Page 18 of Aria

Lisa tapped me on the shoulder, leaning into my ear."Bathroom break," she said, standing up and throwing her purse over her shoulder.Julia followed suit.

"I'll join you," I replied.When I stood from the loveseat, stars began to flicker behind my eyes, and it took a few seconds for my balance to steady.I squinted at Noah. "You totally spiked my drinks, didn't you?"

Noah snorted."Yeah, with a little ingredient called low alcohol tolerance."

I grumbled through a frown. I was certain I must have consumed twice the amount of alcohol I thought I had.Lisa and Julia appeared on both sides of me, linking their arms with mine."Thanks," I murmured, carefully making my way down the squeaky steps, petrified of tripping over my own feet and breaking my neck.

Then again, if I tripped down a flight of stairs in front of Devon Sawyer, breaking my neck would be a welcome alternative to the abject humiliation of it all.

"What do you think they're talking about?" Lisa wondered. All three of us glanced up to the second-floor balcony.Devon and Noah were engaged in man-to-man conversation.

Julia shrugged. "Probably band stuff.Or sex."

"Speaking of sex…" Lisa nudged me playfully in the ribcage. "You and Devon?"

"Oh, no," I said with a shake of my head. "It's going to be a while before I go there with any guy. If he's truly interested in me, he can wait."

"Good for you," Julia said."I wish I had that kind of willpower."

“You do?”

She nibbled her thumbnail with consideration. “No.”

"Does that mean you and Noah will be at it like rabbits tonight?" I teased.

Julia’s smile faded from her perfectly lined lips. "Honestly, Noah seems more interested in you than me.”

Objection teased my tongue.I knew Noah was only trying to make amends for the sake of Devon… that, or he was trying to kill me by way of alcohol poisoning.

The latter seemed more believable.

"Personally, I think Noah is a douche and you can do better, Julia," Lisa chimed in. "I know he's famous and all, but you're just going to get your heart broken."

Julia snickered. "Sweetie, this heart is immune to pain. I'm all about having fun and moving on to the next sucker. Besides, there's no way in hell I'm passing on a Freeze Frame member. You really can't do better than that… except for maybe raising John Lennon from the dead."

Laughing, I stumbled into the bathroom, squeaking out an apology when I accidentally slammed the door into an annoyed patron.

The woman sneered. “Drink some water.”

"You okay there, Chelsie?" Lisa asked.

"I'm fine. Where's the bathroom?"

Julia shot me a concerned glance."We're in the bathroom, babe. The stall is to your right."

Oops.

"I knew that."I wobbled over to the stall and took a moment to gather my composure. There was no way I could go back out there stumbling over my own two feet in front of Devon. He would never speak to me again. I sucked in a deep breath and tried to stop my head from spiraling before joining Julia and Lisa outside the doors. "Sorry, I just needed a minute. I'm okay now."

"Are you sure?" Lisa put a gentle hand on my shoulder."We can take you home, you know."

"No, absolutely not. I’ll just… suck it up.Let's go."Gathering my crumbling wits, I staggered over to the private staircase. It resembled Mount Olympus, and it looked to be swaying back and forth. I headed up, my hand gripping the railing.

"Sorry about that," I apologized when I noticed Devon staring at me.

"Here, sit down.You're going to fall and hurt yourself," Devon said.

As I went to sit down, I missed the couch and toppled to the floor instead.I couldn't help but find the situation incredibly funny, bursting into a fit of giggles.

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