A thin teenager groaned as she stepped out of the small sports car she had been crammed in for the last two hours. "Katie, I know you don't want to but we have to go home. You knew that was coming eventually." The girl's slim mother responded to her groans, and Katie groaned again at her mother's statement.

Katie looked down at the buzzing phone in her hand and noticed Ashley calling, "Hey sweet cheeks," she teased her best friend, smiling to herself.

"Hey doll face," Ashley quipped right back, "you're back right?"

"Ash, you're like a superhero of timekeeping. We just pulled into the driveway." Katie took a few steps away from the car, avoiding the noise of the people around her.

"Well the timekeeper is passing along an invitation to Grace's party tonight. Can you get ready now and meet us there?"

"Why didn't Grace invite me herself?" Katie pushed her long, straight black hair out of her face, and then tucked her free arm underneath the arm holding her phone.

"She dropped her phone in the toilet again," Ashley explained through light chuckles.

"Isn't that the third time this year?" Katie's eyebrow rose involuntarily.

"Katie," Katie's mom interrupted, grabbing Katie's attention away from the phone call. "Jesse's waiting for you." Her mother gestured for her to hurry and hang up.

Katie nodded at her mom's statement. "I have to go, Ash." Katie sighed, "I'll see what I can do." She hung up the phone and followed her mom to the front door where Jesse was already waiting.

"I got your bags, babe." Jesse pecked Katie's lips, smiling at her as he looked into her light brown eyes, and then carried her bags into the house. "Your mom's boyfriend is pretty cool," he spoke over his shoulder.

"Eh, they'll probably end it soon." Katie shrugged, following Jesse to the second floor. Jesse scoffed at Katie's lack of optimism, but Katie shrugged. "Just saying, it's a pattern." Katie's mother Pamela, or Pam as she preferred to be called, called up to the young couple, stating that she had plans to spend the night at her boyfriend's, and to have fun at Grace's. Katie called back a generic response, and then suspiciously looked to her conventionally attractive boyfriend. "How did she know about Grace's party? Ashley just called me about it."

"Grace told me last night," Jesse stated nonchalantly, setting Katie's luggage by her bed.

"You were talking to her last night? I thought her phone was broken." Katie sent him a stern look. Jesse gave a subtly nervous smile brushing off the comment with a believable excuse, suggesting that Grace must've broken it earlier that day. After changing the subject, Jesse convinced Katie to get ready for the party. Katie reluctantly agreed and soon climbed into the passenger seat of her boyfriend's car, and texted Ashley: be there soon.

Ashley smiled at the text on her phone as she walked downstairs of Grace's house looking for Mason. Mason exaggerated his reaction to seeing Ashley flowing down the stairs and began bragging to Ashley and everyone within earshot how unbelievably beautiful she was and how lucky he was to call her his girlfriend. Mason clutched his thick chest as if he were in pain and made his way to the ground with every step Ashley took towards him.

Dana released a small laugh, stepping over Mason as she entered the large home and greeted Ashley. Eddie, instead of stepping over him, extended a hand to help Mason to his feet. Ashley greeted the three before her, but scrunched her face and apologized, explaining she was on the hunt for Grace to inform her of Katie coming to the party.

Dana stopped Ashley, asking for clarification on everyone. "There's a lot of names, and I'm started to get lost." Eddie nodded in silent agreement. He wasn't his usual goofball self lately due to his uncomfortable levels spiking through the roof, and the confusion of all the new people around him barely having an introduction before he was introduced to the next.

Ashley sent Dana and Eddie a reassuring smile before adding, "I'll make you a chart later." She smiled at the two one last time before quickly kissing Mason and running into another room to search for Grace, the party's mystery host, and yet another name that Dana and Eddie had to worry about remembering. Mason trailed after Ashley and shouted back to Dana and Eddie to make themselves at home.

Dana and Eddie's eyes connected, confused from the interaction they just participated in. Their old friends weren't as enthusiastic as these news ones. "Drinks?" Eddie asked, shrugging.

"Sure," Dana followed him to a table and poured them both drinks into disposable plastic cups. "Oh hey Ed," Dana said turning to him, "there's a pool table. Want to watch me kick your butt?" She smiled, attempting to cheer him up.

Eddie gave her a small smile, "That's not going to happen, girl." Eddie and Dana played pool as more people began to show up. Neither one of them paid much attention to people filtering into the house, and only acknowledged the crowd once communicating in the house had increased from speaking to yelling. Halfway through their fourth game, Dana and Eddie heard an argument between a guy and girl, but chose to ignore it until Mason ran into the room panicked. Mason asked if they saw the couple fighting, but Dana shook her head, only being able to point Mason in the direction she heard the argument coming from.

Mason followed the direction Dana pointed towards, and soon spotted Ashley running towards the front door. Ashley was chasing after Jesse, who was in the middle of making a dramatic exit from the party. "Jesse!" Ashley screamed after him, "Where's Katie?" She managed to run in front of him and block his path, asking calmly, "What happened?"

"I don't know," Jesse angrily stopped in the middle of the lawn, turning between Ashley and Mason. He threw his arms in frustration, "She ran off somewhere in the house after breaking up with me!" He yelled in reply.

"What?" Mason asked. He stepped out onto the lawn, intending to calm Jesse down. "After going on a two week cruise together you two break up?"

Jesse lowered his voice, but was still clearly agitated. "She's paranoid and pessimistic and taking all her problems out on me. I'm over her always accusing me of dumb shit. I gotta go." Jesse stormed off towards his black Jeep, and Mason gave up trying to stop him. He and Ashley instead decided to search for Katie back in the house.

Mason attempted to enlist Eddie and Dana on his search, but Eddie was too busy arguing with two boys too wasted to care about personal space. "Get off of me." Eddie complained, pushing the two boys away from him. Dana apologized to Mason, telling him she'd love to help, but felt she better stay by Eddie in case something were to happen with the two drunk buffoons. Understanding her wishes, Mason left again in search of Katie. Eddie bickered with the two clods back and forth, eventually raising his pool stick out of anger. Dana, thankful she stuck around, grabbed hold of the stick and forced Eddie to lower it. Eddie looked back at Dana and opened his mouth to complain again, but stopped himself once he spotted someone just past Dana. "Oh. My. God." Eddie's eyes widened.

"What?" Dana asked him, turning around to see.

"Her..." Eddie was nearly speechless and referring to Katie who was standing across the room by herself. Dana teased Eddie the girl was out of his league, and he rolled his eyes in response. "Oh like she's in yours?" He asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"Not interested, so she doesn't need to be." Dana shrugged, resuming her pool game with Eddie.

"You're just scared." Eddie taunted her, leaning all his weight onto the edge of the pool table.

"You're just a horny teenage boy." Dana didn't look up at Eddie. She ignored his taunts and kept her focus on the pool table in front of her.

"So I'm just a teenage boy then, huh?" They exchanged laughs, and Dana insisted they get back to their game. After a few minutes, however, they noticed the girl in the corner was no longer alone. A drunken boy was making his poor attempts to hit on her.

"Oh, looks like you missed your shot Ed." Dana teased, not realizing how uncomfortable Katie appeared to be.

"Oh come on, she looks helpless." Eddie's eyes saddened. They looked over to the corner again and noticed Katie not being able to resist the boy's advances. "Hey you!" Eddie called at the guy hitting on her. The guy glanced at Eddie, but brushed him off and went back to harassing Katie.

"Aw look at you Eddie, being all heroic." Dana teased him again.

"Hey!" Eddie yelled again at the guy, ignoring Dana's comments. After a couple more attempts at getting the boy's attention, Eddie put his pool stick on the table and began to walk over.

"What are you doing?" Dana asked, stopping him from storming up to the boy. Eddie furrowed his eyebrows at Dana, not understanding why she would stop him from helping. "Ed, remember what I said? You want to make friends. Don't go over there."

"But-"

Dana cut Eddie's plea off. "I'll go get him to stop." Dana set her pool stick down, turned towards the boy and Katie, and walked over to the two. Dana stood by them for a moment, and after hearing the comments he was making towards Katie, she became infuriated. "Hey dude," the boy glanced sideways towards Dana, not paying her much attention. "You may be stupid, but I know you're not deaf." Dana grabbed hold of his shoulder, forcing his attention towards her. "Can you lay off please? She's not a toy."

"Tonight she is..." The guy mumbled with slurred words, adding a creepy smile to make Dana cringe.

"Lay off or you'll regret it." Dana, not wanting the argument to escalate, nudged the boy away from Katie and began to walk away, but stopped once she saw the boy make his way back to Katie. "Hey! What did I just say? Touch her again and you'll regret it!" The guy ignored Dana's threat and grabbed Katie again, causing Dana to storm over. She yanked the guy's arm to turn him around, and punched him across the jaw, knocking him down to the ground. "Touch her again and that'll be the last time you're capable of touching anything!" Everyone in the room paused instantly, and stared at the confrontation. Dana turned towards Katie, ignoring the stares. "Hey, you okay?"

"I'm..." Katie's eyes widened before she passed out, but Dana managed to catch her in time. Dana didn't mind having this stranger fainting considering the only other outcome Dana could predict was the girl vomiting – which required a lot more clean up. Dana picked Katie up and carried her in her arms, heading towards the front entrance where she thought she could see Ashley's fiery red hair.

"Thought you wanted friends, D." Eddie smiled mockingly, taking a sip of his drink as Dana passed him.

Dana reached an arm out and knocked his cup upwards, spilling Eddie's drink all over his face and shirt. "Lucky for you Ed, I don't care what people think of me." Dana left Eddie and moved through the crowd of mannequins staring, paying no mind to the dozens and dozens of eyes on her. She approached the small redhead by the front door, and attempted to get her attention. "Uh...Ash, you want to claim this one?"

"Oh thank god! I've been looking for her!" Ashley said, relieved. She began to examine the girl in Dana's arms.

"Wait...seriously? I was just kidding." Dana adjusted her grip on Katie, feeling her dead weight start to slip from her grasp. Katie unconsciously leaned into Dana's chest for support, but Dana didn't bother to flinch at her movements.

"No seriously," Ashley reassured Dana. "That's my best friend. That's Katie." Ashley instinctively moved through the front door, escorting Dana out to the front lawn. "Apparently she just broke up with her boyfriend." Ashley explained, leading the way to Dana's car.

"Oh believe me, I've been there." Dana quipped. Ashley suggested they take Katie to Ashley's house, and Dana agreed that seemed like the best plan. Dana set Katie down across the backseat and excused herself back into the mess of a party in order to explain to Eddie that she was leaving. Eddie, understanding the circumstances, agreed to leave with Mason.

Once they got to Ashley's house, Dana picked Katie up out of the backseat and carried her inside. "Thanks Dana, and don't worry, Mason said he'd be happy to take Eddie home." Dana nodded as she followed Ashley up the stairs and to her guestroom.

"Where are your parents?" Dana asked, noticing the empty house.

"They're spending the weekend away." Ashley pulled the bed sheets back for Dana to lay Katie on. "Thanks again Dana. You know you can spend the night if you want. It's pretty late."

"Um...sure. Why not?" Dana smiled at her.

"You can take my bed and I'll-"

"No," Dana cut her off, "don't worry about it. I'll sleep on that chair in there. Katie needs someone to help her if she wakes up anyway."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. No problem." Dana smiled at Ashley again.

Soon enough it was morning and Katie began to wake up. She took in her surroundings and became confused. She looked around the room and noticed someone she didn't know, asleep in a chair. Katie quickly reached for her phone, falling out of the bed and landing on the carpeted floor with a thud.

Ashley ran into the room as Katie was regaining her balance and just getting to her feet. "You're up!" Ashley hugged her.

Katie groaned, but managed to wrap a loose arm around Ashley. Ashley released her grasp on Katie, but Katie remained leaning against her for support. "Who's that?" Katie whispered, referring to Dana.

"My name's Dana..." Dana mumbled with her eyes still closed. She stirred slightly before stretching and getting up, walking over to the other two girls. "Ashley says I live across the street from you."

"Katie..." Katie replied hesitantly.

"I know." Dana awkwardly smiled to her. She walked past the two on a hunt for the bathroom.

Katie leaned over to Ashley once Dana left the room, and whispered, "What happened last night?"

"Well for starters," Ashley said at normal volume, "you got wasted, a guy tried to take advantage of you, and Dana here knocked him out and helped me bring you here."

Katie poked her head into the hallway, in search for Dana, "Why did you do that?"

"You were helpless. I had to." Dana's voiced called back from another room.

Ashley interrupted, blurting out, "It was awesome!"

"Um...thanks." Katie awkwardly looked down the empty hallway, calling after Dana. She turned back to Ashley, "I should probably go home. I still haven't unpacked yet from the cruise."

"I'll take you." Dana offered, reappearing into the hallway. "I mean like I said, I apparently live across the street from you. It wouldn't make sense to make you call someone else."

Katie accepted Dana's offer, but the car ride home was silent and awkward. Katie sluggishly got out of the car once Dana had parked. "Thank you," she muttered quietly.

Dana half smiled at her, "guess I'll see you Monday."