Moses' pool house, which lies adjacent to his parents Gulf side home, is entirely reflective of his character. The squat, one story edifice wraps around the pool in a crescent shape. The lounge at the east end has three glass walls, so that when sitting there, one has simultaneous views of the pool and the Gulf. Walking through the house, starting from the lounge, you encounter an office/storage room, a doorway leading down to the basement studio, the exit, the kitchen, a hallway closet and finally, the tour culminates in the west facing bedroom.

Deana walked into the party almost an hour late, not that anybody but Hawk would notice. Their friends were a pretty laidback bunch. It was only Hawk who constantly hounded everybody about their punctuality, or lack thereof. Making her way to the lounge, Deana was assaulted by the rough sounds of James Brown's demands for funky music. She smiled to herself; one of the main things that kept her friends with Moses was their similar tastes in music. She walked into the lounge, startled by the more than thirty people vying for space in the crowded room. The long, wide couches that usually occupied the center of the room had been pushed up against the walls; the coffee table was nowhere to be seen.

She saw Moses seated on a couch with a group of people she didn't know. She took another look around and realized that she didn't know any of the people milling at the food bar or dancing on the makeshift dance floor. She went over and stood silently at the side of the couch. Moses and his friends were so engrossed in conversation that they failed to even notice her.

"What I'm saying is that the guitar is a blazingly obvious choice of instrument, everyone and their mother can play the guitar..." Moses stated emphatically.
'I can't' Deana thought to herself.
"But look at drummers..." Moses continued. "There's maybe a handful of well-known drummers in the world."
"I don't know any famous drummers..." A girl with blazing red hair, seated next to Moses, said.
"The most famous one is probably Phil Collins." Moses replied, rubbing his goatee in contemplation.
"Phil Collins is a drummer?" The red-head asked incredulously.
"Genesis." Deana chimed in. "He was the drummer for Genesis before he went solo."

They all looked up, noticing her for the first time. Moses' face broke into a wide smile.
"Now, you see?" He said, turning to face his congregation. "This is why I love this girl."

Five minutes later, Moses, Deana and Hawk were standing at the door of the lounge making fun of the idiots on the dance floor.
"I don't know how these assholes find their way to my house." Moses said, shaking his head in disgust.
"You didn't invite them?" Deana asked, cocking her head as she watched one couple gyrating wildly in the middle of the dance floor. Moses turned to her with a look of total exasperation. She shrugged and smiled into her cup of juice. The gyrating couple was moving dangerously close to Moses' display of classic vinyl. Moses cursed audibly and pushed his way across the room. Deana looked over at Hawk, who was eyeing the contents of his glass.

"You're awfully quiet tonight?" She asked. He shrugged in reply. "You're not mad about me being late, are you? I said I was sorry."
He looked up at her, smiling. "I'm not mad."
"Well, then what is it?"
He took a step forward, bent down and placed his chin on her shoulder. She turned her face away from him, clearly smelling the alcohol on his breath.
"I think I'm drunk." He whispered in her ear.
"I think you're wasted." She replied, wrinkling her nose in disapproval. Moses was a social drinker, but as far as she knew Hawk didn't touch the stuff. "I thought you didn't drink."
"I don't." He said, righting himself and leaning back against the wall. She raised an eyebrow and nodded to his glass. "Except for now, obviously." He conceded with a laugh. She shook her head and turned back to the dance floor. Moses was in the process of subtly directing dancers away from the vinyl case.
"Shit." Hawk said suddenly. She looked over at him. He had his hand to his forehead and was blinking rapidly.
"What's wrong?" She asked, taking his glass from his hand and putting it down on the floor with hers.
"Oh, man. I don't think... Wow... It's bright in here, isn't it?" He blinked at the flashing lights overhead.
"It's normal, Hawk" She said.
"The music is too fucking loud." He held his crown in both his hands.
"No, it isn't." She said, pulling his arm down and leading him out of the lounge. She steadied him as they walked down the hallway, away from the music. "How much did you drink?"
"A couple of glasses of scotch." He mumbled.
She grunted out a laugh. "You really can't hold your liquor."

She led him around the house to the bedroom, which was the only place, other than the lounge, where they could sit down. She dumped him on the bed and he turned onto his back, facing the ceiling with his eyes closed. She sat down next to him.

"Everyone in there was staring at you." He said after a few minutes, his eyes still closed.
"What?" She asked, turning to look at him.
"In the lounge... Everyone was staring at you... You didn't notice?" He opened his eyes and looked at her intently, as if he were saying something infinitely more important than what he was actually saying.
"It's probably the pants." She pulled at the stretchy, black leather. "My mom says they're slutty."
"You didn't notice." He said it as a statement this time, sitting up on the bed next to her. "You never notice. People stare at you all the time and you never notice." She shrugged, not knowing how to reply to that. He bit his bottom lip in frustration. She never broke eye contact as he reached his hand up and brushed the hair from her eyes. Her first instinct was to pull back, but his strong hand wrapped around her neck and pulled her in. His lips brushed hers, his nose grazing hers.
"You make me ache, Deana." He said into her mouth. "How can you not notice that?" His other hand slid across her abdomen, wrapping effortlessly, naturally around her waist. He leaned forward, pushing her down onto the bed.
"Hawk, I don't know about this." She felt her resolve fading even as she said it. She could feel him now, hard against her thigh.
"I do." He said into her neck. He pressed hard kisses into the soft spot behind her ears as the last of her resolve slipped quietly away from her.

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Now Playing: I did it By: Dave Matthews Band

-Layla

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