#vegasbaby

Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Las Vegas! Not only was I about to enter "Sin City," but I was also about to experience my first summer as a free(!) college student. No parents, no rules, and no set time to wake up! What a relief. And there couldn't be a better possible way to get there: blasting Family Force 5's "Mamacita" with the top down on my Mercdes Benz.

"Hey mamacita, my little chica, you got me loco singing, 'aye aye aye!' " My cousin Berkely and I sang at the top of our lungs and drowned out our worries about graduating high school and starting college. As the song played at full volume, I slowed down to watch the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign pass by. We screamed in high-pitched voices, ready to get this week started. Granted, there wouldn't be much for Berkely and I to do here because we were underage, but we had been dreaming of Vegas since we were kids. The bright lights, the vibrant colors, and the lawless atmosphere was something we couldn't wait to experience, not only because it was fun, but because we knew our parents would strictly disagree with it (and they did).

I turned down the music until I could barely hear it and slowed the car down to around 10. Berkley and I weren't just here for the fun, but for the sights, and we didn't want to miss a thing. Plus, traffic was crap. We pointed strange people out and laughed, also listening to the hundreds of voices just babbling about nothing. When we saw three guys standing and waving on the sidewalk with big video cameras in their hands, I almost passed them up (Berkely and I both agreed it was rather creepy). But they were persistant in their hand-wavings, so I slowly and reluctantly pulled up to the curb, which was (thank heavens) by a streetlight.

"You boys need something?" I pulled my sunglasses down over my nose and took a good look at these "weirdos." There was one with a bald head who was kind of heavy and had a vest with all kinds of techy stuff strapped to it, a skinny one that looked nice and older than the other one, and...

Oh. Dear. Heavens. I had skipped over the last one because I had seen sunglasses that screamed "douchebag," but now that he had taken them off... Damn. Did he fall from the Attractive Tree or was I seeing angels? He was tall and definitely well-built. His arms made me want to drool, and let's not mention his abs that were definitely showing through his tight black shirt. He had a flat-billed cap on and saggy pants, but I wasn't complaining (though I normally would); they strangely fit him. After I finished staring at his luscious body, I looked up to find a face with sharp angles but friendly, light blue eyes. I almost sighed out of contentment, but I tried to make it look like it was out of exasperation. Berkely looked like her eyes were about to pop out too, so I pushed her arm to snap her out of it. She looked back at me with wide eyes and raised her eyebrows to show her interest. I nodded and mouthed "I know" while the attractive one started to talk.

"I'm Zak, this is Nick," he pointed to the skinny one, "and that's Aaron," he nodded his head towards the bald one. Berkely and I waved and both made the same nervous giggle at the same time. Oh holy hell, we probably looked like a couple of dorks now. I ran my hand through my ponytail nervously while he continued. "We didn't mean to bother you, but you two seemed like the only two people that are nice and safe at the same time on these streets. Our van broke down, and we just needed a ride to our hotel..." Berkely and I both looked at each other and looked back at him like he was crazy. Like we were going to let them into our car! I guessed that this "Zak" kid had caught us looking at each other, because he started stuttering while he talked. "Uh, yeah, we're not like, creepy or anything, we just, um, need a ride. If it's out of your way that's fine..."

"Um--" I drew the "m" out because I was trying to think of a nice way to tell them I didn't feel comfortable doing that. "Listen...Zak, Nick, and Aaron, uh..." I thought about it and wondered if taking them for a ride was really such a bad thing. They needed help, and I was always the willing person to give people just that, so... "Which hotel are y'all staying at?" I looked up at them and smiled warmly, hoping they wouldn't notice Berkely whipping her head around to look at me and mouth "NO!" I also mentally slapped myself for saying "y'all." I guess my Louisiana girl was peeking through, but why now? I was about to have the most attractive guy ever sitting in my back seat, and I was using country bumpkin pronouns. Whatever, it wasn't like we'd either be seeing them for much longer or be alive long enough to even care about it. Who knows, they could be serial killers! We still had about an hour or two of sunlight left, and if they had a hotel further away than that, I wouldn't even pick them up anyway, so I was hoping they had a good answer.

"Just the little one around 2 blocks from here. I uh, forgot the name, but we'll know it when we see it." Zak replied. He had the best voice; it was deep and slightly husky, and oooh, did it give me the shivers. I raised my eyebrows skeptically and he just shrugged nonchalantly like it was a normal thing to forget a hotel's name. I just mentally rolled my eyes at his reply and pointed my finger toward the back seat.

"There's not a lot of room back there," I raised my voice so they could hear me over their shuffling to get in. I heard one jump and felt the car fall lower to the ground because of the weight. My head whipped around so fast I felt my ponytail slap the side of my face as I turned to look whoever it was that had just jumped into my baby straight in the eye, and saw those pretty blue ones staring right back at me with a worried look and--was that fear I saw? It was there and gone so fast I couldn't tell, but it was replaced with a small smile and a "sorry" from Zak. The other two crawled in slowly (probably to avoid my wrath) and I could hear thumping from their cameras being placed on the floor. "Everyone buckle up!" I said a little loudly and almost in a flight attendant voice, and I heard two clicks from the back seat. "Oh, except for whoever's sitting in the middle, I guess." I turned around to see Aaron raise his eyebrows and shrug his shoulders from in between Zak and Nick, and then saw Zak shove his elbow into Aaron's arm. I turned my head slightly to him and gave him a stern look. "No fighting over the seat, you." He looked a little surprised, so I just nodded and put my car back into drive.

The drive to this "unknown hotel" was pretty fun. Zak had asked for our music to be turned up, and he had timed it just right--"Take It Off" by Ke$ha was the next track, and though it was old, I loved it. I bobbed my head to the lyrics and sang along to every word (not loudly, of course). I could hear quiet groans from Aaron and Nick in the back, but they didn't seem to complain too much. Berkely was strangely quiet in the passenger's seat, and I guessed it was from the nerves of having three guys that didn't mind Ke$ha in the back seat. When we passed a large building that I couldn't see the sign for, I could feel shifting in the back and looked around to see the name.

"That's it, that's it!" I heard Aaron say excitedly, and I finally spotted the sign. Westgate Resorts, it was called, and I immediately recognized the name. That was the hotel we were staying in! Not only was that strange, but rather creepy--how did they know we were staying here, and why did they have a room here as well? I pulled around to the front and gave a vallet the key to my car and the boys helped the bellhop with Berkely and I's bags. Zak, Nick, and Aaron had found it cool that we were staying in the same hotel, but Berkely looked like she was pretty weirded out by the coincidence. Considering the fact that their bags were already inside, I wasn't too worried, because we had just shown up and no one knew we were coming (we had made the reservations barely over 6 hours ago). I just thought it was nice they were unloading the bags and we weren't, because I'm extremely lazy.

"So, we didn't catch your names," Zak said as we all walked inside the front doors of the hotel. The inside was beautiful, with ocean-themed colors and a large chandelier hanging from the ceiling. As we were walking to the front counter to check in, I stopped everyone by stopping myself to introduce Berkely and myself.

"Well, this is Berkely," I pointed to my curly-haired brunette cousin that I had always been jealous of. She was dressed extremely well, of course, with a blouse and tailored blazer and skinny jeans. Berkely also had on three-inch heels that I did not understand--we had been on the road all day and she had still dressed nicely! "She's my cousin and best friend. And I'm Brielle." I pointed to myself (like an idiot); I was a short, thin redhead (unnaturally, of course, though I must say the deep yet bright red fit me) with grey-blue eyes and the grunge look going on. I didn't always dress this lazily, but I had been lazy this morning. I had on the Las Vegas shirt that my mom had gotten for me last year, a yellow and grey plaid shirt, sky blue shorts that cut off mid-thigh, and my high-top black Coverses. My hair was a mess, of course (unlike Berk's, whose hair was shiny and well-done), and put into a loose ponytail with my bangs left across my forehead. I smiled at all three of the boys and Berkley and I shook each of their hands (though I enjoyed shaking Zak's the most).

I excused myself to check us in and left Berkely with the three of them, hoping that she wouldn't embarrass me with her awkwardness. Though Berk dressed and looked nice, she wasn't the best socializer--she was nervous and shy around new people and couldn't always keep a conversation going, even if she may want to. I went back to find the four of them right where I had left them, with small talk going on. I literally walked into Berkely's statement of, "The weather sure is beautiful today," and I just had to stop them.

"So, boys. Berkely and I were thinking of going to dinner tonight. Would you care to join us?" Berkely and I had not planned on going to dinner tonight, and I could tell Berk recognized my lie by looking at me and mouthing "really?" I nodded at her and mouthed back "really," turning back to the three guys in front of me who were shrugging and murmuring to each other. Boys are so strange, I thought, and cleared my throat to get everyone's attention back. "We always go somewhere nice, so if you would excuse us to take a few minutes to get ready to go, it would be nice. Maybe you could change as well?"

"Uh... Yeah, sure. Sounds great, and it's a good way for us to pay you back," Zak said. I could tell he was the leader of the group, because he always answered my questions. Not that Aaron and Nick looked less capable of talking to a woman, but Zak seemed to have a more sociable way about him. Hopefully they planned on paying for all of dinner, because I felt like a nice steak for once.

"Okay. We'll meet back here in an hour. That cool?" They all nodded at the same time, and we went down our separate halls to our rooms. Once Berkely and I had gotten upstairs and the door was closed behind me, she had her freak-out like I knew she was going to. She had been way too quiet in the lobby as I had asked the boys to dinner.

"Brielle Stansbury, who do you think you are?" She screached, and I had to keep myself from laughing at the way she threw her (Coach) purse on the floor. "You can't just let these three hoodlums ride in our car and then invite them to dinner with us!" She screached the "with us" part, and I had to put my hand over my mouth to keep from audibly chuckling. Unfortunately, she noticed that I found it funny. "This is not amusing at all! We could have gotten killed, and now we could be walking into getting killed by going out to dinner with them! Did you see how they were dressed in all black?! They're asking for trouble! If dad hears about this, he's going to kill us both!" I just let her ramble on while she got her panties out of a knot. Her father was the governor of Louisiana, and I'm sure he didn't want to see the news story about his daughter being killed by three hooligans (one being extremelly attractive and someone that I wouldn't mind being murdered by, as long as his was the last face I saw) in Vegas when he thought we were in Florida. I sighed and began looking for my bag with all of my nice clothes in it. When I did find it, Berkely walked into the bedroom and started her tirade again.

"You have no idea what you're getting us into. They're probably going to leave us to pay the bill, having eaten lobsters and twenty pound steaks and who knows what else..." She continued to ramble on to herself, but I didn't mind because she had stopped screaming. At least that was over. "What do you think of this?" I heard after she finished mumbling. She held up a silk purple halter top dress that flowed out at the bottom like Marilyn Monroe's white one in the subway shot. I raised my eyebrows in mock surprise.

"Wow, Berk, you would go that far out of the way for a couple of hoodlums?" I had to stop myself from giggling at her facial expression. She looked like a pot about to blow. Thank goodness it wasn't her time to.

"Ugh, Brielle, you don't understand the public life." Oh, here we go with her speech about how I don't understand being under the "constant eye" of the public. "I have to look good no matter who I'm with, even if it's some crazy hoodlums," she imitated my voice (very well, which was scary).

"Berk, just put it on, you'll be fine." She started to undress and I looked away and back to my bag. I guess I could wear it... I thought. I had a nice, old homecoming dress that I had packed. It was from back in my junior year, when I had dressed as Artemis for our Greek-themed dance. It had one long, flowy arm that came over my left side, and the other side was strapless. It was draped on the top and flowed out under my chest to my knees. It was beautiful, I must admit, but I wondered if it was too fancy for the occassion. "Hey, Berkely?" I looked to see her turn around in that drop-dead gorgeous dress and almost closed my suitcase and told her to go by herself. Why was she so gorgeous? I shook my head and continued on in my question. "Think I should wear the Artemis dress?"

"Oh God, yes," she said without hesitation. "With the way you were looking at that 'Zak' one," she put air-quotes around the "Zak" part as if it were a fake name, "you would do anything to make him look at you." She rolled her eyes and walked over to my suitcase to pull it out. I stared at it again, wondering how I had found such a beauty.

"Well, I'm not that desperate, but he is quite attractive..." I grabbed the dress and put it down on the bed so I could take my shirts off. I slipped it on over my head and stuck my arm through the sleeve (ungracefully, might I add). I took my hair out of its ponytail and pulled my shorts down so they would fall around my ankles. Berk insisted on curling my hair, so I let her, and it ended up coming out in small waves because we could only find the straightening iron. Once we were finished getting ready (I had thrown on some four-inch gold heels and put a headband around my forehead to give the Greek goddess look again), I felt like I was sixteen again, going on my first date and being extremely nervous. Of course I didn't have a date my freshman and sophomore year, you think Berk's dad would let her go by herself, much less with a boy?!

Anyway, when we walked out of the door, an older woman passed us by and almost gaped at us. She told us we were absolutely beautiful and patted my arm before continuing down the hallway. Berk and I looked at each other as if it were a strange but cool thing, and continued until we found a tall set of stairs that led down to the lobby. I peeked around the corner to look for the boys and felt like such a loser when I saw them turned around. I even "eeped," for goodness' sake. Berkeley just poked me and motioned for me to follow her. She stopped at the top of the stairs and I almost punched myself in the face. No way was I going down those! I was going to trip and fall and make a fool (and a hospital trip) out of myself! I shook my head, but she persisted. I took a deep breath before I finally took the first step.

It felt like I was in a movie, going down those stairs with my hand on the railing (to keep my balance, of course) and my feet going slowly but steadily down the steps. The stairs were thin in width, so Berkely and I were close, but not touching. I turned to smile at her when I realized I was halfway down the stairs and hadn't fallen, but then I turned back around and saw Zak, Nick, and Aaron all turn their heads toward the stairway. I swear, their eyes almost popped out of their heads, and I'm sure it was because of Berk, but I took it as a compliment. They started to walk toward us, and met us at the bottom of the stairs with expectant looks on their faces.

I'm not going to lie, they all looked damn good. Nick was in a dark grey shirt and black slacks and a navy blue tie; Aaron was in the same but with a yellow tie (yellow?! It strangely looked good on him); and geez, I should really stop waiting to get to Zak, because he was...glorious. He had on a black shirt, black slacks (why he kept to the all-black getup, I'll never know, but it was working) and a bright red tie. His hair was spiked up in that same "fohawk" I forgot to mention earlier, but it looked nice with the formal attire. I felt so strange walking toward these familiar strangers that we were supposed to be going to dinner with. They were extremely attractive (as usual), and I almost "eeped" again when they all inclined their heads and bowed a little at the same time. So cute! I looked to Berkely and raised my eyebrows with a wide grin. She just looked back and winked, sticking her head in Zak's direction. I nodded in an "I know" way, and she just smiled without her teeth. I could tell she was uncomfortable, but she was looking at Nick in a cute way, and I hoped she would get used to these boys. I sure knew I would. Aaron was standing to the far left, Nick was in the middle (right in front of Berk) and Zak was standing in front of me. Nick and Zak held their arms out for us to take, and oh goodness, I felt my cheeks turn red hot at that. Berkely took Nick's arm unreluctantly (though I'm sure she was nervous to be touching her first "hoodlum"), and I stood there for a second before putting my arm into Zak's. It was a strange feeling, clutching a guy's arm after a year or two of even thinking about cute guys (I had put them far behind me two summers ago, when a guy I thought I loved dumped me). I was excited yet nervous that I wouldn't remember what to do with a boy. I sighed and just went with it, following Berkely's lead. We walked out of the lobby into the parking spaces, and I saw the same valet boy that had picked our car up walking toward us with a smile. Oh crap! I had forgotten our stuff for the car upstairs!

"Don't worry about it," Zak said to me, and I almost melted at his calm voice. I watched him hand the guy a paper and waited until a brand new Chevy Camaro pull up. It was a sleek black (I couldn't help but think of course to myself), and looked like it had just come from the dealer.

"Guys, seriously, you didn't have to do this. It's dinner!" I laughed as I was shocked to see the valet hold the door open for us. Berkely looked as surprised as I did, because her mouth was wide open and she was telling Nick how unbelievable this was. And for the first time in about a day, I agreed with her.