baby, you'll be famous.

[Kelly Evans]

The Red Star Lounge was packed full of people, all trying to escape the summer heat, the night air humid and sticky in a way that was not at all pleasant. Above the chattering cacophony of voices, Kelly Evans ordered bourbon on the rocks and fought against the crowd to the only empty table, pushed against the furthest corner of the bar. She sat down with her back to the wall, facing the crowds, and placed her glass gently onto the table top in front of her.

She was restless in the heat, and pulled her hair away from her face, holding it away from her neck with one hand. With the other, she pushed her glass around in circles, leaving water marks on the wooden top, tracing her fingers in the condensation. She sighed, let her fall around her shoulders again, honey blonde in the bright lights of the lounge.

The couple at the table beside Kelly's took their intimate conversation to the next level, and the witch had to fight down the nasuea that had been stirring in her stomach all day. Don't do it, she thought to herself, as two pairs of hands dropped below the table cloth beside her. It just leads to trouble anyway. Not that she really believed that. "Merlin, what am I going to do now?" she muttered. Her dark eyes fell on the still untouched drink sitting innocently in front of her, and she shook her head.

"Screw it." She picked it up and downed it, her eyes closed.

[Kat Samuels]

Call it a spidey-sense, call it a charm she'd once put on her best friend while she was sleeping - okay, two charms - but Kat knew whenever her best friend needed her, and most of the time she knew exactly where she was when she needed her. When the back of her hand started to itch, the word Red-Star Lounge inking its way onto her skin, Kat summoned the house-elf cum-babysitter that she and Straw had hired to help them get some normalcy in their lives and left the apartment without a second thought.

Twisting her way into apparating, Kat was standing outside the crowded doors of the Red Star Lounge within seconds. She forcefully shoved the doors open, getting a few disgruntled looks from patrons as she pushed against them to squeeze inside and try and dig out her best friend amongst the overwhelming crowd. She didn't think she'd ever seen the place so packed.

Weaving in and out of people Kat finally spotted Kelly sitting against the far wall, drink before her. She was about to call out when she watched in awe as her friend downed her drink in one gulp. "Oh crap no" she muttered under her breath, something was definitely up if Kelly was taking a page out of her book. Hurrying now, Kat pushed past the last few rows of people and sat down uninvited in the chair opposite her best friend. As she did, an overworked waiter came over, opening her mouth to order two drinks, Kat was silenced as one was placed in front of her and another in front of Kelly. Hers smelled like whiskey, definitely not her drink so she just pushed it to the side and shrugged. Looking up at Kelly properly for the first time Kat took in her appearance and bit her lip. Something was definitely not right, thank goodness for that charm she'd done back when they were seventeen and the fact that Kelly had never found out and made her remove it, it had come in handy on more than one occassion.

"Okay, Speak or drink. Honestly though, the first one is the better option. You wont feel so bad in the morning."

[Kelly Evans]

She'd been seriously considering getting up and asking the touchy feely couple beside her to kindly get a damn room, thanks very much, when a very familiar blonde sat down in the chair opposite her, a bemused expression on her face. Almost at the same instant, two glasses of dark amber liquid were set down on the table by a harrassed-looking waiter, who also caught sight of the gyrating going on nearby, so hurried off before he could say where the drinks came from. Kelly raised an eyebrow at the sight of fading red ink on Kat's hand, but didn't ask questions. Instead, she shook her head at her friend's request, picked up the glass that had been put in front of her, and downed that one, too.

Not a big drinker, Kelly gasped and tears came to her eyes. "I didn't think whiskey was your drink. When did you even order these?" she said, looking over at Kat through blurry eyes. The noise in the Lounge intensified, if possible, so Kelly had to lean across the table to hear Kat properly. "How did you know I was here?" she asked, her eyes narrowed. Two hard drinks in ten minutes; she was probably drunk already. "Not that I don't love to see you, especially since once you worked out I was here, you came in despite the mosh pit happening around the karaoke machine at the front door."

Kelly placed a hand briefly on her belly as it gurgled angrily; both at the hard liquor she wasn't really used to and the flutterings from earlier. She moved her hands quickly though, not wanting to appear suspicious. Well, more suspicious than she already looked: drinking was more flighty Kat's thing. "How you doin', Mrs. Buckett?"

[Kat Samuels]

"I'm thinking I'm doing a heck of a lot better than you. Kel, what are you doing?" Looking across at her friend with nothing but concern on her face, Kat picked up the drink in front of her and downed it with a gasp. "Now don't get me wrong, I love drunk Kelly as much as the next person, hell, secretly it's my favourite Kelly, but drinking alone in a crowded bar is generally my kind of thing, especially when you're throwing the drink back like they're chocolate milk". With a sigh Kat beckoned to the very overworked waited and ordered a couple of vodka and lemonades, a bit easier for them to stomach.

"Look, I don't know what the hell you and Straw are fighting over, I know its probably a stupid misunderstanding and I also know its very possible that its entirely his fault, but you haven't been looking too good Kel. I know we can't just swing back into your life and presume to know everything after one afternoon but I know you, I know when somethings up, I know it may not be any of my business but I'm going to sit here and drink with you until you're ready to face whatever it is, or until you convince both of us that nothings wrong, whichever comes first".

And with her little speech out of the way, Kat sighed and took a sip out of the drink that was just sat down in front of her, almost choking on the taste. "Umm, excuse me?" she said, grabbing the arm of the waiter before he could walk away. He did not look impressed. "Look I know you're flat out and all, but I ordered vodka-lemonades, not whiskey - I can hardly stomach the stuff." Unfortunately at that moment that karaoke crowd went crazy over a rendition of some Nikki Minaj song - Kat could never really tell the damn songs apart, so she had to strain to hear the waited over the applause. Something about a man and paid for and a quick gesture towards the bar was all she managed to get before he scurried off to take another order.

"Okay, looks like whiskey it is. Bottoms up Kel" she murmured, lifting her glass to her lips.

[Kelly Evans]

Kelly sighed, rolled her eyes. She should have known that Straw would nice person to Kat about their little disagreement from earlier. Logical Kelly knew that it wasn't much of a stretch for a man to talk to his wife about his fight with their friend, but logical Kelly left the building a long time ago. Logical Kelly had been replaced with drunk, angry Kelly, and it was this Kelly that lifted dark eyes to Kat and raised her eyebrows.

"You're right, it is his fault. And you're also right that you can't just leave for three weeks and then come swanning home and pretend that everything is okay." Kelly didn't want to fight with Kat any more than she had wanted to fight with Straw, so she sighed again and bit her tongue. "Kat, truth be told I don't care that you went away. It's not as if you disappeared, I knew where you were. I'm not mad at you or Straw. I just...".

Kelly frowned as the waiter put down two more glasses of whiskey. Even as drunk as she was, she knew that that was not what Kat had ordered. Through slightly blurry eyes, Kelly tried to follow where the waiter was pointing towards the bar, but he moved away too quickly for her to pick anybody that she recognised out of the crowd. Even as Kat lifted her glass to her lips, this one Kelly pushed around the table with her hands, not feeling as gun ho as she was a few moments ago. "Which one of your many admirers is sending us these?"

As mad as Kelly had been with Straw for not leaving her be, she felt an insane urge to just get it out there, to tell Kat why she had been so sick all day, why she'd almost blown up her office in her anger at Straw, why she was now attempting to drink herself into oblivion. It was all too much for her, too much melodrama. She'd always been the level-headed one, the one who'd ask questions and then drink, rather than drink and then ask questions. Kelly looked up at Kat and opened her mouth, but was distracted by a man who'd just stepped into her line of sight, raised one hand and one corner of his mouth in a way she'd always found very irritating.

"Oh, Merlin. I just figured out who your admirer is," Kelly groaned, and pushed the whiskey glass away from her defiantly. "Wish I'd knew who bought these before; they're probably more expensive now than if we'd paid ourselves."