I flipped stations on the hotel room’s TV. I was convinced that absolutely nothing but infomercials was on. I flipped back to the infomercial about fruit juicers.

“Damn you! Bastard!” Kerri screamed and bounded into the communal living room, formally Kate and my room.

“Get the fuck away from me!” She shouted again and slammed our door shut. We all stared at her confusedly. She returned the look, a thin line forming between her eyebrows.

Kerri stormed over to me and fell down on the couch. “Your brother’s an asshole,” She announced despondently.

I switched off the TV and started to braid her hair. “No need to tell me that. I could have told you. But someone didn’t listen.”

“What exactly did he do?” Kate asked, not looking up from her bowl of cereal at two in the afternoon. I rolled my eyes. As much as I love my brother and Kerri, they both can be pretty stupid.

“He tried to feel me up when we were watching TV. Some talk show was on. I don’t know. Ewwww. I feel all dirty,” She said, a disgusted look on her face.

“Well I saw that coming,” Kate notified us, not getting up from the kitchen table. She slurped up the milk loudly.

“Ugh. He’s so not even cute. He’s not like wicked hot or anything,” She told us, absentmindedly trying to scrape the “Alex-germs” off her hands. I stopped braiding and put my hands behind my head.

“He’s a good person. But he plays mind games. He knows exactly what he’s doing when he does it. You have to be careful. He’s clever and knows exactly what to tell the girls to make them melt in their shoes. Trust me I’ve seen it in action and it’s pretty unnerving to see perfectly capable, determined girls become putty in his hands,” I told her. I had been through this conversation a million times with at least a hundred fans of my brother. A few listened and got out while they still had their self-respect. But some didn’t heed my words. Those ones lost everything.

Alex was my stepbrother. He was a very Sebastian-esque ‘Cruel Intentions’ sort of person. I wondered if he really loved anyone. Well he wasn’t going to corrupt my friends.

“Just watch yourself. Don’t be afraid to get aggressive,” I told her, although I knew she probably wasn’t hearing me. “He doesn’t take no for an answer. He won’t hurt you or anything. He’s at least half-decent. But he’ll persist until you do become that putty. So just, take it easy. I suggest having a chaperone in the room at all times,” I suggested, completely serious. I worried for my friends, but knew they could fend for themselves, even against the likes of Alex.

“Yeah I can take him. He’s not so buff,” Kerri acknowledged, making a face and flexing her arms. She understood me and I knew she would think twice before doing anything irrational. She could had the physical capabilities to fend off Alex’s pursuits, but I wondered if she had the mental skills. I wasn’t shooting down her intelligence; I had seen the smartest of my friends become toys he liked to play with.

OLIVIA

“Might sound crazy but it ain’t no lie...”

“Baby, bye bye bye!”

“BYE BYE!”

I slammed down my notebook and pen. “TURN DOWN THE DAMN N*SYNC!” I screamed at my sister, who was getting ready in the bathroom.

“Don’t wanna be a fool for you...”

“Just another player in your game for two...”

I bolted out of my seat and scrambled to the bathroom door, almost tripping over some dirty clothes and falling flat on my face in the process. “Kara! Turn down the music!”

“You may hate me but it ain’t no lie...”

I banged on the door with my fist as I felt the rage build up inside me. I hated her. I HATED HER. “TURN DOWN THE DAMN MUSIC!” I shouted again. The music ended and the door flung out at me.

“What the hell is your problem Olivia? Can you, like, shut up for one second? I’m listening to my music. Go away. I’ve only got fifteen minutes to get ready ‘cause, then we’re going out to the Eiffel Tower, right? So, shut up and let me finish.” You know, I saw her mouth moving, but nothing was coming out. Little bitch. She slammed the door shut again and played the music, even louder than before.

“BYE BYE BYE!”

KATE

“Who’s going and who isn’t?” I made a head count to see who was coming to see the Eiffel Tower.

“Kate you know, I don’t see the point into climbing a billion steps to move a little farther off the face of the earth into the freezing wind just to see an aerial view of Paris. We’ll freeze to death before we reach the top. There’s no shelter from the cold,” Nati informed me. I wanted to strangle her. As if having Joe there to terrorize me day and night wasn’t enough.

“Yeah, well we’ll deal with it,” I said, sighing wearily. Maybe just the kids would want to go, or we could go somewhere else. I don’t know. I just need to get out; we’ve been in Paris for a week so far and we still have not been anywhere. It’s sad and pathetic.

“OK, fine. Liv, KK, Julie, Kara, Jesse; they are definitely coming. Sara and Dan; they are coming too because Dan has never been to Paris. Me and Joe,” my voice wandered off. He probably didn’t want to go either. I could care less if he came or not. Well, that’s not entirely true. I wanted him to go, of course, because he was my brother and I wanted to spend time with him. But I didn’t want him to go if he was just going to be flirting with French girls the whole time and making me look like a completely idiot in front of my friends.

“You and Joe...what? Is he going to go? He probably doesn’t want to,” Nati agreed with me. The more I thought about it, the more I realized it wasn’t such a good idea to go out. It was cold and windy, and it was just going to get colder and winder as the day progressed.

“Where else could we go instead of the Eiffel tower. Some place that is enclosed,” I racked my mind for anyplace.

“The L'Ourve. It’s enclosed, it’s got priceless works of art, it’s French, and you can go at night. You can see the Mona Lisa there,” Nati suggested. She was brilliant.

“So that’s me, Liv, Sara, Dan, KK, Julie, Jesse, Joe, and Kara for the L'Ourve Museum. That’s perfect.” Natalia beamed. Now we just had to tell the others. “Go tell Liv and Sara about it. We’ll leave at six thirty, go get dinner and then go to the museum.”

SCOTT

“So then, put your fingers there. Yeah that’s it. Pluck the string. No, pluck it harder. Harder. Good! That’s how you do it. Can you play the whole thing I taught you?”

Joe looked up at me and grinned. God I was loving this. Finally someone who actually looked up to me. It was a great feeling that I had not felt since an adolescent when ‘Big Brother Scott’ was still my name. Clint, Bob and Dave never saw me as a big brother. I might as well have been born on the 8th as well.

“Jesus Christ! This fucking hurts!” Joe exclaimed, examining the tips of his fingers. I was teaching him a few things on my guitar. He wasn’t the best player, but neither was I when I first started.

“It’s supposed to hurt. See?” I showed him the calluses on him fingers that I had acquired from years of guitar playing. He grinned again, the big toothy one that made you want to laugh. He put the guitar in his hands again and tried to play.

“That’s good. You learn quickly,” I told him. He was like a little brother. Another one. He’d be cool to have as a brother.

“Hey you guys. What’s up? Scott teaching you how to play “Misery” on the guitar, Joe?” Nati entered the room and jumped on my newly made bed. I smirked at her and turned back to the guitar.

“I get to play middle man today. The plans have changed for tonight. Instead of Eiffel tower—you can thank me cause I talked her out of it---instead you people are going to L'Ourve. You’re leaving at six thirty to go to dinner and then you’re going,” She said, fluffing the pillow behind her head and making herself completely comfortable. I stood up and stretched out my cramped legs.

“Like hell I’m going. I’m not going anywhere, yo. I’m staying here. Scott’s teaching me how to play guitar,” Joe said, a little of his white rapper personality shining through.

“Don’t tell me that. Tell Kate. I don’t think she’ll care. Anyway, I have no interest in going either. I’m staying here.” Of course she was. And like hell, Joe was going to get to stay home with me. Kate would go mental.

“Joe, Kate probably wants to spend some time with you though. She hasn’t seen you for months. Why don’t you just go with them to the museum? Kara and Julie will be there,” I enticed him to go, but he wasn’t buying it.

“Nah. I’d rather stay here than go see some stupid paintings. How do you do that thing again? The twangy sounding one,” Joe asked me, letting me know he wasn’t going to discuss it anymore. I glanced back at Natalia, but she was reading a SPIN magazine.

“So, if you’re going to stay here, what do you want to do? I mean, I can teach you how to play guitar, but you do really want to do that for three hours?” It seemed to me that tonight was going to be boys’ night, with the exception of the addition of Natalia and the loss of Dan.

“Uhh any good clubs around?” He said with a smirk. I rolled my eyes and tried to think of something a little more age appropriate.

“I don’t think Kate would like that. No I’m SURE Kate wouldn’t like that. We can go out shopping or something. There are some cool stores around downtown.” I tried to change his mind. Kate would go ballistic if I took him to a strip club, and he wouldn’t be able to get in anyway.

“Awwww. Damn. Yeah I don’t care. Whatever. Anyplace but a museum. Now teach me the guitar damn it!” Joe ordered me and thrust the guitar into my hands.

NATALIA

“He is NOT staying home with Scott. No way on this here God’s green earth. No fucking way.”

Well, this is working out well.

“Kate, he doesn’t want to go out to the museum, he wants to stay with the guys. I’m not going either. I promise to watch him.” Conning Kate into things is like lying to your parents. You feel kinda bad when you’re doing it, but then it all goes away.

She looked at me weirdly for a second and then shook her head vigorously. “No, no, no. Uh uh. That is breaking rule number one.”

I couldn’t believe her stubbornness and mistrust. “Why are you so dead set against Scott and Joe spending time together? It’s not like they are going to go rob a bank. Scott IS responsible, no matter how much you try to make him sound like a whiny little scoundrel. He can take care of Joe, pretty well I might add.” Kate was not buying the argument.

“They have fun together. Joe thinks of Scott as a cool older brother!” Bad choice of words, because Kate cringed and waved her hands in front of her face. She opened her mouth to object. “No, hear me out. You know what? I think you’re being selfish, untrusting and stubborn. I know how you are with Joe, and while sometimes you govern him fairly, a lot of the time your punishments are incredibly harsh. He’s sixteen Kate. You haven’t seen him in four months. He HAS matured the years that he’s grown up. And if you can’t find reason to trust him, you have to find reason to trust Scott. He’s your goddamn boyfriend, and you still can’t trust him with your brother? I’m pretty sure Scott would be hurt if he found out how little faith you had in him. Scott knows what you want and don’t want to happen, I don’t think he’d go out of his way to find a loophole in your words.”

Kate had wandered away and was gazing out the window, her eyes glazed over as if blocking me out. I rolled my eyes and fell back onto the bed.

“Fine...he can stay. Not because I trust him, but I really trust Scott. I know Joe, and while he might have matured, he sure as hell has not matured enough to get rid of his carnal pleasure. I put my trust in you, Scott and anyone else staying home. Go. Tell him he’s staying. We’re leaving in five minutes.”

BOB

“Hey Alex, you gonna come out with us?” Clint motioned over to Nati’s stepbrother with his socks. Alex shrugged his shoulders and glanced at his reflection in the mirror, the fifth time since we had come into their room.

“Uh...what are we doing? Just going out and walking around?” inquired Alex. I picked up the phone to call Nati in Dave’s room.

“Yeah probably. There are some cool stores and a couple of interesting cafes. I think we’re all going. No one’s really going to stay in the hotel,” I told him. The others had already left to go to L'Ourve. Alex, Clint and I were trying to figure out what to do. We had instructions to call Nati, Joe, Scott and Dave over in Scott’s room when we had decided. It didn’t seem like we had much of a choice—stay at the hotel and rot, or go out to shop and freeze.

“Sure. Ok. So call ‘em, Bob,” Alex ordered, but I was already way ahead of him.

“Hey, we’ve made a decision. It doesn’t seem like we have much choice. Let’s just go out to some cafes, get dinner and walk around Paris. We’ve got nothing better to do. And dress warm. It’s going to be freezing cold and windy.”

“Oh great. See you in the lobby in ten minutes.” I hung up the phone and faced the guys, who were already out the door.

“Hey! Wait up!” I grabbed my coat, scarf and hat, and followed them down the hall to the elevators.

BOB

“Oh my fucking god. Jesus Christ, it’s cold. I can’t feel my fingers,” Nati exclaimed, twenty minutes into our walk. Dave grabbed her hand and rubbed it between his own to warm it. She blushed, but it could have been the cold reddening her cheeks.

“We’ve still got about four blocks to walk until we get to that cool café we went to before. Just walk quickly and you’ll warm up. And we’ll get there faster,” Clint said. He ran up a few paces to try to warm himself up, but then stopped so we could catch up with him.

We entered the ‘red light’ district, a shortcut we were taking in order to get to the café faster. Flashing, neon lights beckoned us to hide out in their warm interiors and be waited on, all for fifty dollars a dance. Natalia averted her eyes from the degrading signs and picked up the pace in her step.

“Damn yo...hold up. I just wanna check out the hotties in here for a sec,” Joe halted in his place, right in front of the larger and gaudier strip houses. Scott rolled his eyes and went to grab him away from the door.

“I don’t think so. Do you know how much Kate would kill me if I let you? Come on, we’ve got, like, three blocks to go,” He tried to lure him away. But it was goddamn useless. I was getting a little...uh...curious, myself, even with Sara lurking in the back of my mind.

“Fuck Scott, god, Kate’s got you whipped!” Joe shouted. He ran up to the door, opened it, and stuck one leg in. “Gotta come and catch me!” He ran in and slammed the door behind him.

“What the hell just happened here?” Scott asked, somewhat confused. He turned towards the warm and vivacious building. He took a step towards it, then a step back.

“Should I go get him? Fuck, this is NOT good. Clint, you’re coming with me. I can’t go in there alone,” Scott grabbed him and turned back to us. Alex joined them.

“We’re gonna try to find him. Do you just want to wait out here, or should we meet you someplace?” Clint asked Natalia, Dave and I. “Like hell I’m waiting here. I don’t think so. And Bob looks like he’s gonna run in any second too, so we’ll go to the café originally planned to visit.” Nati cringed and shook her head with deliberation. Dave waved bye to the rescue team and followed her. I tagged along behind.

“Come on Bob,” Nati pleaded. She saw my look of desperation. I opened my mouth to tell her to go on ahead, that I was going to just check in for a second, but she spoke again. “Do you know how much Sara would kill you if you went? Come on. Save yourself. Don’t do it Bob.”

I’m so weak.

SARA

“This is so beautiful. I can’t believe we almost went to the Eiffel Tower. This is so much better,” Olivia raved at the priceless works of art.

“I wish Bob could have came, I know he would have wanted to see the Mona Lisa.” I longed for some private time with Bob. Since Dan had come, I was kept on a short leash. Well, not really, but I kept myself on one. I hoped that Bob missed it too. I don’t know.

Julie noticed my sadness and came over to give me a hug. “Awww...I’m sure he’s in agony. But you know, give him some time with the guys. And Natalia. Uhh, right. Well, you’re having fun and that’s all the matters. You don’t need Bob to have fun,” She attempted to comfort me. I guess she’s right.

Dan noticed my minor depression as well, because he came over to my other side. “Bob’s a good kid. He’s out with his friends having some fun. You guys rarely get to go out, right? I mean, he’s with the guys, partying. Cheer up, we’re surrounded by beauty, it’s not a time to be morose.” Sometimes my brother amazes me. Five minutes ago he was growling at the security guard that gave me a second look when he saw me.

I smiled my thanks and we entered the next room of fine art.

DAVE

“UGH! Warmth, at last. I can’t feel my fingers. I think I have frostbite,” Nati giggled as we entered the indoor café. We took a seat in the back and threw off our coats and scarves. It was very warm in the room, and the heat calmed our hearts and slowed them down so we didn’t shake with cold.

“Mmm. That feels so good. I think I’m just going to drink café au lait until I burst. They make it so good here, so creamy and scalding hot,” Bob rubbed his hands together and blew on them to retrieve their color.

“That sounds good. Now, the next problem is, how the hell do we order, because none of us know French and I distinctly remember that these people don’t know English,” I asked the two.

“Easy,” Nati explained. “We point.”

Bob and I nodded our head in unison. “Ahh. I see. Good strategy,” I laughed as a waiter came to our table.

“Bon soir. Vous desirez?” He asked us politely. We just stared at him, each racking our brains for the correct French way to say, ‘We don’t speak French.’

“Nous ne parlons pas francais,” Bob finally spurted out. The man nodded kindly and gestured over to a boy in the corner leaning against the wall. The waiter rattled off a few words to the boy, who then turned to us and spoke.

“Bonjour, my name is Pierre and I’ll be your interpreter for the evening,” He said with a smile and a thick French accent. “Elié would like to know if he could take your order.”

We were grateful for the boy’s help. He looked no older that thirteen, but obviously very bright. “Thank you, yes. We would like three cafés au lait. Merci,” I told him, which the boy translated into French. The waiter bowed, smiled and walked away to make our drinks. The boy wandered off back to his corner until requested to translate again.

“Well that was helpful. I wonder why they didn’t have him here earlier,” Natalia said, resting back in her chair. Bob got up, motioning to the hallway named, “Salle de bain/Bathroom”.

It was Natalia and I, alone. I wondered if Bob had left because he knew we’d be alone. She was staring out the window, at the cold street outside.

“What are you thinking about?” I asked her, presently knocking her out of the trance. She stared at me with blank eyes, which softened slowly.

“What? Oh, nothing. Just...wandering,” She murmured, and licked her lips. I was at a loss, speechless really, and had no idea how to start a conversation with her.

“So...how ‘bout those Mets?” I asked, laughing quietly to myself. She grinned and pinned up her curly auburn hair with a hair clip. Then, we were propelled into silence again.

“Dave,” she began, “Do you believe in fate? That things happen for a reason?” Natalia rested her chin in her hand and looked at me, desiring a response.

“Uhh, I guess so. Yeah, I do. Why do you ask?” I suddenly had no clue what was happening, whether she meant good or bad, it was all mixed up to me.

“No reason. Just wondering,” She said, and then opened her mouth to speak again, but closed it rather quickly. I wanted her to finish what she was saying. I knew her questions always had meaning, always had purpose, and that she never asked just for the sake of asking. I searched my mind for some reason as to why she might have inquired if I believed in fate.

But I didn’t have enough time to daydream. Natalia pulled me to her until I was just centimeters away. I could feel her warm, calming breath, and smell her scent of oranges and spice. She pulled me in until our lips touched for a fleeting moment.

“Here are your cafés au lait,” The translation boy announced. We jumped back from each other, cheeks red with embarrassment. I could tell the smirk on the boy’s face as the waiter placed the drinks on the table.

“Will there be anything else?” The boy translated to us. We shook our heads nervously and the two left us again. Bob returned from the bathroom and greedily lapped at his coffee.

“So, did I miss anything good?” He asked. I kicked him under the table and he whimpered. Yeah, he knew exactly what he was doing when he left.

Natalia shook her head, but her eyes glittered. I smiled at her, hoping we’d be able to finish later what we had begun.

CLINT

“Joe? Where the fuck are you? This isn’t funny!” Scott shouted as he frantically searched for Kate’s little brother. So far, we hadn’t seen him anywhere.

“Hey, sexy, where’s the fire? Come over here and relax for a second, I can ease your mind baby,” called a scantilly clad woman. Scott shot past a woman in less than a yard of rubber material on her body, sliding down a pole. She reached out to him, but he quickened his pace.

“Where the hell is he? This is really bad. Kate will kill me. We need to find him. Come on,” Scott spurt out frenzied sentences as he climbed through the sweaty crowd. Girls surrounded us on both sides, dancing and stripping, dancing and stripping. I couldn’t help but sneak a peak.

“CLINT! Get over here. You can look AFTER we find him,” Scott grabbed me by the collar and started to run. I tripped over my feet and stumbled, but quickly stood up again.

“If I were a 16 year old boy in a strip club, where would I be?” Scott asked himself aloud. That’s kind of a redundant question, don’t you think?

“Ask someone. There has got to be someone who has seen him,” I suggested. Scott nodded and started walking towards the bartender. I shook my head and pointed towards the topless waitresses.

“They would have had a better chance of seeing him,” I told him. Scott took a deep breath and approached a brunette with incredibly large knockers. Leave it to my brother to pick a good one out.

“Hi, we’re wondering if you can help us,” Scott started. “I’m sorry, I’m not quite into threesomes. But, see that blonde over there? That’s Chloe, and I’m sure--” The woman started. Scott waved his hands frantically to shade his embarrassment.

“No, no that’s not it. Um...well, you see, I was watching my girlfriend’s brother and he kinda ran in here. We’re trying to find him. Have you seen him? His name is Joe, and he’s 16,” Scott cut her off, trying to explain the situation before it got worse. The girl looked out into the crowd, narrowing her eyes.

“Well, see, I have seen him, but the last time I did, he was with Chloe. He’s not over there anymore,” She pointed back to the direction of the blonde. Scott sighed and thanked the woman before nearing Chloe.

“Hi, the girl over there, she said you can help us. We’re looking for my girlfriend’s lost brother, and she told us he was with you,” Scott explained again. This was going to be a very long night.

NATALIA

The sun peeked through the curtains in the hotel room. I kept my eyes closed and reached over to grab my watch off the night table. The face read 10:30. Why did those guys let me sleep so late?

I sat up in bed and rubbed my eyes. Kate was brushing her hair in the mirror. She noticed I was awake and smiled.

“Good morning Nati! Sleep well? We figured you had a long night, and let you sleep. Dave brought you back into the room around 2. He said you fell asleep on his couch.” Hmmm...That would explain why I was still in my jeans and tee shirt.

“Did you guys have fun last night?” I asked her. I didn’t remember falling asleep on Dave’s couch...

“Yeah it was so beautiful. You guys should have come. We saw the Mona Lisa! They had all these guards around it, there were velvet ropes, and we couldn’t get too close. They still had a bunch of people there. But it was cool. Did you guys have fun doing nothing?” Kate asked me. I opened my mouth, ready to blurt out that Joe ran into a strip club, but then I wondered whether Scott had told her or not. Or whether he was planning on it.

“Yeah. We went to that little café. We walked the whole damn way. It was freezing cold. But it was worth it,” I said, remembering Dave and my stolen moment.

Kate caught the hint. “Ooh. What happened?” She asked, grinning at my fortune. I didn’t want to tell her. It’s really none of anyone’s business. I’d rather keep it to myself. But then where’s the fun in that?

“Nothing. It’s none of your business,” I told her, rushing to take a shower. I shut the door behind me and chuckled to myself.

SCOTT

“Dude! That was the most fun I ever had in my life! You guys are so fucking cool,” Joe shouted. My head ached and I awoke with one shoe on, one off.

“Oww. What happened last night?” I murmured, prying the other shoe off with my toes and stuffing my foot under the covers.

“Joe ran into the fucking strip club. Joe got drunk. Joe kept on running away. Joe is going to get us in trouble with Kate,” Clint told me in a monotone voice. I glanced at the grinning Joe, who was sitting on his bed, obviously not affected by his hangover in the least.

“Shit. That’s right. Joe, I’m going to kill you,” I said, lurching up from the mattress. I stopped short as soon as I felt my brain smash into my skull. Damn...

“Oh, yeah, Joe got you drunk too,” Clint finished. I slammed back onto the bedframe and arranged my head on the pillow to keep it from moving too much.

“I’m gonna order breakfast. Want anything? How about some pancakes with lots of syrup? Hehe, sugar!” Joe shouted, reaching for the phone.

“Ugh…no food. I’m going to throw up. Jesus Christ,” I laid a cool hand on my forehead and prayed to god Kate wouldn’t find out about our little adventures.

There was a knock on the door. My eyes shot open, but my head wouldn’t move. I motioned to Clint not to get up. Maybe they would just go away. Oww...noise hurts.

“Hey come on in! Sorry it’s such a mess,” Clint announced exuberantly. So much for quiet rest. Oww...noise still hurts.

“Hey Joe, did you have fun last night?” Kate’s voice cut through the room like a chainsaw. I shot up out of bed, disregarding the little men stomping in clogs through my skull.

“Hey Kate!” I shouted, maybe a little too eagerly. She looked at me funny and went back to talking to Joe.

“Yeah it was mad fun. Scott and Clint couldn’t find me. It was so fucking hilarious!” Joe told her, slapping his knee in laughter. I shut my eyes and lowered my head into my hands.

“What? What do you mean, couldn’t find you?” Kate asked him. That’s it. If he tells her, my life is over. I’ll never be able to live this down.

“We cut through the porn streets to get to the café. I went into one of them and Clint and Scott came too,” He said, conveniently leaving out the fact they we were TRYING TO GET HIM OUT.

“WHAT?” Kate gasped, shocked at our misfortune. She smacked my on the head and the little men stomped in their clogs again.

“Joe ran into a club and we ran in after him to get him out. I’m sorry Kate,” Clint told him. It’s no use. I’m going to be blamed for this; there’s no point in Clint apologizing.

“Why didn’t you do something Scott? Why the hell did you just let him go in there?” Kate shouted. Hey, cool, now the little men had hammers too.

“WE DID!” I shouted back, equally loud. “What Joe has FAILED TO TELL YOU, is that we ran around the club for an hour and a half asking every fucking person if they had seen him, where he had gone, and to tell him we were trying to get him. We finally found him, passed out at the bar. What the hell do you suppose we did instead Kate? Let him roam around until a bouncer kicked him out to the curb?” I tried to explain what had happened to the best of my ability, knowing fully well that it was absolutely no use.

“Jesus Christ. This is wonderful. Just wonderful. Great job Scott. Do you know how much trouble I’ll get in when my parents find out Joe got into a strip club?” I was tempted to tell her how much I didn’t care right then. But I figured...that might not be the best response.

“Hey I’m not fucking telling them. I’ll get into trouble too. These guys are the bomb. Scott’s the best, you gotta let me come again,” Joe said, shuffling over to the couch and turning on the TV.

“Yeah like I’m ever going to let that happen. Oh god. This isn’t good,” Kate whined. Clint came over and sat down. We stayed silent. Neither Clint nor I wanted to get into Kate’s way.

“Uhhh...have you guys seen Alex?” Joe asked us. Clint laughed and shook his head.

"Never came home last night."