…Eh heh, heh, heh… Please don't kill me! Oh, there is a reference to one of my favourite authours in there… Melissa, I know you'll find it, because you're just cool like that.

Disclaimer: Le not mine.

Dedication: To… uh… you know what? Don't ask.

P.S. I changed the rating for a reason. I figured that underage drug/alcohol use/abuse wasn't really something I ought to be shouting about…

---

I stumble into Hinata with a tipsy laugh, my layered blonde hair loose for once, and I smile like a predator finding its prey. I see Sakura, her hair whipping around her face, and I think that she's very strange, little Sa-ku-ra. Tenten is laughing like a loon in the middle of the floor, with a tab on her tongue.

And these are the people I call my friends.

Sakura, Tenten and Hinata, they're the girls I grew up with. Of course, I'm the drunk, but then, I've always been the drunk, because I'm a few years older then the others. Although, right now, I can't remember how much older, and it doesn't really matter.

Fer sure maybe
Fer not
Fer sure eh
Fer sure bomb…

I grab another beer, and I make sure that the knives in my belt are still intact. I'm a little bit… dangerous, at the best of times, and even when I'm drunk like this, I don't really lose control.

I never lose control.

Pulled up at a stoplight
Did drugs on the dashboard

I gulp the thing, and I chuckle when I feel someone behind me. I whip around, and see Tenten's over-bright eyes.

I grin at her, and she grins at me, and then I'm pulled back into the dancing, frothing crowd. I stumble again, falling into a boy that I'm pretty sure is in Sakura's year, because I kinda recognize him, but at the same time, not at all.

I smile up at him. "Hel-loh," I say, and he instinctively catches me as I fall towards the floor.

Look at the mess we've made
Tonight

The whole world spins around my head, and I can suddenly see that the universe is connected. I don't even know how, but I totally get it.

It totally makes sense, because it's connected right there in his eyes. I smile at him, and somehow manage to trail my fingers down his cheeks.

He stares down at me, deadpan. "Temari, you're drunk."

I giggle like nothing else. "Yeah, I am! Isn't it great? By the way, do I know you?"

Kick off your stilettos
Kick off your stilettos
And fuck me in the backseat
Fuck me in the backseat

He shakes his head with an exasperated sigh. Is he exasperated with me? I kinda think he is. He sure seems like he is…

I chuckle softly, and he pulls me upright with another sigh. "You're boring," I say, and turn around. Oh, I see Hinata…

I pull away from him, giggling every time I stumble-trip-stagger into someone else. This seems to happen a lot, and I'm getting kissed every now and then.

I like kisses. Did you know?

You're always falling in disguise
And always quick to compromise

When I finally reach Hinata -sweet, sober little Hinata- I'm already past knowing where I am. She laughs, and the sound is like wind chimes to me ears. I giggle.

Apparently, I like to giggle like a manic-depressive when drunk. Who knew?

Oh wait, I did, that's right, I did know that…

Kick off your stilettos
Kick off your stilettos
And fuck me in the back seat
(fa-fa-fa) fuck me in the backseat

She's dancing so crazy, it's almost dizzying. Then Tenten is there, her pupils as wide as the whole sky, and she is dragging a pouting Sakura behind her. Things are floating around me, and I'm just kind of fluid, not really there at all.

Fer sure maybe
Fer sure not
Fer sure eh
Fer sure bomb…

Hinata's singing along, and so am I. I am off-key, but it just doesn't matter because the music is too loud to hear anything anyways.

I trip into someone's chest, and I giggle like a two-year-old. Hmm, this person smells nice and is tall and is pretteh…

I look up into his face, and giggle when I see something that is almost-familiar in a headache-inducing vague sort of way. "Hi," I say. "I know you!"

"Yes Temari, you know me. You really have to lay off the vodka…"

I pout up at him. What? No vodka? But vodka's fun and tastes yummy and oh, hey, there's Sakura…

And then I am dancing, and I could feel the alcohol sloshing around slowly in my brain, and I wondered with a dark giggle if maybe my blood was made of clear vodka-liquid, because vodka-liquid is just so good…

This is the end of what
We planned
Of what we planned and now

I let the music flow through me, and I close my eyes. The sound is twisty-twirly in my ears, and I move my body along with the pounding beat like a snake-charmer at a fair.

I lose Sakura and Tenten to the drugs, but Hinata is at my side; her normally innocent eyes dark and dangerous as my own, the smile on her lips something like lust.

I grin at her, and spin; I trip into someone else, and twirl around her. "Hey Hina-chan!" I call, and she's laughing like a long, and I think oh, Tenten, hi, can I have some of that?!

But then Tenten disappears again, and I am left with a pounding beat, twisty-twirly light and sound, and people pressing in on all sides.

We're not falling in love
we're just falling apart

I press my back into the someone-I-don't-know-behind me, grinding my hips to the fast, disturbing beat.

I don't even know who it is, and I laugh, and press my lips against his in a lipstick-smear of something like guilt.

So girl
let's dance the night away

He looks bored. "Oh, dear," I say, and pull his hair loose from the constricting tail he has it in.

I pull back, grab a random beer out of someone's hand, half-down it, and pause to study him. He is twisty-twirly like the music with his hair down. "You're pretty. Can I keep you?" I tell him sincerely.

He does not look amused.

"Temari," he says "Come on, I promised Ino I wouldn't let you get-"

"Ino? Do I know her?" I ask, and I have a fuzzy memory of someone a little younger then me - Sakky's age? - who is important. Yes, Ino-

"She's your sister."

I don't even try to remember her. It hurts my already-trashed head, and so instead I just kiss him again, up on tiptoe, hiding my face against his in the curtain of his hair.

I smile, and poke my tongue out from my lips. "Kiss me again," I tell him.

This is how the beat goes
This is how the beat goes
Just let your body go

And I am sure he is about to comply, and I go oh, kisses, I like kisses, like glitter and magic and-

But silly little Sakura pulls me away, and I forget the rest of the world in a mixture of alcohol and music and friendship. Her eyes are wide-wide-pupil-wide, and I wonder if she's going to survive the night.

She touches my lips, wonder-eyed, and I know she's tracing words in light only she can see, and I giggle.

I like alcohol.

This is how the beat drops
This is how the beat drops
I wanna see your panties drop girl now

Where am I, again?

All this time is wasted
Pretending we're in love

Someone catches my hand, and it is Sakura and Hinata. Sakura's hair spins around her face in a dizzy-making swirl. Where's Tenny, I wonder-wonder-wonder, and then I see her off on the side, carefully handing a bag of something to-

Oh, boys.

Sakura is claimed by someone who I think I hate - I know that face so where have I seen it before and Hinata is gone, and I still can't find Tenten, and then-

But that's all right
'cause you know I love being with you
And seeing you cry

And then I see pretty-lazy-boy from before, and I smile when I touch his face. "You left your hair down", I tell him, my words slightly slurring from the exhaustion and the alcohol.

I smile incoherently. At least I've not mixed alcohol and Tenten's stash tonight.

Fer sure maybe
Fer sure not
Fer sure eh
Fer sure bomb…

His fingers trace my lips, and tingles run down my spine. Oh, I like that… "Hi," I whisper, and it carries through the pounding beat in the room.

I know he hears it, because he sort of half smiles at me.

Pulled up at a stoplight
Did drugs on the dashboard

"Can I take you home?" I ask him, and the pretty half-smile-thing turns even more dizzy-making when he just sort of almost laughs.

"How about I take you home?" he says in reply, and I frown.

I don't wanna go home yet. "No, I don't want to go home yet," I tell him, and I slip through a gap in the frothing crowd, and I'm off to find my ladies.

That's the last I see of him all night, I think.

Look at the mess we've made
Tonight

---

I'm not sure when I pass out, but the bright light tells me it is tomorrow. I groan, and cover my eyes. Stupid sunlight.

"Wake up, sweet-heart," I hear, and I sit bolt upright. My younger sister is leaning against the door-jamb, a smirk on her lips.

"Someone left you this," and then she throws a wadded piece of paper at me, and stalks off.

"Sure, for sure," I mutter, and un-crumple the paper to find a single signature, and the words "I'm keeping you".

I smile, and drop back to sleep.