard the door creak open, and shut by itself.

He turned. "Arielle?" he called, relieved that she'd remembered after all.

There was a paused, and then the person stepped into the dimly lighted room. "Not quite, van Buren. Guess again."

"Jade?" He matched the tone, but was too surprised for any other thought. All he could see was Jade in that dress and those heels. "What are you doing here?"

He'd planned to meet up with Arielle, but had landed with the wrong twin instead. How had that happened?

Blake nearly swallowed audibly as Jade made her way over to him and slowly guided him backwards, so that he eventually fell onto the bed.

"Blake, Blake, Blake. How did we ever get to this point?" she asked, lowering her red mouth onto his jaw and kissing him there.

"You tell me," he strangled out as she pressed that hot little mouth of hers onto the base of his throat, leaving a lipstick mark. She slowly made her way up, finally pressing her lips to his.

I shouldn't be doing this, a part of his mind reminded him.

"Listen, Lewallen," He struggled to sit up and maintain what was left of his self-restraint and self-respect. He fully intended on being the stronger, better person and walking out of the room, but she got to him before he could do that.

Eyes narrowing slightly, her hand went up and yanked the bow right out of place. She gracefully pulled the dress off of herself in one fluid motion, leaving her almost naked in the air conditioned room.

Blake let his eyes travel over her body. That had to be the skimpiest piece of lingerie Blake had ever seen. It almost seemed as if Jade had purposely worn everything one size smaller, so that the small, black, lacy bra and thong accentuated her body and left little to the imagination.

Blake cursed under his breath. He was an eighteen year old male. His mind was programmed to want this. There was no way he was saying no to this. He wasn't that drunk. And when she was practically offering freely…

"You asked for it," he told her roughly, before yanking her down and closing his mouth over hers.

M She made a feral sound in the back of her throat that went straight to his groin, and he quickly flipped her over. He vaguely felt her fingers working themselves as they quickly unbuttoned his shirt, tossed his pants, and removed him of all further clothing.

She trailed kisses down his abdomen, and he couldn't help but give an animalistic noise in the back of his throat when her hands closed over his cock. She gently scraped her nails over his length, so that he made the same groaning sound again. And when she started pumping him, he almost came right there and then.

"Come here," he growled, and she carefully maneuvered herself back up and brought her lips to his. He closed his eyes, letting himself enjoy her ministrations. His hand traveled up her bare thigh and he reached to remove that lacy scrap of material on her ass when he felt her move away.

"What?" he frowned, opening his eyes. Was she going to chicken out now and give him the "I can't do this" excuse?

"Oh, Blake," Jade caressed his face softly and leaned in to press her ample chest against his bare one intimately.

But when he reached up to pull her down again, she smirked and shook her head saucily. There was a naughty look in her eyes, as she stood up, picked up her dress, and put it back on. Seeing Blake's lust-darkened eyes filled with confusion, she reached over to him.

Towering over his body, she gave him the last five words in the English dictionary that he'd wanted to hear. "See you around, van Buren," she told him, making a big show of patting his cheek twice condescendingly, in the exact same way he'd done to her a few days ago.

It was the slaps to his face that broke him out of his stunned silence. "What the hell, Lewallen? Is this some kind of a fucking joke?" he hissed, immediately sitting up so that he could glare at her properly, face to face.

Jade straightened the bottom half of her skirt and gave Blake a wolfish smile.. "Don't you remember? I'm the librarian with the black, corrupted heart. I never joke around. Plus, I only cleaned up nicely. I'm sure you could do much better than this." She pointed to her own body,

When he heard that, Blake nearly died in frustration. Was she really going to hold that against him? What'd she expect, anyways? They weren't even in a relationship, so it wasn't as if Blake had obligations to boost her already sky high self confidence. Besides, he assumed that she already knew that in that outfit, she looked like sex on heels. He didn't even know why it mattered to her, so this whole argument was just ridiculous, anyway.

"Jade," he said in a threatening tone. Jade Lewallen was mean, but even she wasn't this cruel to leave a guy in a state like this.

She was.

Not only that, but as she walked out the door, she'd swung back around, taking one last pointed look at a certain part of his body in such a way that was purposely adding salt to the wound. "You know, I like you much better this way. At this point in my plan, I think I was supposed to tell you to go fuck yourself for being such an asshole to me on Friday. But, I think you already know what you have to do, so I won't rub it in." And then, firing one last self-satisfied smirk in his direction, she exited out of the room.

Letting loose a string of profanities that would've made anyone's ears bleed, he looked down to see the bulging erection that Jade had apparently been staring at.

Fuck. M

Back in the party suite, Chase's insides were pleasantly warm. She looked over to Ryder and beamed. He grinned back, strands of his dirty blond hair flopping against his forehead. It was so boyishly adorable that it made Chase want to hug him.

A year ago, if someone had told her that she'd be friends with someone like Ryder, she would've laughed it off and told that person to go to the emergency room to get his or her head checked. Abercrombie model type people just didn't become friends with people like here. And she didn't go seeking their friendship either.

But she found that she did like being friends with Ryder. Yesterday, after her cat scare, he'd taken her to get some cookies 'n cream ice cream, her absolute favorite. Then, just this morning, she'd dragged him out to the park, where she was able to wheedle and convince him to come to the engagement party tonight.

So maybe, she'd been just a little too hasty in passing judgment regarding the popular crowd.

"Thanks for coming here, tonight. I would've been such a loner with you," she told him thankfully. And it was true. Blake had disappeared shortly after they'd started the game, and Connor was too busy trying to imitate Blake to even talk to her. Last she'd seen of her baby brother, he'd had two girls on his lap. Gross.

"No, thank you." Ryder said a little louder, say that Chase could hear him above the shouts of the crowd. "I was going to stay in tonight and mope around, looking at old pictures. I'm glad I listened to you and came here, instead. I'm glad you're here for me," He told her truthfully.

Chase looked into his earnest eyes and felt that tiny, cliché flutter in her stomach that she was always reading about in those romance books. Up this close, she could see all the little details about him. Like the fact that his right canine tooth was sharper than the one on his left. Or that he had a single freckle on the lobe of his left ear. Or the way his eyes had flecks of gold in them, when the light hit it at a certain angle.

And without even realizing it, Chase leaned forward so close that she was almost nose to nose with him, and Ryder soon closed the distance between the two of them, his mouth gently touching hers.

His lips were soft and it wasn't hard against hers. As he let his tongue travel slowly in her mouth slowly, it was almost as if he was trying to memorize the contours of her lips.

When he kissed her, she could taste bits of him. In it, there was the small leftover parts of the Trident gum he was addicted to, the taste of the beer that had been in his glass earlier, and a little bit of what made Ryder who he was.

In that last piece, there was definitely some sadness, but there was also longing. And Chase found herself drawing him closer to her, wanting to taste everything.

I want him, her mind thought as her hormone-charged body curved against Ryder's shape.

Strangely, it was that though that made it feel as if something had suddenly woke up inside of her, and Chase's hold on Ryder's clothes immediately released. She quickly extracted herself and nearly jumped up from the couch she was sitting on.

There was disbelief in her eyes, and she tried to say anything. And of all the things she could've said, she blurted out, "I have to use the bathroom," and made a run for it.

"Look Chase, I'm wasn't going to—", Ryder pleaded with her depserately, but she was had already tuned him out. Running into the hallway, she slammed the door behind her and slumped to the ground a few feet away from the staircase.

She couldn't believe she'd let herself do that, just because Ryder Ferreira had nice, twinkling eyes. One would think that after all the failed relationships she'd seen happen—her dad had walked out on them, after all—she'd know better than to get herself into a dead end situation. She'd learned long ago that relationships were dangerous, because the heartbreak was almost always inevitable.

Whatever had possessed her to kiss Ryder the first time must not happen again. He had been nice to her the past few days, but who knows when he'd get tired of her and leave. She'd heard things about his womanizing reputation, and Chase knew better than to get herself involved. Friendship as it had been for the past two days was fine; anything beyond that was not.

She was strong enough for that, she decided. No more compromising her ideals. They would be good friends, and that would be that.

This was definitely doable.

Feeling stronger now that her commitment had renewed itself in her mind, Chase stood up, albeit a little shakily, and made her way back to the room.

The first step was to pretend as if it had been a mistake. If she was lucky, he wouldn't bring it up, and they could pretend like it never happened. Either way, she wasn't going to even look at those lips again.

Steeling her resolve, she sat down next to him again, as if the past twenty minutes had been just like the rest of the evening. "Stomachache," she told him breezily, not offering any extra details.

He nodded, but didn't look like he was convinced. "Chase, when I kissed you… I wasn't trying to get in your pants or anything, I swear."

Chase nodded tersely, but couldn't bring herself to tell him that it wasn't his fault. Fortunately, she was saved from furthering the conversation, as West addressed her from across the table.

"I pick Chase. Chase, I dare you to…" West's eyes were slightly crossed now, as he tried to think of a good dare. "take off your dress and take three laps around the entire room."

She grimaced when she heard that. No matter how drunk she was, or how drunk everybody else was, there was no way she was going to run around half naked. "I'll pass," she told West, and took another chug at her beer.

"You've been passing the entire evening," a guy complained. Chase shifted nervously. He'd been watching her for the entire evening, and he didn't seem as drunk as the others. Chase felt intimidated, just looking into those dark orbs.

The guy caught her wary look, and leered. "My turn. I dare Chase to come blow me right now."

Chase quickly took another, big drink of beer, to make it crystal clear that there was no way she'd be doing anything for him tonight, or ever.

"When you're done, let me have a go," Tyler Ranch waved an arm in the air wildly, eying Chase's chest with curious interest. She pulled the front of her dress up, and drank again.

"This is getting stupid," a voice said, walking over to their game circle. Chase realized with a relieved sigh that it was Blake, and not some other male. His hair was mussed, and there was an angry, devious glint in his eye. "I say we get out of here, and bring the party back full swing at my place."

And Blake, who'd always been the leader rather than the follower, quickly gathered support for his idea, leading the way as people scrambled for the back doorway, leaving the entire room in shambles. Nobody seemed to care what would happen when a hundred of the Beverly Hills teen royalty was discovered missing at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

"Chase, you coming?" Ryder asked her, as he half-heartedly offered her his hand.

She nodded. "Go on without me. I need to get something first," she told him, and her voice sounded strangely detached from her body. It was almost as if she was listening to someone else talk. Weird.

"Are you sure you don't want me to wait and drive you?" Ryder asked uncertainly, not sure if friend duties required waiting for each other.

Chase nodded again, to answer his question. "I didn't have that much tonight, and this will take really quick. I promise."

"Okay. I'll see you back at the Lewallen Estate, then." He told her, and walked out of the room, leaving her almost alone, with only a few, passed out teenagers for company.

Ripping a piece of paper off the hotel stationary, she forced her mind to concentrate and wrote a hasty note to her mother, explaining that she'd gone back to the house. Then, after leaving it right on the kitchen counter in plain sight, she grabbed her small, Fendi bag—another item borrowed off of Arielle--, and made her way down to where she'd parked her temporary car.

She nearly tripped over nothing as she reached in her bag for her car keys, and had to steady herself on the hood of the Lexus.

Maybe she'd had more to drink than she'd thought. Being a first time drinker, she had no idea how to make any of this go away. Perhaps she should've asked Ryder to wait for her, instead of worrying about what he'd say if he saw her being such a sissy at her first, real teenage party.

She closed her eyes in relief as she made it safely into her seat, with her behind planted firmly in the right place of the car. Locking the doors as a safety precaution, she made her hands stick the key into the ignition and rev the car out of its parking space.

Chase frowned as her brain tried to send the proper signals to her motor functions. For some reason, her hands felt detached from the rest of her, and there was no feeling of control at all. She started getting scared. It was as if the car was driving itself.

Desperately, she tried to pull the car over to the side of the road, so that she could call Blake to come help her out, but her hands and feet remained where they were, and moving them in any way was becoming more and more like an impossible feat.

To make things worse, her eyelids started fluttering shut against their own will, and she had to repeatedly jerk her head up to keep from falling asleep. She tried telling herself to stay calm, but that remained harder and harder to do when she found herself driving on an unfamiliar road, with no idea how to get back.

"Shit," she nearly sobbed, when the streets became darker and even more unfamiliar.

Then, dimly in the back of her mind, she remembered Ryder keying in the directions to the car's GPS. Hopefully, she slowly forced one hand to move fluidly to the internal GPS, where she keyed in her home address while thanking the heavens that her barely functioning mind was still able to remember that piece of information.

Hearing the smooth voice of the GPS director, she allowed herself to relax, as she turned around, making a U-turn, and noticing for the first time the silent, black car that had been following her.

Blood chilled, she egged her car on faster, hoping that she could trust in the little GPS.

It was time to go home.

AN: Well, here it is. The next chapter should be relatively short, and it will finish with Ryder/Duke's POV. There will be one small chapter after that with snippets from everyone's POV, and then an epilogue. Again, thanks to everyone who read and reviewed my story. It's five in the morning over here, and I just wanted to get this out. I will reply to reviews/PMs tomorrow morning. Thanks again, and please R/R and let me know how I did with this chapter. It was the hardest to write.