Danielle took a deep breath as she walked up to Lance by the door. “Lance” She said just loud enough for him to hear. He turned around and gasped when he saw her red eyes.

            “Danielle are you okay?” He asked concerned taking her outside where it was quiet.

            “JC and I fought once more” She shrugged trying to fight back the tears.

            He hugged her tightly. “I’m sorry, are you sure you two can’t work it out?”

            “No! He just doesn’t get what he did wrong. In fact I really think that he doesn’t know what he did wrong.”

            He pulled her away from him and looked in her eyes, pushing back her hair. “Hey, I’m sure he knows, but he’s too stupid to see how good he had.” He smiled

            “You’re just saying that” She said looking down at the ground.

            “I’m not, I swear.” He sighed. It was now or never. “D, I’ve like you since I met you. You were attracted to JC more then me and I was happy to be just friends with you. You’re smart, funny, attractive, and one of my favorite people to hang out with so don’t let JC get you down. He’s stupid for not seeing what he had.” He smiled brightly; glad to finally get all his thoughts out. “I thought I should tell you that.” His smile faded as he waited for her to say something. 

            “Thank you Lance” She said and started to walk down the steps. “I’ll call you tomorrow, I think I’m just going to go. Tell the girls okay?” She asked. Her heart beat faster and faster as she moved toward the car and away from the confusion of the night. What had she just heard? Did Lance just confess his love for her? It was too much for her to take at one moment.

            “Yeah, I’ll tell them.” He said as he watched her get in her car and take off. He sat down on the steps and put his head in his hands. “What is it with me? Why can’t anybody like me?” He sighed.

            “Hey” He heard one of his friends say from in front of him. He looked up to find Joey and Chris standing there. “Are you okay?” Joey asked

            “Oh great!” He said rolling his eyes.

            “What happened Lance?” Chris asked sitting next to him.

            “Short version… JC and Danielle got in a fight, Danielle came to me, told Danielle that I’ve liked her since the minute I met her, and then she took off”

            “Wow, so you don’t know how she feels?” asked Joey.

            “No, god I’m stupid! I shouldn’t have said anything!”

            “You did the right thing, it will just take her a little bit to figure stuff out. With everything that happened she was probably a little overwhelmed.” Chris said patting him on the back. “Come on, we’ll go have a drink and hang out, things will seem better in the morning”

            Lance followed them inside and immediately got a drink then went to talk to the girls.

            “Hey Jen and Vanessa um… Danielle left so you might need to find a ride home” He took another swig of his beer.

            “Thanks” They said and started talking about it.

            “Hey what’s wrong with you?” JC asked Lance noticing his jitteriness.

            “He con” Joey started but Lance cut him off.

            “I convinced myself someone was coming that didn’t” He hated lying to one of his best friends but when the conflicts involves his ex-girlfriend he figured it was best to keep him in the dark. He gave Joey a “shut it” look before walking away and taking another swig of his beer.

            “Hey girls if you want I can give you a ride home” Justin offered.

            “That’s great, thanks” Jen smiled. “We can leave anytime.”

            “Is it okay if we go now? I have to be somewhere early tomorrow”

            “Sure”

            Vanessa however looked disappointed. She had been waiting all day for only an hour at this party? Of course she was going to be sad to leave.

            “Hey I can drive you home Vanessa if you want to stay” JC suggested. Even though she knew how bad things were between Danielle and JC, she really wanted to stay.

            “Okay, thanks. You two go ahead then, and I’ll see you at the apartment Jennifer”

            “Okay, are you sure you don’t want me to stay?” Jen asked

            “Yeah, I’m sure I’ll see you in a little while”

            Jen nodded and waved to her as she left with Justin. “Thanks for the ride Justin. I don’t mean to put you out, especially since we don’t know each other that well considering the fact we just met tonight.” She smiled

            “Its no problem. So how old are you?” Justin asked trying to keep the conversation going.

            “23 and your 25 right?” She asked

            “Yep, its so weird to be half way to thirty, I’m like freaking out.”

            “Yeah, but your still young. You still have time to do all the things you want to do with your life”

            “Yeah, I know. Its just weird.” He laughed. They talked the entire way home they talked about who they are, and what things they have in common. A half hour later they pulled up to Jen’s apartment complex.

            “It was nice to meet you Jen, we should hang out some time” Justin suggested.

            “Sure, do you want my number, and you can call me when you’re available?”

            “Yeah” He took out his cell phone and got her cell number. “I’ll call you”

            “Okay, bye” She said getting out of the car and closing the door. She quickly walked up the three flights to her apartment.

            “Danielle?” Jen asked walking into the apartment.

            “Hey” Danielle said walking into the living room and sitting on the couch.

            “What happened with you tonight? You just took off”

            Danielle explained what happened “And I just didn’t know what to say. I’ve been friends with Lance now for over a year and a half” She said hiding her face in a pillow.

            “Hey, just think about it. Do you like him as more then a friend?”

            Danielle paused to think about this for a minute. She nodded “I do, I really think I do. He’s the one I always go to, and sometimes I get jealous of him with other girls. Ah!” She said laying back on the couch. “I like Lance Bass” She said softly.

            “Then you have your answer”

            “Thanks Jen” Danielle said hugging her. “Hey where’s V?”

            “Still at the party. I didn’t want to take her away from having fun, since she was looking forward to this. So she’s getting a ride later from someone”

            “Oh, okay” They decided to watch a movie since there was nothing else to do.

            However back at the party Vanessa was having fun dancing with everyone and having a good time.

            “Hey JC why aren’t you dancing?” Vanessa asked as she leaned against the wall next to him.

            “I don’t know” He shrugged. “My girlfriends not here and so just no interest”

            “Aw come on, come dance” Normally Vanessa was not like this but once she’s had a few drinks, things change. She dragged him onto the dance floor and after a few tense moments they were dancing together, having a good time. They were grinding and laughing as they danced. Finally at 2am JC decided that he should probably go and since he was taking Vanessa home, he led her to the car since she was a little tipsy even though she knew exactly what was going on.

            “Thanks for taking me home” Vanessa said leaning her head on the window.

            “Are you sure your okay?” JC asked looking over at her when they stopped at a red light.

            “I’m fine, just tired and well kind of tipsy” She said closing her eyes.

            He decided to let her be and started again as they light turned green. Every now and again he would steal glances of her sleeping peacefully against the window. Soon enough they were at her apartment building. It was an all too familiar place for JC and it brought back some good and bad memories of what happened with Danielle.

            “Vanessa” JC said softly. He lightly tapped her.

            “Yeah?” She asked “Are we here?”

            “Yeah”

            “Okay, thanks for the ride” She said and got out of the car slowly. She was a little more drunk then she would admit. She nearly fell over as she closed the door.