Immediately, her hand dropped from the man's grasp and let it fall to her side.

The man's warm, brown eyes widened, his smirk broadening into a grin. His eyes flickered between Louis, who was now heading straight towards them with a scowl on his face, and Jaime who stood there, confused.

"Oh, so this is your date," the man said when Louis had stood by Jaime's side, arm wrapped around her shoulders protectively. "You must be Jaime, then. What a pleasure to meet you. My name is Parker."

"It's nice to meet you, too, Parker," she murmured, keeping her eyes low.

Louis pulled her closer so now their hips were pressed against one another. Jaime had let her arm settle around his waist comfortably. She glanced up at him, watching as he narrowed his eyes at Parker. But, it was gone in an instant, a grin lighting up his face.

"Happy birthday, Parker."

"Thanks, man."

Just like that, the tension between the two men disappeared. He let go of Jaime for a moment, pulling Parker into a hug, patting him roughly on the back. They pulled away and suddenly, she was underneath Louis' arm again.

"I'm glad you found a date, I didn't want you to come without one," Parker said, a playful grin on his lips. Jaime noticed how careful he was with his words. He made sure he didn't mention the fact that he would have thrown some all-too-willing woman at Louis if Jaime hadn't said yes to him.

Lou's happy grin fell slightly. His lips tightened into a thin, fake smile. "Yeah, I'm just happy Jaime said yes."

Was it just her imagination or did his grip on her shoulder tighten as well?

"Good. Well, I'm going to find Kimmie and annoy her some. I'll see you guys later. Enjoy the bar!"

Then, just like that, he disappeared into the crowd of dancers, off to find a blue-haired woman. When he was out of sight, Jaime turned to face Louis.

He was wearing a dark blue shirt underneath a black leather jacket and a pair of denim jeans. His hair was in its predictable, disheveled state. As usual, his smile was crooked and sent Jaime's heart into a wild rhythm. There was no doubt he looked amazing tonight.

"Hi," she whispered, a grin stretching her cheeks.

"Hi," he replied, his smile mimicking hers.

For a moment, Louis and Jaime were silent as they held their gaze. Butterflies erupted in her stomach, her fingers gripping his waist just a little tighter as her knees began to feel weak. And then, the gaze broke when Louis' eyes lowered to the rest of her face and then her dress.

"You look marvelous," he complimented.

A light blush spread across her cheeks, but fortunately it was dim enough that he wouldn't notice.

"Thank you," Jaime murmured.

"How about I introduce you to a couple of my friends?" he asked, but he was already weaving in and out of the dance crowd, leading Jaime towards the bar.

She pursed her lips automatically when the bar was in sight and almost stopped herself mid step, but remembered there was someone dragging her along, towards a small group of people at the bar. Fighting the instinct to turn and run from the bar, Jaime trudged on forward.

It wasn't long before he and Jaime were standing next to a group of people, laughing loudly at something that happened. Some of them had a colorful glass of alcohol and the others had a bottle of beer. Jaime, again, tried not to scrunch her nose up at the close sight of alcohol.

"Hey, guys," Louis said, calling the attention of everyone in that little group. The laughing ceased and all eyes turned to Jaime, whose cheeks heated up from the sudden attention. "I want you to meet Jaime, she's a really good friend of mine."

Jaime took in the group of five, supposedly Louis' friends.

The male in the outermost part of the circle they all formed had caught her eye first. He had dark hair that wafted to the right, facial hair showing he hadn't shaved in a couple weeks, maybe a month, and a pair of warm brown eyes. Then, there was a short female with fiery red hair and blue eyes. She had a colorful drink in hand while she looked at Jaime with a challenging expression on her face - that, Jaime didn't miss. A male with medium-brown, shoulder-length hair wore a colorful button up shirt with a pair of dark jeans and had a bright, welcoming smile on his face. There was a thin, ginger-haired male who had a beer in one hand and a silver-haired woman wrapped around his other arm. The ginger guy barely glanced in Jaime's direction, too focused on drinking the beer in his hand.

"That's Liam, Ariana, Harry, and then that's Nathan with his long-time girlfriend Dawn, but don't mind them if they come off a little rude. They're like that," Louis introduced them all with a grin plastered across his face.

Jaime gave them all a half-hearted, shy wave. "Hi."

"Well, I'm not rude," said the boy with long, shoulder-length hair. He was grinning and seemed friendly enough to Jaime. He stepped forward and held out his hand. "Like Louis said - I'm Harry. It's very nice to meet you."

Jaime shook his hand. "And you, as well."

Liam stepped forward, pressing a light kiss against her cheek as he squeezed her shoulders gently. "Well, it's nice to put a face to your name. Louis really hasn't stopped talking about you since you arrived in London."

That's all it took for not only Jaime's cheeks to darken in embarrassment, but Louis' too. She saw the pinkish tint to his cheeks when he stepped forward, elbowing Liam in the gut.

"Stop telling tall tales," Louis said, his voice low and a bit raspy. As if that was supposed to make-up for being embarrassed and blushing. "They're going to get you into trouble one day."

"Yeah, right."

But no one else said anything more on that.

Ariana was the next who stepped forward, shoving a colorful drink in a clear glass into Jaime's grasp. She wore a challenging smirk on her face as she said, "Drink up."

But, Jaime pushed the glass back towards Ariana before she could smell the stench of the alcohol. She shook her head furiously, not wanting any alcohol near her.

"No, thanks," she said, her cheeks darkening even more under the curious gazes. "I don't really like alcohol. Not a big fan."

"Why?" It wasn't Ariana who spoke, but Nathan, and it wasn't even a question. It was more of a demand. As if it were impossible to believe that someone could hate alcohol.

"Well for one, I'm nineteen and it's illegal for me to drink - in the United States, at least. And secondly, I have never been a fan. Simple as that."

There was no way Jaime could speak the truth, tell everyone her true thoughts about alcohol and how she'd come to hate it so much. They were at a club for Louis' friend. She couldn't ruin the mood like that, so she stayed quiet.

Ariana snorted. "No one just doesn't like alcohol or refuse to drink it - besides the law. Come on, you have to have a reason."

Jaime frowned, gripping tighter onto Lou's waist. Her heartbeat picked up its pace, beating faster inside her chest. And just as she was about to open her mouth and speak, Louis beat her to it.

"Ari, you need to back off," he said, his voice sharp. "If she has a reason, then you don't need to be bothering her about it. She doesn't have to explain herself to you - to anyone of you."

He turned to Jaime, eyebrows furrowed as he rolled his eyes. "Do you want to dance?"

"Yeah," she forced a smile on her face, knowing perfectly well it was an excuse to get away from his friends.

When they were out of ear-shot, he leaned down to whisper into her ear as they walked. "Sorry about Ariana, she... well, once upon a time, we dated and she still has feelings towards me. I tried to get to her to back off of my other female friends, but she's kind of this hostile. I'm sorry, I should have warned you about her."

Everything made sense. No wonder she had that challenging look in her eye, how she held her head high and the expressions she was giving Jaime. Of course, Ariana was eyeing her up - making sure she wasn't competition, and if she was, Ariana would have made her run for the hills. Still might, actually.

Suppressing a sigh, Jaime shook her head. "It's all right, Lou. You're quite a catch. Any one of your ex's would hardly let you go so easily."

"Would you let me go easily?"

Her cheeks heated up, burning bright. "I-I do-don't know," she stammered against her words, making her cheeks flame even hotter.

A smile grew on Louis' face, her reaction seeming to have pleased him in some way. But, he said nothing and continued to lead her towards the dance floor. His arm dropped from Jaime's shoulder and she removed her own arm from his waist.

And, then, they were dancing. They let the music move them, control their movements and their limbs. It was upbeat music, the kind that would appear on a radio station playing only the biggest hits.

The air surrounding Jaime and Louis was warm, mostly because they were smack dab in the middle of the dancing crowd. But, neither of them cared about the warm air, or the sweaty people around them. Their eyes were on each other as they danced.

It was when Jaime's feet were beginning to cramp and ache when there was the sound of something tapping against a microphone followed by, "Hey, hello. Uh, is this thing working? Guess it is. Here."

Almost immediately, everyone turned to wherever the person was talking. And in the opposite direction of the bar was a stage where Nathan was standing, looking half-drunk and without Dawn stuck to his side.

His words were slow, but not slurred when he spoke through the microphone, enthusiasm evident in his words. "Heeey, people! It's time for the birthday boy - whoops, I mean guy - to see his cake and time for us to sing happy birthday! Devin, get up here and give us"- he belched loudly into the microphone -"whoops, excuse me, a beat."

A lanky guy climbed up to the stage and jogged to one of the instruments - a keyboard, it looked like.

"Parker, get up here!"

A familiar man with light-brown hair combed back climbed onto the stage, whooping and hollering. Parker. Jaime's cheeks darkened, remembering the way he greeted her.

"One! Two! Three! And go!"

On cue, the sounds of a piano echoed throughout the club and then everybody began singing the familiar, well-known song. It was very loud. Jaime couldn't help but sing along with everybody else, even when she had only met him for less than five minutes. Her voice was drowned out by everybody else singing.

And then, at last, everybody screamed out, "Happy birthday, Parker!" at the top of their lungs. Jaime cringed, covering her ears with her hands.

While everybody was singing the Happy Birthday song, someone had rolled out a decorative cake on wheels. It was impressively large, decorated in colors of green, black, red and white, and what looked like playing cards all over the cake with oversized poker chips. Whoever made the cake definitely had certain skills.

"Amazing," Jaime whispered under her breath.

Though, it wasn't meant for anyone to really hear, Louis responded quietly. "I know, I had ordered it specially for him at a bakery. He can be a stupid, half-drunk fool half the time, but I grew up with Parker. He's my best friend, besides Liam."

Jaime glanced at him. He wasn't looking in her direction, but at the stage. The corners of his mouth were lifted into a smile, the sparkle in his eyes evident. He was happy for Parker, despite earlier when things looked tense between them. Or could it have been that Jaime imagined all of it?

She didn't know what to believe.

And just as she turned to face the stage, someone had rammed into her.

Or rather, a blue-haired drunk woman by the name of Kimmie.

Jaime, in turn, bumped into Louis. His hands were on her shoulders, catching her as she nearly fell into him. At the warm contact of his hands brushing along her bare skin, a dark blush appeared on her cheeks.

But, of course, Kimmie didn't notice the surprised, almost dazed look Jaime gave him when she looked up at him. Kimmie tangled her fingers in with Jaime's and tugged her away from Louis, shouting something about a bathroom before they disappeared into the crowd.

"Jaime!" Kimmie cried out when they were in the bathroom and away from the crowd. "I have to tell you a secret! You have to promise you won't tell anyone - not even Louis."

Another secret she had to keep. Sigh.

"Okay, I promise."

"You have to pinky swear. No going back on it or breaking it."

She nodded her head, suppressing a soft sigh. Kimmie was drunk, of course. She could smell the alcohol on her breath when Kimmie had shook her shoulders and her breath had wafted to her nostrils.

Whatever secret she had to keep, it probably wasn't going to be serious.

Jaime curled her pinky around Kimmie's and waited patiently for the secret to slip from her lips.

A horrified expression appeared on the blue-haired girl's face as she spoke. "Parker kissed me. And I kissed back."

Another chapter! I hope you guys like this chapter. Vote and comment, tell me what you think! :)