What Lies Ahead Matters Most.

Chapter Three.

It was around ten thirty and most of the guests were out on the dance floor dancing. I was sitting a little apart from them on a bench, just absorbing everything.

The party was being held in the backyard. There was a dance floor put up in the center of it, and next to it were placed two big loud speakers from which music came out. The buffet was built up near the entrance of the house and benches with tables were placed apart from it on the grass.

I let out a little sigh, stood up and started walking over to the drinks table. I looked at all the different beverages and decided to go for a simple water bottle. I took it and made my way back to my bench. On the way, I passed three drunken guys.

One of them, a short one with spiky blond hair, saw me and called, "Damn, why don’t we have such hotties at Upper East Side? Come, let's dance."

I ignored him and just continued walking. I heard the other two guys laugh at his failed attempt of flirting.

When I reached the bench again, I saw a guy I didn't notice sitting there before. I gave him a quick glance and sat on the bench next to him. He wasn't really paying attention to me, his hair was falling in his face, he had headphones in and was playing with his iPod. I opened the water bottle, took a sip and looked back at the crowd of people.

Macy was dancing arm in arm with her boyfriend in the middle of the dance floor. I smiled at the sight of them and then looked for Jenna. She was standing near the loudspeakers chatting with Kelly, who was Macy's best friend, and another boy I didn't know.

Then my eyes caught the glimpse of something red. I turned to that direction and saw her again. She was the same girl I bumped into at the 'Super Marche' the other night. When Macy first introduced us, she just looked at me, said "Ella," and walked away to say hello to the other guest. She clearly had not forgotten me.

Now, she suddenly turned to me as if she felt my eyes on her and just looked back, glaring a little and raising one eyebrow.

I quickly looked down at my water and muttered, ''What is her problem?''

"What is whose problem?" a deep voice suddenly asked next to me.

"That Ella girl," my voice trailed off as I realized the guy next to me was the one asking the question.

I turned to look at him, and my eyes met emerald green ones. Now that I got a closer look at him, I saw that he was quite handsome. He had brown, shaggy hair and face had a good bone structure. His lips were curved into a smirk, and then he said, "Do you usually sit next to random strangers?"

I sat up straight cleared my throat. "No, but I was sitting here before I went off to get myself something to drink, and when I came back you were here. I didn't bother to look for another place to sit."

He still had that smirk on his face, and it was staring to annoy me a little.

"Aha," was all he said.

Then after a few seconds, he asked, "and why did you say did that Ella girl have a problem with you?"

I looked at him, and this time it was my turn to smirk, "I said nothing."

"Oh, so you just go around randomly accusing people of having problems?" his smirk turned into a little grin.

I frowned at this and said, "No, but if people glare at you the whole time, it usually means they have a problem with you."

He nodded and removed his headphones from his ears, and shoved them along with his iPod in his jeans pocket. Then he looked back at me and asked, "Are you new to UES?"

I took another sip of the water bottle, closed it and put it next to me on the bench. Then I said, "You should know, since you go to the school."

He just simply shrugged and said, "I don't, well not anymore."

I gave him a questioning look and asked, "Then what are you doing here?"

His smirk came back, "Does that mean you want me to leave?"

Before I could answer that Jenna came over to me and handed me her purse, "Lauren can you keep this with you please, it's easier to dance without it and I don't want to go and put it inside."

I took it from her and said, "Sure."

She smiled at me and looked quickly at the guy I was chatting with, she flashed him a small smile too and after he just nodded his head at her, she left again.

He turned back to me and said, "I'm here because I have to pick up my sister since she still doesn't have her license."

"But it's still ten thirty; don't you think it's a little early?" I asked putting a strand of my hair behind my ear.

"It would be if she wasn't grounded," he said. "Our parents are out and will be back at eleven o'clock. That's why we have to go now."

"Oh," was all I said. Then I asked, "Which one is your sister?"

At this he grinned, "Her name is Ella."

I could feel my face getting hot; I didn't look at him and muttered, "You could have said something, you know."

I heard him laugh a little and turned to him. He stood up, and stretched his arms a little. He was tall, maybe around 6'2 feet.

He looked down at me and smiled a little, "Well Lauren, it was nice talking to you."

Then he turned around and started to walk away, but I called after him, "Since you know my name it would be kind if you told me yours."

He stopped walking, turned around and said, "It's James, Owen James."

I nodded and watched him vanish into the crowd. "Weird person," I muttered and got up too suddenly feeling exhausted and it was getting cold.

I started heading toward the crowd and looked around for Macy. I saw her standing with Kelly and another friend of hers called Jasmine, I think. Her checks were flushed and her up do was looking rather messy now. She was telling her friends something and was doing rather wild hand movements while talking. When she saw me coming over, she stopped talking and waved her hand with excitement.

"Lauren, come on. Let's dance," she said and took my wrist to pull me to the dance floor.

I gently removed her hand from my wrist and smiled at her apologetically, "Sorry Macy, I would love to but I'm kind of tired. I hope you don't mind if I go to sleep now."

I saw her face drop a little, "Oh, of course I don't mind."

I wished her a good night, smiled at her two friends and made my way back into the house and up to my room.