(written by Lacy) "Can you promise me something?" Jade heard someone whisper in her ear, and she turned to see Nick looking at her. "What?" she asked. "A dance," he whispered. Jade's eyebrows raised at his proposition. She was about to answer him when the limo driver said over the intercom, "We're here, folks." "Believe it or not, this is my first time ever being in a limo," Jess said. Brian just smiled at her. That was all he had been doing ever since they left the house. Jade's guess was that he was too star-struck to speak. She didn't blame him, Jess looked radiant. Jade had already decided to give Jess the dress when they got home that night, in Jade's oppinion it looked better on Jess than it did on her anyways.
"What?" Jade asked when she felt someone staring at her and looked up to meet Kevin's eyes. "Nothing. Ready?" he asked. Jade crinkled her brow. "Yeah," she said after a few seconds. She had the feeling that he wasn't being entirely honest with her. Kevin opened the door and got out, offering his hand to Jade. She took it and slowly stepped out into the night. She was surrounded by people; there were hundreds of them just waiting to get into the club. "Holy shit," Jess muttered from behind her as she and Brian got out of the limo. "Are you sure we're gonna be able to get in here?" Jess spoke up. "Positive. But if they turn us away, we could always have Jade do a split to distract the bouncer and then we can run for the door," AJ said, but his smirk quickly turned into a look of fright as Kevin turned around with a clenched fist.
"Okay, okay, calm down! Very funny AJ, what are you trying to do? Get yourself killed?" Brian said, stepping between AJ and Kevin. AJ just looked at the ground. "Okay, let's get off this rollercoaster of fun and go dance, shall we?" Howie said, walking past them. AJ looked up only to see Jade's shocked expression to what he had said. He opened his mouth to say something, but she just turned away and walked toward the club. "Not too smart, asshole," Nick said as he walked by him, throwing him a dirty look. Slowly, AJ shuffled his feet and followed everyone to the door. "Hey James," Kevin said as they reached the front entrance. The bouncer looked up and laughed. "Hey, Kevin! How you been, man?" he asked, giving Kevin a high-five. "Pretty good," Kevin said, looking around him. "Got a lot of people here tonight. Got a big band playing?" he asked. "Nah, Johnny's here tonight," the bouncer said, scribbling something down on his clipboard.
"Go on in," he said, pointing at the door behind him. They entered the club to be greeted by a bright red light in their faces. "Why they keep that spotlight on the door all the time I'll never know," Howie said, walking away from them and towards the bar, followed by AJ. Jade laughed to herself as she watched them both try to hit on the same girl. She laughed out loud as she saw the girl get up and leave. "Smart girl," Nick said from beside her.
They quickly maneuvered their way through the crowd of poeple on the dance floor and sat down at a table that said RESERVED in big white letters. "Are we allowed to sit here?" Jess asked. "We should be, we're the ones that reserved it," Brian said, smiling at her. "Hello, welcome to The Green Room. Can I get you anything?" asked a waitress as they took thier seats. Jess looked up at her and couldn't help but laugh. She wasn't wearing a waitress uniform like she had expected, but a big green box instead. "Uh, two Scotch-on-the-Rocks and two Strawberry Daqeuris please," Kevin said, smiling apologetically.
"Jade?" Kevin asked after the waitress had walked away. She (Jade) was still laughing. "I'm sorry," she said, catching her breath in big gasps, "I've just never seen anyone wearing a big... green... BOX before," she said, falling into a fit of laughter again. "I think it's supposed to be a trend," Brian said, smiling. "More like trendy," Jade said, wiping the tears of laughter from her eyes.
"Here are your drinks," the skinny waitress in the green box said, setting them down on the table. "Thank you," Jess said, throwing Jade a don't-even-think-about-it look. Jade just smiled at her. "Excuse me," Jade started, and Jess threw her up her hands and sighed. "Yes?" the waitress said, turning back around to face her. "Where can I get one of those green boxes? Are they Vercace or Armani?" Jade asked, smiling at her. The waitress gave her an exasperated look and quickly walked away.
"Jade, that was awful," Jess said, trying to hold back a smile while at the same time elbowing Brian in the side for laughing. "Oh, I know, it was just plain horrible of me. They should really put me in jail," Jade said with a sparkle in her eye. "Or maybe the Insane Assylum instead," Jess said. "Let's go dance," Brian suggested, pointing to the dance floor where dozens of couples were scattered about. "Yes, sir," Jess said, taking his hand and following him as they left to dance to "Stairway to Heaven." "I'll be right back, don't dissapear on me," Kevin said suddenly, standing up and kissing her on the cheek. "Wait, where are you going?" Jade asked, wrinkling her brow as she looked up at him. He just smiled at her as he walked away.
What is he doing? she thought to herself, trying to let her eyes follow him, but she lost him in the crowd in a matter of seconds. About five minutes later after sitting there for longer than she could stand it, Jade stood up to go look for Kevin. She slowly pushed her way through the people on the dance floor and found herself standing in front of the bar. Remembering that she had dranken all of her Strawberry Daqeuri, she walked up to the bar and leaned over so the bartender could hear what she was ordering over the loud music. When her Virgin Mary was finally slid across the counter to her, a bill was pushed across to the bartender from someone beside her.
"Thank-you, but I can pay for myself," Jade said politely, sliding the bill back to the blond man sitting beside her on one of the stools. "A pretty lady should always have a man to pay for her drink," he said, handing the bill back to the bartender while unconspiculously looking Jade up and down. "Thank-you, but no thank-you," Jade said, looking to the bartender for help. She got none in return. "If you'll excuse me," Jade said, leaving her drink set on the bar and turning to walk away. "Hang on a second, honey," the man said, quickly standing and grabbing her arm.
"Let go of me," Jade said between clenched teeth as she turned back around to face the man. "Now, now, honey. Calm down... looking the way you do in that dress I would assume you charge about $500 a night," the man said, still eyeing the red dress that clung to her body like a second skin. "Let go of me now," Jade said, raging as she tried to pull away.
"Let her go now!!!" came two very pissed-off male voices from behind Jade as she continued her efforts to get away from the man. She spun around to see Nick and Kevin standing before her with their fists clenched. "I said, let her go," Kevin said very slowly, his eyes blazing with anger. "You gonna make me, cowboy?" the man asked, tightening his grip on Jade's arm and making her flinch in pain. Kevin, seeing her flinch, quickly felt his anger reaching a boiling point. Without waiting for the man to do anything that would hurt Jade again, he pounced from his spot 15 feet away and grabbed the man's arm, twisting it behind is back. The man cried out in pain and immediantely let Jade go, and Kevin let him go and shoved him hard into the bar.
As two bouncers grabbed the man and lead him out of the club, Kevin put his arms around Jade and sighed. "Where did you go?" Jade asked him in his ear. "To see if the DJ dedicated songs or not," he said, never letting her go. "He... he thought I was a--," Jade started, but Kevin cut her off by placing a finger to her lips. "Ssshhh... don't worry about it," Kevin comforted her, but to no avail.
"No, Jess was right. This dress gives off the wrong message and so do I," Jade said. "What do you mean by that? You don't give off any impression, Jade," Kevin said. "Yes, I do. She was right to call me a slut a few weeks ago. The only reason any guy has ever even dated me is because he thought he'd get lucky, and usually he was right," Jade said. Kevin just stood there staring at her and Nick had his mouth open in shock. "Don't act like you like me, Kevin. And you neither, Nick. I know the reason you're dating me, Kevin, and it's not because of my personality," she said, her eyes watering. "I'm going home. I'll hail a cab," she said, walking away and leaving the man who loved her and the one who wished she loved him standing at the bar behind her...
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