The party music drummed through Randell's house and vibrated all the way up to Caelum's brain. He had a nervous feeling in his stomach that he did not like very much, it was a reminder of how parties went to him but this time, this one, was for Astrid.

They were at this party together. This was going to be a great night and she wasn't going to let anything ruin that for them.

She had the prettiest glittered top on. It was silver and was cut into her cleavage but it wasn't too much, she made sure that it was just enough and had midnight blue jeans on and her feet were in Converse pumps. She loved those pumps of hers.

Caelum stood by her side nervously, fidgeting as he drummed his feet on the floor. He looked good and if Astrid wasn't so preoccupied with the urge of wanting to dance, she would have been making out with him already. He had a black denim jacket on and it was ripped at the perfect places with his black hair growing disproportionally in all directions and sticking up, he looked hot.

She pulled him into the middle of the dancing where people swayed to the rhythm and at one end stood Randell's best friend, London Westbrook, curating the perfect combinations of slow songs and rap EDM.

Caelum wasn't much of a dancer but for her, he would. Even if that meant tripping on his own feet and accidentally stamping hers and apologizing a millionfold while she chuckled with her head thrown back. She smiled and didn't mind it, because she knew that he would've done anything for her.

Anything she would have ever asked for.

The booze came and she got drunker and drunker but still sober enough to know that she was in love with him and she was with him. Her lips on his, time made little sense when one was in good company. But time passed and they had to come apart for air.

Caelum wasn't drinking that night. He knew that drinking was a bad idea - he had only seen the consequences with his own father a million times or more, but he wasn't going to drink anything. The only thing he was on was soda and the alcohol from Astrid's lips. He would get her home safe.

She, on the other hand, was having the time of her life.

Booze, Caelum on her side, partying and no Ryan? This night was sparkling and everything she could've wanted in her existence.

She was standing up again pulling Caelum flush against her to go for another round of dancing when she bumped into someone. Startled, her reflexes worked quickly - even when drunk, to grab a hold of the other person's arm before they could fall. She faced the person and her concern turned to disgust in a moment.

"Jo." Astrid pursed her lips and then, took Caelum's hand in hers, ready to walk away when Johanna called her name.

"Can we please talk about it, Astrid?"

Astrid looked at Cal for help but in this case, he wasn't with or against either person because it was a complicated situation and he always stood for what was right, not for whose perspective mattered more.

She turned to face Johanna, a section of her hair falling out of her messy held-up bun, she sighed. "Let's just get this over with."

Johanna went first, her white satin a-line mini frock a true beauty that matched her creamy complexion beautifully and then followed Astrid, the love of Caelum's life and he was left alone. In the middle of the dance floor Astrid's half-full glass of booze, not wanting to dance.

And so, he went along to the tiny corner London stood in, her grey crop top sliding off one shoulder and her red checkered skirt looking crumpled and asked her, "Wanna catch a break?"

She looked up to him but before she could have answered him, an arm came and rested heavily on his shoulder. He turned to face the arm that belonged to a rather short Elizabeth Darwin and she screamed, "'Sup London!" and it was rather obvious that she was awfully drunk.

Cal grimaced slightly at the strong scent of alcohol coming off Eliza that reminded him a terribly lot about his own father and he told her, "I better get her somewhere else."

"Later, Cal," London nodded, her attention back to the phone in her hand.

He held Eliza up with one steady hand on her waist for she was completely wasted and was talking some shit about stars being "fucking overrated". It wasn't easy managing to bring a seventeen-year-old out of the mess of bodies when she was swaying so badly and refused to stay still Cal had no idea how he managed that but he was thankful for all the stars above when he managed to throw Eliza off him and on the couch nearby.

She had not been seated for even five seconds when she threw her legs over Caelum's and then waved the bottle of cheap beer in her hand, screaming, "Ingrids, Wyatt, Joshua, get over here!"

"Jesus," he winced as he noticed a well-dressed girl dragging a groaning boy approach them and he put Eliza's feet on the floor.

As the girl approached him, her hair up in a brown pony tail swishing with every step she took and the boy who followed her trying to mask his amusement, Caelum wondered if this night could get worse in any way at all.

But apparently, it could. And this was just the beginning of it all.

Astrid Finlay, in no way, was happy with the way her night was turning out to be because she had not anticipated being locked into a room with Johanna Collins after what happened that fateful night. She was wondering why Cal wouldn't pick up her call but there was nothing either of the girls could do but wait for someone to open up the door from the other side.

It had started out as an apology from Johanna to Astrid after Jo had asked for a bit of privacy from her date that night, Joshua but he had ended up locking them up inside and leaving and Astrid was left with explicative curses on her tongue as Jo tried to calm her down saying that someone would come for them soon and that Josh was just drunk.

Astrid had told her to shut the fuck up if she didn't want her any more annoyed than she already was.

Normally, even when drunk, Astrid was a very chill person. She was good when she was happy and she was always happy, but the moment Johanna had tried apologizing, all she heard was bullshit. 'I did not think it would affect you that much-' 'Oh yeah? Imagine being bullied and then figuring out that your best friends helped in that'.

She refused to listen to Jo, if all Jo had to give were excuses.

Instead, Astrid sat against the door defeated and waiting for someone to open up the damn door. She closed her eyes shut and prayed that someone would open it for her soon because she could not bear the thought that she was in the same room as Jo.

Johanna had tried talking to her for almost twelve minutes but it was clear that Astrid wasn't going to listen to her when she sat down on the floor and started scrolling through her photos. So, she gave up on trying and waited on the bed.

After another ten minutes had gone by in silence inside the room where they both could hear some other people banging on each other in the next room - things dropping all over the floor and muffled moans, Johanna came and sat next to Astrid on the floor.

As soon as she did though, Astrid stood up ready to walk away to another side of the room but Jo held her wrist down, "Please, Astrid, just hear me out."

Her eyes flashed doe-eyed and filled with tears, "Leave me alone."

Their eyes held each other for a beat and she let her wrist loose.

Astrid went over the ledge of the window and sat on the edge, one leg dangling out from the windowsill, she heard Johanna whisper, "I'm sorry."

She looked up from her screen and at the dark shadow of Johanna in the dimly lit room as if to check if her ears were deceiving her but Johanna looked straight at Astrid, "I'm sorry, Astrid."

Her chin quivered as if in embarrassment and she went on, "I never meant to hurt you, I'm sorry."

Astrid sighed, slung her dangling leg out of the window and inside the room and replied quietly, "That's the problem, Jo. No one ever really means it ever and yet it hurts. It really does hurt."

And maybe she was too wasted but the next words that flew out of her mouth were out of her control. "It was really sad to be the only person who did not have any support from her so-called best friends, but what was worse was when I figured out that you guys had been circulating the news about me, it is terrible."

"I did not circulate-"

"JUST STOP IT! Please, Johanna. Just own up to your faults or don't try apologizing at all," Astrid burst, "I am really really tired of everyone trying to justify their way of things when eventually all of you deep down, don't want me around. If you don't, just say it, please just stop making excuses for the things you have done."

She sat down on the bed with a huff and looked down at her jeans, picking on a stray piece of thread dangling.

Johanna wordlessly sat beside her and didn't say another thing for a while and then she replied.

"I'm really sorry, Astrid," Jo sighed. "I have always had this tendency to blame my problems on everyone else from my childhood and that isn't fair. It was my fault and no matter what excuse I have, it would never be enough to excuse the way I've been to you. You have always been a great friend to me and I should have been there for you and stopped my brother from circulating all those videos and stopped sharing information with him about you. I know this doesn't make a difference right now, but I still want you to know that I told him many a time to shut the fuck up when he asked me about you."

Astrid faced her ex-best friend, deeply wondering if she was too hard on Jo. If she should've given the girl another chance and she didn't know what to do.

"I know you have no reason to forgive me, nor any proof that I will not do the same thing again," Johanna said and held Astrid's hands in her own. She flinched slightly.

"But I promise that I want to try to be a better friend to you, Astrid because you have always been there for me. I promise to want to try to stick up for my friends regardless of what my twin brother has said about me, I can't lose another friend just because of the fear of letting my brother down."

Johanna had never looked more sincere and Astrid was torn. A part of her wanted to curse her out and say no, say that what she did was a shitty thing to do and a part of her wanted to say yes, get her friend back in her life.

Maybe one more chance wouldn't hurt that much.

"But just one chance, alright?" Astrid said. "And this time, it's the end if things get screwed up."

Johanna broke into a sincere smile and she shook Astrid's hand vigourosly, she kept nodding and she pulled her friend into the tightest hug possible, "Thank you, I promise you won't regret it."

And just that very same moment as though the door had been waiting for them to reconcile,it magically opened up and Astrid sighed in relief. Her peacefulness was however changed once more to disgust as she noticed Owen Collins standing against the door frame.

"Woah, sis-" he snorted. "I didn't know you were stuck in the room with Ass-trid."

Astrid was seething but before she could retort with a snarky comeback, Johanna strutted over to her twin and smack! went her hand over to his cheek, "Don't you fucking dare call my friend a slut."

"Woah, woah, woah," Owen grasped his sister's hand. "Did you just slap me?"

"I did," Johanna responded, her grey-green eyes boring into her brother's. "Just leave my friends alone, alright? I do not fucking want you mingling in my life and messing up every good friendship that I've ever had."

And with that, Johanna grabbed Astrid's hand and walked her out of there. "Come on Astrid, let's go."

Astrid was still gaping after Johanna when she pulled her away from the room and into the nearest kitchen of the place and poured her a glass of Sprite and asked, "Vodka or no?"

"I'll think I'll go without."

Jo shrugged as she poured a shot for herself and lifted the tiny glass up to her mouth and took it down at once, slamming it to the table after she was done, "Never gets old."

"Thanks, Jo," Astrid replied as she sipped on her Sprite.

And Johanna shrugged her off, "I should've done it to that motherfucking asshole a long time ago."

As they walked out of the kitchen arm locked together, the brunette smiled, "Maybe, tonight would be just as enchanted as I wanted it to be after all."

But just as those words had left her mouth, her eyes fell on a girl who had her entire body pressed against another guy on the couch, lips desperately seeking more and her blood froze over.

How could Caelum do such a motherfucking thing?

She red plastic cup in her hand went slam against the floor, drenching both her Converse heels and Johanna's stilettos. Jo looked down momentarily but the look on Astrid's face was far worse than the condition of her shoes.

Caelum looked up, hair all messed up because of making out with Eliza and his neck and lips all tainted red with her lipstick. Their eyes met for a moment and it lasted for but a beat, but Astrid's eyes instantly filled up and she turned away and walked right out the worst part of her entire goddamn existence.