Chapter 15: Irish Tradition

"What do you mean you're waiting till the last day," Louis blundered from across the room, "It's practically Irish custom to get piss poor drunk as often as you can while on vacation."

We were all sitting around PJ and I's hotel room. The Fantastic Foursome, as I realized the boys liked to call themselves a lot, were spread out on one bed and Sophie and Jamie were on the other. Louis and I had claimed the arm chairs in rather opposite positions, him lounging completely across it and me curled up with my head on my knees.

"I'd just rather save said 'Irish tradition' till the end," I explained, putting air quotes around his term, "It's not like I'm against drinking-" Louis' look was similar to the one my brother would give me when I would lie about hiding his toys when we were little, "- I'm not! I mean, come on, PJ and I met completely shit faced!"

It was utterly, awkwardly silent for about 5 seconds, where everyone slowly turned to look at PJ, before an array of things happened.

Dan was laughing like a hyena holding his sides, but his laughter was the least weirdest thing happening. Chris had started jumping up and down in front of PJ yelling like an idiot while Phil tried to shout questions over at me. Jamie was shouting "I told you so, you owe me ten pounds!" to Sophie, who face was bright redwith laughter as she fished through her pocket. Louis, who was the only one who hadn't looked at PJ when I'd spoken the obviously unknown, was now sitting up and shouting, "what?!" repeatedly between PJ and I. PJ and I were just staring at each other, his look compltely apologetic.

It was a madhouse of too loud reactions and I was completely lost as to why. PJ had told me he explained to all his friends how we met. Had he been... Lying?

"Alright, alright, calm down," PJ bellowed over the rest of them. The group calmed slightly, now giggling amongst themselves like pre-teens, "We weren't shit faced. It was just... casual drinking at a party."

"'Casual drinking at a party'," Dan repeated, bursting into another fit of laughter, "Oh god, what did you guys do!"

"Nothing," PJ exclaimed, grabbing the back of his now red neck, "See this is why I didn't tell you, you all would have assumed we slept together or something."

"Which we didn't," I assured them, uncurling from my position, "He let me borrow his jumper after a couple knocked me over and I spilled my drink on myself."

"Well at least he was telling the truth about the jumper, then" Jamie teased, taking the money Sophie was holding out to him.

"As for not being shit faced," I continued, a devious smile on my face, "That's the biggest load of bullox I've ever heard. Have you not seen the pictures I took from that night? The only one that didn't come out blurry on the first try was the one I took of you acting like a chicken!"

The whole group, me included, broke out into another episode of laughter until the people next to us started banging on the wall and yelling muffled words at us.

"Ok, fine," PJ agreed, a broad smile on his face, "We were a bit messed up. At least I got you home safe!"

"Oh god, I never heard the end of it from Belle," I laughed, seeing a few confused looks from the group, "My roommate. She's like a super fangirl. I didn't even know till PJ came by a few weeks later to grab his jumper. She flipped out, and not to mention made everything really awkward. She almost got us into a car accident over one of your videos, Dan."

We exploded into laughter again before Phil piped up, "So how does she feel about you going on this trip without her?"

"Oh she's really jealous," I chortled, shaking my head, "I've never seen her get so excited before. I love her to death, but there's no way I would have brought her with me. She wouldn't have had enough time to enjoy the trip. She'd be spliting up all her time between passing out and trying to jump your guys' bones!"

Laughter ensued before there was another pounding on the wall and a threat to call the manager if we didn't quiet down.

"Fine, drink, don't drink, I don't care," Louis concluded after we'd all quieted down, "But the night before we leave I am getting you so drunk you won't be able to see straight."

I chuckled and nodded my head, "Whatever you say."

"I do say," he agreed, before standing and stretching, "But unlike you I am not against drinking whenever I'd like. Who's with me?"

Dan, Chris and Jamie jumped up, eager to follow Louis out of the hotel room, leaving Phil, PJ, Sophie and I to stare at each other blankly.

"Well," Sophie began a few minutes later, breaking the silence, "I've got a book that's calling my name, so I'll see you guys tomorrow!"

"Yeah," Phil agreed, standing up slowly, "I should childproof my room for when Dan gets back. Last time he started jumping on the bed, throwing my clothing out of my suit case."

I giggled at the thought of Dan acting like a small child before waving good bye to the two of them. Phil gave me a light hug before he left, whispering an apology for his friend's behavior moments earlier. I told him it wasn't a problem before he headed out the door.

When both Sophie and Phil had gone I crossed the room and sat on the bed next to PJ, pulling my book into my lap.

"Why did you lie," I asked softly, staring at the worn out cover of The Catcher and The Rye, "About how we met?"

"I uh.. it's just...," he stammered, ringing his hands together, "It's not like I didn't want them to know. I'm obviously not ashamed of meeting you. If I was I wouldn't bring you around my house, let alone on this trip. I've had a, uh, well a pretty bad track record when it comes to girls and parties. Most the time when I bump into someone new or, well, when one falls into my lap, it doesn't usually end with me giving them my jumper and then walking them home.

"It's just... You fell into my lap and you looked so confused and so... Familiar. Why did you look so familiar? I could never figure it out; I still haven't figured it out. And, well, my mindset is usually to charm a girl with a couple stories I make up off the top of my head and then... I suppose you can guess. With you, though, I don't know. I'm not going to be cheesy and say I didn't want to charm you back to my place, because my intoxicated mind really did, but I could tell you weren't the kind of girl who'd fall for it.

"I partially lied about why it took me so long to get my jumper back. I did break my phone, but I could have gone back the next day and knocked awkwardly on people's doors till I found you, but I didn't. The details of the night before were vague and I was afraid I'd completely embarassed myself, or done something I'd regret, or, even worse, given you my jumper with the promise that you could keep it.

"I.. I apologize; that was a lot of information. I rabble a rather lot. You deserved the whole truth. I hadn't meant to hide anything."

I sat quiet through his explination, only nodding occassionally. When he finished I looked over at him, chewing my lower lip lightly.

"You didn't answer the question, though. Why did you lie to them?"

"They know how I am at parties," he mumbled, "They would have teased me mercilessly. They would have teased you mercilessly. Constantly asking what we did and if we still were. I just wanted to spare the uncomfortability."

A small smile crept across my face and I wrapped my arms around PJ's neck, pulling him into a loose hug. He wiggled awkwardly before slowly putting his arms around me.

"I'm not much of a hugger," he mumbled into my ear, "What exactly is this for?"

"Being such a good friend to me this year," I whispered back, "You didn't have to lie about how we met. I could have handled the teasing, but it was really nice that you thought about my feelings. And brought me on this trip. And helped me with my projects and studying. Just thank you for being such a good friend to me this year. I don't make friends very often, but I'm glad I met you. Whether we were sober or not."

He hugged me tighter and I sighed contentedly, silently thanking Isabelle and Mark for their friendship advice all those weeks ago.

Hello there to the people who have been waiting patiently for this update. I would like you to know that this chapter has been ready for about two days, but I thought it was really bad so I rewrote a couple of parts so it was reader for my beautiful readers.

I know the Irish constantly drinking stereotype is probably more of an American thing than a British stereotype so don't yell at me. Just a good way to start this chapter.

I've had over a thousand views! (Have I said that already. Maybe. Oops. I'm all over the place)

New chapter already in the making so wheeeeeeeeeeeeee.

I don't own PJ (even if I had an amazing dream about him the other day) nor his friends or his stuff. Darn.

-Boots