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2003
"JJ, hurry up!"
JJ looked up from digging through her jewelry box at her best friend, Bella and gave her a wry smile. "Patience is a virtue, dearie," she clucked. She picked up a pair of earrings and inserted them into her ears. "You act like this is the first rager you've ever gone to. It's not like we'll be late for anything." Her cat, Tommy jumped up on her dresser and rubbed his tail against her arm. She grinned at him and cooed, "Auntie Bella is so silly, isn't she Tommy?" She giggled as her cat began to purr. Ever since she had found him outside in her backyard ten years ago, she had loved him. He followed her everywhere in the house, trailing after her like a duckling would its mother.
Bella stuck her tongue out. "Yeah, well you're taking too long and I don't want to be around when your mom gets home and sees you're not here."
"Relax," JJ said. "She's not going to be home for hours. Giving me a few minutes to put on some jewelry isn't going to kill you." She winked. "And I don't think Andy will care to much that you're not there right on time."
Rolling her eyes, Bella whined, "Come on, Jayje! I wanna get wasted!"
Partying, especially wild frat keggers, was not JJ's cup of tea. However, Bella loved it more than anything. So out of loyalty to her friend and desire to see her alive in the morning, JJ signed on as her designated driver. At most she would have one beer. She didn't really know why she and Bella were such good friends. They were complete opposites, Bella preferring the company of random strangers and mass amounts of alcohol. JJ herself was more docile, quiet tempered. She tried to stay out of the way of as many people as possible. How the two of them were as close as they were was a scientific oddity.
But she was glad for her friend. They were as close as two girls could be.
Standing up straighter, she smoothed her hair and kissed the top of Tommy's soft head. "Bye, Tommy!" she said before grabbing her friend's arm and pulling her towards the door. "Alright, oh impatient one! Let's get going!"
"Yeah!" Bella cried happily, taking the lead and dragging JJ towards her car.
XXXXX
"She's going out again," Penelope said to her fellow immortals. "Two of us need to go out while the rest of us get some sleep."
For the past decade the fairies and the wizards had spent their time watching over JJ and searching for Elle. So far the only luck they were having was with the former. Elle had remained hidden, not showing her face or leaving a trace, even through magic. It was as if she had vanished from the face of the Earth. But for now that meant that JJ was safe...at least for the moment.
"Is she going out with Bella?" Spencer asked warily.
Penelope nodded. "Yeah," she said. "She is. And they're going to a frat party so we have to keep a closer eye on her than usual. Things can get pretty rough with those college boys."
"Alex and I will go," Emily said, raising a hand in the air. "We'll keep track of her and make sure she stays out of trouble."
Spencer sighed. "Keep an eye on Bella, too. I worry about JJ when she spends time with her. She's unstable."
"But she's her best friend," Penelope pointed out. "She's not going to abandon her simply because they're not mirror images of one another. And Bella would never let any harm come to her either. She'll be fine. It's other people I worry about. They could take advantage of her and her natural instinct to trust someone."
Alex and Emily nodded, sliding jackets on. "We'll get going then," Emily said. "We'll make sure we're invisible. Don't worry. She'll be safe."
XXXXX
JJ and Bella arrived at the frat party around eleven in the evening and the party was in full swing. The smell of beer assaulted JJ's nose and she had to resist the urge to gag. The music was so loud her ear drums were vibrating. It was terrible. Bella was smiling widely though. It was clear she was excited for the party. JJ, on the other hand, grimaced. "Oh god," she muttered. Though she said it aloud, no one heard her over the music.
Bella motioned towards the beer table and the two of them headed over to get drinks. At the table, they were given drinks by two frat members, one of whom winked at JJ. She couldn't help but feel like he was a complete creeper. She nodded to him and turned away from him. God, she felt so out of place here. How did she let herself get roped into this? It was impossible to figure out in the overly loud din of the music. And it wasn't good music either. It was a lame Britney Spears song and she couldn't figure out why the damn thing was being played.
Britney was just plain awful.
She rolled her eyes. Behind her someone put their hand on the small of her back and she turned around abruptly, spilling some of her beer in the process. Her eyes went wide. A handsome blonde man was smiling drunkenly at her. "Hey baby," he slurred.
She smiled tightly, uncomfortably. "Er, hi," she said awkwardly.
He shook his head, not able to hear her over the music.
"Hi!" she yelled.
He nodded and took her beer, setting both his and her cups on a nearby table. Grabbing her hands, he started to lead her towards the dance floor. Panic began to set in and she yanked her hands back, shaking her head in the process. "No!" she hollered. "I don't dance!"
He frowned and he rolled his eyes, retrieving his beer and stalking off. JJ couldn't suppress her shudder. Yeah. She definitely could not figure out why she had come to this party. If it weren't for Bella, she most definitely would not have.
Trying to find a spot where she could remain invisible, she went towards a side door that would lead to the porch. It was winter time, so no one would be outside at the moment. They would stay inside where the warmth was. Sighing, she held her arms around herself and closed her eyes a moment. The cold wasn't affecting her as much as it should have. In fact, she relished the frigid temperature.
Suddenly though, she heard the sound of a panicked girl.
"Don't! Please!"
A very clearly drunk voice spoke next. "Oh, c'mon sweet thing! You know you want this!"
The girl began to cry. "No, just leave me alone!"
JJ immediately started down the stairs and into the snow blanketed ground. She followed the direction of the voices. Her pace increased to a jog and eventually she found the source of the voices. A large, muscular boy was pushing a petite brunette girl up against the wall. He was sopping drunk.
Angrily, JJ stormed forward. "Hey!" she bellowed. "Get off of her!" Both heads turned in her direction and she started to run forward.
The boy backed away and laughed. "Oh, it would seem I have a willing lady who would like to join us," he snickered.
"Leave her alone," JJ hissed defiantly, trying to shield the girl from whoever the man trying to attack her was.
"Why should I?" He laughed. "Would you like to take her place?"
She sneered. "No, you drunk idiot," she hissed. "I want you to go sober up and think about your pig like behavior." She looked at the girl who was frozen in place and nodded for her to take off. For a moment she stood in place, wondering if she should stay or not. But JJ nodded again and she took off at a run. JJ could only pray that she would get help.
"That sounds like a 'yes' to me," he said, moving forward to her and pushing her roughly against the house wall.
JJ tried to push back against him, but it was no use; he was too strong. But just as she was about to scream, an invisible force shot the man backward and he hit the ground with a thud. She looked around wildly for the source of the force, but there was nothing or no one to be found. So instead of sticking around, she jogged away from the boy and back into the house to grab Bella and get the hell out.
And if her friend tried to protest because they had been there barely an hour, she would drag her by her hoop earrings to get out of there.
XXXXX
After tossing the asshole around who dared lay a hand on JJ, he ran off, leaving Emily and Alex fuming. "I wish I knew where that bastard lives," Emily growled. "I'd give him a tail and he would have no way to remove it. Even scissors wouldn't be able to cut through it, and certainly not surgery and all the procedures that have been created recently."
Alex nodded in agreement. "And I would love to do the same," she said. "The look on his face was priceless, though. Satisfying to say the least." She wiped her forehead and looked in the direction JJ had taken off. "We had better follow her, Em," she added.
Emily nodded in agreement. "Let's go then," she said.
XXXXX
Aaron Hotchner, known to his buddies in his fraternity as 'Hotch,' was sitting with three of his friends on in the attic of the frat house. They were all laughing, needing time away from the quiet to just chat and get drunk in an environment away from the rest of their house. In the center of their circle was a small oil lamp and the ground was covered in scattered beer bottles.
"Seriously, though," his friend Zac said drunkenly. "I'm so glad to be done with Lila. She was such a bitch to me, cheating on me with that douchebag on the basketball team. I'm so done with her!"
Aaron nodded. "Good for you, man," he slurred. "You're better than her." He tipped his head back and took another swig from his beer. Returning his gaze towards his friends, he added, "What's your ideal woman, guys? You know, like what do you need in a woman to love her?"
"Good tits," Brandon, a freshman in college, said with a snort.
This didn't surprise Aaron; Brandon was kind of a pig. A good drinking buddy, but a pig towards women nonetheless. He snorted. "Typical." He looked towards their third companion, Jeff. "Jeff?"
"Huhz?" Jeff slurred, looking up with glazed over eyes.
"Your ideal lady? What do you look for?"
He was so wasted, any answer he would give would be complete nonsense, but Aaron thought he would ask anyway. "Ima lookin' for a lady with nice taste...an in-independent girl who's awesome!"
Aaron smirked. That was more of an answer than he thought he would get. He nodded. At least it was better than Brandon's ideal girl.
"Whadda bout you, Hotch?" Jeff slurred. "Waz your ideal lady?"
Aaron took a longer drink of his beer before responding. "My idea would probably be...someone who's kind and gentle. Someone who would love me as much as I love her. And she would have to care unconditionally about others."
"You'll never find someone that perfect," Zac scoffed.
Aaron sighed. He could dream, he guessed. Maybe one day he would find his ideal girl. But that day was not this day. She would come into her life. He knew she would.
He had already met her in his dream.
Okay, so that last sentence is my lame attempt at fitting the "Once Upon A Dream" song in. It sounds pretty cheesy :-/
