Caesars Palace

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The boys had entered the extravagant suite, James took a moment to let this sink in, while Antonio bounced around touching stuff and freaking out like a kid in a toy store.

Jake had to admit the suite was nice, but very Seth. The boys had settled and such, and they noticed Connor had passed out. They all decided to let him sleep and that later one of them would call him to meet up wherever they went.

"Let's go make this town our bitch! Whooo!" Jake yelled ignoring the sleeping Connor.

James laughed, "Yeah come on, let's go!"

"PARTY! PARTY! PARTY!" Antonio chanted.


***

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"Calm down, we're not done here yet!" Seth hollered at them.

"What suite is this?" Luke asked him. Seth grinned. "The Forum Towers' Duplex suite. We'll have to share beds but it's cheaper than a penthouse." Luke nodded and headed for the room he and James were sharing to unpack his stuff.

Seth looked down at Connor, who had conked out on the couch on the lower level of the suite. Seth grimaced and glanced up at Jake. "So how exactly are we sharing the last two rooms? His, Jake's and Connor's stuff was still lying downstairs. Seth, who had recalled Connor mentioning he was broke once, had silently paid for Connor's portion of the trip but he didn't think Connor needed his own room.

Seth's eyes flicked up to Jake, who was already showing signs of fatigue. Ashton had warned Seth bringing Jake here might not work out so well on him. "Dude, I think you should take it," Seth informed him somewhat uncertainly. He had a sudden vivid image of himself accidentally stretching and knocking Jake off the bed and cracking the guy's fragile ribs in two. Lucifer would have been ecstatic if he were here, Seth thought mournfully. The cat was back at his penthouse with Rafe for the weekend.

***

"Ash, are you ready? And Rose isn't back yet, so I don't know what we should do," Evelyn announced, glancing over at the pet services lady who had arrived to take care of Nova until they returned.

It was now roughly eight PM and they had reservations at some restaurant. Evelyn had let Ashlee choose since it was her birthday dinner and all. Evelyn was now dressed up for the occasion, but seeing as it was Ashlee's big day, she had discarded the pretty blue dress with sequined bust she had planned to wear and opted for a very simple [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] with a satin belt at the bust and a layered hem. The skirt of the dress came to a couple inches above her knees. Evelyn had also curled her hair slightly at the ends, shoved her feet into her favorite black booties, and shrugged on a leather jacket to keep warm. A swipe of blue/gray eyeshadow, a couple of rings, dangly metallic earrings, a wooden/metal bracelet, blush and some daring red lipstick to match the dress and she was ready to go. She picked up the zebra-print Jimmy Choo hobo bag that had cost her a little more than her liking, but it was definitely worth it.

As a joke though, she put on the two-finger cross ring she hadn't worn since September and then the gold chain necklace with AMOR on a tiny gold plate as a pendant. She felt her insides cringe but this whole thing had to be dealt with. And hiding that necklace wasn't going to help her.

So okay, she told Rose she would tone it down. But while Rose might want to stay out of sight and get over her hurt, Evelyn needed distraction. And nothing pulled cute boys like the color red. She was going to play the role she had shoved aside for so long. She was single and ready to cut loose from the aggravation of her past mistakes.

Evelyn checked the clock overhead and then added, "I think we should just go. She can call us when she wants to meet." Ashlee was getting ready in the bathroom so Evelyn walked over to her so they weren't yelling at each other across the suite.

Evelyn stopped in the bathroom doorway and grinned a little. "Oh, also, you like?" She lifted her arms and spun in a graceful pirouette leftover from her ballet days. The red layers of the dress' skirt flared up tantalizingly but were still toeing decent. "It's not skanky," she added smugly.

Jake shrugged he didn't really mind where he slept, as long as he didn't end up in the bathtub or some place weird like that.

"Dude if you want the room for yourself its fine, I don't mind sharing with Connor." Jake said stretching a bit more, and yawning. The flight sort of wore him out. He was hoping that was the least of the exhaustion and that maybe once they got out of the hotel he'd probably wake up a bit more.

***

Ashlee took Evelyn's red number in and whistled, "Damn talk about the lady in red, looking hot Ev." Ashlee winked as she finished adding the gold shimmery shadow to her eyes. She walked out of the bathroom and slipped into her heels and yanked on her [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], "Okay I'm ready when you are." She smiled.

"I get the feeling Connor would probably spend more time passed out on the couch," Seth remarked, nudging Connor with his foot. "I think for the sake of your fragile health, dude, you should take it." He glanced up as Ashton leaned over the railing of the upper level.

"We heading out?" he asked, having changed into fresh clothes.

Seth cringed and leaned down to unlock one of his suitcases to grab some clothes for tonight. "Give me a minute."

"if you're anything like James, you'll need an hour," Luke commented smugly, walking past Ashton down the spiral staircase to the ground level of the suite.

Seth hurried into one of the remaining suites with his suitcase and began yanking out clothes. He raced for the bathroom and changed, running a brush through his hair and spraying on cologne. He headed downstairs. "I already prepped on the plane," he said proudly. "Let's go. DARKO!" he yelled suddenly. "GET YOUR HUGE ASS DOWNSTAIRS NOW!"

Ashton snickered, descending the stairs and pulling on his leather jacket as he walked out the front door. Seth had arranged for limo escort services for them throughout their stay, but right now they were unneeded.

***

"Typical Ash getup," Evelyn said with a grin, eying Ashlee's dress appreciatively. "Very eyecatching, I have to say." She frowned a moment, wondering if Rose would mind, but she was kind of seriously hungry!

"Okay, let's go, gorgeous!" she said, nudging Ashlee ahead of her. Evelyn knelt and kissed Nova's head, grabbed Ashlee's birthday present, and tucked it into the covers of their shared bed while Ashlee was looking away, before walking out into the hallway and to the elevator.

James had changed out of the clothes he had flown in from into some fresh ones and gaped down at Seth as he made his way back down, "I'll have you know the ladies dig the ass." James smirked following the guys out the door.

Jake went to his suitcase and changed dark gray button down shirt, and threw his leather jacket on over it. "Alright, alright now that we're all beautiful let's go." Jake walked out of their suite closing the door behind him, and headed towards the elevators.

**

"Whoo!" Ashlee yelped, grinning heading out with Evelyn to the elevators.

When the girls reached the lobby, Evelyn hesitated. "Which restaurant, Ash?"

***

The boys headed down the ground floor hallway form the elevators and Seth glanced over his shoulder at them. "Okay, so what club, bar, whatever, do we wanna hit first?" He'd never been allowed into the clubs when he'd visited Vegas ain hsi early teen years, so he really wasn't sure what would be best.

"There is a Shadow Bar here," Luke spoke up suddenly. He flushed slightly when Seth gave him a surprised glance. "I, uh, heard about it. The bartenders apparently do cool tricks and flip and shit when they serve you. It's pricey but apparently a major hotspot."

"That, or we could ditch Caesars and hit someplace else?" Ashton suggested. "The Palms?"

"The Palms is notorious for having Playmates around...and I heard Rain there is the shit" Jake grinned devilishly nudging Seth, since he knew Playmates usually came in Seth's model: Blond.

***

"To Rao's its some Italian spot." Ashlee informed her.

"Is it in Caesars?" Evelyn asked, following Ashlee across the reception area. She smirked a little. "Why Italian?"

***

Seth's eyes lit up and Luke cringed, recalling Rose.

"Lead the way," Seth demanded of Jake. Ashton laughed and nodded in agreement.

"Cause pasta sounded really tasty." Ashlee grinned, walking past a gift shop to a sign that pointed towards the restaurant.

***

Jake laughed, "Come on we need to get a cab, the Palms is off the strip." He lead the guys across the lobby and out of the hotel.

"No we don't," Seth said pompously, pulling out his phone. "We have escort services. Personal limo and all that." He dialed the driver and soon, the limo pulled up and they got in.

[[Idiots to [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]]]

***

The girls arrived at the restaurant. After a while of confused menu perusing, they ordered and the (hot) waiter walked off to get their meals. Evelyn put her purse on the table and grinned across at Ashlee. "So, just ouf of curiosity, do you still have a thing for a certain Italian?" she asked teasingly.

It occurred to her that she had never explained the whole odd mess/break-up with Jake to Ashlee. But she really didn't want to talk about that jackass when she'd finally escaped him.

"I mean I dunno, I kind of do. Ashton is nice and all, but I don't know if he likes me back or not? Cause of the whole potion thing I think Connor kind of scared him off from me. Also what if he likes Lola? I mean I know they went to formal together as friends probably but you never know? Anyway, no more guys for now. Well I mean besides harmless flirting like with our hot waiter." She winked.

Evelyn cringed guiltily. "Well, honestly," she said, taking out her buzzing phone, "Ashton would probably not go for Lola. J-Jake is pretty protective and Ashton would probably not wanna make things tense, you know?" She grinned at Ashlee across the table. "The waiter was seriously cute though."

"He was beautiful!" Ashlee went on, and soon they were served their food. She took a forkful of her pasta and as she swallowed she said, "But seriously we're both eighteen and beautiful. Who cares if we don't have a boyfriend. We're freaking young! We should be enjoying ourselves."

"Why'd you think I'm wearing red?" Evelyn said cheekily. "Nothing attracts male attention like red, hon. Life lesson. Damn straight we're single and goodlooking and we're going to enjoy the perks of being uncommitted skanks."

She started on her Veal Parmesan, cutting the meat with a sharp dagger-like knife.

"Ev when did you turn into such a slutty prude?" Ashlee giggled, eating more of her pasta.

"Ever since I got out of Ash Creek?" Evelyn said honestly. "I was a hell of a lot loosened up in Seattle and New York kind of added on." She shrugged. "Only now instead of being offended by being called a prude, I'm being called a ho. Which is amusing and ironic." She smirked.

"Definitely an oxymoron. Speaking of your ho tendencies, ummm ditching James at formal to hang with Jake? What the hell?" Ashlee asked her raising an eyebrow at her newly skank best friend.

Evelyn's face fell. She stabbed her veal a little too aggressively, not looking at Ashlee. "I was drnk and kind of bored," she said nonchalantly. "Conor wasn't exactly cheerful that night. So I decided I'd leave and then on the way home figured I'd go say hi to Jake since I hadn't seen hm in a while. Nothing else."

Her voice came out slightly too high and she cleared her throat uncomfortably, feeling her stomach clench and her heart begin to pound faster.

"I see, Ev do you like Jake? I mean at all? Because I know your guys whole relationship or whatever you want to call it was weird and such, but I mean the formal was far from boring." Ashlee added, almost shuddering remembering Seth and Rose.

"I never did find out everything that happened after I left," Evelyn said quickly. "I heard though, that Seth and Rose were really, uh.....into each other."

Ashlee rolled her eyes, "Yeah they were like animals, they kept trying to screw in the limo. So then Ashton and Lola pulled them apart and Lola even punched Rose in the face, she got that annoyed. We all were. Then the god damn elevator they kept trying to pardon my language, but fuck in there and ugh it was just a nightmare and we were all so annoyed by the time we got back we just decided to let them go at it. Plus Ashton had gotten traumatized hearing them be all loud and crap as they got it on so he slept in your suite."

"Wait, where'd you sleep?" Evelyn asked, amused. She felt bad for Rose, though, remembering consoling her the morning after.

"Your room, since you were too busy spooning with Jake." Ashlee replied cheekily.

Evelyn choked violently on a forkful of cheesy veal and hastily gulped down half her glass of water, whacking her chest. She wiped her mouth with her napkin, coughing furiously to clear her airways as her cheeks flushed furiously. "Uh, excuse me?!"

"Yes I slept in your room so Ashton could sleep on the couch, I mean hell you only worried everyone for half the night." Ashlee decided she'd skip out on telling her that she let Ashton sleep in her bed, since she had decided to leave the very minor detail of her cuddling with Jake all night.