A/N: Before you all start reading, there is some mention of alcohol in this. It's not too bad, but if you're too young and don't think you can handle it, don't read this part. Just as a warning.

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"Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you..." Mae began singing. Caleb and Ian set the cake on our table. Caleb, Camron, and Liam all sang along with Mae. Ian stood silently watching them with an unreadable expressiong on his face. As they sang, other people in the club took notice and sang along, too, just for the heck of it. By the end of the corny birthday song, half the people in the club were singing to me in drunk, off-key voices.

"Happy birthday dear Vanessa!!!!!! Happy birthday to you!!!" they all finished. Everyone cheered and clapped.

"You're hot!" some guy that I couldn't see yelled.

"Happy birthday!" random people in the crowd shouted. I blushed, feeling slightly uncomfortable with all the attention. To distract myself, I turned to Mae.

"This is why you guys were all acting so weird?" I asked her. She grinned wildly at me.

"Happy 21st, Nessie!!!" she squealed, throwing her arms around me. I laughed and hugged her back. Then I turned to Caleb, who smiled at me.

"You were in on this?" I asked him.

"Guilty as charged," he grinned. I smiled at him and hugged him.

"Happy 21st, Vanessa," he said softly in my ear. I pulled away, still smiling and then turned to the other boys and thanked them all, too, giving a hug to each of them. When I got to Ian, I just gave him an awkward smile which he briefly returned.

"Now you can drink legally!!" Mae whispered in my ear. She made a gesture and a bartender brought out a round of shots. Looks like I was going to get drunk tonight.

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"Drink it! Drink it! Drink it!" people all around me shouted. I was on my fifth shot of the night and I was feeling extremely buzzed.

"Last one!" I slurred. I pinched my nose and closed my eyes, downing the shot. I winced as it burned my throat. Everyone around me cheered. I opened my eyes, seeing the room spin for a few moments. Once it steadied itself, I stood up, a little unbalanced. What k-kind of party is this? Let's d-dance!!!!" I cried, wobbling to the dance floor. People cheered and followed me. The DJ played a club remix of Evacuate the Dance Floor by Cascada.

"Ohh ohhh! Evacuate the dance floor! Ohh ohh! I'm infected by the sound!" I sang with Mae. We bounced around and danced as if there wasn't a care in the world. And at that moment, there wasn't. I danced around with Caleb, Camron, and Liam. We all danced together. I danced with strangers I had never met before. But I didn't care. I was having fun. And nothing was going to ruin that. At one point in the night, I took the microphone and sang a rock rendition of Rihanna's S & M. I was drunk and the atmosphere was just fueling me even more. I could do anything. I was unstoppable.

"I'll be right back! Hold on!" I cried to Mae and the others as I stumbled off the dance floor. I needed water. I went up to the bar and asked for a drink of water. While I waited for the bartender to bring it out to me, I turned and surveyed the crowd. I couldn't believe it. I, Vanessa Laine, the girl who was always serious about life, was drunk at a club on my 21st birthday. I was changing quickly, and I wasn't sure if I liked it or not. I shook my head. It was the alcohol talking. I wasn't going to let those thoughts ruin my mood.

"Vanessa," I heard. I turned to face Ian. I nearly toppled backwards in my drunken state. He took a hold of me before I fell over. "I need to talk to you," he whispered in my ear. I scanned his face. He didn't look drunk at all. He had only taken two shots when we were all group-drinking.

"Let me get some water first," I told him. The bartender handed me a glass and I downed in. "Ok, le'ggo," I said, giggling at my slur. He led me outside. The cool December air felt nice against my warm skin.

"God, Vanessa. You look like a mess," he said, looking at me. I giggled drunkenly.

"A hot mess," I said, fluttering my eyelashes stupidly. What the hell was I doing? He rolled his eyes.

"I need to talk to you," he said again, his face and voice seirous. I tried to stand up straight. We were now in the side alley of the Lounge.

"Why s-so serious, Iaaaaaaan?" I asked. He closed his eyes and then opened them, looking at me seriously.

"Snap out of it, Ness," he snapped. I blinked. He turned around and rubbed his temples. "I shouldn't talk to you right now. You're not capable of coherency," he said. I took a deep breath, trying to compose myself.

"No, I'm fine. What is it?" I asked, sounding a little less drunk. The energy I had from the club was gone now. I just had the annoying buzz from the liquor. He turned to face me again, his face still serious. I looked into his dark brown eyes. There seemed to be a thousand emotions flitting around in them and I couldn't read any. "Is everything ok?" I asked him when he didn't say anything.

"I lied when I told you I didn't feel anything when we kissed," he told me. I furrowed my brows.

"What?" I asked, taken off-guard.

"The night you asked me if the kiss meant anything to me? I lied. It did mean something to me. I've just...I've been trying to deny it and I don't know how to anymore, so I'm going to go with it," he said. He sighed. "I'm not making any sense," he mumbled to himself.

"Why are you saying this now?" I asked him.

"I told you. I don't know how to hate you anymore. Not after that kiss," he replied. I narrowed my eyes at him, scanning his face to see if he was lying. I blinked when I couldn't find any emotion. I wished to God that I wasn't drunk right now. I wasn't in the right state of mind.

"Maybe we should talk about this some other time," I suggested.

"That's what I was thinking, too. But seeing you  having fun out there...I don't know. This is the first time since I've met you that you let loose. I thought this would be the best time to talk to you," he said. I held my head, feeling dizzy now. 

"What does this mean?" I asked him. He reached out and brushed my hair out of my face. Then he leaned down and kissed my lips softly. It was gentle at first, as if he was unsure of what he was doing. But when I responded, it grew a little more intense. I wrapped my arms around his neck and he pulled me closer to him by my waist. He pushed me up against the wall of the alley. After a few moments, he broke away.

"You tell me," he answered, smirking down at me. I smirked back and leaned in for another kiss. This was wrong. I shouldn't be doing this. I wasn't thinking clearly. I knew that if I was in a normal state of mind, this wouldn't be happening.

But it felt so right.

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"Ughhhhhhhhh. Remind me never to get drunk again," I moaned in the morning. I had just thrown up in the bathroom. My throat was dry and I had a pounding headache. Mae held onto her head, too. She had an even worse hangover than I did.

"As bad as this feels, last night was really fun," Mae said. We slumped together on our black leather couch in our apartment.

"I have the biggest goddamn headache right now," I groaned. She let out a hollow laugh.

"21, babyy," she said unenthusiastically. "I need coffee," she added. I nodded in agreement. She forced me to get up and make it because she couldn't even move.

Once we had coffee in us, we were able to function.

"So, what's the plan for the rest of the day?" Mae asked me.

"You tell me. If I had it my way, I would rather just sleep this hangover off," I said.

"We can do that. Let's go out to dinner later," she suggested. "Like a nice, fancy dinner. Not to get drunk again," she said.

"I'm down," I agreed, yawning. I laid down on one end of the couch and she put her head on the other side. "Ian and I hooked up last night," I blurted out after a few minutes of silence.

"WHAT?!" she yelled, sitting up. She held her head, no doubt because it was spinning from the sudden movement.

"I still need to talk to him to make sure it wasn't all my drunken imagination or that he wasn't taking advantage of me because I was drunk. We only made out, but still. He said he wanted to get together," I told her, staring at the ceiling.

"That's where you disappeared off to? You went off to make-out with Ian?" she asked.

"No, I went to get a drink of water first. Then he found me and said he wanted to talk. And then we talked a bit. And then we made out," I told her. I heard her sigh.

"God, Ness. Will you make up your mind about him? Sometimes you hate his guts and sometimes your sitting making out with him. Choose an emotion in the middle!" she cried.

"I know. I'll figure it out once we talk. Last night we were both slightly drunk. I need to talk to him while I'm sober. Don't tell the other boys yet. They don't even know about that other night that we kissed," I said. I heard her let out a deep sigh.

"Now I have an even bigger headache than before," she mumbled.

"You don't need to stress about this. I got it under control," I said.

"Yeah, we'll see about that," she muttered.

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A/N: Woooo! Gotta love that drunken fun!!!

So are Ian and Vanessa finally together? You'll find out in the next part!!!

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XOXO