There's a disgusting amount of cursing in this chapter. I'm sorry.

Thanks to the awesome degrassijayandalex who has reviewed every chapter, given me loads of support and inspiration and helped me to write when writers block was threatening to take over, and finally for giving me a mention in her profile, I feel very honored that this story is so well liked. Also, I can't finish my thanks til I've thanked:

ShatteredTruth
Stranger Danger
Lobel's girl
MaDShiPPA
toughlovegirl
GREENGYPSY
Brandy2008
CJ (anon review)

Thank you all! Please people review this, I need to know that people like it and its worth me carrying on, cuz reviews and views are dwindling at the minute and its very worrying! So, please pretty please with cherries on, please review! It means so much to me! I wanna know what you think! Anonymous reviews are welcome but I do like to respond to them so people know that I have acknowledged them. Anyway, enough page wasting.

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DISCLAIMER: I own nothing.

The Afterlife Of The Party – Fall Out Boy

August 2002
Alex: 13
Jay: 15

Melissa knew there was a time difference in Oregon to Toronto, but this was taking it too far. She had been ringing every twenty minutes for the past three hours. She busied herself with housework, and cooking dinner and trying to watch a little TV, but she needed this phone call to connect. She tried again as soon as she'd finished dinner.

"Mel, leave the boy be and try him tomorrow." Cory suggested as she got the answering machine, again.

"Those flights won't stay around forever. I need to know, Cory."

"I'm sure they'll still be there in the morning, Melissa. You can get up early and call if you want. The time difference means its more likely he'll be there."

"Why isn't he answering though?" Melissa asked Cory as if he knew.

"I don't know. Maybe he's out. He's a fifteen year old boy, he'll be out and about, won't he?." Cory was going to throw in the old 'I was his age once, I should know' spiel but he decided against it, fearing it would be too cliché.

"Well, can I try once more, at least?" Melissa asked, but she was already dialing.

"Man, we should be getting back up there, dude." Jay said leaning against the brick wall.

"Yeah dude. Totally." Towers drawled, taking a final hit, before flicking the stub to the concrete.

Amy kept quiet, but Jay looked at her quickly and unexpectedly and she looked like she was stifling a laugh. Fucking pothead.

They stumbled up the concrete steps, erupting into laughter periodically. "You know, if there was a ramp here, it'd make things a hell of a lot easier." Jay rambled nonsensically.

The three of them burst through the door, met by Alex's scowling face.

"Woah, good luck with that Jay." Towerz turned sharply to the left and Amy slipped off to the right.

"Where have you been?" Alex stood close to her boyfriend and shouted in his face over the loud beat of the music.

"Downstairs." Jay looked ridiculously innocent. He used his index fingers to point down to the ground, as if Alex couldn't understand him without a performance.

"With her?" Alex asked, throwing her head in Amy's direction.

"No." Jay said sheepishly, also stoned.

"Jay, I just saw you walk through the door with her!"

"Yeah but Towerz was there too."

"Not helping Jay. What we're you guys doing?"

"Nothing!" Jay exclaimed melodramatically.

"Jay, I can tell from the way you're acting. You're fuck-faced, aren't you?" Alex grabbed his face and made him look at her. His eyes wandered and he laughed nervously as he escaped her grip.

"No! It's only a bit... you know how it is Alex."

"Yeah, I do know how it is. I know how you are. A little bitch." Jay laughed even more at this.

Alex threw her hands in the air in exasperation. She couldn't deal with jay when he was like this. It wasn't that she was angry with him, it was just impossible to get through to him, so she left it.

"Whatever, Jay, this is you're mess and I'm not gonna clean it up. I'll see you in the morning, OK?"

As Alex was leaving, she realized it was 1am. Jay's new place was more than a mile walk away from the trailer park. When she was walking over, she had Jay with her to keep her safe, and it was six o' clock in the evening. But now it was getting nearer and nearer to 1.30am and it was cold, dark and there were many, many drunk people falling around inside and outside of the seedy club Jay's apartment block was next to. She walked robotically down the corridor and turned to descend the stairs. She held her breath against the sickening smell of dirt, alcohol and damp. She examined the banister, but the lumps of gum and spit and whatnot put her off somehow. She got to the end of the first flight of stairs, and wondered what the hell she thought she was doing. Who she was kidding. She was thirteen fucking years old, not twenty-one. She couldn't take the walk back home on her own. It was rough out there, she could defend herself against people her own age, maybe a bit older, but not these drunken louts that were hanging around a few feet below her.

She looked behind her the whole time, hoping that Jay would pop up and be her knight in shining armor. The stairwell was empty. And silent. Her Adidas sneakers didn't even squeak on the tiles, they were so old and hopeless.

Another flight of steps took her to the ground floor. The door was locked by electronic devices, and she didn't know the combination to get in and out. That was how much of a dump this place was; you had to have a code to escape or seek refuge.

It must have been a sign. She couldn't get out, meaning she shouldn't walk home alone. But Jay was a jerk. The music at the party was beginning to fade, and she could hear loud voices chatting intoxicatedly.

She sat down on the uncomfortable concrete step, the second the last one to be precise, and waited. She flicked the beaded bracelet around her wrist. That reminded her of Ellie. She guessed she'd snuck away undetected with Sean. All her efforts to try and save her from herself had obviously fallen on deaf ears. She didn't get why she seemed to be the only young person that actually realized that doing all this stupid stuff to yourself, like drinking, drugs and cutting especially, was bad and would lead to much bigger things in the future. She'd learned all about that from the long line of losers that her mom had once called 'the one'.

This got her to thinking about her future with Jay. She wondered if she'd still be with him when she was an adult. When she was eighteen? Twenty-one? Thirty? Maybe that was pushing it a bit. Maybe she should be asking herself if she'd still be with Jay at the end of the week. Her birthday was coming up soon too. She wondered if he'd even remember. Thirteen years of friendship, almost two years of tension, and a rocky relationship of about six months, would be put to the test.

A handful of the people who had been at Jay's party came rattling down the stairs and toppled out of the door, obviously knowing the code. Alex knew that this was her opportunity to get out, just grab the door and dip out before it had a chance to lock itself again. But she stayed sat where she was and watched it clink as it banged shut, shaking slightly on its old rusty hinges.

She sat there numbly for what felt like years, but only half an hour had passed. She heaved herself tiredly off the step and stood up, shifting her weight from left foot to right foot.

Fuck it, swallow you're fucking pride and do it!

She turned and ran up the steps, taking them two at a time. Soon she found herself stood outside Jay's door again. It was open, and the music filtering out was gone. She pushed it open gingerly and it creaked ominously.

"Jay?" She called out awkwardly. She stepped inside and was greeted by the overpowering yet familiar smell of cigarette smoke, alcohol and cheese puffs coated in melted cheese (the poor man's nachos).

She found Jay slumped on the floor with a beer in his hand, tipping it dangerously close to the left, a spillage was imminent.

"Jay, why are you on the floor, the couch is right there." Alex commented as she found him looking oh so disastrous.

"The floor was nearer." He slurred as she took the can from his hand and sat it down out of his reach.

"Hey, what're you doin'?" He exclaimed as he realized she'd taken his drink.

"Jay, I'm not stupid. I know what you were doing with Amy and Towerz."

"Towerz? Oh..." Jay looked dumbfounded. Drunkenly dumbfounded.

"Look, just sit on the sofa, k?" She grabbed his hand and pulled him up, using all her strength. He wasn't co-operating properly in his drunken state, so that made moving him all the more difficult.

She finally managed to push him in the direction of the couch and he sank down into it, looking very content.

"Lex!" Jay exclaimed in sleepy dis-alertness as he jolted from his sleep. "How come, why, what the fuck?"

Alex laughed loudly. "Hello, nice to see you too."

"How come you're here?" He asked in confusion.

Alex laughed again. "Oh, thanks a lot. I had to crash here cuz I couldn't get home."

"What the hell happened last night?" Jay sat up straight.

"You look like shit." Alex offered.

"Thanks, I feel it. But that doesn't answer my question."

"Well, don't go feeling sorry for yourself, Jason!" Alex said his name patronizingly, and prodded him in the temple, just to be irritating. "You were the one who decided to party on a work night!"

"Wait what day is it today?"

"Friday." Alex answered gleefully.

"Oh my God, no!" Jay whined hopelessly. He put his hands to his face like a little drama queen.

"You do insist on doing these things to yourself."

"You know you're way too cocky and smart for a thirteen year old, Nuñez." Jay commented dryly.

"Yeah, and I know, and thats why you like me." Alex stated.

Jay gave her a sideways glance and just scoffed with a reassuring smile on his face.

"Oh, you're cell's being going all morning."

"Really? Who was it?" Jay grabbed his phone off the coffee table and flipped it open. "That's my Aunt Melissa. I don't even have freaking money on this phone. I can't call her back."

"I'm sure that if you leave it a few seconds she'll ring you." Alex pointed out. The 26 missed calls from Melissa obviously didn't register with Jay in his early morning state of craziness.

Sure enough, he placed the cell back down and as soon as he did the loud buzz of the vibration against the wood meant she was trying to get through, again.

"Hey, Aunt Mel!" Jay tried to sound cheery and bright eyed, but Alex just laughed at him. He swatted her with the pillow as he tried to listen to what Melissa was saying.

Alex jumped out of the way and walked over to the window to have a cigarette. She listened to Jay nosily in the background as he spoke. He was such a nerd on the phone, putting on his 'proper' voice and everything, all polite and dignified. No curse words either, or mentions of his unholy antics of the previous night.

"Yeah, no that'd be good... Yeah, no that sounds cool... Yeah I'm sure she'd love to come."

Alex spun around at the mention of her 'name'. At the reference of her name, at least.

"What the hell have you put me up for?" She muttered to herself in Jay's direction. He continued to make small talk, for a painstakingly long time, before he finally hung up and Alex could find out what the fuck was going on.

What did ya think of that? Please review guys, I'm getting seriously concerned here!