Re: The Plaza Grand Ballroom

[Tiger-Lily]

"Yeah, I'm sorry you look like an old boot too," Evelyn said, starting to lose focus just a little. She was never much of a drinker and really didn't have much tolerance. "Speaking of, you know Devon's never going to lend you notes in class, right? I don't think he'll ever speak to either of us again after meeting Georgiana."

***

Seth heard "love potion" and stopped listening after that. This was just ridiculous! There was no way that shit worked. "Oh, come on, Rosie," he said, still grinning a little and giving her a squeeze as he let go of her chin. "I don't need a reason to like you! Just looking at you is enough to make a hobo rich! And I know why I'd choose you. You're a good person and I've been around so many lying, scheming people my whole life that it's a nice change!"

[JulietsCurse]

"Yeah I know, but I'm gonna fail anyway so it doesn't matter." Connor sounded too chipper about this, and blinked, staring in front of him as things became blurry.

***

"Y-you're not listening to me!" Rosemary whimpered, shaking her head firmly.

[Tiger-Lily]

"Yeah, I am," Seth exclaimed, starting to lose his buzz just a little bit. "You're just freaking out over nothing! Look," he said, keeping an arm around her waist and turning her to lead the way to the banquet room again. "You need to relax. Sit down, have a drink. And then we can dance, okay? Don't you want to dance?"

***

"Why are you so convinced you're gonna fail? Last I saw, you were pretty gung-ho about law school."

[Guest]

Ashlee gave a small wave to Luke and James looked up at him, smiling. The dude looked pretty worn out, "Hey yeah, its cool. This place is really nice? Where did your date run of to?" James asked noticing the girl wasn't with Luke.

Ashlee had been wondering where Connor had slipped of to, she had been dancing with earlier and she hadn't really seen him, or Evelyn for that fact. Wasn't she here with James? Why she ditched the guy? Ashlee decided she needed to get up though, she stood up straightening her dress and looked at the boys, "Hey I'm going to get something to drink, you guys want?"

Ashlee couldn't really hear their responses so she took it as a no and went off to the bar where she saw what she'd thought the last thing she'd ever expect! Evelyn and Connor sitting there... getting along?!

"I am not drunk enough for this." Ashlee muttered to herself going up to the bar and ordering a martini, she went up to Evelyn and smiled. "Hey you two having fun?" She asked them. She could tell Connor was getting pretty drunk, and Evelyn looked like she was getting pretty tipsy, she never could really handle her alcohol that well.

[JulietsCurse]

Rosemary whimpered under her breath and closed her eyes tightly before putting on a straight face and followed by him, wiping away her makeup that ran.

***

"Because I didn't actually pay attention or take in any of the lessons because after words, I'd go get high or drunk. I'd listen while there but I'd forget it all afterwords." Connor said seriously before blinking as he looked up at Ashlee and flashed her a smile quickly.

[Tiger-Lily]

Seth led Rose over to their table, seeing James and Luke talking. Seth frowned down at Rose. "You wanna go clean up?" he asked worriedly.

***

Luke shrugged at James. "Went to her friends. Um....where's Ev?" he asked. He and Ashlee had fairly been looking forward to this.

***

Evelyn opened her mouth to say something to Connor that might make him snap out of his funk, and then remembered Alexis telling her not to spread Connor's rehab thing around so she simply flashed Ashlee a small smile, honestly not feeling like smiling. "Hey. Did you see Seth and Georgiana's showdown? I was really hoping she'd kick his ass."

Evelyn finished her drink and set her glass down, signaling to the bartender again. He came over and frowned at her and Connor somewhat worriedly. Evelyn ignored his expression and ordered yet another drink, a light blend of firewhisky and something else with a touch of orange. He went off to make it.

[Guest]

James shrugged, "I dunno, she wandered off somewhere." James said, although he had to admit he didn't think he'd be sitting here by himself either.

***

"Oh I saw! I took pictures, I really was hoping for a queen brawl. But it didn't happen, well one can dream." Ashlee sighed setting her martini glass down onto the bar. Then she started to wonder why Evelyn was sitting here and not with James.

"Hey how come you're not dancing, or anything? Don't tell me you've been sitting here the entire time?" She asked her, hoping that if she didn't dance with James she could at least get Evelyn to dance with her or something and then maybe work James into the equation.

[JulietsCurse]

Rosemary nodded weakly and pulled away from him, going to the ladies bathroom and let out a shuddering breath once in there. She went over to the sinks and set her clutch down on the counter, staring in the mirror. Her eyes were red and her face was a little splotched from crying. She cringed and reached over, grabbing some paper towels, dampening them before starting to wash off her face, deciding to start anew with her make up.

She cleaned herself from her make up before opening her clutch and started to put back on her mascara, blush and lipstick at least. She stared in the mirror after words, swallowing at the knot in her throat. How as she going to break him from this, without ... hurting him? Like Alexis had to do with James. She couldn't do that, she wasn't as heartless as Alexis was.

And that was the truth, Alexis WAS pretty heartless and to most people it was shocking that her and Alexis were best friends at all. Friends, even.

Rosemary let out a quiet breath and fixed her hair so it was falling over her shoulders, running her fingers through the curls, glad they were loose even if they were held in a bun. She rubbed her lips together to even out her lipstick before putting up her make up and closing up her clutch and then going back out of the bathroom and to the table.

***

"..Yeah. I saw." Connor shrugged and ordered another strong drink.

[Tiger-Lily]

The bartender set down Evelyn's drink and went off to get Connor's. Evelyn tested hers and pulled a slight face before taking a long sip. She licked her lips and then glanced up at Ashlee, almost swaying off her stool. "Whoops." She shook her head and set her glass down, resting her hands on the bar to steady her slightly dizzy head.

She paused. What had Ashlee asked her? Oh. "Um, don't feel like it," Evelyn said simply. "Connor was explaining the quantum physics behind vending machines to me and that's a lot more interesting."

***

Seth had wandered off to find the twins. He pulled his phone out, bored while Rose was gone, and decided to amuse himself. He found a few photos he'd meant to upload.

He smirked at one of Jake not looking like his usual chipper self. If Rachel saw this one, she'd probably be less eager to catch Jake alone in his hospital room.

***

"Then why are you sitting here?" Luke asked, nudging James. "Go find her!"It was odd, though. He honestly didn't expect this from Evelyn. It wasn't like her to ditch people she had an obligation to, even if she didn't really like them. Luke glanced up at Rose as she came over. He flashed her a smile. "Hey." He frowned just a little, unsure if he was misreading her expression.

[Guest]

Ashlee frowned moving a piece of hair behind her ear, "Ev, come on. He got you flowers and corsage the least you can do is dance with him at least once. That's kind of crappy to accept his invitation and make him sit by himself all night while you talk to Connor." Ashlee thought that was very rude of Evelyn, she at least owed him that much.

***

James leaned into Luke and sort of had to yell in his ear over the loud music, "I don't think she wants to dance with me!" James wasn't sure why he got that feeling that Evelyn didn't want to be there with him, more like he was the last person she wanted to be there with. And honestly if that was the case then why did she accept his invitation? If she didn't want to go with him she didn't have to, she didn't owe him anything and she didn't have to accept his invite because she felt bad for him.

Lola had come off the dance floor after what seemed like a long time, she gave a small wave to everyone sitting down. She needed to rest for a second she was tired.

[JulietsCurse]

Rosemary gave him a weak smile back and sat down, putting her clutch down on the table and messed with her earrings, sniffling very quietly as she possibly could. She let out a weak breath and rubbed her hands together, glancing around before looking up and stared when she spotted Georgiana, standing on a table, dancing with her poor date sitting at the table.

Georgiana was swinging her arms around with her boa, and shaking her butt as much as she could from up-top that table, but it looked very much like she was used to dancing on small places...

[Tiger-Lily]

Luke frowned, making a note to yell at Evelyn later. "That's odd," he replied to James. He lifted his head and flashed a grin at Lola. "Let me guess, Seth stole your date?"

Ashton, at that second, was arguing with tipsy Seth. "It was not a Hitler mustache!" he snapped irritably.

Seth waved his hands around and accidentally hit Antonio in the face. "Was too! Jake drew a penis on Tig and a Hitler mustache on you!"

"No, it was the Monopoly guy's mustache!" Ashton corrected him, not sure why they were even arguing about this. It had happened in September, for Chrissakes!

He and Seth glared at each other for a heated moment and then turned to shoot Antonio stern looks. "Wasn't it?" Ashton demanded of his twin.

***

Evelyn finished her firewhisky drink and set the glass down a little too hard, but not because her hands were shaking. They weren't. She wasn't that gone yet.

She was just pissed off. She didn't want to dance. Not with anyone. Hell, she had half a mind to leave.

She nodded at Ashlee though, because Ashlee had a point and guilt ran through Evelyn. She was a horrible date!

She added it to the list of recent horrible things she had done and felt overwhelmed for a second before getting up. "Right, sorry."

She reached over and patted Connor's shoulder a little shakily. "Don't Hulk out now. It's bad for the blood pressure and makes you age faster." She opened her wallet and left a twenty on the bar, heading back to their table.

She returned to her seat and set her wallet in her purse, before forcing a smile at the others. Her eyes landed on Rose for a moment and she wondered where her boisterous date was.

Remembering Ashlee's words (and feeling like shit for treating poor James like this), Evelyn leaned down and spoke in James' ear so he'd hear her over the music. "So I've had a pick-me-up now. Dance with me, Dorko."

[Guest]

Antonio had rubbed his nose why did Seth always have the tendency to hit him when he was plastered, "Dude how the hell am I supposed to know!? I passed out! Who cares it was like four months ago why are we discussing this!?"

Lola glanced over at the boys who were bickering and just giggled, "What can I say? I can't compete with Seth he's prettier than me." She was glad Seth wasn't around to hear that because then his head would probably puff up beyond his egotistical limit (if he had one)


James looked up at Evelyn, he was surprised that she had been drinking. He knew she was kind of like him when it came to their drinking tolerance that they barely had one. "Sure we'll dance." James got up and lead Evelyn out onto the dance floor wrapping his arms around her waist and swayed to the music with her.

Ashlee grinned and went back to sit with Luke and the others feeling pretty good about herself she pat Lucas on the shoulder, "Yup I did that. You can applaud me at anytime." She said smugly.

[Tiger-Lily]

"Because," Seth said sneeringly, like Antonio was a lost kindergartner questioning the existence of a map, "it's important. I mean, we need to figure out who looked stupider."

Ashton glowered at him.

***

Luke laughed. Typical Ashlee commentary. "Hey, I got him to ask her. Do you know how much manipulation was involved?" he asked her, smug. "He was all "Alexis is the love of my life!" and it was pretty damn annoying."

***

Evelyn was feeling pretty damn annoyed. With herself. Accepting James' proposal was probably the dumbest thing she could have done. A one-way ticket to torment.

She tried not to act like a stiff mannequin but he could probably tell she was uncomfortable. She kept her head down and a distance between them even as they danced to the damned love song that was playing. As always, James being this close was making her traitorous body react in ways it shouldn't. James appeared unaffected, so it was all good, she told herself, hesitantly slipping her arms around his neck and trying her best not to focus on a certain other boy. She was failing though, and she felt like a cheat right now, being with James and wishing herself elsewhere.

To distract herself, she began talking. Again. "So you know Caleb? Luke's friend? He got drafted into the army." She ignored the flush rising on her face from James' hands on her waist and continued, looking over his shoulder. "And apparently Tiff says he's all grown up and bad-ass. I can't imagine sweet old Caleb gunning anyone down. Can you?"

[JulietsCurse]

Connor downed his drink, not quite hearing Ashlee or Evelyn as they left. It was all blending into background noise now. He ordered another drink and the bartender gave him an concerned look.

"Don't you think you've had enough?" The guy asked, putting his hands on the counter edge as he stared down Connor.

"Just one more, dude. Just one more- Exams are over, I'm ALLOWED." Connor waved his hand and shot the guy a look, before frowning as the bartender rolled his eyes and went to get Connor another.

"Look- man, Barty, I'm sorry." Connor said sincerely. "I'm a broke bastard who's failing his major in high sch-..no, college. Where the fuck was I?" He muttered absentmindedly before getting it. "College."he nodded firmly and then closed his eyes, resting his chin in his hands. "Who's got no friends unless they are partying friends, and is known as the party-hard-fuck-boy. And I don't got pot or shit, so I'm to lame to handle how I feel so I'm gonna get drunk off my ass so my girlfriend will leave. When she's probably the only reason I'm not out there ODing on something." He chuckled. He didn't know why he found that funny, at all.

The bartender shot him a weird look, as if asking why he was telling HIM all this, they guy didn't even know him!

Connor however, continued. "But ya know, my momma told me that I'm just like my dad, a druggie and alcoholic because I'm not man enough to deal with life, he apparently tried to kill someone while wasted, he's in jail for life now." He gave a huge yawn before stretching out his arms and drummed loudly on the bar.

Connor paused. "Does that run in genes? Like seriously? Am I gonna end up in jail?" He blinked, staring at the poor Bartender as he came over with his drink. "I already attack people who don't need to be, and most of the time, I worry myself if I'm gonna just snap and wake up in jail the next time something happens." He nodded, and took a drink of his glass.

"Barty", blinked as he stared at Connor. He was beginning to wonder if he needed to call security for the sake of everyone else! This guy was off his nut!

" 'Ey, if you see my girlfriend, don't mention this, I don't want her running away either, I mean, I dunno what else I can take going wrong if she was to leave, I can't even afford my own FOOD. I'm lucky to be able to pay for these right here." Connor jiggled the glass. "Because I didn't have to pay for the cab." He paused at that, downed his drink and then stood up, stumbling a little as he grabbed his wallet from his back pocket, yanking out a 20 and slapped it onto the counter. "Thanks for listenin'!" He chirped before stumbling off into the crowd.

"Barty" stared after him before grabbing his radio to contact security.

[Guest]

"Yeah well Ev seemed hell bent on ignoring James for the rest of the night, you know how much guilt tripping I had to do to get her out there to dance with him. I think my part was a bit harder, but thanks for trying Luke." Ashlee smirked patting his shoulder.

***

Lola could hear the argument getting stupider with every passing moment, poor Ashton. She felt bad the guy probably had to deal with this all the time, she got up from the table and linked her arm into his, "Hey, come with me let's go get a drink."

***

James raised an eyebrow. He hadn't known that about Caleb, then again he hadn't had the chance to talk to Tiffany too much when she had visited but he remembered Caleb being like Luke, seeming too nice to actually hurt another human being, "Oh really? I didn't know that." James said although he had to admit he wasn't concerned about it.

He sort of was enjoying dancing with her like this.

[Tiger-Lily]

"What is with her? She said yes," Luke wondered. He glanced over at where James and Evelyn were just visible in the crowd. Even with her heels, Evelyn only came up to about James' chin.

"So, I heard about your love potion trick," Luke said, addressing Ashlee and Rose. He leaned back in his seat, narrowing his eyes at Ashlee. "Any ideas how you're gonna stop it?"

***

"Yes," Evelyn chattered on, growing more and more frustrated with every second. She didn't even know why. It wasn't like James was exactly hard to dance with. Far from it. She just felt....she didn't know why she just lost all interest in being here.

Actually, she did know, perfectly well. Just didn't want to think about it and feel stupid for feeling this way for someone who didn't deserve her.

"So what did you think of Georgiana?" she asked James, lifting her chin to meet his eyes. Damn, she needed a drink. Needed to clear her head. The song was about to end.

***

Ashton smiled gratefully at Lola as she led him off. He turned and pulled a face at Seth over his shoulder. "Something strong. I think I feel a Seth-induced headache coming on. Man, I wish Jake were here. He's the only one who can reign this jackass in."

***

Seth grinned widely at Antonio. "TIGGER!" he exclaimed. "Let's dance!" Seth had seen Jordon dancing on a table nearby and he scoffed. "Beat tha' Gag!"

[Guest]

Ashlee cringed; she knew that this would get back to Luke somehow and she gulped, "We're trying to find some way to reverse it! Trust me I feel really bad!" She confessed, there really was no point in hiding it from him now.

***

James shuddered remembering seeing Georgiana, honestly he had gotten a laugh or two watching her fight with Seth and even when they danced for a moment but for the most part he kept his distance, "Umm... she's different." James said looking back at her to where she was dancing on the table.

***

"I hear ya, but I miss him mostly. He'd be having a lot of fun." Lola frowned. She could see Jake sitting in his room alone and it almost made her want to leave and hang out with him. As they came to the bar Lola ordered two drinks, telling the bartender to get one of their stronger drinks for Ashton.

The bartender nodded and made the drinks, and she handed him a ten and gave Ashton a drink, "There you go the Seth-Reliever drink." Lola snickered.

***

Antonio yelped but really couldn't do much, because trying to argue or reason with a drunk Seth was nearly impossible to do.

[Tiger-Lily]

"Like Seth's sister-different," Evelyn agreed and then fell silent. Eventually, the song ended and she dropped her arms from around his neck, somewhat relieved that she'd be able to get out of range of his stupid blue eyes.

***

Ashton laughed and then choked on his drink as he watched Seth drag his brother....onto a table opposite Georgiana. "Oh...oh no."

"Yo, Buck Angel!" Seth was hollering at Georgiana. "You talk bigger than yo' hair! Let's see your moves 'gainst me and mah homies!" He elbowed Antonio beside him on the table.

[Guest]

Lola's eyes widened at the sight of Antonio and Seth dancing on a table, although granted that Antonio seemed a lot more hesitant to dance since Seth had been drinking all night, Lola let out a huff and turned to the bartender, "On second thought can you give me what he's having?" Lola motioned to Ashton and the bartender took her drink and gave her a replacement.

Lola took a sip of the strong alcohol and shook her head, "Your brother has gone down a dark road."

***

Antonio slowly slipped off of the table, he wasn't nearly as drunk as Seth was and once he saw his date Lauren, he quickly grabbed her and made a run for it.

***

James brought his arms down to his sides and he looked at Evelyn and smiled, "I had fun are you sure you don't wanna dance again?" He asked her catching her expression she seemed kind of upset. "Everything okay, you don't seem like you're enjoying yourself?"

[JulietsCurse]

"If you wanna see THESE MOVES, honey, then you need to come to Stilettos!" Georgiana hollered.

[Tiger-Lily]

"Why, straight crowd not your thing?" Seth retorted to her, ignorant of Antonio's betrayal.

***

"Apparently. He and Seth got real buddy-buddy lately," Ashton laughed. "I'm not sure if I should be jealous or thankful that I'm hanging with Jake instead of Seth."

He frowned. "Speaking of Jake..." He inclined his head toward Evelyn and James. James still had his arms around her despite the respectable distance between them. "What the hell?" Ashton muttered to Lola, swigging his drink.

***

Evelyn felt horrible all over again. She wished James would go back to despising her. She stepped away from him and heaved a sigh. "No, I ...." She paused. "I just....I don' t know."

And then the dam broke. "I'm sorry for being a horrible date. I just didn't want you to be miserable because of that dumb potion so I thought I'd make it up to you but clearly I'm just making it worse and I don't know why but I don't even want to be here even though you're a really sweet date and i don't deserve to be going with you and I wish Alexis had said yes so she'd be here because all I want to do is get drunk and I think Connor is rubbing off on me because I hate getting drunk and I just feel, I've been feeling, like shit all day and like I'm letting down so many people and that stupid potion was all my fault and now everything is a mess and I know Rose is probably hating me right now because she saw Seth, I can tell by the look in her eyes she's hurting and it's again all my fault for giving that stupid potion idea and she's such a sweetheart and now Seth will blame her and it isn't her fault and yet i feel like I keep taking blame for something I shouldn't or I should, I don't know, but I know I'm probably confusing the hell out of you and Connor was right about me being a horrible roomie because I could have tried harder and gotten through to Alexis and she should be here and if it hadn't been for me, so would Jake and I kept him outside that night and that creep caught us and this is just one more thing and now I just don't even want to talk to anyone or get involved in anything because I feel like no matter what I do, I just manage to mess it up completely and piss off everyone and..."

She paused, horrified. What the hell was she doing?! Evelyn's eyes grew wide and she stammered, "I'm sorry. I - I just, I need to leave."

She didn't wait for his reaction. Her stomach churned sickeningly. She'd had too much whiskey, clearly. Where the hell was all this coming from?! She turned and hurried through the crowd to their table. She snatched her bag off it and headed to the entrance hall to get her coat.

[JulietsCurse]

"Sweetie, I can take a straight and make," Georgiana snapped her fingers. "Them," One more snap. "BENT!" She finished her Z-snap.

[Guest]

Lola's eyes fell on James and Evelyn, and before she could comment on it she noticed Evelyn was leaving and she seemed upset. "I have no clue about that, I know that for Ashlee she had a model portfolio thing for her design class and she kept pairing James and Evelyn for shots and you could sort of feel like you know tension between them. But now I have no idea what's going on, but I'm glad Jake isn't here to see that. It would really hurt him."

***

James stood there blinking for a moment sort of frozen. Sure he had been one of the people to blame her for the potion but that was because he was angry, he knew now that there really wasn't anything she could have done. Its not like they knew it was going to work! It sucked she was getting the blame for most of it and he felt kind of guilty for yelling at her about it.

"Ev wait!" James called after her following Evelyn he spotted her in the hall grabbing her coat and he grabbed her arm, turning her to face him. "Ev this isn't your fault! Its not like you knew that damn thing was gonna work, and with Jake... that isn't your fault there are plenty of creeps in this city. It was a good thing you were there! Imagine if he had been alone, he probably would have died out there, you saved his life." James told her. He knew something had been bugging her but he didn't know that it was all of this.

[Tiger-Lily]

"Once a ghetto skank, always a ghetto skank," Seth returned cuttingly. NOBODY challenged his spotlight. "You're all lip, bitch. Break a nail - wait, don't! It'll probably cost you too much to replace the fake claws."

Half the girls in the vicinity were now glaring hatefully at Seth.

***

Ashton was watching James as he followed Evelyn. "Wonder what that was about," he muttered. He sighed and spotted his brother sneaking away. "Tony!" he called to him. "Drink?"

***

Evelyn gnawed her lip, rubbing off all the lipstick. She didn't look at James. "I'm sorry if I ruined your night, I just..go back in, James. Please?" She threw him a frustrated look. "The night's not over yet. Look, dance with Rose. She looks miserable and it'd cheer her up. I'll take the limo and send it back here." She pulled her arm free and tugged on her coat, stepping past him and heading across the entrance hall. She knew where the drivers were waiting. At this point, she just wanted to go home and cuddle with her huge puppy.

***

Luke glanced at Ashlee, wondering why Evelyn and James had exited the hall. "They're leaving?" he wondered.

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