Tomorrow May Never Come

Just like Frankie had said, the club was packed that night. Kate had arrived with Brian and Danielle with Zack meeting her there, just as promised, and to start the night, everyone but Kate took a shot as Frankie left the DJ booth and came down to see them.

"Hey, glad you guys could make it!" he said, coming to stand next to Danielle, who couldn't help but smile at the fact that a good-looking guy had wanted her to come. "Danielle, I'm going back up to the DJ booth in a minute. You want to come with?" he asked, and Kate could practically see Dani's face light up like a Christmas tree.

"Y-yeah!" Danielle answered with a nervous stutter. As Frankie headed back to the DJ booth, she turned to Brian and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. "Oh, I love you Brian! Thank you so much!" she gushed, kissing him quickly on the cheek.

"You're welcome, now go and love him," Brian answered with a laugh, and she ran off, following where Frankie had gone off to. "So," he said, turning back to Kate and Zack who were next to him at the bar, "where did you guys meet?"

The two paused for a moment before Zack began to speak. "Uh, in the park."

"The park?" Kate asked, furrowing her eyebrows as she wondered why Zack would say that.

"In the park, hm? ...But I thought you two studied together in the MBA classes. I mean, that's what your mother told me," Brian said to Kate; she knew that she'd be found out, but decided to hold onto the lie she and Zack were fabricating for a bit longer.

"So what? We can't meet in the park?" she shot back.

"Well of course you can...but what were you doing in the park?" Brian then asked, raising his eyebrows as he waited for his answer.

"Uh..."

"Very good question," Zack cut in. "Um...I was taking my dog for a walk, and she was taking her dog for a walk, and we bumped into each other," he quickly said, but the look Brian sent to him told him that Brian could see right through him.

"Well that's strange," Brian chuckled. "Kate doesn't have a dog."

"I...took my neighbor's dog for a walk," Kate said aloud, covering for Zack.

Laughing, Brian crossed his arms as he leaned back on the barstool. "Even stranger. I'm your neighbor, and I don't have a dog either."

"Kate, you silly silly girl, you're forgetting!" Zack exclaimed, taking a sip of his drink before continuing. Turning to Brian he then said, "She took my dog for a walk that day."

"Zack, you silly silly boy," Brian mocked in return. "If she took your dog for a walk, then whose dog did you take for a walk?" He flashed his trademark smirk.

"Alright, you know what?" Kate cut in. "We met at a friend's house, okay?"

"Oh really?" Brian asked, feigning curiosity. "What's your friend's name?"

"Natalie!" Zack said quickly, it having been the first name that came to mind. Little did he know, Natalie was there at the club, standing with a few friends of hers nearby.

"Natalie?" Kate asked; having heard her name called out twice, Natalie looked over only to see Zack sitting at the bar with another man and woman.

"Oh hey!" she said with a smile and a wave and started to come over to the trio.

"Oh no..." Zack groaned. "That's the same Natalie with those two little brats." Once Natalie had made it to the small group, he instantly put on a smile "Hi Natalie."

"Zack, what are you doing here? I thought you said you were with family tonight?" she asked curiously.

"Uh, yeah, I did," Zack said, starting to stutter. "Natalie...meet my mom and dad!" he said, pointing to Kate and Brian, who let out a laugh and patted Zack on the shoulder.

"Oh, he is a funny man! So, Natalie, I just heard their love story was born in your house?" Brian asked of her, and he marveled at the look of confusion that crossed the girl's face.

"My house? What?"

"Wait..." Brian paused, a devilish grin on his lips as he glanced briefly at Zack. "Aren't you the same Natalie with the two little brats?"

"Oh God," Zack groaned, rubbing his face and silently cursing Brian. One look at Natalie and he could see she was outraged.

"Brats!?" she shouted, looking right at him. "How dare you say that?"

"I never said that! They're angels!" Zack said, lying to save his ass.

"No, shut up, you liar. You didn't even tell me you had a girlfriend," Natalie spat, looking at Kate with an evil glare.

"She's not my girlfriend!"

"Whatever, I'm leaving," Natalie said, pursing her lips with a glare toward Zack as she stormed off.

"Bye!" Brian called after her. "Oh Zack, I'm confused; what's going on?" he asked, turning to Zack. He was unable to hide his smirk.

"Fuck...ask her," Zack answered, pointing to Kate as he turned back to the bar and downed the rest of his drink as fast as he could.

"Kate, what's going on? I'm very confused here," Brian said with a laugh, trying to keep a serious face.

"You just shut up. You knew all along that Zack and I weren't dating, so why are you pulling this act?"

"I'm not the one acting here, you are," Brian pointed out.

"Yeah, well it's all your fault!" Kate shouted at him. "Didn't you say 'laugh, sing, smile, blah blah blah'? You obviously wanted me to come here, so apparently dancing, singing, and drinking means living life. Well, anyone can do it, but I don't want to."

"That's because you can't do it. You're too boring," Brian said with a shrug as he stood up and leaned back against the bar.

"Mm, you are quite boring," Zack said with a nod.

"Oh really?" Kate asked, but the two ignored her and turned to each other.

"So, tell me about Natalie. She's hot, yeah?" Brian asked with a smile, and Zack couldn't hide the grin on his lips.

"Yeah, man."

Huffing, Kate shoved her way in between them to the tray of shots that had just been laid out on the bar. Looking at them for a moment, she took a deep breath and then grabbed a shot, downing it, and then grabbing another one. Seeing what she was doing, the boys stopped talking and Brian grabbed the next shot, handing it to her.

"Here, go for it!" he cheered, and Kate finished, getting past four shots, and then five, and then six as both the boys cheered her on, trying to get her as drunk as possible so maybe she'd let loose for once.

Slamming the last shot on the table, Kate already felt like she was getting tipsy. "Woooo!" she screamed, "Let's see who's a bore now, boys!"

And with that, Kate headed into the crowd, finding any and everyone to dance with. It didn't take long for the six shots to completely take over, and as Kate danced like she never had before, Zack and Brian could do nothing but watch in awe.

Finding an abandoned table, Kate got on top of it and started dancing, rather scandalously. Feeling the room temperature sky-rocket, she unzipped her jacket as she danced, throwing it somewhere across the room and people all around her looking up and started hooting and hollering at the fact that she was wearing a rather revealing top.

"Yeah!" Brian yelled from back at the bar, both his and Zack's eyes wide with amazement, as they had never seen her act like that before. Truth be told, they both kinda liked it, too.

After a few minutes, Zack took a shot himself and then headed out into the crowd of dancers, leaving Brian all alone as he went on his search for Kate. Once he was in the sea of bodies, girls were flanking him left and right, grinding against him from all angles. But Zack was on a mission, and he didn't have time for these no-name girls. So, he got the three girls' attentions, and pointed them in Brian's direction.

"Go dance with him!" Zack shouted over the music, and the girls looked over, nodded quickly, and headed toward the bar to Brian, who was taken aback by the fact that three insanely good looking women had just come up to him.

Finding Kate, Zack started to dance with her, loving the fact that she was smiling and looked like she was the happiest she'd been in a long, long time. Kate looked up and smiled at Zack, then turning back to the bar to see why Brian hadn't come with him. When she saw Brian with all those girls around him, her smile slowly faded, and a feeling began rushing through her. She didn't know what it was, but...it almost felt to her like she was jealous of those girls.

Sometime during the night, after many more shots had been consumed, Kate had made her way around the dance floor. Somehow she'd lost Zack, but she was at the point where she just didn't care because she was having a good time, dancing with people she didn't even know. She smiled when she felt a body come up behind her, hands grasping her hips as she grinded back against him. Feeling whoever it was lean down into her neck and place a light kiss there, Kate turned with a smile. She found herself looking up into the dark, intriguing brown eyes and just as her lips almost collided with Brian's, she pushed away from him, her eyes wide.

Seeing her reaction, Brian just backed off with a smile, putting his hands up as a sign of surrender. Kate looked at him confusedly before she felt someone tug hard on her arm and she stumbled into a hard body. Looking up, she saw Zack and smiled again, turning her back to face him as she danced with him instead. The little episode with Brian that had just occurred flew right out of her mind.

With the number of people in the club it was no surprise that once again, the group had lost each other in the rest of the crowd. Kate had gone off numerous times, as well as Zack, to go get more to drink, and by the time she found Brian, she was completely blown out of her own mind.

Coming up behind him, she tapped his shoulder, and when Brian turned, pointed a finger very close to his face. She fought to keep her vision straight as he looked down at her, which was difficult to do when she was also fighting gravity in order to stay upright.

"Listen to me, Brian. I'm telling you-" she said, pausing for a moment, and Brian saw her close her eyes for a moment before blinking several times.

"Yes?" he asked, but then Kate just fell backwards. "Shit," he said, not being able to hold back a chuckle. Just as he was about to lean down and help Kate back up, who was laughing uncontrollably on the floor, he felt a hand on his shoulder. Turning, he saw Zack, who was very much in the same state as Kate was.

"I think Kate's drunk," Zack said, his words slurring as he started to sway.

"Hold on a second, Zack. Kate fell down," he said, turning back to Kate on the floor and just as he leaned down to help her, he heard a hard thud next to him. Standing back up, he looked over and noticed that Zack had practically passed out right where he was standing. "Shit, not you, too," Brian groaned. With a sigh, Brian got the two back to a standing position, leaning heavily against the bar as he went off to find two bodyguards to help him get his friends out of the bar.

"Leave me alone"! Kate screamed as one of the bouncers carried her clear out of the club, the second one carrying Zack as well. "Let me down!" Due to the fact she was struggling so much, when they reached the street the bouncer finally let her down next to Brian, who thanked them before the bouncers went back to their place by the door.

"Hey, that bouncer guy... He looks like...like...Mohammed Ali," Zack said, turning around to look back at the bouncer who had carried him out.

"Be quiet," Brian said, pulling Zack back to where Kate was standing since he had started to wander off.

"Who are you?" Kate asked, scrunching up her face as she looked hard at Brian.

"I'm Brian, and you're Kate, and you're very drunk," he answered, holding her shoulders to keep her standing still. She quickly shrugged him off with a frown.

"Shut up, I'm leaving," she said, and she turned to go, almost walking directly into the busy street.

"Whoa, whoa, wait... What's wrong?" Brian asked, noticing Kate's suddenly sour mood.

"You! Didn't you say laugh, smile, live for today? Well, now that I'm enjoying myself, you say it's time to go and get us kicked out! You are so confusing Brian! I'm leaving!" she answered, her voice raising as she turned to go again, but Brian grabbed her wrist and pulled her back.

"No, Kate. Listen to me-"

Fighting against him and trying to wrench her wrist free, Kate pushed him. "No! Leave me alone!"

"Stop it, just-"

"Leave me alone, Brian!" Kate screamed, hitting him harder as she just tried to break free.

"Shut up!" Brian shouted, grabbing Kate's shoulders and shaking her a little until she stopped fighting him and looked at him with wide eyes. "If you scream one more time, I'll slap you across the face," he threatened, though he would never hit her anyway.

"...Why are you shouting?" Kate whimpered.

"I'm not shouting!"

"Hey-" Zack started to cut in.

"You shut up too! Now...you guys..." Brian said, now that he had everything under control. Holding his hands out, he looked at his two friends. "Hold hands and start walking."

With drunken smiles, Kate and Zack grabbed each others' hands, locking their fingers.

"Idiots," Brian hissed, breaking their hands apart. "Not each others', hold my hand," he said, standing in the middle of Zack and Kate and taking their hands in his. "Now come on."

With that, they started walking down the street. It didn't take long for Kate and Zack to start singing very off-key to a song with no discernable words, babbling incoherently in between.

"Please, will both of you shut up!" Brian said.

"Okay," Zack answered with a smile.

"You especially."

For the next few moments it was silent, the trio walking steadily down the street. Zack slowly raised his hand, and Brian looked over at him.

"What?"

"Can I say something?" Zack asked, his words slightly less slurred as they had been before they left the club.

With a sigh, Brian nodded. "Alright."

"I feel like we are all walking to school together, like kids," Zack said with a dopey smile, and Kate smiled too.

"Yeah, Daddy used to..." she started to say, but then her voice tapered off and the smile she had faded away, tears threatening to prick her eyes, "...hold my hand like this and take me to school."

Brian could tell that there was something wrong with her, and he rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand as he leaned into her. He was about to console her in any way he could when he started to hear sniffling from the other side of him. Confused, he looked over at Zack who had a few tears trailing down his cheeks.

"What's wrong?"

"I miss my dad," Zack answered, sniffling again.

"Oh...I'm sorry," Brian said solemnly. "When did he die?"

Suddenly angry, Zack looked at Brian. "He's alive! Can't I just miss him!?" he asked in unnecessary outrage.

"Of course you can," Kate replied, still feeling very sad. "I miss my dad very much... I don't know why he had to leave us and go away... I miss him so much," she said, and she finally started to cry. Brian stopped walking with them, causing them to stop as well.

Zack let go of Brian's hand and went over to Kate's other side, not wanting to see his friend so sad. "Sshh...Kate, don't cry. You don't look nice when you cry. You look nice when you're angry," he said, trying to cheer her up. "Whenever you miss your dad, just...think about me, and you'll get angry." Wiping her tears, Zack looked into her eyes, about to say something that he meant every word of. "Hey...I really like you, Kate. My day isn't completely until I get to see you. Please...just don't cry. I don't like seeing you sad."

Grinning softly at what Zack had said, Brian slowly let go of Kate's hand, taking a few steps back from the two to let them have their moment together. Stuffing his hands in his pockets, he waited.

"Zack?..." Kate sniffled, and then she smiled through her tears. "You are so cute!"

"No, I'm not cute," Zack refused. "I'm manly."

"Noooo, you're cute!" Kate insisted, and she started to poke at his cheeks, to which he began slapping her hands away and the two began to playfully fight. Finally they linked arms, smiles on both their faces, and started walking down the street, only to have Brian follow behind them.