As usual, I was having difficulty finding an outfit I deemed worthy for the party in a few hours. Harry had arrived a half hour ago and was sitting on my bed, watching me with exasperation as I shuffled around my room, changing details about my clothes randomly.

"Joey, love, you look perfect," he said, his voice muffled into his hands as he rested his chin on his palm. He didn't seem to understand my struggle with getting ready, constantly telling me what I had on was beautiful, great, perfect, whatever. He was too easy to please. I frowned at my reflection in the mirror, struggling to decide whether or not to wear a jacket with my top.

"You always say that, Harry."

"That's because I always mean it. You look beautiful in everything," he said sweetly. While I knew he really did mean that, I couldn't help but think he was saying it to hurry me along, as well. I sighed, deciding to drop the jacket and crossing the room to stand in front of him, winding my arms around his neck as he looked up at me from my bed. His chin lifted off his hands so they could slide up the backs of my legs, gripping my thighs.

"You're too nice to me," I told him, my fingers twisting into the hair at the base of his neck.

"Not uh," he said, shaking his head slowly. I smiled as his hands slid down to my knees, putting pressure there so they'd buckle and allow him to pull me onto his lap. His arms wrapped around my waist as my legs swung off to the side of his.

"You ready finally?" he asked quietly, pressing his lips to my shoulder, clear green eyes flashing up at me. I didn't know how it was possible for him to look so good from every angle in existence, but he did.

"Mmhmm, I think so." My face nuzzled into his neck and I suddenly felt the urge to stay home alone with him all night, cuddling together on the couch and relishing the warmth of his skin on mine. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to just blow off the party entirely.

"Let's just stay in tonight, Harry," I said, pressing my lips to his jaw and squeezing him tighter. He let out a quiet hum, and my hopes that he'd agree soared. His soft hair slipped through my fingers as the pads of them tickled against his scalp.

"We said we'd go, love," he reminded me, his dedication to keeping his word getting in my way.

"They won't even notice," I persuaded, kissing my lips to his neck now.

"You just spent all that time getting ready," he countered, a light smile tugging at his lips as I cuddled further into him.

"It's all for you, anyway," I said truthfully. He was the one I wanted to look good for, after all; I couldn't care less what everyone else thought. As long as he thought I looked good, I was happy.

"Joeyyy," he whined, squirming lightly as I shifted in his lap. He ducked his head down to kiss my lips, pulling them away from his neck. "Let's just go for a bit, yeah? Your friends were so excited."

I let out a sigh of defeat. "Fineee."

He grinned and pressed another kiss to my lips. "Shall we?"

I nodded reluctantly, unable to suppress the grin that pulled at my mouth. His smile was so contagious. "We shall."

I climbed off his lap and grabbed his hands, leaning back to pull him off my bed to his full height, letting him tower over me. His hand cupped the back of my head and pulled me forward so he could press a kiss to my forehead. After grabbing his brown jacket and throwing it over his dark gray henley and navy blue zip up hoodie, he gripped my hand and pulled me out of the room.

After driving to Lydia's house and finding a place to park all the way down the street, we had arrived at the party. I let myself out of his car and met him on the other side where he captured my hand and led me up to the house. Just as last time, music could be heard clearly as it poured through the walls, and already people had migrated to the yard to get some fresh air. We had arrived late, once again, because of my difficulty with getting dressed and my lack of motivation to go.

We sidestepped a couple that was vigorously making out on the front porch to make our way to the door and let ourselves in. A blast of hot, humid air rushed out, created by the many bodies packed into the house, sweating from their antics and intake of alcohol. I recognized a few of the faces we passed, some smiling at me or waving as we wove through them, others too distracted by their drinks and friends to notice me. As always, however, most of the people in attendance were complete strangers tome.

It occurred to me that Lydia's parties had progressively gotten bigger and bigger with each one she threw, which probably meant there were a lot of kids from other schools here. That would explain why I didn't recognize everyone. I wondered if Lydia even knew all the people here; I seriously doubted it.

"Drink?" I shouted at Harry, looking over my shoulder at him and taking the lead to pull him after me toward the kitchen. He nodded, looking more excited than I had expected him to. He was clearly amused by all the intoxicated teenagers running around, and he had a much better view of them than I did thanks to his lanky height. I finally managed to weave a path through the people to get to the kitchen, which was nearly just as crowded with people grabbing themselves drinks.

Will stood in the corner, pouring out glasses of a mysterious brownish looking drink and handing them out. He caught my eye and grinned widely, waving me over.

"Joey and Harry! Good to see you guys," he said cheerfully as he pressed cups into our hands. I sniffed the cup and caught a whiff of cinnamon and apple.

"You too, mate, how's it going?" Harry asked, returning Will's excited smile. If you'd have said few months ago that Harry would be so comfortable at a party, I'd have called you crazy.

"Good, really good," he said happily, taking a sip of his own drink.

"Is this apple pie?" I asked Will, tilting my drink toward him.

"Sure is," he replied proudly. "Made it myself!"

"Oh lord," I laughed. Will made delicious apple pie; the combination of spices, apple juice, and strong, strong vodka made for a delicious yet dangerous drink. You could drink it so easily that you'd soon have several cups down without realizing, only to become suddenly very drunk from the high potency.

"Yeah, so get ready to get shitty," he said playfully, wiggling his eyebrows. Harry raised his cup to his nose, sniffing it as I did before tilting it to his lips to drink some.

"Damn, that's really good," he said with surprise. Will laughed and looked smug, proud of his concoction.

"Just take 'er easy and you'll be fine," Will advised.

"Got it, thanks man," Harry returned with a grin before turning to me. "Wanna go find your friends, babe?"

"Yeah, sure. See you later, Will."

He waved at us both before turning his attention to someone else who arrived, requesting a drink from him. Harry put his hand on my lower back to help guide me back out into the living room where the majority of the people were. My eyes scanned the crowd, looking for flashes of Haley or Lydia as we passed through the swarm of bodies. Harry took another large drink of his cup as he looked around, using his height to his advantage. He leaned down to my ear, lips tickling against the soft skin there as he spoke.

"Over there, by the window," he said, pointing in their general direction. I nodded, indicating he lead the way over there. He moved in front of me, gripping my hand to pull me along. As we neared, I heard a cackle explode from the direction we were heading that could only belong to Lydia and I grinned, excited to see my friends.

"Joey!" someone squealed before a pair of arms encompassed me, nearly spilling my drink out of my hand before Harry took it from me. My arms wrapped around the body that had crashed into mine, assuming it was Haley or Lydia. When she pulled back, I discovered Lydia's happy face beaming back at me, the slight glaze in her eyes telling me she had already been drinking for a while.

"Hi," I said, laughing as she stabilized herself with the help of Haley, who stood behind her shaking her head good-naturedly.

"Calm down ya drunk ass," she chided, pulling on the back of her shirt to pull her back from the middle of the circle. "Hey, guys."

"Hey. So is it just me or are these parties getting gigantic?" I asked, looking around at the mass of people crammed into the house.

"Yeah, this might be the most I've ever seen," Lydia said, eyes widening as she looked around as if just realizing how many people were here.

"Do you know everyone?" Harry asked curiously.

"Oh, god no! Probably like half," she replied, giggling. "Shit," she added in disbelief.

"Jesus, Lydia," I laughed as she hiccupped, clearly fairly drunk. "You mom still doesn't care?"

She just shrugged, putting on an indifferent face as she took another sip of her drink. "Never says anything."

"Well hey, we're not complaining!" Haley said, raising her drink in the air before downing it. "I'm gonna get another drink but then do you guys wanna play a game?"

The circle all nodded in consent as she moved away. We all discussed which game we could play, narrowing it down to two when she returned with Jack and Will following behind her.

"The gang's all here," she cheered, squeezing her way back into our little circle we had formed. "So what are we playing?"

"We're down to chandeliers or hockey," Lydia answered her.

"Ooh, chandeliers! That's my favorite," Haley cheered. She looked around, searching for come cups and ping pong balls we could use just as Lydia pulled some from a cupboard in the corner. The group migrated to the corner of a room where a table had been set up.

I helped Haley arrange the cups in a circle, placing one in the middle as everyone spread around the table. After setting up the game, I moved next stand next to Harry and explain the game to him.

"Alright everyone, pour your drinks!" Jack shouted over the music. I stood on my tiptoes to reach Harry's ear as he ducked his head.

"So, you pour some of your drink into the cup in front of you and a little bit into the middle one. Everyone puts some in the middle so it's a big mixture. Then there are two pong balls and they start on opposite sides of the circle and you have to try and bounce it in the middle cup. If you miss, it goes to the next person. If you make the middle cup, everyone has to chug their drink and the last one to flip it over has to drink the middle one. If someone makes their ball in your cup, you have to drink it and refill it as fast as possible. Get it?"

He nodded, eyes squinting as he focused on what I was saying. "Yeah, I think so."

"It's not too hard," I reassured him, leaning up to peck his lips as he grinned down at me. He tasted like cinnamon and apple, just like his drink.

"Everyone ready?!" Jack called, scanning around the circle. A few more people had joined, giving us about ten people in the game.

"Ready!" everyone returned, shifting their feet to get into an appropriate stance, hands extended in preparation. Lydia, who stood across from me, held one ball while I had the other.

"Go!" Jack instructed. Seconds later I bounced the ball on the table, missing all the cups entirely as Harry's hand darted out to grab it. He took his own shot, missing the center cup but sinking it into Haley's cup instead.

"Damnit, Harry," she joked playfully before grabbing the cup and drinking the small amount it held and refilling it. The balls went almost all the way around the table before Will finally made the middle cup causing everyone's hands to flash out and grab their own, throwing back the liquid in an attempt to not be last. Seconds later people started flipping their cups, their attempts getting more desperate and more sloppy with each flip as they struggled to land it.

Much to my surprise, Harry was the first to actually successfully land it, closely followed by half the table. Soon, much to my horror, I realized only myself and another girl I thought was called Morgan were left flipping. I heard Harry cheering for me, as well as a variety of background cheering as I focused and attempted to land it, cursing when it fell to the floor. When I straightened up after retrieving it, I groaned when I saw Morgan grinning happily at me, finally having successfully landed her cup. I had to drink the middle one, which was surely a disgusting mixture of countless different alcohols and mixed drinks.

"Here you go, Joey," Lydia said excitedly, handing me the cup that was filled nearly to the top. It was a scary brownish green color, and did not look appealing in any way, shape, or form. I frowned exaggeratedly around the circle and Harry gave me a sympathetic shrug as he rested his hand on my lower back and tried not to grin. I pinched my nose and raised it to my lips, managing to down half of it before the taste really set it. Trying not to gag, I swallowed the rest before slamming it down on the table, sticking my tongue out in disgust.

"You people drink the nastiest shit," I joked, taking a sip of my own delicious drink to wash the taste out of my mouth. Everyone laughed and began refilling their cups for the next round.

"Ready? Three, two, one!" someone called as we began the process all over again. We managed to play three more rounds before we started running out of drinks, the losers including Haley, Harry, and Jack.

"Need another, babe?" I asked Harry, wrapping my arms around his neck to bring my lips closer to his ear. My chest pressed into his, my slightly drunken state making me crave more contact with his body. He nodded before pressing a kiss to my neck. I shivered.

"Yes, please."

I pulled back just enough so my face was in front of his and pulled him down to me, connecting our lips in a kiss. As soon as his lips parted slightly, my tongue snaked into his mouth to run across his own, deepening the kiss. My fingers had just tangled into his hair and his hands splayed across my lower back when a cup hit me in the shoulders.

"Get a room," someone shouted jokingly. I pulled back from Harry a bit, my back to the circle of my friends as I raised my hand to flip whomever off had shouted.

"Be right back," I told him, kissing his lips one more time before weaving my way through the crowd in search of more drinks. My hands separated the bodies in front of me as I worked my way to the kitchen, saying hello to a few of the people I recognized in passing and smiling at the ones I didn't. Drinking with Harry put me in an unusually good mood, the relaxing affects of the alcohol making me extremely touchy and content. After successfully making my way to the kitchen, I poured two more drinks and turned around to make my way back through the crowd. The trip back was just as difficult as the way to the kitchen, but soon I had made it close to the area I had started.

My eyebrows knit together when I saw Harry's head standing tall among the crowd, his face set in an annoyed frown as he glared down at whomever he was talking to. My heart thudded heavily in my chest, my mind immediately jumping to the worst possible conclusion.

She wouldn't be here, would she?

I pushed my way faster through the crowd, now desperate to get back to Harry and see what was going on. Anger was already bubbling through me and I didn't even know whom he was talking to. His shoulders looked tense as I approached, and his mouth was set in a hard line. Soon the last of the barrier between me and him was passed, and I had a clear view.

A skinny girl stood in front of him, her medium length blonde hair swinging as she ran her hand through it and flipped it. She was standing far closer to Harry than necessary, and he was visibly leaning away from her as she leaned forward and put her hand on his forearm that was crossed over his chest.

Katie had found Harry, and I had a hard time believing the timing of her arrival had been pure coincidence. She must have arrived earlier and waited for the moment when I finally left his side to swoop in.

Who the hell does this girl think she is?