The funky-dancy-masquerade-party paarrrtayyy!

Lumi covered her mouth with both hands. She stared at Quinn with wide eyes, almost unable to believe what she was seeing and hearing. Quinn, down on one knee, holding out a beautiful ring, asking her to marry him. She blinked rapidly as tears came to her eyes.

She was speechless, so, with her hands still covering her mouth, she nodded vigorously. She extended a trembling hand to let him put the ring on her finger.

Quinn's hands were trembling too, as he slipped the ring on her ring finger. He stood up and with a huge smile on his face he said, "Lumi, I fucking love you!" He wrapped his arms tightly around her, and kissed her roughly/romantically. He was so in love!

Lumi wrapped her arms around Quinn's neck and jumped up, wrapping her legs around his waist. Happy tears flowed down her face as she kissed Quinn over and over, everywhere she could. "I love you too!" she cried in between kisses.

Quinn held her up underneath her butt and spun around. He pressed her up against the wall and kissed her passionately.

Lumi kissed him back and ran her hands through his hair. They went at it for a few more minutes before finally Lumi gently pulled Quinn away. "Maybe," she said breathlessly, "we should be getting back to the party." She smiled, still only inches away from his face. She stroked his cheek. She'd never been so happy.

Alecis wrote:"Listen, Rowan... I would, I mean, I want to, but how could I help? I don't even really know Cray."

"Well...I don't know," Rowan sighed in a defeated sort of way. "I feel like such a hypocrite trying to lecture her, and I don't even know how to get her to listen to me." He looked past Alecis and saw Ria storming over to them. "Oh god..." he muttered under his breath. She looked pissed.

Alecis sighed. "You know I'll try Rowan, of course I will. I just don't know what will help." Of course I'd do anything for you, I'd help you through anything.

As Rowan looked behind her, Alecis turned too. Great, it was Ria, Alecis didn't want to have to take care of her too.

"Rowan, tell this girl to leave me the fuck alone," Ria snarled, advancing on the two clio. "I never did anything to her, why does she always need to ruin my fun at parties?"

She glared at Alecis, then turned back to Rowan. "I'm sick of this. And I'm fat, I'm so fat, I can't even pick up any guys. You know what that means." She hinted towards what he would need to do for her tonight, after she was done crying in the bathroom about how fat she was.

"She's not ruining your fun, she's keeping you from doing what you promised you wouldn't do," Rowan snapped back. Ugh, she made him so angry.

Ria wrote:"I'm sick of this. And I'm fat, I'm so fat, I can't even pick up any guys. You know what that means."

Rowan shot a nervous glance at Alecis, hoping she wouldn't pick up on what Ria was getting at. "Okay, okay," he said hastily. "Look, just stay away from the bar, and you can do whatever else you want. I'll make it up to you later. Sound fair?"

Holly looked round nervously.Lets be honest, she was a light in the dark but at a party, she perferred to shrink right into the wall.She bit her lip and could taste the sweet coppery taste of blood.Today she wore a black dress, a silver mask hid her gentle eyes.Littel Fantine was resting in her purse because her brown hair was curled at the ends.She hated parties, but who wanted to look casual? She gripped her purse gently, well not gently actually it was quite tightly.Nonetheless she made her way to the bar.

"No Ria," Alecis said, tilting her head slightly in question, "I don't know what that means. Please do explain."

"She means I have to buy her something expensive to make her feel better," Rowan jumped in quickly before Ria could tell Alecis the truth. Of course he knew this meant he really would have to buy Ria something now, in addition to that other service Ria had actually referred to. But that was better than Alecis finding out the truth.

"You know what, you should do that too," Ria said, finally grinning. "I've been wanting some pretty jewelry. And you know what, on the way home we could pick up some ice cream. I would really like that."

She smiled at him, then turned to Alecis, grinning like she'd just won the lottery.

"What do you mean, that too?" Alecis asked Ria, wishing she could wipe that smile off her face. She looked back and forth between Ria and Rowan, waiting for an answer.

"She doesn't mean anything," Rowan insisted, giving Ria a warning look that clearly said, 'shut your mouth right now or I buy you nothing.' God, Alecis would never let him live it down if she found out what he did to keep Ria satisfied.

"You mean, wait, she doesn't know?" Ria smiled again, she loved putting Rowan through hell. "You see, since I can't get any guys with this," she jabbed a finger at her protruding belly, "he's been helping in satisfying me. And he does a wonderful job," she added, patting Rowan's arm affectionately.

She grinned as Alecis' eyes opened wide in horror.

"Wait, what?" Alecis asked, shocked. Satisfy? What did that mean? "I thought, I mean... Lumi said you were back with Charlie? And I..." Jeez, maybe Alecis didn't know Rowan at all...

"I'm confused."

Rowan glared at Ria. Why did she hate him so much? "Look, just don't worry about it, Alecis," he said with an irritated sigh. "It's no big deal. Nothing you need to think about." Even though he knew the damage had been done, and there was no taking back what Alecis already heard.

He narrowed his eyes at Ria. "And I'll buy you jewelry and ice cream in hell."

Wow, great party, huh?

"Yeah, that's what you say now," Ria smiled back at his glare, taunting him. She knew he would give her whatever she wanted when they left, no matter how angry he was now.

"Right now I'm kinda feeling some punch, Rowan, do you think you could grab me some? It's non-alcoholic."

"..." Alecis just stared between the two, not sure of how to react. When Ria suggested Rowan go get her a drink Alecis was torn between waiting here with Ria, to get more information out of her, or following Rowan to ask him just what "satisfy me" meant.

In the end, she decided to accompany Rowan," That's a good idea, Ria. I'll come with you Rowan."

Rowan was about to tell Ria to go fuck herself, which isn't something he had ever said to anyone before, when Alecis interrupted and offered to go with him. He sighed, “I guess so.” At this point he wouldn’t get anywhere by arguing so he just kind of gave in. As usual. (Lolwhipped.)

Leaving Ria alone, Alecis walked with Rowan over to the punch bowl on the other side of the room, not sure what to say to him.

“Why are you doing this Rowan? You don’t owe that girl anything. I mean… I’m glad you’re taking responsibility for what happened, but don’t you think this is getting a little ridiculous? She’s past the month where abortion is legal, there isn’t much she can do at this point but have the baby.”

“Oh yes, there’s more she can do,” Rowan said bitterly. “Once the baby’s born she can take it back to Earalas and never see me again.” Ria had so much to threaten him with, and she was so heartless that Rowan was pretty sure they weren’t empty threats. “But whatever. It’s only four more months. I can deal with her until then.”

"Are you serious? Anyone in their right mind would know you should get that baby! How is she supposed to take care of it? I mean, one, she's a whore, two, she has no money except what you give her, and three, she's crazy--trying to drink while she's pregnant."

"Maybe so, but once she's back in Earalas she's under a completely different law-system, which will most likely favor her," Rowan replied in his often-used self-defeating tone. Didn't Alecis think he already knew all of this? "But like I said, it doesn't matter. Once it’s born I won’t have to take care of her anymore.” Oh how he couldn’t wait for that happy day to come.