Author: Emily
Theme challenge: Bad first impression
Things to include: “What do you mean I’m gay?”, Bud Light, getting pushed into a pool fully clothed
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Some lanquage
Author’s Notes: I had origianlly planned on using another story, though pretty soon it became way too big to get done by july 1st. I’m still writing that one, and hopefully I can put it up.

This story is actually inspired by the night I had last weekend at the Gansevoort hotel. I actually did see a drunk girl fall into the pool and it was the funniest thing I have ever seen.

10:30pm- Thursday

“Moll, darling, come here, there is someone I want you to meet.”

In my mind, I was rolling my eyes. My boss, Kyle, was the one beckoning me. The one who, 2 months ago didn’t know me from the next executive assistant. He still probably wouldn’t have had he not walked passed my desk and heard me listening to Milkman, my favorite local band from back home. He immediately had a coronary, flew them out, signed them, and within 2 months had a Rolling Stone article, pre-orders on Amazon, and gigs on Letterman, Leno, and Conan. To top it off, I had been given a raise (5 dollars yippee!), and Kyle was regarding me as his “super star.” There was a little part of me that felt like I had just sold my soul, but as I looked over the skyline of Manhattan from the rooftop of the Gansevoort hotel sipping free Cristal, the bigger part of me didn’t mind signing my soul over at all.

“Hi Kyle. Who am I meeting?” I said, flashing a smile.

“You already know Derek,” he said motioning toward the lead singer of Milkman and a close friend. Derek and I had known each other since kindergarten. “And this is….” I didn’t really listen to the rest. Derek and I made eye contact, and we knew we had to escape. To this day, I don’t know whose hand I shook, but soon after, Derek and I ran away under the pretense of getting another drink.

“Jesus Molly, I don’t know if I can meet one more person!” He said with a smile. I knew it was pretty overwhelming for him and the other guys, but I also knew he was loving it.

“Well get used to it music man, this is your new life. You are going to be FA-MOUS, and you will have all the little 15 year old girls wishing they were legal.”

“Ha. Let’s just get a drink. I would kill for a Bud light. You know I don’t like this shit.” He motioned toward the glass of champagne and giggled.

“Well, maybe we can charm the bartender.” We headed into the glass enclosed bar and walked over to the obviously under privileged bartender. I say this because she looked like she was starving and was wearing practically nothing. I had been living in New York for almost 5 years now and was still not over girls like this. I just didn’t get it.

“Hey, is there anyway I can get a beer for my friend here? He doesn’t really do the whole champagne thing.” She frowned.

“Sorry, we only have champagne up here. You’ll have to go downstairs.”

“Um, there’s a full cooler of them right there.”

“We only have champagne.” Was she starving her brain as well? Obviously. Derek and I took one look at each other and busted out laughing. It was too much. The bartender shook her head, made a disgusted noise and walked away. We started to head downstairs when Kyle stopped us.

“Hey guys come here and meet Zac!” We both tried not to laugh and headed over to where Kyle was standing with a guy probably around my age, maybe a little younger. HELLO. This guy was seriously hot. And oddly familiar.

“Zac, this Derek, the lead singer of Milkman, and this is Molly, she is Jeff’s assistant, and the reason we are all standing here today! You guys of course know Zac from the band Hanson,” Bingo. “And we are trying to convince Zac and his brothers here to sign with us as their distributors.” I politely smiled and Derek and I shook his hand. At the exact moment someone pulled Kyle away, leaving Zac and the two of us in a semi-awkward state.

“Distribution huh? Are you on an indie label?” I said out of a need to start conversation.

“Yeah. My own.” He said with smugly. I immediately felt uncomfortable.

“So…” I stammered.

“Well Molly and I were just going downstairs so I could get a beer. Nice meeting you.”

“You too. I’m sure I’ll see your video on TRL for a few seconds soon enough.” He said with a smirk and sauntered away. We stood there speechless.

“What the hell was his problem?” I said.

“Maybe he’s still mad about MMMBop?” Derek said with a laugh. We giggled and spent the rest of the way down to the other bar gently abusing Zac.

12am- Friday

It was official. I was drunk. And bored. The last time I had seen Derek was right after we had gotten him a beer and a very pretty brunette had introduced herself. And while I was now alone and at Kyle’s mercy, I was happy for Derek. He needed to get laid. I sat on a lounge chair next to the pool, trying to finish my latest drink. I started at the city. It was pretty breathtaking. In the midst of enjoying the view I felt someone sit beside me. I looked over to see Zac.

“Um, hi.”

“Where did your friend go?”

“He found a girl.”

“Aw, did he leave you alone?” He seriously was annoying. Sadly still hot though.

“No, I’m just fine.”

“I’m sure you are. You just looked like you wanted attention sitting out here by yourself.”

“Did I do something in a previous life to piss you off or something? Because I’m sure I only met you an hour ago and you seem to dislike Derek and I very much.”

“No, I actually find you quite enjoyable.” What??

“Are you high?”

“Um, no. Why?”

“Because you are contradicting yourself in a big way right now. Anyway, I better get back over to the party. Again, nice talking with you.” I got up and walked away. I seriously think he was high. It didn’t make sense. I whipped around to ask him one more time and ran smack into him. I grabbed onto his shirt to support myself, but my hand didn’t quite grasp enough and I toppled over into the pool. I came up sputtering and cursing, and Zac was doubled over laughing.

“Oh my God that was amazing! Can you do that again?” I gave him the finger and swam over to the steps and trudged out of the pool. There goes my $500 dollar silk dress. It had been my one extravagant clothing purchase in my life. And it was ruined. I wanted to murder Zac. I know of course it wasn’t his entire fault, but right now I needed an outlet.

“Are you ok for real though?” He came over to where I was dripping.

“Fuck off Zac!” I stormed off to find a towel and a bathroom. He followed me and asked what my dress size was.

“WHAT?”

“Just tell me.”

“An 8.” He took off and I went into to the bathroom to try and salvage what I could of my makeup and hair.

10 minutes later there was a knock on the door.

“I’ll be right out! Sorry!”

“It’s Zac. Open the door.” I opened the door to find him holding a dress. It was a pretty shade of purple.

“It’s an 8. I thought it’d look pretty with your red hair.” I was completely shocked, confused, and madly blushing all at the same time. I gingerly took the dress from his hands and cocked an eyebrow.

“How did you get this at 12:30 in the morning? Is there some poor drunk girl naked somewhere?” He laughed.

“No, the hotel boutique is open until 2am everyday.” I shot him a questioning look. “I spend a lot of time here. I’m living with my brother until my new apartment is ready and his family kind of drives me crazy.” I laughed.

“I see.” An awkward silence followed. “Well, thank you and I guess I’ll go put it on.”

“Ok. I guess I’ll um, wait here.” We both laughed and I closed the door. Ok, let’s assess: Cocky, hot famous boy had just done a really sweet thing. Maybe he wasn’t so bad. Then again, maybe this was the alcohol making the rationalization, and he really was an arrogant asshole. I zipped up the dress and took a look in the mirror. The dress was gorgeous, and I had to say it fit me really well. Damn him. I walked out of the bathroom to find him on the phone.

“What do you mean ‘I’m gay’? Fuck off Taylor!” He cracked a smile at whatever Taylor had just said. “Yeah yeah, love ya too. See you at home man.” He hung up and faced me.

“Wow. I have really good taste.” I smirked.

“Thank you again. But just so you know I haven’t made my mind up yet about you.”

“What do you mean?”

“I can’t decide if you have a defense mechanism that makes you an ass, or if you are just a really mean child star.” He let out a huge laugh.

“Oh that’s priceless. I’m writing that down. However, I think it’s the first one. I’m not like this by nature, and I usually end up apologizing right after, but you are hot and I was seriously intimidated by your friend.”

“Well see! There you go! Honesty is what we like around here!”

“You work at a record label. They don’t deal in honesty.” It was my turn to laugh loudly.

“This is very true.”

“Want to go hit up the dance floor?” I smiled as he grabbed my hand.

“Sure.”

4am- Friday

As Zac and I walked out of the hotel onto 9th avenue, we ran into Derek and the brunette.

“Hey Molly!” He said running over. He gave me a weird look. “You changed. And you’re with Zac?” Zac and I laughed.

“It’s a long story, but the highlights are Zac has promised to play nice from now on, and I fell in the pool.” Derek smirked and kissed me goodnight and told me he would call me the next day. Zac and I headed toward the corner so I could catch a cab.

“So are you going to call me or what?” He said putting his number in my phone.

“No way! You need to call me!”

“Ah, an old fashioned girl. I like that.” I leaned in close and kissed him gently. “I like that too.” I laughed.

“Well, I have to give you a reason to call me…” I kissed him again, put my number in his phone, and hailed a cab. We kissed one more time, and I got in the cab. And before the cab sped off he flashed me a smile. This 1000 mega watt amazing smile. And the only thing I could think was, “This could be good. This could be really good.“