I was five shots in, and I was honestly having a wild time. Jess and George were somehow drunker than I was, but to be honest, they were less drunk than most people at this party. Fran had joined us and a pretty dark-skinned girl named Clara accompanied her. They both immediately got on well with Jess and George.

"Have you seen the lads, yet?" I said loudly, trying to do an Australian accent and failing miserably.

Fran burst into fits of drunken giggles. "That was awwwful. I haven't seen them."

I wiggled my eyebrows. "Not even Cal-pal?"

She just grinned. "Not even him. I know exactly what you're implying." She pointed a finger at me, and I slapped it away.

"It's rude to point. I'm not implying anything." I gave her an innocent look before taking a sip of my glass of champagne. "Look how fucking elegant I am. Drinking champagne."

"Bet you won't down it," Fran teased.

"Bet I will," I challenged, already holding up my glass to my lips. "If you down yours, too."

Fran was holding a glass of jack and coke, and she raised her glass to me. "You are so on." We both started chugging, Fran finishing before me despite there being more liquid in her glass.

"Whoo!" She slammed her glass down on the bar in triumph. "There was not even any competition there."

"You're a fucking dark horse," I said wisely. Hands suddenly appeared on Fran's waist, wrapping themselves around her in a hug. I glanced up to see Calum behind her, and Fran immediately spun round with a shriek and launched herself at him in a hug.

"I knew it!" I yelled. "I knew it! You two are hooking up, oh my god, I–"

"Noelle!" Fran interrupted. "Sshhh, we're not hooking up."

"Yet," Calum added throwing a grin in my direction. "Hey, by the way. You both look sexy."

"Thanks, I agree," Fran said, smiling up at him. She totally had a thing for him, and by the way he was looking at her, he felt the same way.

"Okay, Calum, I'm just gonna go right ahead and ask the question that I want to ask," I blurted out, but before I could actually ask it, Calum answered me.

"Luke's here. But Noelle..." he winced slightly. "He's with Sasha."

"He fucking what?" Fran said vehemently. "I literally fucking told her–"

"What do you mean exactly, by with Sasha?" I said, my words slurred. For some reason, the urge to laugh was rising in me, and I let out a chuckle. I didn't know why I was laughing. Maybe it was just at this whole situation.

"I just mean, the last time I saw him, they were both at the bar getting drinks together." Calum gave me a strange look as I giggled again. "Why are you laughing?"

"I don't know," I said, still laughing. "M'drunk. I hate Luke right now, and that's kind of funny, because I don't hate him. You know?"

Calum looked utterly confused but Fran burst into laughter with me. "I know, Noelle."

"Jesus Christ, you two are hammered," he commented but he was grinning. "Noelle, I'm gonna steal Fran away for a bit. You going to be alright?"

"I'll be dandy." I covered my mouth with my hand as I chuckled again. Calum just shook his head at me and lead Fran away, their hands linked.

I looked around me, my vision slightly tilted. Jess and George were in what looked like a truly heartfelt conversation with Clara, and I could see people were starting to dance to the music as they became drunker. I turned back to the bar to see my favorite bartender nearby, and I decided that I would socialize with him. When he saw me, he grinned and came over.

"Another round?"

"Hmmm." I dragged out the word and examined him. "Do you think I should?"

Tyler laughed. "Depends. Have you forgotten about the guy yet?"

I thought to myself. "I haven't."

"Okay, well how about I fix you a cocktail?" He suggested, winking at me.

I gave him a sly smile. "I think a sex on the beach would do me just fine."

Something flickered in his eyes and he nodded, a teasing smile on his face. He began to make it, showing off his skills by flipping the cocktail making thing and shaking it more than he needed to. He'd attracted the attention of quite a few people at the bar, and when he finished, there was applause and eyes followed as Tyler pushed the cocktail over to me.

"You know, when I first saw you, I thought I recognized you," he told me, ignoring the other people who were trying to catch his eye so they could order a drink. Bad customer service, I thought to myself.

"Oh really?" I leaned forwards slightly and raised an eyebrow. "You thought I was a celebrity?"

"Not exactly," he said with a laugh. "But you– you're Luke Hemming's girl."

I didn't even flinch. I just leaned forward even more, my smile growing. "Maybe. But also not really."

Tyler tilted his head slightly. "I don't even know your name."

"Noeelleee," I said slowly, deliberately. "I think it's French."

"Pretty. So tell me something, Noelle. Is Luke Hemmings the person you're trying to forget tonight?" he asked, his eyes glancing down at my lips. Oh, I so saw that, cute bartender.

I gave a mysterious shrug. "Possibly. But I'm not his girl. I'm my own girl. Know what I mean?" I took a long sip of my cocktail through a straw, and Tyler watched me.

"So are you guys together or what?"

I grinned up at him, biting lightly on my straw. "Why do you ask, Mr. Bartender?"

Tyler smirked at me. "I don't want to be hitting on a taken girl."

I fake gasped. "You were hitting on me? How unprofessional."

"I know, but I just can't seem to help myself." His eyes gleamed. "Is that a no?"

"Is what a no?"

"Is that a no to the question of you and Luke Hemmings being together," he said, a smile playing at his lips.

"It's a, 'I honestly have no fucking clue'," I told him, tossing the straw out of my drink and just downing it.

"Hey, bartender? Can we get some service over here?" an annoyed voice called from a bit further down. Tyler glanced over at them before back at me, grimacing.

"Duty calls. Will you come back?" he asked, slightly eagerly.

I shot him a secretive look. "Maybe, maybe not. See you around, Mr. cute bartender." I winked before leaving the bar, having every intention of finding Jess and George to tell them about my new favorite bartender. Only on my journey to find them, I tripped over my own feet and was about to fall flat on my face when a pair of familiar hands caught me. I looked up to see Michael watching me with concern, a strong grip on my arms in order to keep me upright.

"Uh, you okay?" he asked me, and I quickly righted myself, pulling down my dress a bit. Even though I was drunk, I didn't miss Michael's gaze flicker down my body and widen slightly at how I looked.

"Well fuck me dead, it's Michael Clifford," I said in attempted Australian accent, then laughed loudly to myself.

He looked like he was holding back a laugh himself. "How much have you had to drink, Noelle?"

"Hi, I'm Michael Clifford and we're Foive Seconds of Summah," I tried to imitate how he would introduce the band in an interview or something, before giggling again. "Am I good at an Australian accent?"

"Fantastic," he said dryly. "Are you done flirting with that bartender?"

"No."

"You probably should be."

I pouted. "You sound like Luuuke."

"Yeah, well, Luke's been staring at you and the bartender for the last hour or so, and unless you want Luke to start a fight, you should stop the flirting," Michael commented.

"And what have you been doing, Mr. Clifford?" I poked his chest. "You've been watching me too? You should have just come say hi! Where's Ash?"

"Probably making out with his girlfriend somewhere."

My jaw dropped. "Ash has a girlfriend?"

Michael's lips twitched. "You're so oblivious. Yeah, she's called Bryana."

"Where is she? I wanna meet her." I began to walk in one direction, not knowing where I was going, before Michael took hold of my arm. "What are you doing, Michel Clifford?" I started laughing again.

He shook his head at me. "You don't need to meet her right now. I think you should drink some water."

"I don't want to drink watuh," I mimicked his accent. "I think I should have another shot. And go back to my cute bartender."

"I think you shouldn't." A serious look was on Michael's face. I merely grinned at him and brought my hands up to his face, stretching his cheeks into a smile.

"Why so serious? This is a party." I gave his cheek one last pat of affection before wandering off again. Except of course, Michael followed me. Was probably a good thing, too. I was usually pretty prone to getting lost when I was drunk, or sober, for that matter.

I came to an abrupt stop, and Michael nearly walked into me. "Noelle, what–"

"What is he doing?" I mumbled, but Michael heard me and followed my gaze. Because not twenty feet away were Luke and Sasha, their heads far too close together, talking about something quietly together. Sasha suddenly threw her head back in laughter, and instead of looking confused, like he usually did, Luke laughed with her.

"Noelle, let's just–"

I put my hand over his mouth, shutting him up, as I continued to watch them. Sasha leaned closer and said something in Luke's ear, to which Luke smirked and said something back to her. She laughed again. I was beginning to feel sick, and it wasn't from the alcohol.

Finally I turned away and clumsily walked off as quickly as I could in order to leave Michael behind. Surely there was a bathroom somewhere? I finally find one and locked myself in, putting the lid down and sitting on it before putting my head in my hands and trying not to cry.

I was surely being a hypocrite. I mean, I was flirting with that bartender, wasn't I? I was doing it mainly to forget about Luke, but that wasn't an excuse.

I sniffed to myself, trying to carefully dab at my eyes without ruining my makeup. There was suddenly a knock on my door, and a sweet voice asked, "Hey, you okay in there?"

I glanced up and then took a deep breath before standing and opening the door. A beautiful blonde girl stood there, a concerned look on her face.

"You're so pretty" was the first thing I blurted out. "That's unfair."

The girl smiled widely. "Thanks, but you know you're gorgeous too, right?" She gave me another look. "Wait, I recognize you. You're Noelle."

"What are you, psychic?" I mumbled, sniffing again.

"Or a stalker. Please don't tell me you're crying over Luke," she said, noticing my red eyes.

I looked at her suspiciously. "Are you a stalker?"

She grinned. "No, I'm Bryana, Ashton's girlfriend."

I pointed a finger at her. "You. You are Ashton's girlfriend."

Bryana pointed a finger right back at me. "And you are Luke's."

"Nope," I muttered, leaning against the wall for support as I began to feel slightly dizzy. "No label. And not even anything right now."

"Are you sure? Ash's told me about you two. More loved up than a couple on honeymoon."

"No honeymoon." I closed my eyes for a second and ran a hand through my hair. "We never, like, got into that phase. We're not together."

Bryana was looking at me without sympathy in her eyes. "Why do you say that?"

"Because," I muttered, "because he never asked me. And now he's flirting with Sally."

She raised an eyebrow. "Do you mean Sasha?"

"You are fucking psychic." I started laughing. "Can you read minds? Or do you just know everything? Are you, like... an angel?"

"I know everything, Noelle," she said, a glint in her eye. "I'm definitely not an angel. But right now, you're gonna stop moping, and you're gonna go back out there and show Luke what he's missing. Right?"

"Right!" I agreed enthusiastically. I didn't move. I couldn't. "Or maybe I'll stay in here for the rest of my life."

Bryana rolled her eyes and held my face in her hands, examining me. Then she grabbed some tissue paper, wetting it slightly before dabbing under my eyes. "That's better. Now you don't look like a panda."

"Luke likes pandas," I mumbled.

She laughed. "I'm sure. Now let's go." She took me by the arm and dragged me back outside. "Now put on a sexy smile. You look like you've come to the worst party ever."

I took a deep breath, pushing my hair back from my face and composed my face.

"Much better." She started leading me through the crowds of people. "There probably wasn't much point in fixing your makeup, though."

I frowned. "Why?"

"Because we," she suddenly stopped. "We are gonna be the first ones to turn this into a pool party."

"We're gonna what–"

Bryana let out a whoop, grabbed my hand and before I knew it, we were jumping into the pool. I was under the water for just a second before I surfaced to the sound of cheering from everyone around me. Luckily, the water was shallow, and I stood up in waist-height water to see Bryana running a hand through wet hair and grinning at me. Then she turned to our audience who were clapping and laughing. "Is this gonna be a pool party for two, or what?"

People cheered and started jumping in, causing water to splash everywhere. Bryana waded over to me and beamed at me. "That was fun, right?"

"You. I like you." I splashed her lightly, giggling. "Who needs Luke, anyway? You're better."

"I agree, sweetcheeks." She squished my cheeks and laughed again. "But just so you know, he's staring right at you. Like, in a way that says he really, really wants to rip that wet dress off you and–"

"Where?" I laughed loudly. "He's not..." I turned and saw him, standing at the edge of the pool, and he was so staring at me in the way Bryana said. Well, fuck him. I stuck a middle finger up at him before turning back to Bryana, who was nodding approvingly.

"That's the spirit."

Ash soon found us in the pool and he looked ecstatic that I'd met his girlfriend. I proclaimed to him how much I loved her and how she was mine now, but he just laughed and splashed me. Fran and Calum soon joined us – they both had sex hair for sure – and we all began a water splashing war. It was even better when Jess and George turned up, and George did the biggest cannonball known to mankind, I swear. They didn't even freak out that much when they met Ash and Calum. Sort of. I was having way too much fun to even think about Luke or Michael or – Michael.

"Where's Michael?" I shouted to Ashton, who currently had Bryana sitting on his shoulders.

"Probably somewhere in a corner pining over you," he shouted back. I merely burst out laughing.

"This fucking situation. Priceless, isn't it."

"Bloody amusing," Ashton agreed before grabbing onto Bryana's ankles and tipping her off his shoulders. She fell into the water with a shriek. "Your turn, Noelle."

"My turn?" I repeated. "Oh. No thanks."

"It wasn't a question," he sang, and suddenly I was on his shoulders, Fran was on Calum's and we were in some kind of war as we tried to knock the other off. Bryana acted as the referee and declared me as the winner when I managed to push Fran into the water.

It was only as I came off Ashton's shoulders, laughing loudly, that I noticed Luke. He was leaving.

With Sasha.