At first, Sean was confused on why I changed my mind but then he was happy to tell me that I could go rest up in his room. He said it was right in front of the guest room so that's where I went. I wasn't entirely sure I was in the right place, because there were more than a dozen different doors on the same floor. Or maybe there wasn't... Im just too hazy at the moment, and my judgement is pretty much in the negative area.

Wow, this house is really huge. I wonder what's behind each of those doors. I mean, apparently the six of them live here alone so why would they need all this space?

Maybe they have a torture room...

Or a room full of nuclear weapons...

Or a dungeon of separate cells. You know, like The Vampire Diaries?

Oh, shut up Ash. Get your imagination under control for once.

Oh! They must have an awesome gaming room since Ellis enjoys playing Xbox. I must let him show me it sometime later. Thinking of Ellis, I hadn't seen him since I entered the party. Actually, I haven't seen a lot of familiar faces since I came in.

I pushed open the door of the room which was supposedly Sean's and stepped in. The moment I was inside, I felt the room engulfing me in its darkness. Everything was black; the walls, the bed sheets, the bedside tables, the carpets, the curtains, and the desk. I couldn't help but furrow my brows as I looked around and took in my surroundings. It was like a tornado had just came in here and didn't leave a single thing in its rightful place. Blobs of clothes were all over the floor and in every corner. The bed was messed up to the extent that it was probably never made for the past week. Cans of Redbull and beer were on every surface and littering the floor, and dirty plates were all piled up on the desk. The curtains were shut and it seemed this room never even had the chance to see sunlight.

It was so gloomy and depressing and anything but Sean. How can someone even survive in this mess?

A crammed bookshelf by the window caught my attention so I walked over to it, being the nosy person I am. Scanning it carefully, I realized it was mostly filled with books about specific kinds of weaponry. I recognized some of the handguns and rifles on the covers of these books because I've seen them before on Call of Duty.

See? Video gaming can be useful sometimes.

Weird... Sean never mentioned he was a handgun enthusiast.

The shelves also carried stacks and stacks of different files and I felt like a criminal when I stretched my hand to grab one.

These must be something confidential. I don't think I'm supposed to look at them, because that would definitely be stepping over the line and violating Sean's privacy. So, I took a step back and grabbed my phone wanting to send Lyanna another text.

Me- Are you done with your party? -.- come onnn! By the way have you heard from Liam? He disappeared the moment we came in and he hasn't shown up.

I chucked it back in my pocket, knowing Lyanna was definitely not answering for another fifteen minutes or even more. The faint sound of music was still heard from up here and it made me wonder if I should go back down there and have some fun. Actually, no. I'm so done with this night.

Enough being an idiot for one day.

I stole a glance back at the black bookshelf carrying all those masses of white files.

Okay, fuck it. I'm a curious person who can't control herself. I was born this way, it's not my fault.

Marching over to those shelves again, I grabbed a tattered looking file and opened it.

The words were on extremely small font but I managed to read them.

Las Vegas, 22nd of March 2013

Was that a diary or something? There were a bunch of sentences and statements I couldn't understand and then, at the bottom of the page, I spotted something unusual.

Jayce Stryker $5,000

Sean Donovan $2,500

What the hell is that supposed to mean? I was so confused. Grabbing another file, I noticed that the content was very similar.

Las Vegas, 18th of April 2013

And at the end of the page, it had Jayce's name again, along with Rina's.

Jayce Stryker $7230

Rina Moore $1050

My head was swimming with questions by that point.

Las Vegas...

Did they gamble or something? Was this money given to them?

"Is that another one of your annoying habits?"

I jumped at the sound of a deep voice behind me and closed the files quickly and chucked them back on the shelves. Turning around, I found Jayce leaning on the doorframe, his arms crossed, and a bored expression on his face.

"Barging in on other people's room without permission and snooping around their stuff?" He continued.

My stomach did a full flip and my face was starting to flush furiously. I could feel my cheeks heat up and I hated when someone caught me red-handed.

"I'm- I'm sorry," I stuttered, but I cleared my throat, wanting to sound more confident. "And for your information, I didn't barge in uninvited. Sean said I can rest up here."

His bored expression was replaced with an amused one. "So, Sean invited you to come up to my room?"

Uh oh. I knew this wasn't Sean's room. I knew it.

"You- your room?"

"Did you actually think this was Sean's?" He said, as he kicked some cans from the floor.

"I'm- I didn't know. He said the room opposite to the guest bedroom. How shall I know what his room looks like anyway?"

"Yeah, he meant Guest Room B."

Oookay, so there were like guest rooms from A to Z or something?

I grunted. This was too embarrassing, it was making me cringe. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to come into your room."

"Wow, for a scary person, you sure do seem like a little lost puppy when you're apologizing," He mused, his arms still crossed.

I rolled my eyes. "It's an apology Jayce, not an essay convicting deep remorse. Get over it."

"There's the Ashton I know!"

"Why do you like calling me by my full name? Does provoking me give you pleasure?"

"You don't like being called by your full name?"

I rolled my eyes again. This conversation is endless. "I have said that many times before and yet you still enjoy annoying me with it."

He shrugged. "I just like your name. I don't know why you make people call you any different."

My mouth tugged into a half smile. "You like my name? At least there's something that you like in this world."

"Well yeah I do. And I deeply enjoy annoying you too so that's a win-win," He said.

"Well congrats JayJay, if there was an award, you'd definitely win."

He didn't say anything but kept regarding me slowly, and I almost squirmed under his gaze. His piercing midnight eyes were raking over me with amusement and I suddenly realized I was doing the same thing. For a couple of seconds, we stood like that, staring at each other. His eyes were devout of all emotion and although I was really good at figuring people out, I couldn't even guess what was going on behind those black seas.

Clearing my throat, and wanting to break the silence, I said, "How can you live here anyway? This place is like a landfill."

His gaze broke off and he shrugged casually. "I enjoy it more when it's like that."

"Enjoy it? Is something wrong with you?" I said with wide eyes. "There's not a patch of un-littered floor in this room."

"No, there is. See?" He kicked more bottles away and pointed to the empty floor space he just made.

"Seriously?" I raised my eyebrows. "Is it that hard to hang up your clothes and throw those cans in the bin?"

"Nah, cleaning is too time-consuming," He shrugged.

"Ooooh and Jayce the ultimate businessman has no time for that, right?" I said sarcastically.

"Exactly. Now you're getting me, shortcake," He replied, with his signature smirk.

I grunted again, but I couldn't help when a slight smile crept up to my lips.

"I mean, what would your mother say?" I said jokingly. I always used this phrase on Aly because she was terrified of her mother and it left my lips involuntarily.

"My mother's dead," He said boringly, pushing himself away from the doorframe he was leaning on.

I froze. Wow this is the amazing result of my retarded blurts. Why are you so freakishly stupid Ash?

I felt the atmosphere tense up and I couldn't even keep myself from looking so guilty that I was almost going to pee myself. "I'm-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say that. I didn't know."

I searched his face for any signs of emotion but there was nothing. I noticed him marching over to me and I suddenly stiffened and had the feeling of running out quickly. It was weird being alone with Jayce and furthermore, alone in his room. It felt even weirder after I proved I'm a completely unsympathetic jerk.

When he was right before me he chuckled and said, "There's that little lost puppy expression again."

I opened my mouth to say something and closed it again, not knowing what to say that wouldn't make this worse. "Jayce, I'm sorry," I finally said. I was biting my lip, a habit I always did when I was nervous.

"It's fine," He mumbled boringly.

"No it's not. I shouldn't have said that."

"Hey, it's fine. You couldn't have known could you?" He said.

I don't know why I was searching for some sadness in his voice or anything but shouldn't this be a touchy subject for most people? If it was, then Jayce was clearly unaffected to the extent he seemed really bored of the whole thing.

"Yeah, but still-"

"I told you its fine, Ash."

"I know but...," I said. "Wait... Did you just call me Ash?"

He quirked an eyebrow. "Um, I mean Ashton."

"No no no," I smiled. "You said Ash."

"I slipped."

"Ha! Now you can't go back!" I shook my head.

"Don't get too excited, shortcake." He said, his famous smirk forming back.

This shortcake nickname is annoying me to the extent I might have nightmares, and considering he already knows how much it gets to me, he'll never stop using it.

Sigh. That's why you shouldn't show your weaknesses Ash. That's why.

"Oh piss off," I mumbled, but his grin grew wider.

He pointed to the files and said, "So, what did little miss snooper find?"

My cheeks were starting to heat up again. "I didn't really snoop okay? It just got me curious."

"Okay, then what did little miss curious find?"

I knew he was actually concerned that I invaded his privacy but he was concealing it so perfectly. Deciding I didn't want to get into another fight with Jayce, I simply shrugged and said, "Nothing. You barged in the moment I was about to open them."

"Aha...," He said, looking a bit more relaxed. "And that's a good thing I did or you would've got me arrested."

My eyes widened at the sound of his words. "W-what?"

Jayce looked at me with concern in his eyes and then his lips parted and he let out a deep laugh. "Yo, I'm kidding," He said, between laughter. My eyebrows knit together and my horrified expression was plainly plastered on my face. He was still laughing when he said, "I'm kidding! I'm kidding!"

I smiled back weakly not knowing what else to do. Literally, this time, I was about to shit my pants.

"You should've seen your face!" He continued, his laughter growing louder. "You looked like you were witnessing your dog getting run over by a truck."

I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding in and when I saw how much he was laughing, I chuckled. "Nice metaphor JayJay. Gosh! Don't joke like that!"

"I didn't know you were easy to scare, shortcake."

"Whatever," I said, giving him a punch on the shoulder.

"Oh by the way, if you're still tired," He said, as he proceeded to rummage in one of his drawers. "You can have some of my cocaine. It'll make you feel awesome."

"Oh, my god Jayce I don't want any of your cocaine!" I exclaimed. "Who do you think I am? Why do you even have coke? Do you do it regularly or something? Did that shady looking dude in our class sell it to you?"

He gave me a sideways glance and kept looking through the drawer.

"Jayce! No no no leave me out of this I don't wanna go to jail. I'm only eighteen!" I stuttered stupidly, my voice almost breaking. I glimpsed a smile tugging at his lips as he looked at me. My face was red, my eyes wide, and my panic evident.

Of all the things I expected him to do, he recoiled back laughing.

Again.

His laughter was deeper than before and more sarcastic. My eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Why was he laughing? This isn't something to joke about! Oh wait...

"You are such a prick!" I said, shoving him as he still guffawed loudly. "Why would you joke like that!"

"It's so fucking fun watching you drown in your panics," He said, after his laughter died down.

"It's not! I almost believed you, you dick-head!" I growled at him, giving him another shove.

"Come on; just agree that that was pure genius." His grin widened. "Seriously your face was so-" He slurred off when he pointed at me enthusiastically. "-oh! You said dickhead and prick!"

Oh, shit. Why can't I live on my own free will? This is a free country people!

"I am not taking another shot," I stated simply.

"You're gonna throw away all your previous progress?"

"Progress? What progress?" I said, my voice starting to rise. "All the progress that has happened today is me drinking a shit load of alcohol that I have never drank in all my life combined. The progress is when I vomited in technically a stranger's bathroom, and then had to listen to a heated making out session of you and Rina that almost caused me to lose my hearing."

"You gotta admit... That was hilarious," He said with a smirk.

"What was?" I said.

"You know, when you suddenly opened the bathroom door, walked straight, pretending like it was the most casual thing ever," He said, still smiling. "That was gold. Especially Rina's screams. Don't worry, they pierced my ears too."

I rolled my eyes. "That wasn't funny. I was being tortured listening to you two. Are you guys dating or something?" I mumbled, looking anywhere but him. I pretended I was scanning the books on the shelves again. And I predicted it would be safer if I didn't ask him about that 305 delivery or something, since I was supposed to not be there anyway.

"Hell no," He shrugged as he moved a bit closer to me.

"Hell no? Why so defensive?" I raised an eyebrow at him questionably.

I moved back a couple of inches, wanting more space between us, but he unconsciously stepped closer.

"Not defensive. Just that-" he said. "I don't do the dating thing."

"Aha..."

Well, obviously Jayce looked like the kind of guy who would just be with one girl and then move to another on the next day.

"Yeah," He muttered.

"Isn't it weird for your friendship though?"

"Why are you so interested in my sex life, shortcake?" He said, his smile obviously indicating he wanted to provoke me.

"Get over yourself Jayce. Why would I be interested?" I exclaimed angrily.

"Dunno. You tell me."

He was inching closer and closer to me and I was stepping back casually as if I didn't notice.

"You know what's wrong with you?" I said. "You can't have a normal conversation with another normal human being and not turn it into something idiotic and stupid."

"Wait..." He said, confusingly. "Who's the normal human being I'm supposed to be talking to? I can't see anyone else in here."

Catching up on his sarcasm, I shoved him roughly. "Maybe because you're so retarded, you don't notice when someone's normal and sane."

"Shortcake, you are far from sane."

My nostrils flared. "What's that supposed to mean? And stop calling me that or I swear I'll use your eyeballs as ice-cubes."

"Here we go again," he said, with a wicked grin. "The psychotic threats."

"You make me feel so infuriated!" I growled.

"Why?" He said, still grinning. He stepped closer towards me but I didn't move.

"Why? Are you seriously asking that?" I said. "Your whole existence makes me want to bump my head repeatedly on a cement wall."

"You're becoming more innovative. I congratulate you, shortcake."

"Stop! Stop calling me that you little shit!" I growled again, slapping him hard on his chest.

"Why are you so mad?" He questioned easily. I was so angry and my whole body was itching to punch him, yet he still looked indifferent.

"Because-" I said. "Because you fucking made me drink like a hundred shots of pure vodka, which caused me to barf in this huge house I just entered a couple of hours ago, and then you ditched me! I was in this state and you ditched me to go do god-knows-what icky thing!"

And of course he was merely laughing. Yes, laughing.

"And!" I continued, my face still fuming from my sudden rise of temper. "My head hurts like a fucking bitch, I couldn't say more than a couple of words to Sean, my friends are nowhere to be seen, and I'm in here talking to the most annoying person that has ever set foot on this planet."

I was breathing heavily, and I could feel my blood on the verge of boiling. I know I have anger issues but they probably intensify to a hundred times when I'm with Jayce. It's ridiculous.

"So, you're mad 'cause I ditched you?" He spoke amusingly after watching me yell like a psycho.

"Is that the only thing you got from my rant?" I said. "Unbelievable!" I threw my hands up in frustration.

"Are you upset that I ditched you?" He repeated. This time, it was really obvious he was coming closer to me and I stepped back but my back touched the wall behind me.

"N-no!" I stuttered, surprised by his sudden closeness. "Of course not! Why would I be upset? Do you see me as one of those shallow girls who worship you?"

He quirked an eyebrow at my statement.

Although my voice went down, I was still fixated on ranting. "Well, think again mister. You're nothing more than a huge asshole." I said simply. "Oh, and a ridiculously cocky jerk."

His mouth tugged into a half smile and his eyebrow was still raised, when he stepped even closer, leaving only mere inches between us.

Okay, I'm definitely short. I was looking up at him and I wondered how tall he was. My back was pressed against the wall completely and I felt trapped in-between this dark haired idiot and a stupid wall. He was close to the extent I could easily smell his strong whiff of perfume, which was mixed up with a slight hint of body spray. I recognized the scent as that of spicy cinnamon with a hint of warm vanilla.

Mmm vanilla.

It was making my head spin, and my air felt scarce with him that close. The atmosphere was so quiet, I could hear nothing else than my ragged breathing.

Why did my breathing quicken up so suddenly?

"A cocky jerk and an asshole," he repeated, his smirk still evident. "I think that suits me pretty well actually."

I looked up at him as he spoke. His pitch black eyes were swirling with amusement and he seemed to enjoy trapping me. Oh no Mr. Jayce, don't look too happy.

"Yes. A jerk who can't seem to keep his distance." I breathed out angrily. The fact that he thinks he's got me trapped and under his grasp made me feel infuriated. "You might have all those girls dancing around your little finger, but that doesn't make you less of a douchebag. In all honesty, it makes you more of a prick." I said through gritted teeth.

My head was starting to swim again. His strong scent was so mesmerizing it was making me drowsy.

I proceeded to shove him roughly again and get him out of my way, but he grabbed my wrist unexpectedly. I stared at him with wide eyes not knowing what to say. I wanted to pull my hand crudely away from him but I simply couldn't. His gaze was raking over me, and I realized his breathing was speeding up too. He was towering over me, and my eyes were locked with his for probably seconds, but it felt like an eternity.

As I stared more and more into his eyes, I picked up a hint of dark blue swirls circling the darkness of his pupils. They weren't really visible, but somehow, I was able to see them. He was still holding onto my wrist and he seemed lost for some reason. He was staring back at me confusingly, and I rarely saw that look on Jayce. His expressions were always that of certainty, mock, and arrogance.

I opened my mouth to throw an insult at him but I closed it. I didn't know what to say, because I was so lost for words. His brows furrowed, and he let go of my wrist quickly. His face was blank again, and all hints of previous uncertainty, were washed off completely.

"I- I'm... Y-You..." I said between ragged breaths.

Wow, you blurt unnecessary shit like an idiot, Ash but you can't form a coherent sentence when necessary. I mean,thats typical, nothing new.

The distance between us was still pretty small, and for that, I still couldn't break my gaze away from him. The way he was still looking back made something stir at the pit of my stomach. His looks weren't like a second ago, instead, they were totally plain and indifferent.

He ran a hand through his hair and said, "Hey, you seriously need to-"

I raised a hand in front of him to shush him. Uh oh, my stomach was acting up again. Oh, no not at this time.

Seriously Ash? Can I kick myself? Can I throw myself under a truck? Stop talking to yourself you moron!

I put a hand on my mouth, pushed Jayce roughly aside, and ran to the door. I burst out the room and hurried to the bathroom to get all disgusting again.

Twice. In one day. In the same party.

Great. I'm a hundred percent awesome aren't I?

I'm just pure elegance.

I'm the definition of sophistication.

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