Claudia Banks lived on the Upper West Side in a pre-war building with a doorman and view of Central Park, located a block from the Museum of Natural History. The place was swarming with young people in high spirits—the hip-hop music even higher—when Roxie and her brother, Lincoln, arrived.

Entering the large apartment, Roxie spotted Porceline, the girl with waist-long hair, who had been after Olivia at school. She was leaning against a wall, smiling and talking to a senior guy wearing round horn-rimmed glasses. He was leaning over her with a hand pressed against the wall, smiling back knowingly. They both looked toward Roxie and Lincoln when they noticed them enter, neither looking particularly pleased with seeing them.

"What's their problem?" Lincoln asked, bending a little to Roxie's height.

She shrugged. "Who knows?"

Roxie was Lincoln's polar opposite with his well-built towering height of six foot five, dwarfing Roxie's skinny five foot. Not to mention they didn't share any features since Roxie had been adopted into the Magnussen family when she was two years old.

Lincoln was the sporty type, and in the past, he'd landed plenty of girls on that account. But it looked like he had met his match in Coco van der Meersch.

Coco was the kind of stunningly beautiful you couldn't help but stare at. She had an elegant face with full, pillowy lips, a model figure, and long wavy sandy-blonde hair.

Since the first time Lincoln saw her at school, he had been able to think of little else. He had done everything to gain her attention, but so far, she hadn't offered him so much as a smile.

As Lincoln and Roxie entered the bright and spacious living room, with massive windows overlooking the park, all thoughts of Coco were forgotten for a moment, seeing Sebastian and Ricky were preparing a sizable joint by the large square coffee table littered with bags of chips, used glasses, cans, and bottles. Among it was also a book with thin white lines of cocaine on top.

Everything inside the apartment, from the walls and floors to the designer furniture and exclusive decorations, was kept in white, glass, or chrome. In Roxie's opinion, it was all a little too much.

Lincoln made a straight line for the group gathered on the massive horseshoe-shaped couch, getting a few laughs for the gray T-shirt he was wearing with a print of an oversized name tag reading 'Hello! I'm Awesome.'

Roxie had planned on joining Lincoln and squeeze down next to Sebastian, but she was called over by the Fashionistas, hanging out at the counter of the open streamlined kitchen in direct connection to the living room. Here, an additional group was being loud and having fun, playing Up Chickens, Down Chickens.

The three girls gushed over Roxie's 'barely there' stiletto sandals and small black leather shorts before the conversation eventually changed to Emmy's on-again/off-again relationship with Atticus, a fellow St. Aquinas senior. A conversation Roxie was rather fed up with since they had already discussed it at length during school.

In short: Emmy and Atticus had broken up over the summer, but now she wanted to get back together again.

"I totally think you should go for it."

"Totally," Emmy's friends encouraged.

"What do you think?" Emmy turned to Roxie, her brown curls dancing around her shoulders, picking at the label of her wine cooler.

"Well," Roxie shrugged her shoulders, sitting on the kitchen counter, eating a mini pretzel, "I still think you should go for it if you have unresolved feelings for him."

Roxie had, in fact, told Emmy this on multiple occasions, so it was with some relief she followed Emmy and the others when Emmy finally decided to talk with Atticus—an hour later. Roxie hoped it meant she could slip away and find Sebastian before he left.

Of course, things didn't go that smoothly.

Entering the living room, Emmy spotted Atticus chatting with Coco. It made her furious with jealousy, and she started yelling at him, accusing Atticus of sleeping around and cheating on her with Coco. This, in turn, angered Coco.

"Oh, save it, Fitzpatrick. Your life isn't some 'oh so tragic' love story." Coco made quotation marks in the air, looking annoyed.

"Says the bimbo dressed like a slut, stealing another girl's guy," Emmy returned, placing a hand on her hip, letting her gaze wander down Coco's outfit. The thin white shirt showcased Coco's black push-up bra underneath, buttoned down low and tucked into tiny denim shorts that made her slender summer-tanned legs look even longer.

Coco narrowed her eyes. "We were talking about the photo project his mother has asked me to help her with, you deranged imbecile."

Emmy didn't know what to say in return and opted to simply cross her arms over her chest, puckering her lips. Her friends were quick to defend her though, and the bickering continued.

When the Banks cousins saw what was happening, they, in turn, quickly came to Coco's aid along with Gabriela, Nicolette, and Porceline, and even more nasty comments were thrown back and forth between the two groups of girls.

Roxie found herself caught in the middle and tried to calm everyone down, but all of a sudden, she was at the receiving end of the unpleasantries.

"Why do you keep talking?" Gabriela demanded, making the others stop arguing. "You think looking like a glamorized goth is gonna earn you respect?" Roxie's mouth fell open, but Gabriela just continued, telling her to stop meddling in what was none of her business. "No one here cares about you, or what you have to say. At all."

The argument then turned to Clumsy Casini and how Roxie had been standing up for her. The change took Roxie by surprise, especially when Coco—as the only other person—defended Olivia; however half-heartedly Roxie found her attempts.

The altercation kept growing louder until Lincoln and Sebastian stepped in. Sebastian grabbed Roxie's hand and told her to follow him, pulling her away from the large group that had gathered. At the same time, Lincoln managed to break up the argument—his size and evident strength automatically earning him respect.

Roxie followed Sebastian down the long hallway, glad to get away from the boisterous and crowded living room. It wasn't fair how they had turned on her and dragged Olivia into the argument. Olivia wasn't even there.

It took Roxie a moment to calm down, but it helped when Sebastian asked her to sit on the floor with him, handing her one of the two beers he had brought, and simply started to talk casually in a calm tone of voice.

Roxie watched his face as he spoke, noticing the prominent cupid's bow of his slender lips; how the always fresh and healthy glow in his cheeks deepened when he talked about something that excited him, lighting his dark grayish-blue eyes.

She felt her stomach flutter in his presence. She had dated other guys, but the pull she felt toward Sebastian came from somewhere deeper. It felt more profound somehow. She was attracted to everything about him. Even the way he was dressed in a black beanie pulled down over his blond curls, the worn black jeans ripped at one knee. His faded burgundy shirt looked like something he had found in a second-hand shop, its pattern of skulls and exotic white flowers reminding her of an urban rocker pirate.

Sitting next to him, she could smell the scent of his cologne mixed with a faint aroma of pot.

While Sebastian spoke, Roxie observed that every so often, he said a word with a slight hint of a southern drawl, and when she asked about it, he explained that his family was actually from the South.

"I lived in Houston for the first six years of my life. We moved here for my parents' careers. They're in art and theater, so," he shrugged lightly, "New York has a bit more to offer."

The conversation floated effortlessly between them as they moved closer together and got more comfortable, the air humming with affection at every deliberate touch disguised as unintentional—both knowing it wasn't.

They were having a playful argument about music when Sebastian leaned in and placed a kiss on Roxie's lips. Keeping up the conversation hadn't been easy because all his thoughts had dwelled on wanting to kiss her, struggling to build up the courage to do so. Roxie eagerly pressed her lips back against his, dissolving the knot of nerves in his abdomen, giving way to an excitement that made his stomach flip.

Roxie felt a warm thrilling rush float through her, tasting the joint and beer on Sebastian's lips and soft tongue. She had been hoping for this the entire night. She placed a hand on his neck as she turned her body to his, opening her mouth to deepen the warm kiss.

Sebastian relaxed into it, his head swimming with the rush. His cheeks grew warm from her lips against his. The smell of her perfume. The caress of her small hand against the side of his neck.

The moment was cut frustratingly short when someone cleared their throat above them.

Sebastian broke the kiss with an irritated sigh and looked up to see Claudia standing in a small tight pink dress, looking down at them with raised brows and arms crossed.

Ricky stood behind her with a knowing smile, a thick-bottomed, and almost empty, crystal tumbler with an amber liquor in his hand. He was the picture of preppy-posh in his belted chinos and fitted short-sleeved shirt that sat taut around his toned biceps, the longer lengths of his dark hair slicked back in his usual messy quiff.

"Excuse me." Claudia sounded irritated, looking down at Roxie's and Sebastian's legs, blocking the way to her bedroom at the end of the hallway.

"Can't you just jump over?" Sebastian asked but got up unwillingly at the look Claudia gave him, helping Roxie to her feet.

As Claudia passed, Ricky stopped to look at Sebastian and then down at Roxie, giving her the once-over, still with a curious smile on his face.

It was the first time Roxie saw him up close. Though there was no denying he was an incredibly handsome guy with his chiseled features and high cheekbones, it was his eyes framed by thick dark lashes that stood out. They were a brilliant, almost piercing, icy-blue. But the intense blue was broken in his left eye by a large amber spot sitting at the bottom, drawing ones' attention. It was no wonder Olivia was so taken by him.

Ricky emptied the tumbler in front of them, taunting Sebastian when he shoved the glass at his chest, forcing him to act quickly and grab it before the glass hit the floor.

"Did we interrupt something?" Ricky asked with a devious charming smile, playfully padding Sebastian on the shoulder before following Claudia down the hall.

Sebastian looked at the empty tumbler in his hand with a knowing smile, shaking his head. Ricky knew exactly what they had interrupted. "Make sure you protect yourself, cockblocker," he called after him with a grin. "You wouldn't want to catch something nasty."

"Fuck you, Baz!" Claudia spat from the door to her bedroom, taking offense. Ricky simply flipped Sebastian off, smiling broadly nevertheless, before Claudia slammed the door and locked them inside her bedroom.

"Nice," Roxie commented dryly, raising her brows at the little exchange, a bit uncertain of what to make of it.

"Oh, no." Sebastian smiled and put the glass down beside their empty beers. "It's just Ricky being a dick. It's nothing," he assured when he saw the dubious look on Roxie's face. "He's my best friend."

"Really?" Roxie cast a quick glance down at the closed door to Claudia's room.

"Yeah, why?" Sebastian scratched at his temple, not sure why she would question a friendship running on its tenth year.

"It's just, well," Roxie looked up at him as she shrugged, "you don't strike me as someone who would be best friends, you know? You seem so... different." She waved a hand up and down, indicating Sebastian's clothes as to explain.

"Well, you know, opposite attracts." He smiled and looked Roxie in the eyes, making her heart beat faster. "'You want another beer?" he suggested, giving a nod with his head and starting in the direction of the kitchen.

"Why is he dating Claudia Banks?" Roxie asked, taking a couple of quick steps to catch up with him. "No offense, but is she trying to be Paris Hilton or something?" Sebastian made a short chuckle at this. "And she's not very nice, honestly. From what I've seen, she seems a bit full of herself."

"They're not dating," Sebastian laughed at the assumption. "They're just..." He paused and thought for a second of how to phrase it without sounding obscene. "Frivolously fornicating."

"Oh." Roxie looked back at the closed door. "But I thought— I've heard people say they're together." Roxie furrowed her slender brows, remembering what Olivia had told her.

Sebastian shook his head with a small smile. "Don't believe everything you hear around here. People talk. That doesn't mean they know what they're talking about."