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Casey was very aware of her breathing. Every person in the immediate vicinity could probably feel how ragged her in- and exhalations sounded. They could probably hear her heart thud as it dropped into her stomach. She should have prepared for this more, or at least have Googled some keywords. She knew the statistic probability of this exact situation, within a 95% certainty; she could probably draw out this specific bell curve and shade this precise moment; and still felt at an utter loss.

"You're Casey?" Jocelyn repeated, patting her chest after chocking on whatever she'd been drinking. Casey took a shallow breath in.

"Yep?" She sighed, in what was really more of a squeak. "That's me." Because really, what was she supposed to say? No? Gwen had introduced them literally seconds ago. Casey could feel her mind panicking; because she couldn't think of anything positive that would make this girl choke at the mere mention of her name.

"Oh, my God. You're-oh, my God. Sorry, hi, I'm-ouch-" Jocelyn moved the chair she'd tripped over and held out her hand. "Hi, I'm Jocelyn."

Casey shook hands, feeling ridiculous. "Yeah," she smiled amicably. She could be nice, "I know." And then immediately mentally kicked herself. How creepy was she going to be today? Lady-friend seemed to freeze up. Casey fumbled over words to explain her train of thought without sounding insane. Or like a stalker. "You took psych right after Amanda and I did. I think she gave you our notes."

Jocelyn relaxed a bit. "Right! Yeah, those were great notes. Really detailed. I hated that class, but the notes were great."

"Yeah," Casey smiled. The three of them sat in a few seconds of heavy silence. This was her own fault. She should have snuck out like she'd planned. Her unhealthy addiction to competition was going to get her into trouble. Or make her say stuff without her explicit permission. She could see Gwen try to think of something to say before the awkwardness became palpable.

"Well, it was great to meet you, Casey," Jocelyn finally said. "It was super great to see you again Gwen; we should do lunch if you're ever back in town. We can catch up." Her gaze flicked briefly to Casey. Casey pretended she didn't notice, biting the inside of her cheek. "I'd better get back to my date," Jocelyn giggled, but stopped suddenly, looking back at Casey and then down at her drink. Casey was about ready to scream. "Okay, see you," Jocelyn finally spun and clacked back across the dance floor, only looking back once.

Casey breathed out a huge sigh and dropped her head to the table.

"Casey," Gwen pet her hand, "Case, I am so sorry." Casey groaned and raised her head.

"It's fine. Really, it's fine. I'm just," she pinched the bridge of her nose. "That was weird. What was that?"

"She's just friendly?"

" But, I mean, she choked when you introduced us."

"That, yeah, she did," Gwen swallowed, "she did that."

"Gwen."

"Well, you know, all of us, when you left, all of us kind of used to hang out all together."

"Who is all of us?"

"The same as it was, you know; me, Manda, Leslie, Allie, Nick, him, and Miller. Sometimes Clintin. And whenever Nate would drive up, Nate."

"When I left?"

"Yeah, I mean our group got a little bigger when you graduated, but it was still that bunch of people. And then, you know, it was Manda's house, so she'd invite people, and Jocelyn was in a few classes." Gwen shrugged

"Okay."

"But this was when the shit with Kayla was going down."

"Gwen."

"No, hold on, Manda worked for Kayla's mom, so maybe that was before."

"Gwen."

"Gimme a minute, I'll get my timeline in a second."

"Gwen, it's fine. It honestly doesn't matter."

"I just thought you should know."

"Thanks, Gwen, really."

"It's not like we were super close friends, we just hung out with group stuff."

Casey wasn't sure how to get Gwen on a different subject. She really didn't want to relive the most painful year of her life to date. Especially with so many people around. Plus she was over it. Completely.

"It's fine, Gwen." Casey gave a grin she didn't feel. "I've just never heard anyone call you 'Gwen-y' before."

"Ha," Gwen rolled her eyes. "Yeah, Joce is a hoot."

Casey looked over to where Lady-friend had exited and saw him chatting with a subdued Jocelyn. He knew she was here. He knew.

"Okay," Casey stood. "Okay. That's," she grabbed her scarf, "I think I'm gonna head out."

Gwen winced. "Are you sure? They've just started the music. We could drink and then jump around, because I can't dance?"

"Yeah, I think it'd be better if I just went home. I mean this is Amanda's day and I don't want to involve my drama or to make people think that I'm that person."

"What person?"

"The person that has to make everything about her. You know, who has to be the center of attention or who has to drag her selfish drama into everything. I don't want to do that. I don't want to be that person."

"Okay, okay," Gwen stood as Casey gathered her things. "Let's go get your coat."

Every fiber of Casey's being was screaming at her to run away. Lizzie had been right. Her mother had been right. This had been a terrible idea. She rummaged through her purse for her coat-check ticket and then looked around for Amanda. She should probably say goodbye.

Gwen went to redeem Casey's coat ticket for her as she navigated the crowd toward the bride. Casey waited as Amanda chatted with her roommates, before making her goodbyes.

"I'm so glad you could come!" Amanda squealed into Casey's shoulder, hugging her goodbye. "That means so much to me!"

Casey smiled widely back at her, "Me too! It was so fun to see everyone, and I am so happy for you!"

"Well, call me whenever you're back in town, and we can grab coffee."

"I'd like that," Casey rearranged her purse. "That would be nice. Have an amazing time on your honeymoon."

"Oh, yes, I'm going to live it up on the beach." Amanda giggled. Casey laughed with her; she was so happy for her. Amanda was such a wonderful person.

She hugged the wall, hoping to be mostly invisible, as she approached the coat check. Gwen sighed.

"It was so nice to see you," she sighed, handing Casey her coat. "Sorry that things got, you know, dramatic."

"It's fine," Casey sighed, stuffing her arms in her sleeves. "I'll just go home and drink enough wine or gin to forget that this night ever happened." Gwen gave her a weird look. "Okay, maybe I'll just sleep for a few days and pretend that this night ever happened."

"That sounds more like you," Gwen grinned. Casey pulled her flattened curls free of her coat collar.

"It was so good to see you again, Gwen." Casey wrapped her arms around Gwen's boney shoulders.

"I'm so glad we got to do this together," Gwen squeezed Casey. "Text me if you're ever up this direction again. We'll hang out. You bring the wine."

Casey laughed. "Sounds like a plan." She checked her purse for her keys and sighed. "I'll see you later."

Gwen waved as Casey pushed the door open. Snow had started falling again. Casey muttered under her breath. She should have brought gloves or mittens or something. She watched her boots land carefully in the snow as she made her way to her car. She prayed to a higher power that she didn't need to scrape anything off of her windshield; it did just look like snow.

She'd escaped. She'd gotten through this evening without too much trouble. She'd only put her foot in her mouth a couple of times and had hopefully smoothed each situation over so nothing was too terrible. She'd escaped with most of her dignity and had avoided the nightmare situation that this wedding could have been. Plus she'd avoided the person she least wanted to see and had made an appearance as a sophisticated, professional adult.

She counted the rows to her parking space, enjoying the crunching sound her shoes made in the snow. Her smile faltered as she approached her car. There were more shoes crunching the snow than just her own. She turned sharply and saw him following her.

"Hey, Princess, sneaking out before the cake?"

She dropped her keys. Fuck.

Because the cake is obviously the best part of any wedding... :)

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