Hollywood Hills and Suburban Thrills

It was an unusually long drive to the bar. We took narrow turns, express ways, and even ran a few red lights, but we still got there at six thirty. There was a line outside the bar and I looked at it in distaste as we drove by. My father laughed.

"Don't worry. You're a VIP. You get in through the back." He drove past the line—which I could see winding around the block—and turned around a corner, pulling into an alley. The car was barely stopped when my dad opened the car door and got out, walking around to my side of the car to open the door for me. "Come on,"

He hooked his arm in mine at the elbow and helped me out of the car. The brick-stone street wasn't exactly easy to walk on the shoes I was wearing and for half a second, I wished that I had just worn jeans and sneakers, but once we got inside, my state of mind changed instantly.

The music was already pumping through the loud speakers, the lights were flashing and spinning wildly, and despite the long line outside, there was already a lot of people inside, on the dance floor, moving in sync with the music.

"How am I going to find my way around in this place?" I had to yell to my dad. "It's huge, there are people everywhere, not to mention I've never even been here before. I'll get lost in the first five minutes."

"Don't worry," he reassures in a shout, "I've hired a few friends of yours to escort you around. I hope you won't mind who I picked though. Most of them seemed all too eager to take the job."

I gave him a level stare. "Please tell me you didn't hire--…" but I was cut off by a impact of a body against mine as arms wrapped around me and my feet were pulled off the ground.

"Dani!" Brendon Urie screams, his arms tightening around me exponentially and I released a whimper as my ribs strained within his grasp. My dad was biting back laughter as I gingerly ran a hand over my ribs once I was back on my feet and I sent him a death glare. Ryan, Spencer, and Jon walked up and took their turns saying hello, each of them much less physical than Brendon.

"So how long are you in N-Y-C?" Spencer asks as the five of us caught up in a small circle. My dad was on his phone again, hunched away from us and talking as quietly as was possible with such loud music in this place.

"Only for a week or two," I answer, casting a quick glance at my dad's back. He was arguing with someone about something. I could tell.

"Is Bill here with you?" Ryan asks. I turned to see each of them looking at me expectantly and when I shook my head, they each slumped noticeably. I ignored them, however, because my dad was walking back towards us, a huge smile on his face.

"Come on, Dani. I want to show you around before this place gets crowded." He had his arm around my shoulder and was walking past my company and towards the swarming dance floor. I planted my feet and resisted his pushing. There was no way I was going in there.

"Dad, I will not survive in there." I say with a shake of my head. My dad laughed and took me around the throng of dancing persons, and before I knew it, we were standing in front of a huge bar. "Dad, why would you show me this? I'm only twenty."

"For one reason," Dad answers, and as if on cue, Pete Wentz popped up from behind the counter. "Peter." My dad said his name with such authority. I was half-shocked that Pete didn't drop to the floor and kiss his feet.

"Mr. Taylor, sir," he replies respectfully, giving him a toothy smile before turning to me. "Miss Taylor." He adds with the same grin but with an added eyebrow twitch. I rolled my eyes at him.

"Please tell me that Pete is not my chaperon." I beg my dad, giving him puppy eyes.

"Fine," my dad says, turning to the crowd. "I won't tell you." And then he was walking away smirking. I gave him a devastated looked, but he didn't catch it because he was on his phone again, and then he disappeared behind the crowd of dancing people. I turned back around to see Pete smiling devilishly.

"What?" I ask acerbically, taking a seat on one of the bar stools and leaning on the heel of my hand.

"For someone who's turning twenty in four hours, you certainly don't look like you're having a lot of fun." He says poignantly, leaning down on his elbows so he was at my eye level. I was tracing the patterns in the marble countertop, trying to busy myself so as to not have to reply to him. "Is it Will?"

Damn him. I mutter in my head, looking up to see him staring back at me. He looked genuine enough, but then he had a wicked grin on his face. "Don’t smile like that at me Wentz," I confront, not liking the sparks that were flying in his eyes. "You have a wife." I laughed incredulously, shaking my head at the mere thought and going back to the pattern I was following.

He shrugged. "I made you smile." He says and then his hand was under my chin and he was forcing me into looking at him. "Try to have fun tonight. You only turn twenty once, after all."

I nodded at him and he gave a quick smile before releasing me to dig his phone at of his pocket. With a glance at the screen, he smiled and glanced at me before walking to other end of the bar and pressing his Sidekick to his ear. "Hey man, what's up?" I heard him ask, but his voice died away as he furthered himself from where I sat.

I turned on the stool so that I was facing the dancing crowd of people. It had gotten larger since I had arrived here and when I looked at the door, I saw that they were still letting people in. This place was going to burst if any more people are let inside.

"Dani!" I heard someone call my name and when I turned, I saw Ryan running up to me. "Dani come dance with me." He smiles innocently. The song changed into a slow jam and the people on the floor starting dividing into twos. I looked at Ryan.

"I don't know Ryan." I try, but he already had me on my feet and was dragging me to the dance floor. We weaved between people until we were good and deep into the crowd and then he had his hands on my waist and my arms automatically went around his neck. Ryan kept glancing away from me, nodding and making weird facial expressions, but before I could ask what he was doing, he would look at me and shake his head or roll his eyes or simply smile sweetly at me, so I just let his weird behavior slide. Until he waved someone toward us, that is.

"Ryan, what're you doing?" I ask once he put his hand back on my waist. "Who're you waving over here?" I stood on my tippy toes to see try to see over the people around me, but I still couldn’t see any specific person.

"Don't worry abou--…" he was cut off when Brendon and Pete sprinted by, pushing him away from me and out of my arms. He stumbled but caught himself finally, looking up at me, a smile slowly forming on his face before he made his way away from the dance floor. I stared at him until he was out of sight, standing in the middle of a crowded dance floor, alone.

I grumbled under my breath and turned slightly, trying to find an easy way out, but as I looked around, I noticed the song changing and it didn't take me long to recognize the beginning strums of the one song I didn't exactly want to hear at that moment. My stomach plummeted and I tried harder for a way out, but just as I made to take a step toward a possible escape, someone spoke behind me.

"Oh, the old familiar places," I stopped dead in my tracks and my eyes narrowed. I thought for a moment that I was going insane. There was no way that he could be here. It was impossible. Unless he got on a flight an hour after I did, it was completely hopeless. But I had to know—I had to know if it was him or if I was, in fact, losing my mind, so I cocked my head to the side slightly, glancing back. "Hello, love." I turned on my heel this time to see Will smiling sweetly at me.

"We really have to stop meeting like this," I joke, smirking at him, but when he opened his arms to me, I wasted no time at all in throwing my arms around him and squeezing him tight against me. He had me off the ground in a millisecond, turning in a circle wear he stood as I placed kisses on his jaw and neck.

"What're you doing here?" I ask once I was back on the ground and he tilted his head to the side.

"Like I was going to miss your birthday," he scoffs and his hands appeared on my hips, but mine hadn't left their place around his shoulders. "That and you dad tipped me in on your little party here and booked me a one way flight."

I gawked at him before shaking my head and rolling my eyes. "I've only spent a little less than four hours with my dad and he's already exponentially cooler than my mom." I say in incredulity. "How long are you going to be here?"

He puckered his lips, staring off and looking like he was doing some long calculations in his head. "That depends," he answers distantly before looking at me again. "How long are you going to be here?"

I smiled at him and pulled myself closer so that we were pressed flush against each other. "I love you," I whisper in his collarbone.

"I love you too," he whispers back, placing a kiss just below my ear before singing along to Wonderwall.