Ali sat down at the corner and looked at the floor. Izzy sat beside her. The guys were on the other side of the room glaring at the girls. It was awhile before anyone said anything.
    “Gee Ali this is all your fault,” AJ accused. “If you hadn’t pushed me into the pool, this wouldn’t have happened.”
    “Oh shut up Alex,” Izzy said knowing she was using his first name. “You came over to us and started calling us sluts when we hadn’t said a damn word to you.”
    AJ glared as she used his first name. “If you hadn’t stomped off all pissed off, Ali wouldn’t have had to defend herself.”
    “Excuse me for getting upset at the fact I was called a slut.”
    “You are what you are,” Brian taunted.
    Izzy turned to Brian. “Look I did what I had to do. I had to leave. If I hadn’t said it enough, I do regret it. Ali regrets leaving too, but in the situation, we felt what we were doing was the right thing to do.”
    “What leaving me? God Izzy I cared about you. AJ cared about Ali. You two taking off like you did, make us feel like cheap one night stands.”
    “Neither of you were supposed to be one night stands,” Ali spoke up.
    “Then what the hell were we supposed to be then,” AJ countered. “Come on tell us!”
    Ali looked at Izzy.
    “Well, we are waiting.”
    Izzy looked at Ali and shook her head. Now wasn’t the right time. It seemed like never was the right time for them.
     “We can’t tell you,” Ali said looking at them. “All we can say is that it wasn’t that you were one night stands.”
     “And we should believe you,” Brian said bitterly.
     “Why would we lie?”
     “Because you are too afraid to admit that we were one night stands. You just wanna play with us again.”
     Izzy groaned in frustration. “If we really thought of you guys as one night stands, why would we go out of our way to apologize?”
     AJ shrugged. “Cause you just want us to believe you so you can do it again?”
     “I can see this is going nowhere,” Ali muttered under her breath.
     “Wanna say that a little louder?”
     “I said I can see this is going nowhere!”
     AJ glared at Ali. “Look if you can’t accept that you played us, then shut the hell up about it!”
     “I did not play you! Can’t you speak English or something?”
     “This is coming from a little tramp.”
     Ali marched up to AJ and slapped him hard across the face. “I hate you!” Ali screamed out. Everyone shut up and looked at her. “I sit here and try to explain that you weren’t a one night stand, but you keep calling me a whore. I’ve had enough of your fucking attitude.”
     “Whoa Ali chill,” Izzy tried calming her down. “Look it’s obvious we aren’t going to resolve anything. Why can’t we pretend we made up so we can get the hell outta here?”
     “Gee smartass don’t you think they would know we haven’t? We’ve only been screaming at each other for the past 15 minutes,” Brian retorted at Izzy.
     Izzy pretended to ignore Brian’s remark. “Look, if we calm down for a couple minutes, maybe they will think AJ apologized for his rude remark and that we’ve all forgiven each other. Now, unless you have some sort of ingenious idea on how to leave, they won’t let us leave. Do you want to be stuck here for the entire night?”
     “No.”
     “Fine then, let’s just stay cool for a couple minutes and then someone bang on the door and tell Howie and the others that we made up.”
     Everyone fell into his or her own little world, and the room quickly became silent. Each was thinking about what transpired in those short moments that they were all put in this room together. Finally, Ali started banging on the door.
     “Yes,” Howie asked after he’d opened the door.
     “We’re done,” Ali told him.
     “You’ve forgiven each other?”
    All four of them nodded. Howie narrowed his eyes for a moment as if he was in doubt. Finally, he smiled.
    “Good I knew this would work!”
    Ali smiled great-fully at him as he moved back, letting them out. The other guys stood up.
    “Well, I see you guys made up,” Nick said grinning.
    “I’m tired,” Izzy softly said. “Let’s go home, Ali.”
    “Yeah, I think we’ve overstayed our welcome” Ali chimed in glancing at AJ.
    The guys walked the girls to the door. Howie bid them goodbye as AJ and Brian stood a few steps back throwing the girls dirty looks.
    “Thanks for having us. We had fun.” Izzy smiled sweetly at Howie ignoring the faces Brian was making. How old WAS he?
    “We loved having you. Feel free to drop by whenever.” Howie smiled
    Izzy nodded and they went to their car. Howie closed the door silently behind him.
    “Happy you came Ali?” Izzy asked sarcastically
    “Fuck you Isabella.” She replied unlocking the car
    Izzy sighed. Ali rarely cussed and when she did she almost never meant it. She was really hurt by AJ’s comments. Brian was mean, but AJ had crossed the line. Getting in the car she tried to apologize
    “I’m sorry Ali. You know AJ is a jerk.”
    Ali shook her head “Let it go Izzy. I just want to get the hell away from here and close this chapter of my life.” She said icily. She tried starting the car. Nothing. She sighed. She closed her eyes tightly and took a deep breath. She would not cry. She had promised herself that she wouldn’t cry another tear over AJ. She tried again. Nothing happened
    “Work your fucking piece of shit!” Ali yelled at the car scaring the hell out of Isabella.
    “Woah, Ali. Calm down.”
    Ali looked at her and sighed and tried again... it worked... ah, finally! ... Then it died again. Ali had had it. In a fit of anger she got out of the car and slammed the door shut.
    “Your worthless piece of crap!” she screamed at the car kicking at its tire.
    Izzy stood in the car shocked. Ali was never this aggressive.
    “Why? God Damn it! Why the hell can’t I just be happy?” she thought as she felt a cold drop of water hit her face. She looked up just as rain started pouring down on her. In just a few minutes she was drenched to the bone. The events of the day finally dawned on her and she felt the first tears fall from her eyes, mixing with the cold rain. Izzy quickly got out of the car and ran to her friend.
    “Shh... Ali, it’s okay. We’ll talk to the guys and we’ll be home in no time.” She said hugging her friend trying to ease her pain
    “Come on. Let’s go in.” Izzy said pulling at Ali’s hand
    She shook her head “You go on. I’ll wait here.”
    “But Ali...” Izzy drifted off, the look on her friend’s face telling her that it was worthless to argue.
     As Izzy made her way to the door Ali sat on the grass and put her head in between her knees, sniffling and sobbing occasionally.
     “Hi!” Howie opened the door to reveal a drenched Izzy. He looked outside and saw Ali sitting on the     grass “Isn’t Ali coming in?”
     Izzy shook her head softly.
     “What happened?” Asked Nick coming into the room.
     “The car won’t start.”
     “Where’s Ali?” AJ asked with a worried face. If Isabella didn’t know better she’d say he actually gave a shit.
     “Outside.” Izzy said glaring at him. He quickly diverted his gaze.
     Nick came back with a towel and gave it to Izzy. She smiled her thanks. Brian watched from a distance, a little jealous that Izzy was smiling at Nick. He missed making her smile. He shook his head. What was he thinking? After what she had done to him? But damn, she looked gorgeous with her wet hair clanging to her forehead like that.
    Brian firmed his jaw when he saw Nick gently moving it out of her face. Nick looked at him and smiled pleased, seeing his friend almost as red as a tomato.
    Meanwhile AJ went to the door and looked out. Seeing Ali sitting in the rain and don’t even caring made his heart contort. No matter what she had done to him, seeing her like that, so innocent and defenseless pulled a string at his heart.
    “Can I borrow your phone so we can call a taxi?”
    AJ, who felt horribly guilty about what he said earlier, took a step forward. “I’ll drive you ladies home.”
Brian nodded. “I’ll go with you too AJ, if that’s cool.”
    AJ nodded and went to grab his keys.
    “Thank you,” Izzy whispered softly as he passed by.
    AJ nodded and picked up his keys. The three of them quietly moved out of the room and to the door. Brian opened the door and waited until the other two went outside, then he quietly shut the front door behind him.