----- Chapter Three -----

Scott ends up talking for hours and hours, almost counselling me. I feel kinda guilty cos I was out there to help him, but I spose we've been through the whole problem with Kerry time and time again.

Everyone decides to leave the party at once - Ritchie and Billie are off "home", J, Sean and the model are gonna go clubbing. Kerry reappears and claims Scott back, granting me an evil glare.

"Chin up," I whisper to Scott as he's dragged off. He smiles,

"You too."

More people leave. My two friends, Marie and Jodie, left earlier. Finally, Abs emerges, saying goodbye to everyone and thanking them for coming. He's the only person to leave relatively sober - he doesn’t drink really. Scott managed to drink himself into almost oblivion while he was talking and me? I was drowning my sorrows too but I wasn’t too bad. But Abs, well he gets hyper by just existing sometimes.

"I didn’t think you'd wait for me…" he said, taking my hand.

"Not wait for the birthday boy?" I laugh, "Nah…it's just I can't afford the cab fare home without splitting it…"

"I wouldn’t want you to get a taxi alone anywayz…" Abs puts his arm round my waist, "It's dangerous."

"I feel safe now…"

"Good."

"So did you have a good birthday?" I ask Abs as we're in the cab, winging our way cross-town to home. He nods eagerly,

"It was cool…even though I had to get up so early," he had an early morning TV show to do - I watched it and he wasn’t really with it, "it was cool anyway."

"The best birthday you could have?" once I get started asking questions I'm awful, I go on and on. I swear I should be an interviewer or something.

"Nope," he shakes his head, "Well, it's like I wanna go out and stuff, but there's a part of me that just wants to stay at home with my family. I'd love to just be with someone I love…doing anything…" Abs has got this wistful look in his eyes. He blinks, coming back to reality, "But you know me," he grins, "I'm only really happy when I'm going somewhere or doing something…"

We sit in silence for a moment or two. I watch London whizz by me, all the lights blurring into one line of bright fuzz. We're nearly home now - only another five minutes or so to go. I can see Abs watching me, out the corner of my eye.

"Billie said she…uh…saw you can Scott together earlier on," Abs says lightly, emphasising the 'together'.

"Yeah I was comforting him."

"She said you looked really close…if Kerry's come out then, you'd both be dead by now."

"I know I know…but it's Kerry causing the problems in the first place," I explain. Abs raises one of his eyebrows.

"What's she done now?" he asks, shifting about in his seat.

I sigh, "Getting all jealous for no reason. Just because Scott was talking to Marie. I mean, I know he flirts a lot but it's never anything serious - Kerry should know that! God knows why he's so devoted to her, but he is."

"Well, love moves in mysterious ways - it's never how you want it to be…" Abs says sadly. I'm thinking about asking him about how things are with Danielle, but I'm not in the mood to hear how much he loves her and wants her back and wishes she was here tonight, "Oh shit…" he breathes, looking out the window. We're driving down our road at the moment, and there's about fifty girls camped outside his house.

I lean forward and tell the driver to circle the block a few times, while Abs phones his mum.

"'Ello Mum…help. How am I spose to get in with all them outside the house?…all day?…no…no, I can't…I can't, there's too many of them - I'm gonna get ripped apart…" he gives me a really sweet imploring look.

"Look, come over to mine til they go," I suggest, "They'll be gone by the morning."

Abs nods, "Look, Mum? I'm gonna stay down the road for the night…yeah…yeah…ok…right…bye," he hangs up and rolls his eyes, yawning, "Fame ain't all it cracked up to be."

I smile and give the driver my door number. As we drive past Abs' house again, some of the girls realise who's in the car. They start running after it, but my house is round a slight bend. By the time the girls have rounded the corner, the cab's on its way and me and Abs are safely inside my house. I turn on the downstairs light.

"Shh," I whisper, "If I wake anyone up, my parents'll kill me!"

Abs nods and then yawns again, stretching a little.

"D'ya want a drink or something to eat?" I ask. He shakes his head, "Ok - better get some sleep then."