( I'm so sorry I took such a while to update, I've had a lot of things to worry about, so forgive me.)

Chapter Twenty-Seven

None of us could believe what was going on. It was literally a riot in Kat's apartment! People in weird costumes were all over the place. In corners, there were people smoking and sniffing crack. I looked over at Dee Dee who's face lit up at the sight of it. The others looked a bit uncomfortable, with the exception of Marky and Kat of course.

"See? I told you coming here was a bad idea. Look at this place!" Johnny said. "We're goin' home, come on."

"Wait, wait John. I mean...alright so this isn't your average house party, but lets just try and enjoy ourselves." I was trying desperately to coax Johnny into staying. He looked like he'd leave any minute. "Lets just give it a chance, alright?"

He scoffed. "Angela, are you blind? These people are freaks!" He shook his head. "I don't like this one bit."

I smiled and kissed his cheek. His stubble made my lips itch a little. "Come on sour puss. Just enjoy the night."

He looked back over at me with logning in his eyes.

"Enjoy the night, John."

"Well, looks like MY kinda party!" Dee Dee took Rosy's hand and they went galavanting, meeting different people. Joey and Josephina followed after them and started dancing around other people. Glitter and other stuff was being thrown in their face and hair as they danced. Talk about eccentricity, jeez!

Suddenly, I heard the song change. It was a song by Cyndi Lauper. Everyone freaked out and got on Kat's living room floor to jam to the tune. I wanted to go too, but when I tried walking Johnny had his fingers around my arm.

"No." His eyes were fierce. "I don't trust anyone here."

I sighed. "Johnny, quit controlling me! I'm not your fucking slave!" I broke free and didn't look back to see what his face looked like. But I was pretty sure it was a combination of anger and shock. To be honest, I didn't want to do that, but I had no choice. I'd had it with Johnny telling me what to do all the time! He'd been doing it all night, and I just couldn't take it anymore. It was getting on my nerves. If he wanted to stand off to the side and be boring, that was his problem. But I wanted to have a good time tonight. And I was gonna do just that.

Kat and I danced with each other and laughed. I looked around me to see Joey doing moves that I never thought he could do. It was really shocking to see ANY of the Ramones dancing, really. Dee Dee and Rosy were doing the robot terribly, but they still seemed to be having fun. Marky was by himself just jamming out with his eyes closed. He was really getting into the music.

"So, uh...I saw whatcha did back there," Kat yelled over the music. "You've sure got guts girl."

"I was just tired of Johnny keeping me away from everything. I like parties, but he doesn't. He didn't even wanna come. He wanted us to go home."

"Oh but that's no fun."

"Exactly! Try telling him that, though." I rolled my eyes. "John's one of the most stubborn men you'll ever meet in your lifetime."

"Well, you did what you had to do. Just talk with him later so he knows you're not mad at him anymore."

"I'm not, but I think that it would be best if we just had our time away from each other for a while. That's part of the reason why I told him I'd stay here in New York while him and the guys were touring and stuff. We just need time to breathe."

"Oh, I understand that. Every relationship needs that, you know. It's normal, don't worry. And I think he'll understand."

"Yeah, maybe."

As the hours passed by, things seemed to get more and more wild. Dee Dee eventually joined the other junkies and did some dope with them while Rosy was with Josephina just admiring everything. They were more of the observant type. Kat and I continued to dance to the music and just have a good time. I was too scared to look back at Johnny, but I'm sure he was scowling his heart out. When wasn't he?

After about fifteen minutes, the music changed. It was Bonnie Tyler's song "Total Eclipse of The Heart".

"Well, I think I'm gonna go sit for a while. My legs starting to cramp from moving around so much," Kat said.

"Okay, well I guess I'll see you later, then." I smiled at her and she walked off. Then suddenly, I felt another person tapping my shoulder behind me...I turned around. "Hey Joey, having fun?"

"Yeah, this party's pretty cool. Wanna dance?" He held out his hand to me. I took it and smiled, and we went further into the center of the crowd of slow dancing people. "Man, I gotta admit, I'm gettin' kinda tired."

"Yeah, me too. But I mean, its alright. Its not everyday that I get to have fun like this." As I was talking, I felt Joey put his hands on my waist. And then, something happened...I don't know why, but it did. I started to blush. WHY WAS I BLUSHING BECAUSE OF JOEY? I tried not to let it show by looking away at something else until my face went back to its normal color. Maybe I had just had one too many drinks. Yeah, that was it. Too much alcohol could do things to you...right?

The entire song, Joey and I looked into eachother's eyes. What the hell was happening here?

. . .

The party finally ended at around 3:30, and everyone was exhausted. All of the guests filed out of the room and went home. Except our group. Joey was passed out on the dirty couch with a beer bottle half full in his hand (Josephina was next to him), Johnny was quietly smoking a cigarette on the other side of the room, Dee Dee and Rosy were making out in a small corner, and Marky and Kat were busy cleaning everything up. I decided that since it didn't look like Johnny wanted to talk to me right now because he was possibly still upset with me, I'd help the other two with cleaning up Kat's apartment.

"Its alright Angela. We got it," Marky said yawning.

"But you guys look so tired! Let me just help a little bit. Why don't you both go sit down, I'll take care of this mess." So I did. I swept the entire floor, threw away all of the trash, took the garbage outside to be collected in the morning, went back inside and wiped off the tables and kitchen counter, took down the decorations, and put them in Kat's closet. After fifteen minutes, I was finally done. Feeling accomplished, I made my way back to the living room to see Marky and Kat asleep next to eachother. I smiled. "Sweet dreams."

I walked over to Johnny who was struggling to stay awake too. I shook him softly, and he stirred for a little while, then opened his eyes slowly to see me standing there. "Hi baby. We can go home now. The place is clean. Come on, lets go home."

He sighed. "Alright, lets take the van." He didn't hold my hand as we walked outside. He didn't say anything to me the whole ride home. It was pretty silent, and it hurt for him to ignore me, but I knew why he was doing it.

"John, look. I was wondering if we could talk-"

"Not now, I'm driving. I don't want any distractions." His eyes were cold as he kept them on the road ahead of us. "We can talk about it when we get home."

After that, we didn't say anything else until we got to his house. But then I saw something. Someone. A woman. She had strawberry-colored hair, and it looked like she was wearing an oversized petticoat. She wore four-inch heels and held her purse daintily. Who was this woman? And what the hell was she doing at our house at nearly four in the morning?

Johnny spotted her too, and his expression changed from bored to shocked. "Oh my god, what is SHE doing here!"

"John..." I looked over at him as he parked the van. "Honey, who is that?"

He hesitated before answering my question. "That's me and Joey's ex-girlfriend, Linda."