My eyes burned as I walked through the sweat and grinding bodies, trying to forget what was happening at the other end of the party. It was foolish, really, but it was difficult to comprehend it with only a sip of soda in my system.

I had liked Nick for a long time now. I had thought that he had understood my subtle hints that I had dropped almost everywhere. Why hadn't he picked them up? As I made my way, I picked up a vodka gin bottle that was kept on the table. I was sure it was someone's drink, but I didn't care.

Taking a swing from it, I felt the burn in my throat that decreased the pain that my heart suffered at the moment. I terribly hoped that my eyes had played tricks on me and it wasn't Nick at all. But those green eyes were hard to misinterpret.

I knew it was him.

I went to the corner, where it was still dark and a no entry board had plastered near it. I wanted to get out of this party. It was an awful idea anyway. What was I thinking? That I would make this guy fall for me in a night?

How pathetic!

There was a thin hope that I could "accidentally" kiss him here and blame it on the drinks if things were to go south. But Nick had never given me the chance. I was friend zoned and I wondered how I stumbled across that position with Nicholas Everest of all people.

I was too scared to even put my head around to see if Lily or James were up for giving me a lift back home. What if I saw Nick take that girl to an empty room in this massive house? Or had they already gone?

I sat on the stairs, drowning my pain, making my brain believe that it was all a maze, an act and it had nothing to do with the intention of hurting me like this. With everything that was going on in my life right now, I thought that Nick was the only one who was able to get me out of that bottomless hole.

But surely, he wasn't.

He was a distraction that was costing me more than I had let on.

I took another chug of vodka, trying to immerse my pain in the dark liquid. I turned to my right only to see them kiss yet again, twisting the imaginary knife further in me. I put my head in my hands, trying to erase the things I had seen.

"Well, this is something you don't witness every day." I heard a familiar voice and my eyes opened in reflex. I only hoped that Brian didn't follow me behind to see where I had run off to.

My eyes sure bulged out of my sockets when I saw who was standing in front of me with a smirk of his own.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Was my response to his question.

Robert, the one and only, shook his head and walked towards me, his smirk still intact on his fair skin.

"What the hell are you doing here?" I repeated, scooting away from him.

"Well, I give these kids illegal beers and stuffs here." He said pointing towards the other end of the hall. He came and sat at the staircase one step above mine. "That sometimes gives me the privilege to stay back and enjoy too. What about you?"

I stayed silent, not wanting him to find out how lame I was or how fucked up my life was.

"One hand holds the beer tight; the other is pressing her head. Face is teary and eyes are puffy. Scarlet, did anyone do something funny?" Robert seemed serious.

I gave a humorless laugh. "I'm pretty sure that I can handle such stuffs."

Robert smiled a little. "Now I'm scared." This time, I smiled in spite of the situation I was in. "So, what happened?"

"It's nothing." I said with a sigh. It wasn't like I was going to tell him what I was going through.

"Come on, Scarlet." Robert said. "I know you are not the one to cry for petty things. What really happened? Is your Dad okay?"

Fresh tears started. When a guy who didn't know me could understand me with perfect ease, why couldn't the idiotic Nick see me?

"Hey," Robert sat next to me, putting his arm around my shoulders. "You can talk to me."

"I'm sorry." I said putting a distance between us. I felt embarrassed as I cried in front of a random stranger. I took a deep breath.

"So?"

"There's this guy." I said finally. "He said he loves me, but today I saw him kiss another girl."

"Ouch." He said, "That should have hurt. You liked him?

"Try love." I said rolling my eyes.

"He knows that?" He asked taken aback. His eyes were searching mine, as if he was finding out if I was actually telling the truth.

"Yeah. I had told him so."

"Did you confront him yet?"

I laughed in spite of the situation I was in. "Are we playing twenty questions or what? And no, I did not confront him."

"Let's say it's twenty question, and I still have... seventeen more to go." Robert shrugged. "He sure is a dick for ditching you for someone else, though."

"I was talking to Brian and then when I turned towards my right I see him with her." I took another sip of beer from the bottle. "Why?"

"Who's the one? Is he still here?" Robert asked looking at the other part of the hall.

I pointed towards the guy in white who was still swaying with that junior in his arms. "That's Nick."

"Now I get it." Robert said. I was pretty sure that his analysis mode was on and he had found the answers. But the question was if I wanted to know what that was.

"You mean to say?" I asked anyway, or may be the alcohol was getting me, I didn't know.

"You were talking with Brian, right?" I nodded my head. Since he supplied the stuffs, he might as well know Brian too. "Brian is a flirt, trust me. Were you flirting with him?"

Now when I thought about it, I indeed was flirting with him. The laughs and the playful hitting. "Oh my God!" I said, connecting the dots. "That was why."

Nick would have probably seen me flirting with Brian and it should have back fired with the Sam girl. It was all my fault.

Well, damn me to hell.

"Shit!" I muttered again, disgusted at myself. "What am I supposed to do? I liked this guy and I blow up my only chance! I came to this stupid party only so that I could get close to him and let him know my feelings... but..."

I took the bottle to my hands again, taking another chunk of the liquid. Before I could pour the liquid into my mouth, Robert yanked the bottle from my hand.

"Um, that's probably enough for today." He said, smiling slightly at my frown. When he noticed that my face didn't lose my frown, he added. "You kids and your love life."

The alcohol had already kicked in my senses. "What the hell is that supposed to mean? You think you are so grown up and know all the shit about life, huh?"

"Hey, hey," He raised his hands in defense, with a smile on his face. "I never said that."

"Oh, shut up." I said, but the words were slurred, not delivering with the same impact that I intended to have.

"But I know stuffs like these." He said. "Like an intuition."

"Boo." I commented back, but soon felt like face palming at myself for acting like a child. Just remind me never to chunk alcohol without a backup.

But I could tell that Robert was enjoying the scene unraveling in front of him. He was giving his famous smirk and it was taking me more to the edge.

"What are you smirking at?" I snapped at him. "You think you are smart enough to analyse the situation and predict everything correct, right?"

His smirk only deepened.

"Why don't you prove it right and let my idiotic Nick fall for me?" I challenged. "Then I might even agree for once." 

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A/N: My heart breaks at Scarlet's situation. Do you think it was just a backfire for Scarlet's flirts with Brian? Will Robert help her achieve her goal?