“Aren’t you going to say anything, Ari? Nothing to an old friend?” He asks me, waving his hand in front of my face.

“Stop doing that. You weren’t a friend. You were a traitor. We weren’t even friends in the first place. What are you doing here?” I ask him, wondering who he was sent by.

“Oh come on, I thought we were? We had that whole bonding thing going on, well you know, before Niall came in the picture.” He rolls his eyes and crosses his arms.

“That wasn’t bonding, that was just a class assignment. Now, why are you here?” I quickly change the subject back to him.

“Because it’s America. I can come into a club when I want to. Now here’s a better question, what are you doing here?” He fires back at me, his tongue darting out and moistening his lips.

“None of your business.” I counter. A tap on my shoulder turns my attention to Ryan who had returned, shaking his head.

“Well, who do we have here?” Drake asks, starting to sarcastically smile as his arms uncross.

“Drake…” Ryan mutters his name softly, avoiding eye contact.

“You’re still alive, that’s shocking to me. Thought you would’ve been dead by now. Good to see you.”
“You too, Drake.”

“Look, Drake, can you please leave us alone?” I cut in between the two bonding session. Drake smiles down at me, no doubt about say something ridiculous until he changes his mind.

“I know why you two are here. We are actually on the same team.” I squint my eyes at him,

“How?”

“You are after the A.R.Y.A., Right?” My eyes widen.

“How did you know?” Ryan asks, making me mentally face palm myself. Drake smirks, licking his lips.

“I was on that case, reason why I went to Oak Hills in the first place. I was looking for an agent, who was supposed to be there even though she wasn’t.”

“Rebecca was supposed to go there?” I question the sudden information.

“Yeah, but now she is here. And this is still my case. So I’m going to ask you to leave this to the professionals.” He points to himself, before taking a drink off of a tray that a young woman was carrying around.

“‘Professionals’? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Ari, I graduated to become a full time agent for the FBI. I've been a part time agent this whole time. This is now my fourth case that has been on the board for me to do for quite a while. Now, let me do this. You can go back to Walter and tell him that I gotten this taken care of.” I wanted to ask what he had meant but was interrupted by a drunkie.

“Hey, there you are!” Louis slurs, his body weight resting on me. Drake’s eyes widen and silently says ‘See you around.’ before walking away quite quickly. “Got worried that you got lost or somethin’.” Louis yells into my ear, piercing my eardrum.

“I still need my space, Louis.” I tell him as I pry his arms off of my neck with ease. He is already intoxicated, I can tell. His face goes into shock, startling me. What did I do?

“Oh my God, YES!! You said my actual name! We are making great, great progress! I knew you were in there, Ari. You are just hiding her. Let her gooo, pleaseee?” He pokes at my sides repeatedly with a smile, making me squirm at the familiar ticklish sensation.

“Stop that!” I scowl, fighting the smile growing on my face. His mouth turns into an evil grin, head bowed slightly to the point where he was looking at me through his eyelashes. Oh no.

“Mr. Tomlinson.. What are you doing?” I ask, starting to back away slowly. I never really practiced a maneuver where the attacker would tickle me.

“Nothing.. What about you?” He extends his arms out to me, fingers wiggling.

“Where are the others?” I ask, looking around. He pauses, and smiles.

“Come on, I’ll show you. We brought a few people of our own, who I really want you to meet.” He tells me happily, tugging at my hand to follow him. I hold onto Ryan’s wrist to make sure I don’t lose him in the crowds as we follow Louis.

We weave through sweaty people on the dance floor to the back of the club where it was closed off by a velvet rope. The man at stood guard, and when he had seen Louis he removed the cord and let us inside, pressing his hand against my chest.

“VIP only, guys. I’m going to have to ask you two to leave here.” He tells me in a deep voice, what would be intimidating to someone heavily drunk. Louis comes back and assures the man that I was with him before letting us both pass.

“I kept walking and thought you were there. I introduced you to the group and when I turned back you were gone. Thought you would have ditched me.”

“You boys are the ones that had brought me here. I couldn’t.” I assure him, following him to the table where the others sat, along with two other girls, one of them already trying to choke me to death through her glare.

“Glad to hear.” He smiles at me, before turning to everyone else. “Guys, she’s here, everyone say hi to Ari.” Harry and Liam had waved to me, Zayn giving me a curt nod. A young blond sat under his arm, smiling sweetly to me. She was the one that I have not met yet. I don’t want to assume anything yet between those two. Niall, however, wasn’t present at the table. How ironic.

“Ari, how are you?” Harry stands, opening his arms as he walks to me. I watch him intently as he comes to me and takes me in an embrace. I let my hands stay on his back slightly, to at least not be rude. I see Ryan becoming tense, but I mentally assure him it’s okay. When he releases me he had a smile on his face, before looking over to Ryan.

“Who’s this?” Harry questions him.

“This is Ryan. A friend of mine.” I introduce him.

“Hey Ryan. I’m Harry. Nice to meet you.” Harry reaches his hand out to him, thankfully Ryan just took it and they shook hands.

Harry took Ryan around to the group of people at the table and they all already seemed to like each other. Even Slick was smiling and laughing. What was different? Is it Ryan, or the girl? Speaking of, I noticed that she had been trying to get my attention. When she does, she smiles and excuses herself from the boy group.

“Hey there! I’m Perrie, Zayn’s girlfriend. You must be Ariella, right?” I nod quietly, a small nod. So she is in a relationship with him. “It’s nice to meet you. I have heard few things about you from Zayn.” Oh great. She doesn’t really seem like a rude person, though. Unless she thinks the same way like Slick, and she is just good at hiding it.

“And what’s that?” I ask cautiously.

“Come on, let’s get drinks first. Then we can chat. I’m already thirsty.”

“Alright.” I follow her to a bar that was just throwing drinks to the crowds.

We squish our way to the front and ask for a round of shots. Eight small glasses filled up a tray, and was handed to Perrie. She blew him a kiss, assuming that it was her way of thanking him, before leading us back to the VIP section.

“I have some shots!” Perrie shouts out to the group.

She sets the tray down and everyone cheers, thanking her. The boys get their glasses, and Perrie and I took ours after. There only remained one glass and it was quickly taken away by a hand between Perrie and I. He makes his presence known by wrapping his arms around my waist from behind, careful not to spill the content from his glass onto my clothes.

“Hey, you made it.” He whispers into my ear, loosely swinging us side to side.

“I was invited so I had to come, didn’t I?”

“Course.”

He removes himself from me and joins his girlfriend on the other side of the table, who was giving me daggers. Rebecca immediately pulls him down and sits him onto the empty chair next to him and sits onto his lap, trying to steal his glass but with no avail.

“Perrie! You didn’t get enough shots, where’s mine??” Rebecca groans. I realize that I still have mine, and seeing Louis’ reaction to the alcohol I wouldn’t want to drink it anymore.

“Sorry, thought I had enough.” She tells her with a shrug before taking the shot. When she finished it she set it back onto the tray, looking very annoyed.

“Well, go get me one, then.” She commands. Perrie’s face went into shock and I can tell that she isn’t in the mood to get her one. I would floor her if she asked me. Before she could respond I handed her mine.

“You can have mine. I don’t really want to drink.” I say as kindly as possible. She looked between me and my hand, face turning into disgust.

“I don’t want a glass that has your germs on it. Gross.” She scoffs, brushing her hair back behind her shoulder.

“She is offering you her drink, just take it.” Niall backs me up, rubbing her back softly.

“I want yours, though.” Niall snaps his fingers as if he got an idea. He takes my glass with a smile, hands his to Rebecca, and keeps mine. “There, happy?”

“No, now you have her germs.” She takes his glass and throws it onto the floor, shattering it into pieces. “Better.” She smiles, taking the shot.

“I’ll go get the next round, Perrie. Thank you though.” Perrie nods in approval before sitting down next to Slick. Niall removes Rebecca from him and stands up. “Come help me, Ari?” He asks me with a smile.

“I’ll come help.” Ryan intrudes, standing up from a discussion with Harry and Liam. “You, need to try this.” He hands me his drink with a large smile and waits for me to try it.

“Ryan I don’t feel comfortable about this..” I shake my head.

“Just trust me. It isn’t going to hurt.” He leans in closer to my ear. “No one is going to hurt you here. You’re okay.” I sigh and agree with him.

There are now 5 guys here to help in a situation, would be 6 but I don’t think that Slick counts. And the fact that I’m much stronger than before. Niall looks confused for a moment, eyeing the two of us before stepping in.

“She doesn’t want to drink right now, okay?” He takes the cup from my hand and gives it back to Ryan, who looked confused as hell. “You keep it I will get her one for herself.” Niall drapes his arm around my shoulders and forces us to move away from the group.

“Niall, what was that for?” I ask, struggling to get out of his grip as calmly as possible.

“I know that you haven’t been around civilization in quite a while so just trust me on this.” He huffs, removing his arm. “And don’t take any more drinks from strangers.”

“Excuse me? I have been exposed quite enough to civilization when you guys suddenly became popular and forgetting about me! I know about your past relationships, as well. It only-” I pause, as hurt was evident in his features. I sigh.

“And that guy that you gave the drink back to, he wasn’t a stranger. That was Ryan. My plus one? He helped me get out my shell and took care of me in Black Cove.” I say much quieter, looking away.

“I’m sorry. About everything.” He says, before ordering next round. “Do you want anything to drink, Ari?” I shake my head at him.

I look around the place, the dance floor full of sweaty, horny people dancing against each other. A man in the far side of the room was leaned against the wall, talking to some girl. When I saw the face of the girl it was Rebecca, laughing and smiling.

Wasn’t she just up with the others? The guy whispered in her ear, making her nod and begin to ramble on about something. He looked up and saw me staring, smirking. Drake. He jerks his head to the bathroom, and I nod.

“Ari, can you take these four?” I hear Niall ask me. I turn to face him and I see him handing me the drinks. “They ran out of trays.” I nod and take the four small glasses as he takes the other five.

“Why 9?” I ask him on our way back.

“Us five lads, you three ladies, and then... Ryan.” I couldn’t help but notice the false happiness when he said his name.

“But I didn’t want one.” I inform him for the second time.

“You will now.” I roll my eyes and let it slide. I’ll just give it to Drake.

We handed out the drinks and once everyone had one they all drank, except for me. Rebecca had returned, taking her glass from the table and drinking with everyone else. That means that Drake is now at the bathrooms waiting.

“I’m gonna go to the bathroom. Be right back.” I say to no one in particular and walk out. Drake had stood there watching me approach him.

“‘Bout time, girl. Getting tipsy already?” He asks me, taking the drink for my hand.

“I’m not drinking. Brought this for you. If you want it.” He looks between the drink and I, shrugging and drinking it for himself. “Now what is it?” He wipes his hand across his lips before setting the glass down on the ground beside him.

“I’m thinking of compromising a solution that will benefit both ends.” I squint my eyes at him, staying silent. “You are trying to get Intel on her, to take out the group right?” I nod. “Well, I may be of assistance. You see, I just became a ‘boyfriend’ of hers. If I could get her drunk, then I could get some information out of her without her knowing.”

“Classy. But I see one flaw.” I ponder to myself.

“What is it?”

“Niall. Her actual boyfriend. That’s the problem.” I state the obvious. He smirks, crossing his arms in amusement.

“Oh, I see. You don’t like seeing your ex’s new girlfriend messing with his feelings, don’t you?” He chuckles. I frown.

“No, it isn’t. I couldn't care any less. I would enjoy to see it actually. My point is that she will stay by him for most of this night. I don’t know how you even managed to get her over here.”

“She just had to pee and I stepped in. I let her go after though.” He shrugs, running his hand through his hair.

“So how are you going to get her drunk without being around Niall? Or worse, letting him know that we are after that skank of his? He still remembers what happened before you purposely almost let me die, remind you.” I place my hands on my hips, tapping my foot vigorously.

“Are you sure you aren’t jealous?” He looks at me in confusion and happiness, tapping his finger against my nose. I flinch away from him and take a step back.

“Stop saying that!” I seethe. “Now how is your compromise going to work?”

“Easy, easy girl! Look, I'll keep Rebecca for the night, if you can get Niall to get lost.”

“And how will I know that you will get that information to me?”

“Check your phone.” He smiles proudly. I furrow my eyebrows and pull out my phone. My phone had been used and had one new contact. ‘The Bad-ass.’ I sigh at how much he is still a child, no matter the years that passed.

“Fine. But you better get that to me.”

“I will. Bright and early. Now, we got a deal?” He asks, sticking his hand out to me. I look over to the VIP section where everyone was, laughing and joking around. Ryan was actually having fun with the guys, and Rebecca was on Niall, making out as expected. I can get Ryan onto this tomorrow. I haven’t seen him so happy before. I take my hand in his.

“Deal.”

Notes

Happy summer, much love <3