Cheek to Cheek

Chapter 21

A/N: Sorry for the wait. Hope you guys enjoy! And thanks for the amazing comments, votes (almost 500!) and such! Please keep them coming! Oh, and I have worked out the complete plot and such, and I am happy to announce there will be a total of 43 chapters! So I'm not even half way done! Anyways, enjoy!

To say I was flustered at that point would be an understatement. I was so morbidly confused with the situation that I quickly entered the house and left without saying good-bye to Jake. I didn’t think I could handle it.

A few weeks ago, I could have only imagined that situation if Jack was the one I had been with. Now here I was with his best friend in someone else’s backyard. My mind could not wrap itself around the situation.

I was set on finding Tabby and leaving the madhouse as quick as possible. I imagined her still sitting on that couch, talking with that guy whose hand was sliding up her leg. However, she was not on the couch, which only frightened me.

What if he had gotten more out of my dear sweet Tabby?

I quickly picked up my pace as I bolted up the stairs to investigate, silently praying that I was wrong. The halls were rather quiet if not for the few people scattered around loitering. One of them seemed familiar, and my face lit up in a little relief.

“Sydney,” I greeted her, and her face also lit up in recognition when her eyes darted to me. In a split moment, she waved off the other person she was talking to and approached me.

“Hey, Kat. What’s up?” she asked. I panted, suddenly realizing I ran up the steps too fast.

“I need to find Tabby. Have you seen her up here going into any of these rooms?” I questioned. Sydney glanced around the doors before looking back at me and shaking her head.

“No, I haven’t actually, and I’ve been here most of the time,” she said, “Sorry.” I exhaled a breath of relief only to receive a confused look from Sydney. Her face suddenly distorted to that of excitement, and she grabbed my arm.

“Oh, so Jack told me about your little contest,” she said. I winced at Jack’s name and slightly retracted myself away from her.

“What contest?” I asked, before realizing what she was talking about. “Oh.”

“Yeah, and I was wondering if you needed more girls because I’d love to participate,” she suggested. I shrugged and gave her a light smile.

“Sure, no problem. The more the merrier,” I replied, but mentally slapped myself for using that expression. She didn’t seem to mind though as she embraced me in a large hug and repeatedly thanked me. I gave her a pat on the back, hoping she’d let go.

“What the hell?” I heard a guy’s voice yell downstairs. I pulled Sydney off of me.

“I’m sorry, but I really have to go find Tabby. I’ll talk to you later though, okay?” I quickly told her. She nodded, and I practically sprinted down the stairs to find a small crowd forming near the staircase. I tried to search it in hopes of finding Tabby merged in, but no luck.

“Does that count as two points?” I heard someone say. I would know that voice anywhere. I pushed through the crowd to find Stevie in the center of attention facing a very angry Jack. Elizabeth was behind him, with the crowd wrapped around her.

“Oh yeah? Well, this’ll count as three!” Jack shouted, pulling back his arm. Before realizing what I was doing, I grabbed a hold of Jack’s arm before he could harm Stevie. Jack tried to pull me off before staring at me.

He had never looked at me like that. My breath was caught in my throat as I stared into his furious eyes, overwhelmed with a mixed array of emotions. I couldn’t move; he pulled his arm away from my grasp, took one last look at Stevie, and stormed off. The miniature crowd dispersed, and I was feeling faint from that one look.