Call it Fate, Call it Karma

Afterparty

"Adam, you came!" I exclaimed as I spotted Adam prancing over to the merch table where I'd been working for most of the night.

"Of course!" Adam said with a grin, then looking down at the spread of shirts in front of me. "I can't believe I don't have one of these yet! How much?"

I picked a shirt up and gave it to him. "For you, on the house!"

"Thanks!" He hastily slipped it on over his shirt and nodded to himself. "How's business?"

"Crazy!" I replied, selling a couple shirts as we spoke. "Think you could help me out?" Adam nodded and jumped over the table to my side.

"Fifteen bucks a pop." I told him.

"Jade! How's it going?" asked Ryan as he approached.

"Too good! Give it another ten minutes and we'll be clean out of stock!"

"Fantastic!" he applauded. "The guys have one more song. Wanna go watch? I'll take over."

"Yes, thank you!" I squealed, jumped over the table to run off and join the crowd behind the stage.

I looked up at Julian with such admiration as he sang. He looked gorgeous as he swayed all around the stage, even though he was drenched in sweat and pretty drunk.

"So good, right?!" Karen's voice rang in my ear. I hadn't noticed her dancing beside me because I was in such a trance staring at Julian.

"Oh, hey! You guys were so good too!" I yelled back. "I loved that first song! You'll have to get me a CD!"

Karen nodded and leant closer to me. "There's gonna be an afterparty at our manager's place. Will you guys be attending?"

"I'm not sure." I shrugged. "I'll ask when they're finished."

"I talked to Ryan about it, so ask him for the address if you're up for it!" she said with a nod. "I'm gonna head out now. Tell the guys I said thank you and the show was fucking great!"

"Will do!" I replied, pulling her in for a quick side hug before she left.

Looking back up at the stage, I saw the band were finishing up the song. Julian, almost weakly sang out the last few lyrics—he was so tired and drunk, but once he spotted me in the crowd staring up at him with a huge grin, he seemed to perk up a little...even more so at the applaud and overall positive reaction from the crowd once the song was over.

Julian thanked absolutely everyone he could think of, as he usually did after a show, and the band walked off stage. I quickly caught him before he could start letting people buy him more drinks and I pulled him aside.

"Jade!" he beamed as I pulled him into a hug. "I'm so tired."

"I know," I patted his back. "...Karen says there's an afterparty. Are we going?"

"I'd like to but-" he stopped to hiccup as he pulled away from me and then laughed at himself. "I think I'm drunk enough, and I need a shower."

"That's a first." I chuckled, linking arms with him. "Wanna go home?"

He leant his head on my shoulder. "Please."

"Although I didn't see most of it because I was selling shirts, it was a great show...as always." I said, squeezing his hand. Julian squeezed mine back and kissed my shoulder as we walked out onto the street.

I wanted to go and find the others to see if they'd be going to the party or not, but I had a feeling they would, and Julian was just so tired that I wanted to get him home as soon as possible...mostly because I was still immensely worried about him from the previous night and figured it'd be best not to take any risks.

Just as we were about to camp on the side of the road to hail a cab, a large group of people came walking out and Fab and Nick departed from the group once they caught sight of us. With confused looks on their faces, they walked over to us.

"You guys aren't coming?" Fab asked with a frown.

"Julian's tired." I said, shaking my head.

"So are we!" Nick said. "But c'mon, guys, this was our first show with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and they're throwing a party for everyone. We have to go!"

I looked up at Julian and sighed, knowing exactly what he'd say.

"I guess we could hang out for a while." he said with a shrug as I slapped a hand to my face, groaning.

The group of people, mostly consisting of our friends and their friends, began walking down the street.

"They're leaving!" Fab ran over and grabbed both of our arms. "Let's go!"

"We are going to regret this." I muttered.

Julian chuckled. "I know."

We made it to the party, which was thrown in a huge apartment, obviously owned by someone quite wealthy.

"I don't think I'm ready though." I said to Kimya, explaining my cautiousness about possibly playing a show as I sipped on a cocktail Julian had made for me ten minutes prior.

"I'm nervous too, but we've gotta get it over with eventually!" Kimya said, patting my shoulder. "I have an idea...it could rid us of our nerves a little, and make our shows way more original."

Adam joined us at this point, sitting on the couch between us. "Is this the costume idea you told me about?" he asked Kimya.

"Yeah!" she nodded, turning to me again. "I think it'd be fun to wear costumes on stage."

"Costumes?"

Kimya nodded. "Yeah, it'd be funny. People would really remember us."

"I'm wearing my Peter Pan costume!" Adam cheered, raising his drink and almost spilling it. "Kimya, if you don't whip out the bunny suit I'll be mad."

"That sounds fun, actually." I said, smiling. "And yeah! How could people forget a band dressed in crazy costumes? Okay, I'm excited for this now."

"That's the spirit!" Adam cheered again and elbowed my side a little harder than he meant to. "I'll get a show booked A-S-A-P!"

I rubbed the sore spot and shook my head. "Don't get too wasted, man. We're meeting tomorrow to talk about the party."

"Jade!" Julian called for me from the kitchen. He yawned when I turned to look at him, then quickly downed a drink and pointed to the door, questioningly.

I nodded and turned back to Kimya and Adam with a smile. "I think we're heading out now, guys. I'll see 'ya!"

A/N: hey! I have another Strokes fic up if you wanna check that out.