"Mr. Sutton," I greeted Chase as I sank into the barstool beside him. After telling Isla and Bella that I knew Chase from school, they didn't object when I left them on the dance floor to come say hi.

Chase was still looking in the opposite direction from me as I approached him, but when he heard my voice he turned around to look at me. "Oh, wow. Indie, I didn't see you here," he blurted out, looking sheepish.

"Sure, you didn't, Chase," I giggled at him, unsure why he was pretending he hadn't looked directly at me.

"I uh- mean, I thought maybe that was you, but you look- well you look different." He stammered out with a small smile, as his eyes quickly dragged down my body.

"Yeah. I guess I do." I agreed with him. "Underaged drinking, Chase?" I moved my face closer to his, so only he would hear the last sentence. His eyebrows shot up, and I could tell he was conflicted at my words. I giggled again, "Don't worry, I won't tell." I said with a wink, beckoning the same bartender over and ordering another drink. "You can put him on my tab, too."

"Oh you don't have to do that, Indie." He mumbled, as I took a long sip from my fresh drink.

"Don't worry. It's not my money anyways." I shrugged at him, shooting him a smile, which he hesitantly returned. He flicked his fingers up at the bartender and then back towards his bottle, signalling for another beer.

"I didn't think you'd be into this type of music." He muttered, his eyes focused on the bartender who was now pulling the cap off his beer.

"Well, you don't know me very well, Chase." I teased, leaning my body towards him. He flicked his eyes towards me, examining my face before seeing the smile on my lips and bowing his head down in a small chuckle.

"I guess I don't." He said.

"It's more Bella's thing, actually. This was her planned activity for the weekend." I told him, "so I guess you do know me a little."

He glanced over to me, locking my eyes in his gaze as he briefly studied my face. "How are you doing? I sent you a text last night, after you didn't come to school."

"Oh shit, sorry. My phone has been off." I gushed out, not wanting him to think I purposefully ignored him.

"It's been off for two days?" He asked, his eyebrows peaking up, clearly not believing me.

"Almost three, actually. Here I'll show you." I pulled out my phone from my small clutch bag, powering it on and placing it on the bar. As soon as it turned on, a slew of notifications began popping up, all coming in from the last couple of days it had been off. I let it buzz for a minute or so, before quickly turning it back off and sliding back into my bag. When I looked back at Chase, he was watching me with a bewildered look on his face.

"I made a poor, drunk decision and might have posted to my Instagram feed that I was single." I told him as my face scrunched up.

"Oh, trust me. I heard." He mumbled, turning back towards the bar.

"I'm going to get a new number tomorrow, I think. I'll give it to you on Monday in class." I told him, deciding that a new number would be the easiest way to go. Chase turned back to look at me, a surprised look on his face.

"You're going to give it to me?" He asked. I don't know why looked so surprised.

"Yeah, of course. We have a long way to go on our project after all. How are we going to co-ordinate on the precise timing of the sunsets and sunrises if we can't communicate?" I playfully nudged his shoulder.

"R-right. The project." He nodded, the surprised look melting off of his face. I nodded, leaning closer to him and placing my hand on his arm.

"I wanted to thank you, actually, for telling me, about, well you know. I don't know who else would have had the balls to tell me." I smiled warmly at him. It's true, after all. Multiple people had the opportunity to let me know, and no one told me.

"What the fuck?" I heard a voice say from behind me, startling me. I turned to find another tall boy, dressed similar to Chase, but with blonde hair. His eyes flicked between my hand and Chase, eventually snapping up and finding my gaze, before he smirked.

"Well, well, well, I knew you would finally come to your senses," the unknown boy purred out, placing his empty bottle on the bar, signalling for another one.

"My senses?" I asked him, confused.

"Your... sense of music. We hear the stuff you blast from that car of yours in the parking lot." Chase said flatly, glaring at the boy.

"Right, of course. I'm Asher Trenton. This guy's best friend." He stuck his hand out to me, which I briefly shook.

"I'm Indie Adams." I smiled at him, "it's nice to meet you."

Asher cocked his head, looking over at Chase. "She really does do that. Interesting."

My brows furrowed together, "what do I do?"

"Introduce yourself like everyone doesn't already know who you are." Asher said flatly, leaning between Chase and I to grab his drink.

"Everyone doesn't already know who I am." I defended myself, glancing at Chase who was watching me with an amused expression.

Just then Bella and Isla joined us, "Indie, we waited for you." Isla spoke with a hint of teasing in her tone.

"Sorry, I was just chatting. This is Chase, my photography partner and this is his friend Asher." I gestures to the two boys.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Isla O'Brien." Isla waved.

"Bella Brooks, my pleasure." Bella nodded.

I watched as Chase bit down on his smile, he briefly waved to my friends before catching Asher's eye, who was full blown laughing.

"What?" Isla stared blankly between them. "What's funny?"

"They seem to think it's hilarious that we introduce ourselves like the polite people we are, because apparently everyone already knows us." I explained to Isla and Bella.

"How are we supposed to know who knows us and who doesn't?" Bella inquired.

"Bella Brooks, we've been in the same math glass for 3 years. Malibu Barbie and I have had..." Asher trailed off as he counted, "8 classes together since starting high school."

I giggled and Isla raised her eyebrow at Asher, "Malibu Barbie?"

Chase chuckled while Asher looked embarrassed, "Asher's nickname for you." Which only caused Isla to erupt into giggles.

"Do I have a nickname?" I wiggled my eyebrows in Chase's direction, to which he blushed at.

Asher answered. "Only about te..." he was cut off from a swift elbow to the stomach by Chase, "none. You don't have any."

"Asher, we have to get going." Chase sighed as he glanced at the time on his phone.

"What? The band hasn't even started." I said, surprised that they were leaving so soon.

"Yeah, unfortunately for us. The last bus back to Lakeview leaves in 20 minutes. We had it perfectly timed to see most of the set." Asher groaned.

I frowned, feeling disappointed for some reason that I couldn't exactly pin point. "Damn, that sucks."

"Why don't you guys just stay with us tonight, and Indie can drive us all back tomorrow?" Bella suggested, and I snapped my head, startled that she would suggest that. Chase's face reflected the startle that I was feeling, as his eyes darted between me and Bella.

"Oh, uh, no that's a nice offer, but we're fine." Chase stammered out, causing Asher to shoot him a dirty look.

"Where are you guys staying?" Asher asked.

"Oh, we have got a room at the Royal. Indie got a suite so there's more than enough room." Isla told him.

"It's fine, it was nice to see you, Indie but..."

Asher cut him off, "but we would love to take that offer. Thanks. We'll be right back." He grabbed Chase's arm and tore him off the barstool, pulling him into the crowd. Bella sunk into the stool that was now unoccupied, looking at me with a sly smile on her face while ordering another drink.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" I hesitantly asked her.

"You didn't tell me your photography partner was hot, like hot as hell!" She gushed.

"And why would I tell you that?" I felt the blush creep onto my face. She turned fully towards me with a knowing look on her face.

"So you agree, you think he's hot?" She raised a perfectly plucked eyebrow.

I felt my cheeks grow hot. "Shut up. And new rule, no chasing after my project partners. It's distracting."

"Oh now it's distracting? Don't worry Indie. He's not my type." Bella brushed me off.

I eyed her suspiciously, "he's exactly your type."

"Maybe, but I think he's more your type," she said quickly, and I didn't get a chance to respond because the band finally made their way to the stage.

***

Thanks to Bella's sharp elbows, the three of us had been able to push our way to the front of the dance floor, standing directly in front of the stage. Bella was in her element, jumping up and down and screaming the lyrics to every song that came on. Isla and I were dancing with each other, both thoroughly enjoying the music even though we weren't familiar with it. Isla was pulled into a dance with someone I couldn't see, she gave me the thumbs up before she disappeared into his arms. I turned back towards the stage, watching Bella go crazy. I felt a pair of hands on my hips, attempting to pull me backwards. I pushed away at them, not bothering to turn around to see who it was, thankful they seemed to get the hint and let go. My thanks only lasted for a second, however, before the hands were back on my hips with enough force that I stumbled back into a hard chest. I whipped my head around to find short guy who was clearly wasted.

"Can you stop touching me?" I snapped at him. I tried to move backwards away from him but he reached out and grabbed my wrist.

"It's just a dance, relax," he grunted at me. I tried to shake his grip on my wrist lose, but that only made his grasp on me tighten. I felt an arm snake around my shoulders, pulling me so that I was turned face first into a warm chest, and I looked up to see Chase scowling at the guy who was still holding my wrist. Chase's grip around my shoulders tightened, so I was flush against his body.

"We good here?" He growled at the guy, who must have been intimidated because he let go of my wrist pretty quickly. Chase didn't release me, however, so I peeked up at his face, which was still scowling and following something through the crowd. After a moment, he peeked down at me and smiled, taking his arm off my shoulder and stepping back a few steps.

"Thank you." I said sincerely, to which he nodded and gestured for me to join Bella back at the front again. I snaked by him and Bella grabbed my arms instantly, pulling me into a dance with her, screaming at me that this was her favourite song.

***

"So this is how the other half lives." Asher whistled as we all stepped into the hotel room.

Isla laughed, "Not really, Asher. We don't live here."

Bella bounced onto the couch, "so you guys want to go to bed? It's only 2, who's up for a movie?"

"Hell yeah." Asher jumped onto the couch beside Bella. "But no chick flicks, I'm thinking... horror."

"Be more obvious, Asher, why don't you?" Chase seethed as he took a seat next to Asher, causing all of us girls to giggle.

"Nothing we haven't heard before." Isla assured. "I'm down for a movie." She picked up the remote and starting scanning through the movies.

"Yeah, I'm good for a movie." I told them, noticing Chase smile at the floor as I said it. "I have to shower and change first though, some drunk girl spilled her drink all over me and I smell like I took a bath in whisky."

After a quick shower, where I did my best my keep my hair dry, and washing the makeup off my face, I dug through my bag to look through the rest of the clothes I packed, realizing the only causal clothes I brought was a pair of size medium men's sweat pants and a tiny white crop. Clearly I didn't expect to have company in the hotel, so I brought what I normally lounge in. I groaned as I quickly pulled it on, not particularly wanting Chase to see me dressed as a total bump.

I walked back into the living room, hoping they had already started the movie so they wouldn't notice my grubby clothes, but as my luck would have it, all their eyes snapped to me as I entered the room.

"We waited for you, Indie." Isla smiled at me.

"Thanks." I returned the smile, and then glanced around the room, looking for an empty seat. Isla was sitting beside Asher one couch, Bella was propped up in the arm chair, leaving the only place for me to sit on the love seat beside Chase. I looked at Chase, about to flash him a smile, but found his eyes were raking up and down my body. Dang it, the least fashionable I've ever been, and it's the most Chase has ever looked at me. Of course.

"A belly ring, Indie Adams, I would never have guessed." Ashers voice rang out, and I saw he too was eyeing me up and down.

"We all have them." I said as I made my way to the couch and sat beside Chase. "We got them together."

"Why am I not surprised?" Asher replied with a quick smirk before he turned back towards Isla. "Can I see yours, Malibu Barbie?"

Isla swiftly grabbed one of the throw pillows and smacked Asher with it, causing the rest of us to laugh.

"Oh fuck." Bella said suddenly, her face dropping. "We didn't take any pictures. Like at all."

My face scrunched, it wasn't often that no one snapped pictures on a night out. I watched as Isla and Bella pouted before I heard Chase clear his throat.

"I uh, took one of Indie and Bella." Chase said, scratching the back of neck. "Downfall of being into photography, I guess. I can't help but capture certain moments." I smiled up at him as Bella demanded to see the picture, he tapped on his phone for a couple of seconds before he passed it to her. I watched her face as she her eyes widened and her lips broke out into a huge smile.

"Dude, this is awesome. Send this to Indie, Indie send it to me. I need to post it like, yesterday." I laughed and walked to my purse, turning on my phone and returning to the couch. Just a moment after it turned on, I saw the incoming message from Chase. I opened the picture and I'm sure my expression looked just like Bella's. The picture looked professional. It was of me and Bella dancing by the front of the stage. My head was tipped all the way back, my eyes were closed as my hands were up in the air. Bella looked to be mid spin, as her head was turned the side and her hair was sprayed out in movement, her hands on my shoulders. The lights cut through our bodies creating the most interesting pattern. You could see the band behind us, the singer opening his mouth to the mic, the guitarist lost in the music, and the drummer mid thrash. It was a great picture.

"You sure you took this on your phone, Chase? It looks so professional." I asked him while forwarding the picture to Bella. "Can I post it?"

"Of course." He agreed, as I did just that, tagging the band and captioning it with a heart. I looked up and saw Chase watching me.

"How many other pictures have you taken of me that I don't know about?" I joked, teasing him. His eyes went wide as he coughed and banged a fist against his chest, shooting a glance towards Asher.

"I'm joking Chase." I told him as I brought my hand down on his leg, trying to assure him I didn't actually think he was taking pictures of me, but that only seemed to startle him more as he whipped his head towards my hand. I quickly retreated and brought it back to my own lap.

"Let's start the movie." I squeaked out.