"This Rachel girl really knows how to party!" Dennis screamed over the music.

The music was loud against my eardrums. People were already filling up the entire house, everyone seemingly occupied by one activity or another. The couches were filled to the brim with people on each other's laps. The kitchen had an obnoxiously large game of beer pong going on in it. And the hallways were occupied by people doing shit that was probably illegal.

Millie had her arm looped through mine so that we wouldn't lose each other as we walked throughout the house. We ended up stopping in a large room that had people dancing in the center.

I watched as Dennis handed out drinks to each of us. I had no idea where the hell he got them from in such a short period of time, but he had them nonetheless. I took the drink from him, but I had the intention of getting rid of it as soon as no one was looking.

It took a solid four seconds before Dennis spotted some chick that looked like she was alone. He disappeared with a wink.

"Come on, Soybean!" Millie pulled on my arm, pointing at the shifting mass of sweaty bodies. "Let's dance!"

I grimaced at the suggestion of it, pulling her back towards me. "I'd really rather not do that!" I yelled back.

"Please, please, please!" She begged, pouting at my response.

"Hey, Millie!" Sam called over the music. "Look at that guy over there!"

We both followed where he was pointing, spotting the guy in question. He was looking at her as he danced, expression oddly seductive. It didn't fail to annoy me, but at least it was just some random guy that we were probably never going to see again. Anything was better than Dennis.

"Ooh!" She smiled widely. "He's a snack!"

I squinted my eyes to try and get a better look at him. The whole being in a gay relationship thing should have meant that I was into guys, right? But that guy didn't appeal to me in the slightest. Honestly, I wasn't even sure if girls did either. I was pretty sure that it was just Sam.

I grimaced. "Sure." I heard Sam laugh from behind me.

Millie playfully shoved me, frowning at my sarcasm. She crossed her arms and said, "If you don't want to dance with me, then I'll go dance with him." Before she stormed off to meet the random guy.

I watched for a few moments, just to make sure that he was going to respect her boundaries. When I was sure that he wasn't a total creep, I finally turned my attention back to a silent Sam.

"So, what now?" I asked him, a smile automatically capturing my face. Just being around him made me so goddamn happy.

"So now we just fuck around for a while." Sam was about to reach his hand out so that he could lead me somewhere, when a particular voice interrupted the nice moment.

"Sawyer! Sam!" Caden yelled, appearing in front of us with the largest smile I had ever seen. Okay, that was not true. That was pretty much the only smile Caden ever seemed to use.

"Hey, Cade." Sam greeted him in return. I didn't bother doing it that time, because I thought that he understood I acknowledged his presence as well.

I watched as Brian approached, appearing as though following Caden was impossible. Which I was sure that it was. The boy pretty much ran or skipped everywhere he went. It was baffling to me that he even tried to keep up with him. It sounded like hell to me.

Caden was happily munching on some Lays chips that he must have just bought. Although, they were already nearly empty.

"We're here now!" He beamed at us, as though we couldn't already see and hear that. It was endearing. In fact, I found Caden to become more and more endearing the longer that I had to talk to him.

"Cool." Sam said. "You want to go dance with Millie? She's over there with some random guy that we don't fully trust."

Caden brought his gaze to where Sam was talking about, furrowing his brow as he saw Millie standing a safe distance from the boy. "Cade to the rescue!" He downed the last of his chips, handing the empty bag to a random drunk girl as he ran off to go join her.

"Well that was quick." Sam commented. I nodded, slightly shocked at how fast he had managed to disappear. Sam seemed to come back to life when he remembered something. "Hey, Brian?"

"What?" Brian looked over at where we stood, his hands loosely tucked into his pockets.

"Do you mind bringing Millie home?"

Brian raised a brow. "Why?"

"Because she's going to get shitfaced and want to stay out all night just like Cade will. Figured since you're dealing with Cade, you might as well deal with Millie, too." It was crazy how good Sam was at making something up. He didn't even hesitate.

"Are you going to dip early?" Brian asked.

"Probably, since there's only so much to do when you're not drunk." Sam told him.

Brian nodded. "Yeah, I know what you mean. If it wasn't for Cade, I'd dip too."

"But you care too much about Cade." Sam smiled widely. I wasn't entirely sure what that smile meant, but it successfully left me interested.

Brian simply shrugged. "He's a good friend."

After the conversation lasted for a little while longer, Brian eventually ended up parting ways to go do something else. But not without agreeing to take Millie home first. I just hoped that he wasn't going to smoke, because that did not go well the last time he did that.

To my surprise, Sam and I ran into a happy looking Alyssa, who seemed to be thoroughly enjoying the party. We ended up talking to her for a while as a result. She couldn't seem to go more than four seconds without subtly mentioning Sam and I. It was definitely annoying, but I let it go because Sam was right there.

That was how we spent a portion of our night, just conversing with Alyssa and other random people who came up to us. Since most people knew Sam, I just had to deal with it. After a while, I told Sam that I was going to go to the bathroom.

The only bathroom that was open was the one upstairs, so that was where I found myself. I finished and washed my hands, opening the door with the intention of heading back down to where Sam was. But I couldn't bring myself to do so when I heard the soft sound of someone crying.

There was a door cracked open, darkness pouring out of it. It sounded like the cries belonged to a girl and I felt horrible for just leaving whoever it was there without seeing if she was okay. I looked back at the staircase, deciding what I should do.

With a sigh, I lightly tapped my knuckles against the door. "Hello? Are you okay?" I said quietly, listening for an answer.

There was a sniffle. "I'm f-fine. Just please..." she was cut off with another sob. Her voice sounded familiar, but I couldn't seem to place why.

"Are you sure? Do you want me to go get someone for you?" I asked her.

There was some silence, before the door was suddenly pulled open only a little bit more. I was shocked to see one of the girls that had flirted with me a few days ago. It wasn't the blonde one, but the brown-haired one.

The party was the blonde one's, wasn't it? Her name was Rachel, which I only knew from Dennis, because I couldn't remember before hand. What was her friends name again? I mentally scolded myself for not remembering. Wasn't it like Chloe or Sophie or something?

"Oh, it's you." She mumbled, wiping her puffy eyes with the back of her hand. "Of course it is." She suddenly started crying again.

I held up my hands, trying to figure out what the hell to do. "Are you sure you don't want me to find someone for you? What about your friend? Rachel, right?"

Her body stiffened when I said Rachel's name so I figured that was not what she wanted me to say. Her arms wrapped tightly around herself as she pushed the door open and went back into the room. She sat down on a bed filled with stuffed animals and pink blankets. "Please don't get Rachel." She said quietly, bringing her legs up onto the bed and burying her face into her knees.

I stood in the doorway awkwardly, looking around the room because I didn't know what else to do. There was no mistaking the pictures on the walls. Most of them were of Rachel and that Chloe/Sophie girl. It must have been Rachel's room.

"Can I ask you something?" She suddenly said, regaining my attention.

"What is it?" I decided to step into the room so that I didn't look so awkward just standing there.

"Would you ever go out with Rachel?" Her voice broke as she spoke the sentence. I literally flinched at her words, grateful for the fact that she wasn't looking at me.

"U-um..." I tried to formulate a response that didn't sound bad. "Why...does...w-"

"So you wouldn't?" She seemed to find that a bit amusing, laughing humorlessly. Her head lifted up, her chin resting against her knees as she watched me. Her cheeks were tear-stained.

I grimaced as I slowly shook my head. "I'm sorry... I just-"

"Don't be sorry." The girl said, a giant smile forming on her lips. "I'm not mad at all."

I believed her words. She didn't seem to be mad at all, in fact, she almost looked relieved. I was slightly confused, wondering why she would be relieved by that. I just rejected her friend, so how was that a good thing? Then it suddenly hit me.

"Do you like her?" I said softly, tucking my hands into my pockets.

I watched as her eyes went wide. Maybe she hadn't accepted it. Then a sob welled up in her throat as a fresh set of tears fell from her eyes. "W-why does she have to like you? It's not fair. I've b-been here for so long and she's n-never even noticed. It hurts so m-much."

"I'm sorry, but what's your name again?" I asked, and a small smile fell onto her lips quivering lips. At least it made her smile.

"Zoe." She told me.

"Okay." That made so much more sense. I walked the length of the room, sitting on the edge of the bed beside her. Even though we just met, I was still going to help because I knew that she needed it. Even if I wasn't really the right person for that. "Zoe?"

"Hmm?" She mumbled, more tears soaking her already soaked cheeks.

"I don't know much, but I do know that you should talk to her." I said. "I don't really know either of you, but I can safely say that I don't want to date Rachel. She's going to have to get over her crush on me, because I'm already taken." Zoe was watching me intently, taking in ever word I was saying. "I think everyone deserves a chance with who they love. You should talk to her, show her that you love her."

I didn't know if she actually loved her, but it got my point across. I waited patiently, Zoe still staring at me. Her eyes seemed almost awestruck, as though she hadn't been expecting my words. Then finally she asked, "Who are you with? I've never seen you with any outside of Millie and Sam. Are you with Millie?"

I involuntary gulped, glancing down at my feet to avoid her eyes. "No, Millie's like my sister."

"Then who..." She trailed off. Then finally, she laughed. "No way."

There was no way she found out that quickly. My head shot up, my gaze falling on her. She was wiping away the tears, and then she fell back against the bed with a chuckle. "No wonder you figured me out so quickly. It actually makes sense after the way you two were acting that one time."

"What?" I said, hoping that she didn't actually know what I was hinting at.

"It's okay." Zoe turned her head so that I could see how genuine she was being. "I won't tell anyone. But can I ask you one thing?"

I bit my lip and then stopped myself short. Since when did I bite my lip? Was Sam really rubbing off on me that much? "Um... okay."

"How did you know for sure that you liked him?" She whispered. Then she added, "Have you told him? Shit. That was two things."

I chuckled a bit, before sighing. That was not what I was supposed to be doing, but fuck it. For some reason, I didn't think Zoe would tell anyone. "I just suddenly knew, I guess. It was a really instantaneous thing. I didn't even have to tell him."

Zoe slowly started to smile, before sitting up and saying, "Thank you, Sawyer. This helped a lot."

"No problem." I told her, standing up. "Just don't tell anyone."

"I won't." She swore. "Make sure you do the same."

"I will." I nodded.

When I left the room and went down the stairs, I found Sam about to head up them. He laughed at the fact that we nearly ran into each other. "What took you so long, Sugar?"

I rolled my eyes and went around him, hearing him follow behind me. "Nothing."

Sam huffed. "I seriously doubt that."

"Sounds like a personal problem."

Downstairs, the party was still roaring with life. People were still dancing and drinking.

Despite not enjoying parties, I didn't mind that one.

•O•O•