Re: Caesars Palace

[Guest]

"I mean I dunno, I kind of do. Ashton is nice and all, but I don't know if he likes me back or not? Cause of the whole potion thing I think Connor kind of scared him off from me. Also what if he likes Lola? I mean I know they went to formal together as friends probably but you never know? Anyway, no more guys for now. Well I mean besides harmless flirting like with our hot waiter." She winked.

[Tiger-Lily]

Evelyn cringed guiltily. "Well, honestly," she said, taking out her buzzing phone, "Ashton would probably not go for Lola. J-Jake is pretty protective and Ashton would probably not wanna make things tense, you know?" She grinned at Ashlee across the table. "The waiter was seriously cute though."

[Guest]

"He was beautiful!" Ashlee went on, and soon they were served their food. She took a forkful of her pasta and as she swallowed she said, "But seriously we're both eighteen and beautiful. Who cares if we don't have a boyfriend. We're freaking young! We should be enjoying ourselves."

[Tiger-Lily]

"Why'd you think I'm wearing red?" Evelyn said cheekily. "Nothing attracts male attention like red, hon. Life lesson. Damn straight we're single and goodlooking and we're going to enjoy the perks of being uncommitted skanks."

She started on her Veal Parmesan, cutting the meat with a sharp dagger-like knife.

[Guest]

"Ev when did you turn into such a slutty prude?" Ashlee giggled, eating more of her pasta.

[Tiger-Lily]

"Ever since I got out of Ash Creek?" Evelyn said honestly. "I was a hell of a lot loosened up in Seattle and New York kind of added on." She shrugged. "Only now instead of being offended by being called a prude, I'm being called a ho. Which is amusing and ironic." She smirked.

[Guest]

"Definitely an oxymoron. Speaking of your ho tendencies, ummm ditching James at formal to hang with Jake? What the hell?" Ashlee asked her raising an eyebrow at her newly skank best friend.

[Tiger-Lily]

Evelyn's face fell. She stabbed her veal a little too aggressively, not looking at Ashlee. "I was drnk and kind of bored," she said nonchalantly. "Conor wasn't exactly cheerful that night. So I decided I'd leave and then on the way home figured I'd go say hi to Jake since I hadn't seen hm in a while. Nothing else."

Her voice came out slightly too high and she cleared her throat uncomfortably, feeling her stomach clench and her heart begin to pound faster.

[Guest]

"I see, Ev do you like Jake? I mean at all? Because I know your guys whole relationship or whatever you want to call it was weird and such, but I mean the formal was far from boring." Ashlee added, almost shuddering remembering Seth and Rose.

[Tiger-Lily]

"I never did find out everything that happened after I left," Evelyn said quickly. "I heard though, that Seth and Rose were really, uh.....into each other."

[Guest]

Ashlee rolled her eyes, "Yeah they were like animals, they kept trying to screw in the limo. So then Ashton and Lola pulled them apart and Lola even punched Rose in the face, she got that annoyed. We all were. Then the god damn elevator they kept trying to pardon my language, but fuck in there and ugh it was just a nightmare and we were all so annoyed by the time we got back we just decided to let them go at it. Plus Ashton had gotten traumatized hearing them be all loud and crap as they got it on so he slept in your suite."

[Tiger-Lily]

"Wait, where'd you sleep?" Evelyn asked, amused. She felt bad for Rose, though, remembering consoling her the morning after.

[Guest]

"Your room, since you were too busy spooning with Jake." Ashlee replied cheekily.

[Tiger-Lily]

Evelyn choked violently on a forkful of cheesy veal and hastily gulped down half her glass of water, whacking her chest. She wiped her mouth with her napkin, coughing furiously to clear her airways as her cheeks flushed furiously. "Uh, excuse me?!"

[Guest]

"Yes I slept in your room so Ashton could sleep on the couch, I mean hell you only worried everyone for half the night." Ashlee decided she'd skip out on telling her that she let Ashton sleep in her bed, since she had decided to leave the very minor detail of her cuddling with Jake all night.

[Tiger-Lily]

Evelyn was still furiously blushing at Ashlee's cheeky comment. I was not spooning! She hadn't been, had she? She didn't think so...She shook that out of mind and rolled her eyes at Ashlee. "Okay, just for future reference, I was drunk and I missed my ride back. I didn't fancy stumbling
out into the cold so I just crashed there. Nothing more. I wouldn't share a bed with the jackass sober even if the alternative was sleeping on knives."

[Guest]

"That's fine, but you could have called one of us or let us know you went there instead of making us all worried. That's it. But James seems okay with all of this, so lets just drop it. I don't wanna be all negative and crap before the new year. So sorry for bringing it up." Ashlee had sort of lost her appetite and asked the waiter for the check.

[Tiger-Lily]

"I told Alexis, but then I sort of well, it all went fuzzy. And Jake suggested I might as well stay since i really couldn't even stand. I hadn't really eaten that day and the alcohol...never mind," Evelyn said hastily, cutting her rambling. She put her fork and knife down and managed a smile. "So we should get going, most of the clubs have huge lines. Do you know of any we should go to?" She raised an eyebrow with a smirk. "Preferably ones suited to hot single ladies."

[Guest]

"Hmm, I remember Jesse telling me about Rain. Its at the Palms. I know that hotel is off the strip, but there will be a younger crowd though. A lot of guys since its known for having Playmates there and MTV stars and crap go there a lot. So it sounds like fun, wanna go there? Or we could check out the clubs in the hotel here if you want? I think Pure or something. Whatever you want though, I really don't care. A club is a club." Ashlee stated.

[Tiger-Lily]

"Hmmm," Evelyn mused. God knew she needed a distraction. After her stupidity at the formal, she knew this was a dire situation. "Rain sounds good." She flashed a grin at Ashlee as their waiter came over, smiling flirtatiously at both girls. "I'm always up for new eyecandy."

The girls paid their respective bills and headed out of Caesars', hailing a cab.

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[Tiger-Lily]

[[Everyone from [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]]]

"It's just one strip," Evelyn said, touching the gauze around her forehead. "And I meant, weren't we planning to go home directly? Why'd we get into their limo?"

She really saw no reason to be around Jake longer than absolutely necessary.

Just then, her phone buzzed in her bag and she plucked it out. Message from Ashton?

She lifted her gaze to the brunet sitting just three feet away and was puzzled as she opened and read his message.

Evelyn gritted her teeth and shot him a cool glance before typing a simple No. She'd give up caring how odd Jake was acting. She ignored Ashton's comment on Jake being like this ever since Christmas. Jake was probably reacting badly to finding out he might just have Godfather duties, she reminded herself.

He's sulky and sensitive and pretty damn bitchy, Ashton texted her again. And I'm about to sock him myself. Only reason Seth isn't is cuz he's too drunk to be angry at anything. But Jake is kinda pissing us all off.

She replied with a curt I don't care.

Ashton's face fell and Evelyn turned away to look out the window, hating the worry pooling in her stomach. Maybe Jake was just reacting badly to his attack from Ryder, once his best friend? But he had been pretty cheery on formal night. It was only the next morning that he'd turned so cold. What had happened between formal night and Christmas to make him this way? Maybe he got terrible gifts this year?

She was sick of having him trample all over her feelings though, sick of laying them out for him to bulldoze over when he felt like it. She was through being vulnerable to him.


Please just try once! You're the only lead I've got! Ashton replied. I know it's asking a lot ot put up with his smartass 'tude but Seth says he won't tell Lola/him what's wrong.

Shortly, the limo pulled up to the front of Caesars Palace. The driver opened the door and the boys got out first. It occurred to Evelyn that it was a good thing Rose wasn't here. She'd have hated being around Seth. Some busty blond had her arms wrapped around his neck and was mumbling to him as they staggered out.

"The party's still on!" Seth hollered, pulling away from her "We got our alcohol, that was a shitty two hours at Rain, we gotta make up!" The blond with him nodded appreciatively.

Seth glanced back at James, smirking as the brunet emerged from the limo. "And I got a shitload o' digits. We can have ourselves some sexy company!" He winked at Ashlee and Evelyn as they stepped out of the limo. "Not that we don't already."

"Yeah, you deserve a good ending on your birthday," Luke commented to Ashlee, nudging her with a grin. "And it's only one AM. You won't get many chances to party in Vegas for a while."

He gave her a meaningful look when Evelyn had turned away (since Jake was in her line of sight), and Luke's eyes flicked to Evelyn, then James and then back to Evelyn before returning to Ashlee's meaningfully as he smirked just slightly.

Evelyn, meanwhile, was standing just by the limo's open back door and steeling her nerves as she shuffled from one foot to another. Fear, nervousness and hurt rolled in battle in her stomach. She was nervous at the mere thought of saying a single word to Jake. He clearly didn't want her around and it was mutual. He'd hurt her several times tonight (she wasn't counting physically) and there was also the fact that, well, right now, he looked more than a little dangerous. The other patrons at Caesars were giving him a wide berth. Blood clotted his hands, some was even on his cheek. Evelyn had the feeling whoever he had hit was probably in worse condition, though.

But no way in hell did she want to approach Jake. She'd already had one close encounter with his fist, and fear pricked at her again as her eyes flicked over his thunderous expression. He definitely looked like he wouldn't mind punching a few more holes into drywall. Or in her.

Maybe this was it though. Maybe if he yelled at her enough, she'd stop feeling that ridiculous ache in her chest that turned up whenever he appeared. She wanted to be done with him. She wasn't asking for a clean slate like she had striven for with James. She and Jake hadn't gone through that ugly yelling-hurtful-truths/tearing-each-other-down stage. Their battle was a lot more intrinsic, visible in their voices, tiny gestures, the countless times they stopped the other from walking away and the walls they both put up to hide what they felt.

She just wanted to be able to ignore him without feeling anything.

So she sucked up her fear (yet again) and stepped silently over to his side when she exited the limo behind Ashlee. While the others were talking, Evelyn sneaked a peek up at Jake, really not sure what Ashton wanted her to do. She cleared her throat, feeling her skin goose-bump under her leather jacket the moment she neared Jake.

"Jake?" she managed to squeak out, feeling her muscles tense in nervousness. Evelyn tried to hide her slight fear of being bashed into the damn limo from showing on her face, and continued in a slightly stronger voice, keeping it down so the others wouldn't overhear. "Walk with me a moment...please?" She was aware he was hurting, and maybe this way, she could get him to some hotel staff and get him patched up a little while she talked to him.

[Guest]

Ashlee grinned following the boys out of the limo, and into the hotel.

Jake had flicked his eyes down at Evelyn. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket. He just nodded silently, following her.

[Tiger-Lily]

Evelyn shrugged at Ashton when he shot her a questioning look. He looked relieved and followed everyone else inside as Evelyn turned and walked along the side of the limo up toward the front. She passed it just as the limo pulled away. She continued walking along the front of the hotel and then turned around, assessing Jake as he walked toward her. "Are-are you sill bleeding?"

[Guest]

"I'm not bleeding." Jake muttered, walking slowly.

[Tiger-Lily]

"Jake - " Evelyn began, and then stopped and ran a hand through her hair. She did not want to be talking to him while he bled himself dry!

She stepped over to him and tried to assess the damage under his jacket, but it wasn't possible to tell. Evelyn lifted her eyes slowly upward to meet his dark ones. "Humor me and let me see?" she asked quietly.

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