Atti sneaked out of Orli�s house quite early in the morning, while his friend was still knock-out from all the consumed booze. Of course, a German can take beer better! He meant to visit the girls, because he needed to know if the girl Orlando had found himself was alright. As best friend, it was his right. He hoped they were up yet. Well, if they weren�t, they were soon to be.
The girl with the blue-dyed hair, Tamara opened the door to him. She barely said a word, but led him into the kitchen.
"So, em, Tamara, I wanted to ask you something. You know, I need to know if Orli�s g/f is alright. And well since your her friend I thought I�d ask you."
Tamara thought for almost two minutes, sipping from her breakfast glass of water, then she nodded. "She�s alright" she replied.
Atti gave her a weird look. "I would like some more information" he said gently.
"Then I have to talk!"
"Yes."
"That�s tiring. You�d best go to Dee. She likes to talk a lot anyway and she�s half-german, too" Tamara appraised her friend as if she was some sort of new Tell Sell toy.
"OK. Thanx for your help, I guess."
"You�re welcome. There�s Dee" Tam pointed and was off to watch some telly.
"Hi Dee" Atti said to the girl as she came in.
"Hey Atti. What are you doing here so early in the morning? Mind you, Daphne may be right about us charging you lot for this reception business."
"I actually came to talk to you-well one of the girls at least-because I want to know if Daphne�s alright, you know, how she is, because as Orli�s best friend I have a right to have a say in his girlfriendbusiness."
"Oh. Then you were wrong to speak to Tam."
"I found out."
"Well, you know I don�t get that couple either. At first they hated eachother.."
"He told me that" Atti interrupted, until Dee gave him a killer look saying I-thought-you-wanted-to-know-about-this, and he stuck up his hands in defeat.
"And then they were all over eachother" Dee continued as if nothing happened. "Lij and I appearantly pulled the strings, too. It�s a bit weird, because they are opposites. As hyper as Orli is, that quiet is Daphne. I mean, when you get to know her, she talks a lot, but she�s really calm. Sometimes even a bit�lazy, really. She has a mess-phobia and is a control-freak. She hates surprises. You might tell Orli before he gets a bright idea" she told Atti with a grin, and he nodded thoughtfully.
"Maybe she can calm him down a bit" Dee ended her plea.
"Orli? Never, never, never. That is mission impossible. You see he even�"
But whatever Atti wanted to say, he didn�t get to do it, because Daphne entered the kitchen.
"What are you doing?" she asked happily.
"Nothing, really" Atti replied hastily.
"Good. Dee, I have a great idea. How to get Dom off alcohol."
"Dom?" Atti asked. "That seems even more mission impossible than to calm Orli down."
"Oh, that�ll be alright" Daphne said light-hearted. "Why didn�t you bring my boyfriend along, anyway? What�s that?" She poked Atti in his ribs jokingly.
"It must be a good plan if you�re so happy about it" Dee noted, knowing her younger friend�s excitement signs.
"It is a wonderful idea" Daphne told her, before looking at Atti. "Don�t you have anything to do?"
When the girls had rid themselves of Atti (don�t worry we still love ya babe) Dee settled to hear about Daphne�s plan.
"You see, remember Tamara made all those pics of him drinking everywhere, and the pics in the hospital?" Daphne started.
"Yes�" Dee replied, seeing where it was going.
"Well, we could threaten him by saying we�ll publish them with a nice accompanying story about his addiction. That should keep him off it. Sure he can drink every now and then as we do.."
"You do."
"Same thing. But he won�t have to go to the AA, at least."
"Won�t he hate us for it?"
"It�s for his own good. Besides I wouldn�t loose sleep over it anyway" Daphne replied.
"As long as Orli likes you, huh?" Dee teased her.
"Duh. It�s getting lame, this, Dee. Do I tease you with Eye-lijah all the time?"
"Yeah. Besides, did you say I thought that was funny?"
"I would never do such a thing. C�mon, let�s go to Dom" the taller girl hurried away from Dee, who exclaimed:"It was you!", but followed her anyway to her boyfriend�s house.
They found all the lads there, obvioulsy happy over something as they were over-excited.
"Hey, girlfriend" Lij exclaimed and kissed Dee.
"And then we�re annoying" Orli said to Daphne, wrapping his arms around her.
"You�re both annoying" Dom groaned.
"I agree. Annoying, greedy and happy" Billy joined his friend.
"Count me in, too" Andre helped.
"I hope you realise at this point our reception services rate has gone up dramatically" Dee told them calmly, and Daphne grinned.
Atti cleared his throat and decided to change subject. "We�re going out tonight, I mean the lads. I really want to get to know LA nightlife, y�know."
"Where?" Daphne asked. "LAPD, maybe? Dee and Lij know ALL about that!"
"We would not talk about it anymore, Daph" Lij complained.
Before her boyfriend could get into a fight with her best friend, Dee hastily interrupted and said:"We actually came for you, Dom. We need to talk to you about an� article."
"I�m honoured. See you in a bit, guys" Dom said to his friends before following to girls�to his doom, as he later claimed.
* 3AM, a LA nightclub*
Billy noticed Dom was quieter than usual, and not drinking that much as he always used to. They were gone for two hours already and he wasn�t even roaring drunk yet. He could still talk.
"What�s wrong with you!!" he shouted over the loud music, and made a mental note about hitting Lij on the head to remind him not everyone was 21 anymore.
Dom shook his head and probably wanted to say he didn�t want to talk about it, before a thunderstorm in the form of three mad lads broke over them.
"We have to go!!" Lij shouted.
"Atti had a run-in with this guy" Orli explained.
"A very nice run-in"Atti added with a wicked smile.
"What then?" Billy and Dom both shouted.
"He kissed him."
"Oh gosh" Billy moaned.
"No it was Josh" Atti said.
Orlando hit his friend on the head. "Stop the lame jokes, idiot. You brought us in trouble again."
"Well, last time it was you. I have rights too."
Orli made a face at that, before the arguing friends were dragged away by a worried Dom, who had seen a glimpse of a man who was obviously looking around for someone�
The lads staggered through the streets, unable to get a cab, because of their appearance.
"You know, Lij" Dom said to his younger friend while grabbing his arm to save him from walking under a car, "I�d never thought I would have to bring you home."
Lij nodded and clinged at Dom. "Me..neither. What is this anyway?"
"What�s what?"
Elijah rolled his eyes and almost got on the road again, and wanted to continue against Dom, as Orli and Atti bumped into them.
"They�re following us!" Orlando exclaimed frantically.
Lij and Dom turned around swiftly, to see a gang of guys following them indeed.
"Maybe he likes me after all" Atti suggested.
"When we get home, I am going to torture you" Orli told him.
"If we get home" Dom added. "Where�s Billy?"
Suddenly, a dark, but not very tall figure appeared between them and the gang.
"Remember this is the last time I�m ever gonna save yer arse and that I demand a huge reward but that I�m gonna kick all of yours arses anyway" Billy ranted quickly. He waited for the much taller, younger lad that was leading the gang to come to him. He obviously thought it would be easy to rid of the Scot and was glaring at Andre behind him, who happily waved before both Dom and Orlando hit him.
The guy swung at Billy, but he seized his arm easily and slinged him over his shoulder onto the hard street. Very soon, the whole gang was prey to Billy�s martial arts skills.
And that was how Billy saved the miserable brats.