Lane Night

Bryce wasn't really into anything for payback. In fact, he'd never really "paid anyone back" in his life. He wasn't quite sure how pay back was supposed to work. But when he woke up this morning, he had a feeling that he was going to learn something new. And he had. He'd been informed that he'd won Daphne in the date auction. Which was, and wasn't, a good thing. Yes, he'd bet an entire $10.01 on her, but he'd honestly been expecting someone else to bet $10.02. Granted, he realized that his money was spent and now he was going to get his money's worth... whatever that even meant. So after a few hours of sitting in his dorm room, attempting to add some new advancements to his robot, he realized that he needed to get out of California. He definitely needed to get out of California. By the time he'd gotten Philadelphia on his mind, he was already packing duffel bags. For some reason, he was packing more than he probably needed. He was packing everything but the things that he used daily. All of his robotics equipment was left on the table, as though he were going to pick it back up at any second. Even though he'd stuffed nearly all of his clothes into two duffel bags, he couldn't pack his equipment. He knew that he wouldn't ever come back if he took his equipment with him.

After completely packing his belongings, Bryce realized that he needed an alibi for leaving campus with two obviously overstuffed duffel bags on a Friday evening. He hadn't spoken to any of the administrators about having a weekend break from the campus, and figured that should any of them pass him by he could casually drop his anti depressants out of his pocket before scurrying to pick them up while mumbling about his therapist being right about him needing this weekend retreat. Of course, that wasn't a total lie. His therapist did think that he needed a weekend retreat. But he'd declined it, saying that only the mentally ill needed to retreat from their neuroses. Bryce wasn't too fond of lying. He realized that lies could come back to bite you in the ass, after all. Hopefully if he did run into an administrator, they wouldn't be contacting his therapist or talking too in depth about where he was this weekend. If he even came back after this weekend. At this rate? He seriously believed that he was going to be gone from Atherton for a long, long time. There wasn't really any real decision making behind that thought. Just that he knew that he needed to get out. It was an itching feeling. Kind of like the one that he felt on his arms so often. The only difference? He could scratch this one without making anything bleed.

Once his alibi was safely practiced in his mind several times, Bryce decided that it was time to get the fuck out of Atherton. Maybe not for good... but for long enough. He knew well and good that his parents were both out on business trips at the moment, and that returning to Philadelphia would be rather beneficial to his mental health. His grandmother wouldn't mind too much if he told her that he needed a break. Especially because she knew everything that had happened to him in the past few weeks. And it wasn't like he was going to be taking some six month long leave of absence. He just needed a few days. And besides, it was Friday evening. He could get to Philadelphia by early Sunday morning if he really booked it and stopped as little as possible. Surely it could be done. He realized that the drive to Philadelphia was too long, and that he'd probably be out of school for at least a week... but he had all of his text books packed safely away in one of his duffel bags. He could keep up with his assignments even from Philadelphia. He wouldn't want to get too behind on his school work, after all. He realized that if he were to leave for Philadelphia for a week, and then return to a weeks worth of school work plus more school work. Surely that would just drive him crazier and would result in more running away.

He didn't think twice before he headed out to his car in the parking lot. No, he didn't think twice at all. He simply threw his duffel bags in the trunk and got into the drivers seat. He wasn't driving for very long before Party in the USA came on. He rolled his eyes, pulling up to the stop light as he reached over to turn the volume down. That was when he noticed her. It didn't take much for her to catch his eye... she had that way about her. He rose a brow, studying her movements for a second before he pulled into the parking lot that she was casually strolling through. He pulled up beside her, slowly inching his car forward as she walked. "Get in." He reached over and turned the volume on his speakers up. When he put his hand back on the steering wheel, he noticed the date on his watch. I spent $10.01 on her... He paused, looking to Daphne once more. "I spent ten oh one on you. You have to get in. It's Friday night." Friday night meant that was date night. Not because it was some tradition... but because he'd won her in the auction. Even if he hadn't been intending on winning her in the auction. Though he definitely didn't mind it. Especially now. For once in his life, he wanted company. It was strange. An odd feeling. He couldn't pin point it. It was the strangest thing. Almost as though it was an itching feeling of sorts.

honestly,
dean had been a little worried about his date with arizona. not that he
was a superficial person, but he had some.. concerns on how things were
going to work out. dean was terrible with words. all throughout school,
he had never done very well in english, often nearly failing essays and
opinion papers. it was just that he couldn't get his thoughts down into
specific words. he was capable of understanding a lot of difficult
things with ease, but he just couldn't share his knowledge with others.
he was never quite sure why, but that was why dean was dean. however, as
the date progressed, dean felt himself loosening up and feeling much
more comfortable around arizona. she was... different than most others
girls. and by that he did not mean the colour -- or lack thereof -- of
her irises. she just had a way with him. she got him talking, got him
laughing; and that was an emotion that he hardly ever displayed. most of
the time, the artist was serious, passionate, emotional. just plain old
laughter was rare, but extremely welcomed. he found himself wanting to
get closer to her, wanting to kiss her. but he couldn't do that while
they were sitting in the restaurant, now could he? even when they were
escorted out (quite politely, mind you) of the restaurant, dean still
felt as if it weren't the right time for him to do something like that.
after all, when he decided to kiss arizona, she wouldn't be able to see
it coming. and if he yelled out "i'm going to kiss you now," wouldn't
that sort of ruin the mood? dean was a little conflicted about it, so he
decided just to wait and see what happened. he couldn't go wrong with
that, now could he?


throughout their whole walk, dean had his eyes set on arizona. one thing
that he really liked about her? he could stare at her to his heart's
content and she would never think that he was creepy. he just thought
that she was beautiful. her eyes didn't bother him in the slightest,
seeing as dean was never a really aesthetic person. that was proved by
his appearance alone -- his hair was longer than it should have been,
and messy. he had stubble covering his chin and cheeks, and his choice
of clothing could have been better. he did feel comfortable with how he
looked, though. and he felt comfortable in the fact that arizona was not
judging him. he fit into the stereotypical role of the "artist". he was
dark, mysterious, with a slight temper and came off as that of a
"tortured soul". whenever people saw him and discovered that he was an
artist, they always laughed and told him that they could see it. well,
frankly he was a little sick of that. arizona, however? she didn't just
look at his outside appearance and judge him based on that. she listened
to his speech, and looked beyond what the eye could see. the eyes
weren't the window to the soul. the window of the soul only appeared to
those who actually wanted to see the person for who they truly were.
although dean felt a little naked around arizona, he liked the fact that
she seemed to understand him better than a lot of other people. she
seemed to like him, and it wasn't for his money or for his appearance.
it was just... for him.


dean watched closely as arizona lifted her hand around, searching for
his. he allowed her to grab his hand, and twirled his fingers along with
hers. her hands were soft, unlike his own rough hands. he smiled as
they stopped, and he continued to look at her. he was curious as to what
it was she was going to do next. as soon as arizona spoke, dean felt a
chill run down his spine. her voice was soft, and he just wanted to hear
her speak some more. "can i see you?" it only took a few moments for
dean to realize what she meant. his eyes flicked down, noticing her hand
inching forwards. instead of speaking, he took a firm hold of her hand
with the hand not twirled with hers. he guided it up to his face,
placing the palm of her hand on his cheek. he let go of her hand, and
placed both of his hands around her free hand. he was curious as to what
she was going to do, and how she was going to see him now. he kept
quiet, and very still - almost like a statue. he did not want to disturb
her, wanting her to get a good look at him.

.

originally, sam had come to the party thinking that it would be fun. that it would be really easy for him to smoke a joint, have a few too many shots and sleep with whatever girl that he wanted. in reality, he could probably do that, but for some reason... he just didn't want to. although he felt like a bit of a pussy for admitting it, what julianna had done to him really had hurt. the two had been together for a while, and he really liked her. god, he was even thinking about the possibility of maybe loving her. that was a complete first for sam, seeing as the majority of his past relationships hadn't even made it to the month-long mark. he and julianna, they just seemed to work. at least, that's what sam thought. julianna gave him a rude awakening by sleeping with some random at a party that they were supposed to attend together. at first, after one of his friends had told sam about what julianna had done, he refused to believe it. it had to be some kind of rumor that someone had generated, wanting to just create some drama, right? she liked him too much to do that. well, sam didn't even have to talk to julianna. he had seen her face when going to her house to see her... so sam didn't even make it to the door. he didn't need to. her expression was laced with guilt and that told sam that everything he didn't want to be true, was. fuck. that was just his luck. sam turned around, got back in to his car, drove away and didn't look back. he didn't want to have to look at that expression again. and for the next couple of weeks, sam had done his best to avoid her. hell, he couldn't look her in the eye for a little while after it had happened. but after one of his sisters had told him to just forget about it, to move on, and that it wasn't his fault... well, he did. what was it going to get him, sulking? nothing. not to mention that he felt emo doing it. after coming to that resolution, sam was okay talking to julianna. they even had a few pleasant conversations via instant messenger. but, face to face? sam wasn't too sure he was ready for that. he felt so out of character; he was supposed to be a care-free party boy who didn't get tied down to girls. apparently he had pegged himself very wrong. well, that and the fact that he was really opening up to julianna and she had basically stomped on his heart. that made the boy feel a little bitter about life, too. but just a little. if he sulked too much then he would get his ass kicked by any of the six other watson siblings. even the babies of the family could probably give him a good beating, if they ganged up on him.the party itself that sam had chose seemed to be a pretty good one. there was a large supply of beer, vodka, marijuana and a plethora of other illegal items that would all be consumed by minors. although sam kept his drinking to a minimum - two cans of red bull, washed down with an ice-cold beer - he couldn't help himself to a nice joint. besides, it had been rolled so nicely... it was basically asking him to smoke it. so he did. and although it probably wasn't a good thing, it made sam want to hook up with a random girl less and less. that, and it made him so damn hungry. seeing as sam didn't feel like running around to find food, he had decided to just sit down and relax in one of the seemingly vacant rooms in the house. it was pretty huge, so sam wasn't surprised to find nobody else in there. he just did his own thing: take a seat on the couch, lean back comfortably into it and smoke. he took a nice, long drag and tilted back his head, blowing it up towards the roof in nice, crisp circles. he was far too preoccupied with what he was doing to even notice the half-naked beauty that was walking in front of him, trying to jimmy open the door. well, he didn't notice until she couldn't get the door open and just wiggled it around fruitlessly. sam tilted his head to the side, taking a minute to look at her face. woah, stop. rewind. "julianna?" sam uttered, clearly very surprised. of all of the people to wind up in this situation with, it was his ex-girlfriend who broke his heart. this was just wonderful. sam let out a fake laugh when she spoke to him, shaking his head. god, she could be a bitch. it had been so long since he'd seen even a remotely nice side to her -- had it disappeared indefinitely? but sam wasn't in the mood to fight. he had kind of given up on that a long time ago, and the weed in his system had really chilled him out quite a bit. he was a lover by nature, not a fighter, anyway. "just a new habit i've picked up." he told her sarcastically, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. he didn't want to fight, but that didn't mean that her bitchy attitude did not annoy him. sam, though, in his effort to be nice to her, stood up from the couch. he kept the joint in his mouth, and walked over to the sink that she had been eying up. he picked up the dress, walked over to julianna and handed it to her. "i'm guessing you're going to be needing this?" he said to her, giving her a small smile. damn it... why the hell did he want her back so badly?! she broke his heart!