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     "He ain't try nothing on you, right?"

     Eliana blinked rapidly, taken aback because she didn't expect Fez to pop up when she was coming back from the kitchen area where she had grabbed a drink.  She held the red solo cup in her hand as she leaned forward to hear him better.  "I'm sorry, who?"

     "Nate," Fez replied simply, licking his lips.

     Eliana swallowed hard.  "No, not at all," she said, walking back towards the couch, where Lexi was sitting on one end.  She didn't mind Lexi at all, and matter of fact, she actually thought Lexi was the most chill out of their friend group and would rather Lexi see her talking to Fez than anyone else.  "Were you watching me?"

     "Just to make sure ol' boy ain't try anything," Fez replied cooly.

     Eliana was sure she must've been going through a special time of the month or something because there was no way she could be feeling this attracted to him right now.  She sat down on the couch in between him and Lexi.  "Ah nah, he doesn't like me and I don't like him, plain and simple.  But I would poke his eye out with my heel myself if he tried anything."

     "Nate?" Lexi asked, to which Eliana nodded firmly.  Lexi nodded back, completely understanding.

     "Hi, have you seen Rue?" a blonde girl walked into their conversation, probably saving it from an awkward silent moment.

     "No," Lexi said, honestly still concerned about her sisters' whereabouts. 

     "Yo, Happy New Year, Jewel!" Fez smiled.

     "It⎯it's Jules," she replied awkwardly. 

     "Yeah, come on," Fez said.  "I know your name, Jewel."

     Taking this as an opportunity to introduce herself, Eliana spoke up.  "Oh, Jules?  Hey, nice to meet you, I'm Eliana," she smiled.  "Kat has told me a lot about you."

     The girl, Jules, smiled quickly at her but Eliana could tell there were other things on her mind.  "Have you seen Rue?"

     "Um, yeah, she's somewhere around here," Fez said.

     "Is she?" Jules asked again.

     Eliana shrugged.  "Honest to God I haven't seen her.  Hope you find her though?" she offered before Jules nodding unsurely, walking away.  Eliana turned to Fez.  "You sure that's such a good idea?  Bringing Rue here?"

     Fez shrugged.  "She a big girl, Ellie.  It's up to her."

     Eliana nodded slowly, deciding to change the subject up.  "You guys have a good Christmas, Lex?"

     Lexi nodded, her arms crossed over her chest.  She wasn't quite sure when Eliana and Fez started trying to become friends (little did she know it was more than that) but she didn't want to say anything.  "Something like that."

     "Are you Jewish or somethin'?"

     "Fez!"

     "What!"

     "Yeah, well, my mom's Jewish, but she always says if the Christians can steal Christmas from the Pagans, then the Jews can also," Lexi replied.  And this was true, as Eliana had known Miss Howard always had these weird sayings.

     "You say the Christians stole Christmas?" Fez asked, bewildered.

     "Well, in order to convert the Germanic Pagans who, like, celebrated winter solstice and stuff, the Christians were like, "fuck it.  Let's just say Jesus was born this day, and you can hang tinsel and stuff." 

     "How you just go and change the man's birthday?"

     "Well, in the same way King James was rewriting the Bible on one side of the castle, and had witches tryna turn his pee into gold on the other," Lexi snorted.

     "That's one way to put it," Eliana laughed, drinking up from her cup, not expecting the harsh taste.  She already knew Lexi was wicked smart.

     "Yo, how the fuck do you know all of this?"

     "I don't know, by reading."

     "Do you, like, not believe in God?"

     "Damn Fez, this isn't a game of twenty-one questions," Eliana blinked, looking at him from the corner of her eye.  He simply looked at her before shaking his head.

     "Excuse my friend here, she hasn't had enough alcohol yet to be able to stand me tonight," Fez said.  Lexi awkwardly chuckled, already having sensed some sort of tension between them.

     Eliana rolled her eyes.  Yeah, friend.

     "Come on, wanna dance Lexi?"

     "Uh, I better not, in case Cassie shows up," Lexi replied hesitantly.

     "Come on, your sister is somewhere either having unprotected sex or getting drunk as fuck without us, she's fine!"

     "I thought you said you were going to dance with random boys tonight," Lexi said, raising an eyebrow.

     Fuck you, Lexi, fucking doing that on purpose so that fucking Fez could hear...

     Eliana's eyes widened as Lexi smiled.  "Touche, thanks," she said before getting up from the couch and finding herself on the dancefloor again.  It wasn't really hard to find someone to dance with, plus Maddy was finally out of the bathroom with Travis and Kat was there with her new boyfriend.  Yet every time Eliana turned to find a familiar face in the crowd, Fez was there, always making sure her dance partners weren't getting too handsy with her.  If there was a God, then Eliana Romano would be his greatest creation.

     "Cassie, where the fuck have you been?  I called you, like, 500 times."

     "You did?"

     "Why aren't you answering the phone?"

     "Cassie!" Eliana threw her arms over Cassie's shoulders, kissing her cheek.  Cassie was too distressed to bask in Eliana's love, but Eliana was getting too drunk to care.

     "Happy New Year, Cass!" Maddy came up to her other side, equally excited.  "I love you."

     "Hey, Cass, can I talk to you for a minute?" McKay came up, breaking the girls' moment up.

     "Uh, yeah, totally," Cassie agreed, walking off with her former flame.  When she turned around, Eliana was sticking her tongue out at her.  Cassie pursed her lips before walking off into another room with McKay.

     "Why is McKay always at these things," Eliana groaned.

     "Why is Cassie acting so fuckin' weird?"

     "I don't know."

     Eliana pouted, too tipsy to care about everyone else around her.  Honestly, she was getting to the point where she was ready to go home and sleep.  But she came with Maddy and she was sure Maddy would want to stay for a couple more hours.

     "Me again," Eliana said, returning to the couch.

     "Hey.  I was startin' to miss you," Fez spread his legs open, draping his arm over the top of the couch.  

     "Huh?" Eliana shook her head, sitting in the spot next to him.  "Stop playing with me."

     "Why would I lie?" he licked his lips.  "You ain't dance with too many random boys tonight."

     "Thanks, Captain Obvious," Eliana rolled her eyes, bringing her cup to her lips.

     "Why not?"

     Eliana swallowed hard.  "Ain't right."

     Deciding to leave that there, Fez simply nodded.  "Yo, I gotta cut soon, but I wanted to give you something," he pulled a small black box from his pant pocket and brought it to her.

     Eliana's face softened.  "Ah Fez, you shouldn't have!"

     Fez chuckled.  "You must be really drunk because we had this conversation last week."

     Eliana nodded sadly.  "Yeah, I am."

     "Open it, please," he nudged her.  She opened it slowly, revealing a bracelet with a diamond cherry charm.  Her jaw dropped as she looked at it, her fingernail flicking at it.  As the charm flipped around in the box, she was able to see the number ten engraved on the back.

     "Ten?"

     "Yeah... if you never asked me what the answer to number ten was, I wouldn't be here right now.  No matter what happens, you're always my favourite gift," he said, eyes flickering from her eyes to her lips and back again.  When she looked up at him with her doe eyes, he felt weak in the knees.  Even if he'd never admit it.

     "Yeah..."

     "Everyone, everyone!  One minute till fuckin' New Year's!"

     "Excuse me, doll, I need to take care of something," he said before pressing a kiss to her forehead and getting up.

     Eliana also stood up, clutching the bracelet in her hand.  She walked over to Lexi, Kat, Cassie and Maddy, happy she found at least some of her friends.  But she prayed none of them saw her encounter with Fez.

     Thankfully, everyone else was pretty much wrapped up in their own drama for the night.  Maddy seemed to be the only one who was actually having a blast since Eliana always got sleepy quickly when she was drinking.  "I love you bitches," Eliana announced, raising her cup to the group.  The girls responded with cheers, raising their own cups and Maddy draped her arm over her shoulder, pressing a kiss to Eliana's cheek.  Even if her relationship with Fez was complicated, she would always always have her girls. 

     At midnight, cheers and hollers erupted from throughout the house.  People clung to their significant others, pressing kisses to lips merrily.  For a moment, they were all just teenagers, kids, happy with each other.

     The moment of bliss was short-lived as Cassie gasped loudly, Eliana realized a sort of fight had broken out, and people were gravitating towards the countertops in the kitchen.  "Yo?" Eliana stumbled into the area, both her and Maddy in shock as they realized the two men having it out were their ex-boyfriends. 

     "Oh, my God!" Cassie exclaimed.

     "Fezco, stop!" she heard someone yell.  Matter of fact, many people were starting to yell out for it to stop as Eliana's ears rung, watching Fezco throw punches as he stood on top of Nate.  "McKay!  Stop.  Stop!  Fezco, stop!  Fezco, get off of him!  Stop!  Chill, chill, chill!  Chill, chill, chill!" multiple voices surrounded Eliana. 

     Eliana giggled quietly. "Yeah, get him."

     Once Fez stopped hovering over him, Eliana and many others were able to see just how badly Nate Jacobs was fucked up.  Cassie and Maddy both rushed to help him, along with some other people, get into a car.  Fez stood up slowly, hands covered in blood.

     "Is it bad..." Eliana trailed.

     "Oh my God, are you horny right now?" Lexi asked her, to which Eliana made a face.

     "Not horny... just turned on."

     "Girl?"

     "Can you take me home?" Eliana whined.

     "You really want your mom to see you like this?"

     "Great idea, let's go to your house," Eliana gasped.

     "No!"

     "Why not?  Please, Lexi, I'll be out of your hair in the morning.  Besides, I'm gonna lose fifty bucks to Kat if she thinks I didn't go home with a guy!"

     "I know a guy you can go home with," Lexi nodded towards the screen door.  Eliana turned, noticing Fez was lingering, almost as if silently calling to her.

     Even though she wanted to, she knew she couldn't.  "That's cheating.  I'm supposed to be getting over him."

     "But we all know you're not," Lexi replied.  Eliana waved the bracelet in the air before pulling it over her wrist, bringing a small smile to Fez's face before he turned, leaving the house as quickly as he could since he had already stayed around longer than he needed to.  "I know you hate to watch him go," Lexi brought a hand to Eliana's shoulder.

     Eliana sighed.  "But I love to watch him leave."

     Retracting her hand, Lexi groaned.  "That's it, get in the car, we're leaving before the cops show up and you sell out your lover."

     The whole rest of the drive home, and the night really, Fez's mind was plagued with the girl he couldn't have.  The girl who was right there, but so out of reach.  And it was starting to drive him insane realizing the effects of their recent rendezvous and how much his life had changed again, even if he didn't want it to.  Even still, he wasn't mad, and he was still grateful.  'Cause if Fez was trying to get to Heaven, then Eliana was everything he would ever need in an angel.

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1988 words!