Jamie

I'm standing by the punch bowl, chatting to Aubrey and John. They look so cute together tonight, in their Romeo and Juliet costumes. John can barely take his eyes off of Aubrey, they're so sweet. I'm not jealous of her at all...

"Where's Kim, anyway?" I ask Aubrey, "I haven't seen the zombie cheerleader yet."

"She was talking to Nikki and some other friends from class." Aubrey says, looking over her shoulder towards the dance floor. I'm not looking around myself, because I have no idea if Noah is here already or not, and I don't wanna chance seeing him.

"She's over there." John says, and I watch as he points towards the dancefloor. He looks kinda concerned though. Weird...

"Ohmigod." Aubrey says to herself before rushing towards the dancefloor. Okay, something's wrong. Get a grip, Jame. Just turn around and look.

I turn around to see what's going on, and straight away my eyes land on Kim sitting at a table with Nikki, crying her eyes out. I make my way towards her immediately, right behind Aubrey.

"Kim, what's wrong?" Aubrey says softly, pulling up a chair beside her and wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

"Zach!" Kim says through her tears. She looks up at Aubrey, and I see that her make-up and fake blood has totally smeared around her eyes. She actually looks fine though, it assists the zombie look.

"What did he do?" Aubrey asks gently, but her words send Kim into a fresh wave of tears.

"He was standing over there with Noah." Nikki supplies, inclining her head towards the far side of the ballroom. Aubrey turns her head around to look in the direction Nikki is indicating. I don't. "They were talking to a couple of other New Yorkers, Zach said some pretty horrible things about Kim."

"What did he say?" I ask.

"He pretty much told some guy to try and hook up with me. He actually said be my guest! That fucking dick!"

"That bastard!" Aubrey is shaking her head in disbelief. So is Nikki. "I'm gonna go get you a drink, stay right here."

"I'll get it, you stay." Nikki offers, before getting up and heading towards the punch bowl.

You know what, I think it's time I told Kim about the sharing game. Not right now of course, not when she's so upset. But, I'm telling her. Zach can't treat her this way. I gave him the benefit of the doubt, and he's just proved that he is every bit the asshole I had hoped he wasn't. Him and Noah both. Suddenly, I feel very angry.

"Hey, are you okay?"

I snap myself out of my building rage, and turn to see that some dude dressed up like Zoro has approached us. He's asking Kim if she's okay. That's nice, I guess. He must have seen her crying. He's kinda butting in here though.

"Leave me alone!" Kim snaps at him, and I realise this must be the guy Zach was talking to.

I frown at him instinctively as he rolls his eyes at Kim and looks up at me, presumably noticing me for the first time. His eyes widen when they land on mine, and I totally glare at him as he proceeds to look me up and down, practically undressing me with his eyes. What the hell?!

"I don't know who you are, but you need to leave us alone." I say to him evenly.
He grins at me as he continues looking me up and down, before finally tearing his eyes away from me and looking back over at Kim. What is this guy's problem?! Can't he see that she's crying!? She does not need to be hit on right now!

"Listen, what Zach said back there?" He says to Kim. "He's a dick. You could do a lot better than him, believe me."

"I'm not talking to you about this!" Kim yells up at him from where she's sitting. "Just go away!"

"All right, all right!" He says, holding his hands up, palms facing Kim. "I was only trying to help, geez."

Yeah, this guy's a New Yorker. And from what I've witnessed so far, he is a total ass. I wonder if this is Walker or Adrian.

"Who the hell are you, anyway? What do you want?" I snap at him.

"The name's Walker." He says, flashing me a smile. "And who are you, pretty girl?"

Kim snorts at this and Aubrey frowns, looking up at Walker in complete disbelief. Yeah, he's unbelievable, I can see that too. Nikki returns with some drinks, and I can see from my peripheral vision that she's looking between Walker, Kim, Aubrey and I in confusion. Don't worry Nikki, I got this.

"None of your business!" I bark at him. "Now get outta here. Get back to your asshole New Yorker buddies. None of us wanna talk to you."

He raises his eyebrows at me and smiles. Seriously? "Wow, you're a feisty one, aren't you?" He says, raking his eyes over my body again. I cannot believe Erin has been sleeping with this guy.

"Why you gotta be so rude?" He says to me mockingly. "I was about to ask you to dance too, but I don't think I'll bother now."

"If you'd asked me to dance, I would have told you to fuck off, so we're all good." I snap back, giving him a big, insincere smile.

He frowns down at me, and I glare back up at him. I have a feeling he isn't used to girls talking to him this way. But you know what? I am done with these fucking pricks from New York. He can fire as many shots at me as he wants right now, I'll shoot right back at him. 

"All right." He says, sounding angry now. "Why are you acting like such a bitch? You don't even know me."

Oh, no he didn't. 

"What did you just call me?" I say, my tone oozing venom.

He widens his eyes and smirks at me. "Bitch."

"Who the fuck do you think you're calling a bitch?!" The angry sound of my best friend, Mr Jamie Montgomery, is like music to my ears. I turn my head to the right, and smile up at him. He's appeared from no where, and he's gonna fuck Walker up, and I love him. 

"Let me guess - boyfriend?" Walker says, smirking at Jay. 

"No, that's me. You wanna call her a bitch again?" The furious voice of my other best friend, Mr Patrick Moore, is total music to my ears too. I turn my head to the left, and beam up at him. He's also appeared from no where, and he is definitely gonna fuck this guy up. I love him so much, too. 

"Whatever, I'm out." Walker says, throwing me one last glare before turning towards Kim and glaring at her too. Talk about assholes! Next time I talk to Erin, I am giving her a tonne of shit for ever touching this guy, let alone sleeping with him!

"Who the fuck is he?!" Patrick asks me, sounding beyond angry, and glaring after Walker as he walks off into the crowd.

"No one." I smile at Patrick before turning towards Jay. "Thank you both for that, but I had it under control." 

Patrick lets out a sharp laugh before shaking his head. Jay just rolls his eyes at me. 

"Guys, you actually just flanked me just now! Like a couple of fucking bodyguards!" I laugh as I look between the two of them, and I'm happy to note a small laugh escaping Kim's lips too. 

"You're a lucky girl, Jame." Kim says to me, before getting to her feet and dusting herself off. "You're lucky you have all these boys willing to fight for you like that. I wish I had at least one." 

She sighs and looks down at her feet. Aubrey stands up and squeezes Kim's shoulders again before whispering something to her that I can't quite make out, because the band have started playing A Little Respect by Erasure now, and everyone is singing along at the top of their lungs. This is an awesome song. 

"We're taking her to dance!" Nikki yells over. "Ain't no boy gonna be ruining this night for her!"

I grin at Nikki and Aubrey, before they whisk Kim away towards the dance floor.

"Something happen with Kim and Zach?" Jay asks me curiously.

"Yeah, he turned out to be exactly who I thought he was. An asshole." 

"Poor Kim. Maybe I should dance with her, you know, make her feel better?" Patrick says, and I roll my eyes. 

"Seriously, P? She's vulnerable tonight. And she's my friend. She's off limits!" I remind him.

"Jame, I wasn't gonna try anything with her. I was just gonna remind her that not all guys are bad. What do you take me for?" He asks me, frowning down at me. And now I feel kinda bad.

"Sorry, dude. I'm not used to you not having an agenda with girls." I admit.

"I'm not an animal, Jamie." He mumbles. Damn, I actually think I hurt his feelings. Whatever, he'll get over it. 

"You know what, I'm gonna ask Kim to dance." Jay says, smiling decidedly, before dusting off his devil costume and heading out on to the dance floor after the girls. 

"And then there were two." I say to Patrick with a smile. "You wanna dance with me?"

He looks at me in horror, before we both start laughing. We both hate dancing. We'd rather grab a bottle of Jack and sneak into one of the studios in the music room and jam. But, we're here. And Fall Out Boy are gonna come on any minute now. And I haven't even seen Noah yet. Besides that shitty situation with Kim and Walker back there, I'm having an okay night. I'm not going anywhere just yet.

"Where the fuck is Joel?" Patrick comments, scanning the ball room for the absent quarter of The Middle. 

"Fuck knows. I haven't really seen him since we got here." I shrug it off. Joel is very sensible, I know that he's not off doing anything dumb. "Ooh, maybe he's with that mystery girl that he's dating?"

"Good call." Patrick says, nodding his head. "I couldn't believe that shit when he told us. Crazy, huh?"

"So he actually hasn't told you anything about this girl?" I ask Patrick, with a raised eyebrow. Those two are best friends, I find it hard to believe that Joel has managed to keep the fact that he's been dating someone from Patrick.

"I didn't know, I swear!" Patrick says, just as the Erasure song ends and people start vacating the dance floor. 

"Okay, there's much more room out there. If we go now, we'll get a good spot for Fall Out Boy." I state. "They'll be on soon. What do you say, dance with me and pretend you aren't hating every second of it?"

He laughs at me. "Yeah, sure, what else am I doing?" 

I giggle to myself as Patrick takes me by the hand and begins walking towards the dance floor. Oh, jesus. A Little Respect is over, and the band are playing a slow song now. I guess Patrick and I are gonna have to slow dance together. Fantastic. We can talk about Joel's secret girl while we dance though, or make fun of everyone's costumes, or discuss Blink-182's new album or something. It'll be cool.

I'm watching my step as I follow Patrick through the crowd towards the stage. This fucking dress puffs out, I'm totally getting in peoples way. Oh well. I look up, because my hand has slipped out of Patrick's as my path gets blocked by a couple coming together to slow dance. God damn it. There's so much dry ice. Patrick's just up ahead though. I look around for Jay and Kim, or Aubrey and Nikki. They must have left the dance floor after Erasure. And suddenly, my eyes land on him. And I feel my entire body go cold. I feel like I'm gonna be sick. Because there's Noah, right ahead of me. Slow dancing with Madison Hudson.