London Times

"So, first off I want to see Big Ben girls." Mom said, examining the map of London as Ellie and I literally drug the bags into the room. How could three women possibly have packed so much? "Then we'll have to see the London Eye." I exchanged glances with Ellie, us both rolling our eyes. "Now, the way I see it, if we get to see the London Eye tomorrow, that leaves plenty of time to go shopping the next day and then-"

"Mom!" She looked up at us from the map, and I smiled innocently. "Right now, we'd like to take a shower and relax."

"And order room service!" Ellie added.

"That too, I was thinking pizza and ice cream." I raised a finger to my chin in thought.

"With little chocolate chips!"

"Yes! Wait, on the ice cream or the pizza?" I never thought about chocolate chips on pizza but, chocolate went with everything so I suppose it might not have tasted so bad. Besides, with Ellie you never knew what she was really talking about.

"Both, but I want Lasagna."

"No, Pizza." I corrected her. Ellie crossed her arms and I did the same.

"No." She paused so that she could show a strong emphasis on, "Lasagna."

"Pizza!"

"Lasagna!"

"Why don't we just order both?!" We both turned to look at my mom. Why was it mom's always had the solution to everything?

"Alright." I grabbed my suitcase to get some clothes, "But it's going on your credit card though."

"Isn't everything?" She replied, going to the phone to order the food. I shrugged.

"True."

After everyone had taken their shower, room service showed up as if on cue. It was awesome. A lady walked in with a tray, on top were the silver dishes containing our food. Ellie and I had been laying on one of the beds, watching some British television show and mom had been in the other room telling dad that we'd arrived safely.

"Why is it," Ellie began as we got up to get our food. "That every time I see one of these round, silver, trays, I always expect a enormous turkey to be underneath?" I said thank you to the woman and she left.

"Me too." I lifted the dish to reveal a large pan of pizza. "Isn't that weird? Especially since we already know what's underneath it." I grabbed a slice as Ellie placed some lasagna on a plate and grabbed the little dish of chocolate chips.

"Mom! Dinner's here!" Ellie called. We'd been best friends since eighth grade, and we treated each others families as our own. We went back over to the bed and continued with our show. "Katie?"

"Mm?" I mumbled through a mouth full of pizza.

"What time are you planning on going to bed tonight?" I shrugged my shoulders. How in the world was I supposed to know?

"I don't know, why?" She shook her head.

"Just wondering." I grabbed a few chocolate chips from the dish and continued with my pizza.

Being in London seemed like something out of a fairytale. Maybe it was because of the fact I was in another country, maybe it was because that other country was England, or maybe it was simply because of the time difference. Either way, I was having difficulty sleeping, so when Ellie rolled out of bed I was fully aware that she was up to something.

"Ow!" She loudly whispered as something hit the nightstand. It was silent for a second, probably so that she could make sure that she hadn't woken me or my mom up, then she headed in the direction of the suitcases. I rolled over so that I could see what she was doing, and noticed her pull out two articles of clothing, and a few smaller items, four of which I presumed were shoes because of the spike protruding from the ends. I watched her get up attempt to hurry, trip, check if anyone saw, and continue to my side of the bed.

"What are you doing?" I asked, causing Ellie to let out a yelp and fall backwards, the items she was holding went flying. I sat up in bed. "Ellie?"

"Shh!" She was propped up on her knees, pretending to zip her mouth closed and shooting a worried glance toward my mom. "Gees, you could've told me you were awake." I rolled my eye's, getting out of bed to help her pick up the things she'd dropped. They were dresses, small dresses.

"What in the world..." I held up the tiny thing to examine it, it was pink. Ellie, rather rudely, snatched it out of my hands.

"That's mine." She then picked up the other one and thrust it into my arms. "This is yours." The one she'd handed me wasn't much longer, and though it wasn't pink, it was very sparkly.

"Are you kidding me? My mom would kill me if she caught me in this!" I flipped it over, noticed the back was extremely low cut. "She wouldn't let me sleep in this thing!" I added.

"That's why she isn't going to know about it." She began separating the items into two piles, one for her and one for me I was guessing.

"Whatever you're thinking Ellie," She looked up at me with a sneaky little smile spread across her lips. "No." Her face fell as I sat the dress down and went to crawl into bed.

"Katie." She whined, grabbing hold of my hand to drag me back down. "Before we left, I did a little research on London." Research. Ellie. Okay, I was impressed. "Well the legal drinking age is a tad lower here, so then I researched a few nightclubs in the area. So you," I already saw where this was going. "And I, are going to a nightclub."

"Yea-No." I pulled my hand loose.

"Okay." She let out a sigh. "Such a shame though." The tone of her voice frightened me.

"What's a shame?" I was almost afraid of her answer.

"That I'm going to have to tell your mom who dented her bumper on the way to a certain Jonas Brother concert." I let out a gasp.

"You wouldn't." Her eyebrows narrowed.

"Oh, I would." My mom was so angry about that, she wouldn't let anyone borrow the car for two months. I squinted one eye at her and she did the same. In a way, our little 'stare down' reminded me of something from some old Western movie.

After about three minutes, I let out a groan of defeat and snatched the dress up off of the floor.

"Fine." I growled, marching into the bathroom. "I hate you."

"Love you too!" Ellie chirped just as I closed the door behind me.

When I came back out, Ellie was already dressed in her outfit, complete with studded heels and a tiara.

"Aaron would have a cow if he knew you planned on going out dressed like that." I placed my hands on my hips. Aaron was Ellie's boyfriend, back in the U.S. only he was a complete idiot, and when I say 'idiot' I mean he's the quarter back on the football team and thinks that he's just the shit. "And would you look at me? I look like Miley Cyrus. I am not wearing this."

"Oh, it's get better deary." Ellie smiled, holding up a pair of silver heels which were dangling from her fingers on her right hand, her other was crossed across her stomach. She was horrible.

"N-No! I am no-there is no way. Absolutely not! That-Those are out of the question." She took a step towards me and I took a step back, holding up my hand as a warning. "Ellie, Ellie no. I am not wearing those!"

"I can not believe I'm wearing these." Ellie turned around to smile at me as I followed her to the V.I.P. section of the club. "And Ellie, I don't care how short that dress is, we're not getting up there." The music was much too loud and the place was absolutely packed. The DJ was blaring 'Just Dance' by Lady GaGa, shocker, and Ellie was already finding it hard to keep still.

"Hey!" The bouncer smiled down at Ellie and I. I never felt so exposed in my life. Ellie smiled, stepping closer to the bouncer and taking a look around the club to see that no one was paying any attention to us. "We want, that table." She pointed to a table that was toward the front of the club, on a higher platform. It was directly above the bar with a spiral staircase beside it so that you get to the dance floor quicker. The bouncer was a very big guy, his arms were crossed over his chest as he looked us both up and down, contemplating whether or not to let us in. "It'll be our little secret." I'd never heard Ellie try to flirt before, but now that I had...she was pretty good at it, and it was scary. I was even in more shock, when she batted her eyelashes, and the bouncer smiled and let us by. Ellie leaned over, kissing him on the cheek and whispered, "Thanks hon." I couldn't believe it.

"How, where did you learn to do that?" Ellie shrugged taking a seat and smiling up at me. I sat down beside her.

"He's a man, not that complicated." A waiter came by and Ellie ordered something called a Pink Squirrel, while I, on the other hand, ordered a glass of water on the rocks. Always wanted to say that. "Wanna go dance Katie?" 'Reach Out' by Hilary Duff was playing and I wasn't going to lie, the music was already starting to get to me.

"Actually, I'll stay here and wait for our drinks." I shouted back. "Hold down the fort!" She rolled her eyes.

"You better not sit here all night Katie!" She shook her finger at me and got up, disappearing down the steps and onto the crowded dance floor. I got up, walking over the balcony to watch all the people dance. The strobe lights above weren't making it all that easy to see but, there was enough lighting for me to finally spot Ellie, dancing in a random little group in the exact center of the dance floor.

"Your drinks." The waiter had returned, setting our drinks down and I noticed his eyes drop down to my overly exposed legs. Pervert.

"Thanks." I walked over and took a sip of my water. Boy, did I need that. If my mom woke up and we weren't there, we were dead. I decided to take my glass back over to the balcony, to make sure Ellie didn't get into too much trouble. I nearly spit out my mouthful as I noticed a guy, standing in a group with three other guys, point to Ellie before making his way over to her. Ellie was barely eighteen, and he looked a good twenty-something. He was pretty tall with curly brown hair, his friends looked like a group of hoodlums as well, one had a mohawk! My maternal instincts kicked in and I took off down the stairs to dance floor.

I got to the stairs and paused, noticing Ellie suddenly stop dancing and begin to walk in the opposite direction, away from the guy, and back upstairs toward me. I let out a sigh of relief and turned around.

"Katie!" Ellie called as soon as she'd gotten within shouting distance. She came up the stairs, a bit out of breath from all the dancing and took a seat at our table, grabbing her drink. "You have got to go dance." She took a long drink, "It is so much fun!" I laughed. I bet it was fun, and now that Ellie was back to watch the table, I could go dance.

"I am! You stay here and watch our table and stuff, It's my turn to dance." Okay, so I know we weren't supposed to be here. I also knew that if we were caught we'd be in some deep doo doo but, I might as well have some fun while I'm here right? I made my way down to the dance floor and began dancing.

Ellie was right. The music was amazing, the people were nice, and the lighting made the atmosphere seem more exciting, even though it was nearly impossible to see. I'd danced with countless people to...somewhere around five or six songs, not stopping until I was seriously out of breath.

"Oh my gosh!" I stopped dancing, gasping for air. The guy I was dancing with paused as well, smiling down at me. I could only imagine what he was thinking. "I'm gonna go check on my friend." I hesitantly laughed, pointing back to the V.I.P. section. The guy nodded and turned around to either go back to his own booth or dance with someone else. Something was telling me I shouldn't have left Ellie alone for so long, she was probably going to hate me for taking so long on the dance floor and not giving her another chance to dance. I kept my head down as I made my way back up the steps.

"Ellie I'm-" I froze. On the table were three empty glasses, lined with pink liquid which I was guessing were the remains of Pink Squirrels. Sitting at our table was the guy I'd spotted, eying Ellie on the dance floor and one of his friends. Ellie was sitting between both of them, laughing about nothing. She was drunk.

"Katie!" I smiled, walking slowly toward her and the two guys. "I, Katie I love you man." Ellie sniffled, reaching her hands out towards me. "Katie's," She turned toward the guy with the curly brown hair, "Danny look at me. Danny." She grabbed his chin, forcing him to look at her. "Danny look at me." Danny, I assumed was his name, raised an eyebrow and averted his eyes towards me. "Katie is my best friend. She's my best friend." She sighed, reaching down to take another drink of her Pink Squirrel.

"Whoa-no, no, no Ellie." I beat her to the glass and snatched it off of the table before she could grab it. "I think you've had enough for tonight." She blinked, swatting her hand through the air where the glass was. After about twenty seconds, she let out a gasp and slapped her hand to her mouth. Ellie's eyes grew wide as she turned to the blond guy to her other side.

"It disappeared Dougie! It just-poof!" She placed her hand on his chest and pointed to the spot on the table. "My drink-did you see it!" Danny began laughing at her and stood up, walking towards me and reaching out his hand to shake mine. I gave Ellie's glass to a random waiter walking by and turned back to Danny, crossing my arms.

"Hey, Katie. She's been talking about you the whole time." I raised my eyebrow.

"Yeah. How long have you been here?" I knew exactly what he was thinking about and I was not leaving him alone with Ellie, what a slime ball. It was my fault, I shouldn't have left her alone.

"No, she was like that," He pointed toward Ellie who was poking Dougie in his nose and laughing. "When we got here. I swear, I only wanted to talk."

"Yeah, I'm sure." I walked over to Ellie and grabbed her arm, pulling her out of her seat.

"Wooop" Ellie mumbled from the sudden jolt. She looked up to see me. "Katie!" She chirped, "When did you get here?"

"We're leaving now Ellie." She let out a gasp, snatching her arm away from me.

"No we're not! We just got here! I'm making new British friends!" She motioned towards the guys before leaning in to whisper. "And I think Danny is cute!" It came out as just a normal yell and so he heard, placing his head in his hands.

"Ellie, I really don't think it would be such a good idea to stay here with-"

"Dougie's single." Oh, she knew me all too well. Even when she was drunk. Danny's friend, Dougie, was my type, blond hair, blue eyes, and a kind of baby face. He was absolutely gorgeous. I supposed it wouldn't be so bad if I was here with her right?

"Fine. But I'm staying here to watch you." Ellie clapped her hands together.

"Watch me do what?" I frowned and shook my head. She shrugged, skipping back to the table and sitting right beside Danny. "Katie said I could stay!" She jumped up in her seat a little, clearly excited. "But only because she thinks Dougie's a total babe." She put a strong emphasis on 'babe' and I turned three shades of red. Dougie's eyes widened as he turned to look at me. I had to fix this.

"She's really drunk you know?" I hesitantly coughed. "Crazy talk and such." I took a sip of my water. "Gosh, is it hot in here or what? Heh." I nervously scratched my neck and turned my attention towards the dance floor.

"You know what? Danny, you know what?" Ellie began again.

"What love."

"Whoa! Nuh-uh buddy." I pointed a finger at him. "What's with the love, I don't think so."

"It's nothing personal. It's more, like a nickname he calls all women." Dougie explained. His accent was so adorable, I loved England.

"Yeah, how many women?" Dougie pinched his lips together and focused back on his drink.

"Thanks for all the support mate." I glared at Danny, who simply smiled and waved. I didn't trust him.

"I think," Ellie pointed at Danny, draping one arm around his neck and resting her head on his shoulder. "I think you are really cute." She stated matter-of-factly. She forgot to mention he had really pretty eyes, even for a disgusting horn-dog. "And!" She turned to me, finger still raised. "I didn't say anything about his eyes." My eye bulged, that was freaky.

"Yeah, well I'm sure Aaron wouldn't appreciate the way you're all over Danny now would he?" Ellie frowned, taking her arm away from him and sitting, hunched over in her seat.

"Who's Aaron?" Dougie asked, not knowing whether he should ask me or Ellie, who was now singing 'I'm Blue', though she didn't know the lyrics so it was coming out, 'I'm blue, something, blah blah blah blah, something something blah blah blah', and I'm not kidding.

"Aaron's her boyfriend back in the U.S." At that, Ellie piped up, sucking in her bottom lip.

"I love Aaron!" Ellie whimpered, tears beginning to fill her dark brown eyes. She sniffled, "He's the...He's the best boyfriend in the whole, Indiana!" She rested her head again on Danny's shoulders. After that, he didn't look so happy.

"So, how long you been in London then?" Dougie asked me, attempting to change the subject.

"13 hours and counting!" Ellie announced, throwing her right hand in the air before grabbing my glass of water and taking a long drink. "Ewe." She sat it back down, sticking her tongue out then grabbed Danny's beer. Ellie took one sip and spit it out, all over the table. "That's worse!" She scraped her tongue clean. "Icky." I know it was horrible but, I couldn't help but laugh at her. "Hey, Danny." Ellie whispered, though we were so close together that Dougie and I could hear what she was saying perfectly. She then stood up and hiked her leg up on her chair, pulling her dress up to reveal a black garter around her upper, right thigh. Both guy's jaw dropped, and I felt mine drop as well. My mind went blank, I couldn't believe... sober Ellie would be ashamed of drunk Ellie. It took me a minute to come back to reality, the guys were taking a tad longer so since Dougie was the closest, I elbowed him as hard as I could. He let out a whimper, grabbing his arm.

"Wanna help me take this off?" She bit her lip and leaned down, "Just don't tell Katie because she won't let me wear it." Ellie then held her finger up to her lips as though she'd just told him a secret. Danny smiled, reaching out to grab the garter. If the circumstances had been any different, I would have never even thought of throwing my glass of water at anyone, but seeing as they weren't, I found my half full glass of water, glass and all, soaring across the table only to collide, rather hard might I add, against Danny's chest. The glass, rolled down into this lap but, lucky for him it had emptied on his chest before it landed in his lap.

"You just keep your hands to yourself!" I stood up, crossing my arms and grabbing Ellie's hand. Okay, I really felt bad for what I'd done, I couldn't just leave on such a bad note. "Sorry about..." Danny looked up at me, rubbing the sore spot on his chest. "You really deserved it though." I then turned rather sharply on my heel and headed for the stairs.

"Hang on a sec!" Ellie said, pulling her own garter off of her leg and heading back over to Danny. "I'm sorry!" She screamed at him. She then reached into Danny's coat pocket and pulled out his cell phone. "Call me! We could go grab some fish and chips!" She put his phone back into his pocket, along with her garter "I don't even know what fish and chips are!" I gasped as Ellie then, leaned down and kissed him. I mean, on the lips, and slapped his shoulder. "Be brave my good man!" I went back over to grab Ellie, again. She stopped laughing, slowly and reached down to place a hand on her stomach.

"What's wrong?" She looked up at me and blinked a couple times. "Ellie?"

"Why is the room..." She stumbled a little and Danny jumped up to catch her before she fell backwards. "Spinning?" She shook her head, "Uh oh."

"What's the matter love?" Ellie shook her head, pressing a finger to his lips. She then, hunched over, and began vomiting all over the floor. I held my breath, stepping back a few steps. Danny held her steady, holding her hair back and out of her face. It had only taken her about a minute to get it all up. I felt my legs grow weak as I stared at the chunky mess.

"Okay, lets go over here." It wasn't until now that I'd noticed Dougie was standing right beside me. His arms were placed securely on my shoulders, keeping me up on my feet as we walked to the opposite side of the V.I.P. section.

"I-hate-throw up." I said, taking a deep breath after every word. My vision was beginning to blur and I felt Dougie's hand rubbing my back in slow, circular motions. I closed my eyes, shaking my head.

"It's okay Katie, just take a deep breath." I nodded, "In," He paused, breathing with me, "and out." I let it out and nodded again. "Please," He took another breath with me, "Don't pass out." And let it out. I couldn't help but to laugh a bit.

"Water." I smiled, looking up at him. "Please." Without another word he took off to the bar, actually running. If I wasn't so queasy, I'd give him an 'Awe' for being such a sweetheart. I took a seat in a random chair, careful not to look back at the people who were cleaning up the mess. Even the thought sent another wave of nausea through my body.

"Here." I looked up, taking the glass from Dougie and taking slow sips. The cool liquid flooded my stomach, sending a wave of relief down my throat.

"Thank you." I mumbled before taking another sip. Dougie took a seat beside me, and I couldn't help but to look up at him from over the glass rim as I drank.

"Doug!" We turned around to find another blond guy standing behind us. His hair was longer than Dougie's and he had brown eyes, unlike Dougie's who's were blue. "Where's Danny, we're bout ready to leave. Harry's ran off with some bird and..." He raised an eyebrow as he noticed me listening to him. "Are you alright?" I shook my head, and took another drink of my water. "You're face is as white as a sheet. You look like you're gonna pass out." I smiled, holding up my glass of water.

"I'm fine, really. Thanks." He nodded, turning back to Dougie.

"Have you seen him?" I pointed over to our old table.

"He should be over there with El-" They were gone. I stood up, looking past the blond guy. There was no one behind him, apart from a few groups of people standing around, or sitting at their own table, none of which were Ellie and Danny. "Oh no." It was really a good thing the mess was cleaned up, because I took off down the V.I.P. section, clear to the other end and back.

"What's wrong?"

"They're gone!" The blond crossed his arms, looking as though I'd just insulted his intelligence.

"If they were up here, I wouldn't have come to you two." Dougie rolled his eyes, standing up to join us.

"Katie, this is Tom." I smiled, "Tom, Katie"

"Nice to meet you." We both seemed to mumble.

"But seriously, we've got to find them." I turned and headed down the stairs to the dance floor. "Ellie!" There were thousands of people here, how in the world was I suppose to find her in such a crowd? I swear, if Danny tried anything funny with her, I'd...well, I don't know but, he'd regret it. "Ellie?" I shouted again. I was now on the far side of the dance floor and had so far seen nothing. I had to think logically, if I had just thrown up, where would I be?

"El-" I stopped, just at the door of the ladies room. I heard Danny inside, the ladies room, attempting to comfort Ellie.

"Oh." She whined. I walked in slowly, as not to draw attention. Ellie was sitting on the counter beside one of the sinks, while Danny in front of her with a lumpy napkin pressed against her head. On the counter, beside Ellie was a plastic cup filled, half filled with Ice.

"It's alright, here." He filled the glass with some water from the sink and gave it to her. "Drink up Ells." She frowned, shaking her head 'no'. "Listen love," He grabbed her hands from her lap and held them in his own. "I know your head hurts, along with your stomach and...well I'm not sure what else." Ellie continued to frown. "But some water would do you good until you get home, alright?" I smiled as Ellie reluctantly grabbed the cup and took a sip.

"What kind of pervert walks into a girls bathroom?" I smiled at Danny as he jumped away from Ellie. He shoved his hands into his pockets and rolled up onto the balls of his feet.

"I was only getting her all cleaned up." Ellie flinched as a stall door slammed shut and a woman stepped out, smiling as she looked Danny up and down before going to wash her hands and frown at Ellie as she was still sitting on the counter, clutching her head. "Okay Ellie," Danny grabbed Ellie by the waist and lifted her from the counter and sat her onto the floor. "You better get her home." I took Ellie's arm, helping her out of the bathroom.

"Thank you." Danny smiled, following us out.

"Don't mention it." He spotted his friends motioning for him to come here. "Well, I'll see ya around then." He smiled, before heading off to join Dougie and Tom. Dougie noticed me standing with Ellie and mouthed, 'Is she okay?' I nodded and he gave me a thumbs up.

"Alright Ellie, back to the hotel we go." I said, and headed toward the door.