A/N: I'm writing this mainly for my own amusement over summer, between studying for exams, but I figured I could post it on here too :). Bit of an AU where our favourite boys weren't killed, but Michael killed Max, curing himself etc., and then escaped off into the sunset with Laddie, Star and co. The Lost Boys continue to terrorize Santa Carla ;). The title is based on The 69 Eyes' song of the same name - I'd definitely recommend it!

"Here we are!" Bryana threw her hands into the air with excitement that Catriona didn't share.

"Here we are!" the third of their trio, Sophie, parroted, grinning at the bright Santa Carla sky.

Catriona slid her sunglasses up her nose and tried her best to look happy. It wasn't that she didn't want to be there – Santa Carla had been third on her list of places to visit for years now, under Helsinki and above New Zealand. She watched quietly as Bryana withdrew a zebra print flask from her jean pocket, took a swig and handed it to Sophie who did the same before handing it back and the flask went back into its denim home. That moment encapsulated the two reasons why she was unhappy:

1. For her friends, it was impossible to have a good time without alcohol. Okay, so that was typical for anybody between eighteen and thirty, but with them after two beers they were wasted and Catriona was left playing mother.

2. She hadn't failed to notice that she had not been offered a drink. Her friends never failed to make her feel like an outside witness to a very happy marriage. She didn't doubt that it was intentional – with her intense shyness, she couldn't simply flounce off and make new friends, and so would dutifully ignore every backhanded compliment and eye roll.

Sometimes she wondered if it was her fault. Catriona was terrible at expressing affection, she always had been, so wouldn't it be natural for her friends to become closer to eachother? Maybe she didn't try hard enough. Even she wouldn't want to be around herself, given the moods she'd been in lately. She sighed before plastering a smile on her face and followed them into the hotel entrance – she owed it to them and herself to at least give it one final shot. She'd have fun on this holiday or die trying.

Their hotel room was ridiculously overpriced for what it actually contained – a perk of being situated on the beach, she supposed. There was no lounge area, simply a bedroom and a bathroom. Upon walking into the room, there were two twin beds to the right (they'd agreed to take turns sharing throughout the two weeks that they'd be there) against the wall, and the wall opposite that was made entirely out of windows, with sliding doors in the middle allowing them to see straight onto the beach.

"So!" Bryana began, clapping her hands together after dumping her case at the foot of one of the beds "I say we get dolled up, find us some dinner and then party. Agreed?"

"Agreed!" echoed Catriona, soon followed by Sophie.

As soon as the sky grew dark and the boardwalk lit up around them, Catriona knew coming to Santa Carla hadn't been a mistake. There was an easygoing atmosphere combined with a buzz of energy that she found herself completely absorbed in – it definitely didn't scream 'murder capital of the world!'.

"You have to be joking!" her head shot up as she saw Bryana marching away from the liquor store, arms crossed angrily "Stupid country with it's stupid, way too high drinking age!"

Bryana shouted the last part towards the shop.

"They won't serve me! I'm twenty! This is such a joke," her friend huffed, dragging a hair through her black hair "I can't do this whole holiday without any booze. I can't do it!"

"The bars don't check ID," Catriona shrugged, glancing towards all of the hammered teens on the beach, some of which couldn't have even been eighteen yet "We could go find one."

"You don't show up at bars sober," Bryana rolled her eyes "Everybody knows that."

Catriona shrugged and went back to inspecting the goings-on on the boardwalk, resisting the urge to say 'I told you so'. She was just glad she hadn't gone in with Bryana – she was sure she would've gotten the blame, being five foot four always got her ID'd before she went into clubs back in England.

"What about the drink we brought with us? How much did everybody bring?" Sophie offered, looking between the two.

"Bottle of vodka," Catriona bit her lip.

"Apple sours," Bryana muttered, digging through her purse with a scowl for any kind of fake ID she might have forgotten she had.

"Okay and I have a bottle of Jack – that's enough for tonight, right? So we go back into the store, buy some coke to mix with and then worry about tomorrow night's booze...well, tomorrow," Sophie piped up.

"See, problem solved!" Catriona shot a grin to Sophie before glancing back at Bryana who still looked unamused "C'mon man, we'll find somebody to buy us booze tomorrow afternoon."

As much as she had resolved to make the best of her situation with her friends, she knew Bryana wouldn't make it easy for her.

Half an hour later she found herself nursing a vodka and coke, leaning back on her elbows in the sand and staring up at the stars. Through the glass doors a few meters behind her she could hear Sophie sobbing, clearly past her limit, whilst Bryana warbled along to the music blasting from the speakers. Every so often Bryana would call out, threatening to close the doors because of the draft that was coming through. She'd already done it three times that night as a joke. She chugged the rest of her drink and then dropped the cup beside her in the sand, making a mental note to grab it when she was heading inside. At that point she had two choices – give up drinking for the night, go to bed and get up early, hangover free so she could explore...or drink as much as possible in a short amount of time to try and catch up with her friends and break the rut she found herself in.

She was broken out of her dilemma when she heard voices down the beach. In the dim light she could make out four figures, drawing nearer and nearer until she could actually make out details. They were all guys, and bikers by the looks of their jackets. At first she assumed they were just as drunk as everybody else in the area that night as they stumbled through the sand, laughing and hollering and occasionally trying to shove each-other into the sea. Then they noticed her lying in the sand and stood stock still and fell silent. Then they appeared to be discussing something.

Catriona had no idea where her knee jerk reaction to these four strangers came from, but it shook her to her core. It didn't hit her until she sat up, stared at them hard in the darkness and then one of them looked away from his friends and met her gaze. Immediately her blood ran cold and the only word that ran through her mind was "run!"

Just as she was about to scramble up and make a break for the hotel room, one word echoed through the night air.

"No!"

The one who had looked at her now looked away and at his friend, the one who had shouted. Apparently their discussion was turning into an argument. Feeling frozen on the spot, Catriona did the first thing that came to mind.

"Sophie!" her voice was high pitched and shaky, but it got her friend's attention...and that of the strangers, too.

Almost immediately, Sophie falling into the sand at her side and wrapping her arms around Catriona in a show of drunken affection.

"Kit Kat! What's up, man?"

"I just..I...Uh..." Catriona's mind was going blank as she tried to keep one eye on the strangers "I wanted to...show you...the...the...uh...the moon! Look at it! It's so gorgeous out here!"

"Oooh! It is, isn't it!" Sophie stared up at the sky hazily, a big pretty grin on her face.

"C'mon, let's go inside," Catriona stood up slowly, ignoring the alcohol induced dizziness as she did so, offering a hand to Sophie.

She chanced a glance back towards the strangers, whose focus seemed to flit between her and one of their own. Part of her wanted to laugh. She was being paranoid. She had to be. It was probably the drink making her feel weird...But she'd been raised by her father to always trust her gut instinct, and her gut told her that those guys were trouble. She didn't care if it was just paranoia – she'd rather be safe than sorry. Shutting and locking the glass doors once she was inside, she drew the curtains too before heading straight to the bathroom for a hot shower to get the sand out of her hair, ignoring the odd looks she was getting from her friends. The blonde's shout of "no!" echoed in her head for the rest of the night.