[All Time Low/Complicated] How You Like Me Now

[Elizabeth Danielle Ridgefield]

After everyone had made their way to the lounge, Ellie finished off her drink and poured herself a new one. She wasn't new to the label, but she needed to learn to fit in and make friends. And she wasn't new to partying, so that was her ticket to meeting everyone, the perfect excuse to make the rounds and figure out who was who. First things first, she loved this song. Crazy beautiful life. It sounded like every on in this room. I mean, they were all young, hot, privileged, had money. Shane and his girlfriend were just making out. Cobra Starship boy who's real name was Alex and handed her the joint earlier had his set up. So far from what she had gathered, they were all in here getting fucked up because video producer man, also known as sexy mcsexypants, also known as Collin Reynolds, just got dumped by Natalia Richmond. And he was so over it. Apparently. But it was still the best reason to party. And now that she was thinking about it, she was going to end up working with him eventually, so she needed to get to know him. Ellie headed over to him, nudging him with her hip, "Hey, I don't think we've met, I'm Ellie," she said smiling, holding her hand out to shake his. "You might be seeing me around more often, you'll be producing my music videos?" she questioned. "Sounds fun. Maybe we could work together sometime soon, maybe put up some studio footage, get me put on the map a little more. Whatever, anyways," she said, wrapping her arm around his neck, "I hear you're the guest of honor at this thing, and I know it's not your birthday. Got dumped?" She frowned sadly, "Sounds shitty. She sounds unintelligent. Because you are fine. You know... being dumped, sucks." She smiled flirtatiously, "That deserves to get laid." Ellie took a sip of her drink, keeping her eyes on him. She nodded, it really did though. Rebound sex could be very fun.

[Collin Scott Reynolds]

Collin leaned down and lined up a shot at the pool table, taking a few shots before he straightened up and picked up his beer again, looking down at the table. You could really tell who was friends at the label, and who was just co-workers. Hell you heard about the ‘Renner Sunday dinner’ every Monday morning and Saturday night. He turned his head over his shoulder as he heard Ellie introducing herself personally after she nudged her hip against his own. She had said who she was in the studio but apparently she wanted to single him out. “Hey,” he said, taking her hand in his own when she held it out and shook it. People still did that? “ I’ll be directing them..” he said when she asked about him producing her videos. He placed his hand in his front pocket, the other holding onto his bottle of beer as he rolled his shoulder and kept his eyes on her as she spoke. Collin blinked as she wrapped her arm around his neck, pulling his hand out of his pocket as he looked down at how close she was to him. And then she was saying that he deserved to get laid, “ I..wh-.” he started off, looking down at her again. How had someone this blunt and outspoken not made herself more known at the label already? “ I do,” he said as though the realization and idea had just occurred to him. He shook his head at slight disbelief that someone would just come up and be so.. direct. “ We do work together..” he said, making a slight face. “ It sort of complicates things. Natalia, Anabelle.. I don’t really want it to look like I’m using Taboo for a personal ‘get a quick lay’ service,” he said before he leaned down to whisper to her, “ And if I start sleeping with all the girls that means I’d have to sleep with Blake, and we all know she would probably be knitting in bed, or writing a song during foreplay” he said before he lifted his lips into a smirk.

[Matthew Tyler Flyzik]

Matt smiled while Katy was recording, but stopped when he looked over and saw Mason watching him watch his sister. Things were still kind of...uneasy? Awkward? Between them. Mason was still kind of peeved. Maybe that wasn't the correct word. He was still absorbing it. Matt hoped that Mason was eventually accepting of it because he needed him to be. Of all the people who's approval Matt wanted, it was Mason's. mason needed to say this was okay. Not that Matt thought it was going to stop them anyways, they really were two decades in the making, this relationship with Kat. Their parents were all thrilled. But Mason was Matt's best friend, and Kat's brother. This awkward phase had to pass eventually. Hopefully. Dani had come in, telling them they were partying in the lounge and people were getting pretty fucked up. Matt shook his head, didn't he deal with this enough on tour with them? And yet, it never seemed to get old. He was always down for a good time. The group of them headed out there when Katy had finished, Matt going over to Katy to wrap his arms around her. her new stuff for her album was really cool, he was proud of her. Proud of the effort she put in, how her sound was evolving. Impressed that she was focused for that long of a period of time. But before Matt could wrap his arms around Katy in a hug, mason was hugging him. "... Hey Mason..." Matt looked at him, smiling, and then looked at Katy. Alright, so Mason still found it weird. Okay. More time.

[Keira Nicole Scott]

Keira held onto Mason's hand, looking around at the crazy that was Taboo at it's finest. Totally fun group of people. She almost wished Larissa were here, because she would have a blast having so many people to talk to/confuse the shit out of. Keira had been around a little bit. They'd used Logan's studio's on occasion while recording songs for Glee, especially if they were home here in New York and not in LA. It made recording a little bit more convenient. Keira was a little sad that Glee was over, but on to bigger and better things right? Plus she had Mason, and she loved being able to give him more of her time, now that she wasn't back and forth every week to LA. Keira let go of Mason's hand when she hugged Matt, Kat looking like wtf? And Matt was just nodding like, yeah... Oh Mason. Keira took his arm and pulled him toward herself, holding both of his hands, "Mase... that's gonna be weird for a while. But," she paused, wrapping her arm around his neck, "For now, tonight, let them do their thing. And we can do ours," she smiled, standing on her toes to kiss him. She leaned into him, resting against his chest and looked around, "So... what do you think they have to drink around here, should we go investigate?" she raised an eyebrow, smiling. Anything around here could be dangerous. It smelled like pot and hormones anyways, she was sure there was plenty of fuel to the fire to go around.

[Jacob Daniel Russo]

Party, party, party. Jake had gotten a text from Dani, and he was bored at home anyways. Plus he didn't want her to be at a party in a room full of couples and be the one without your guys there. He liked going to parties with Dani, mostly because they could now. And no one got suspicious. Because everyone already knew about them. It was so refreshing. Jake walked into the room, immediately taking in the smell and smiling. That was potent, and not unusual. Ugh, last time he'd smoked had been with Lance. Ugh, Lance. He loved that guy. Jake spotted Dani, looking like an adorable little doll across the room and went up behind her, scooping her up and planted a kiss on he cheek before smiling at her, "Hey Senorita." Jake set her down, kissing her again, before leaving an arm around her waist, looking around at whoever just tapped his shoulder and handed him a joint, "oh, thanks.." he looked at Dani, laughing, "They are really seriously about getting fucked up, who got dumped? Collin?" Jake had only heard about it from Dani, so he didn't really know anything about it. but from what she said it wasn't a clean break up. Sounded messy, and one sided. Those sucked. Jake looked at her empty cup, "What were you drinking, want another?" Jake looked at the joint in his hand, unsure if he should smoke it or pass. Kind of depended. Not that he needed permission from Dani, but if she was awfully opposed to it he wasn't going to. He liked seeing her in a happy mood, he didn't want to make a reason to argue with her. Not when everyone was having fun and she looked this pretty.

[Katy Alexis Sutton]

Kat threw her arms up in the air to hug Matt as he was coming towards her but then was rudely interrupted by her brother throwing his body between them to steal a hug from Matt that was rightfully hers. “ Hug block” she said , frowning as she watched Mason getting her hug. She smiled as Keira took over the situation, being her usual gorgeous self. “ I really like her. “ she said to Matt as Mason held onto Keira’s hand after they walked away. Kat turned to Matt and took in a deep breath, “ Longest work day ever..” she said before she smiled tiredly. She smiled up at Tyson and Cody as they came in, waving at Tyson like they had known each other forever and like he hadn’t stomped on her heart and thrown it in a blender. When she looked back at Flyzik, she just knew that everything had turned out the way it was supposed to for a reason. He was absolutely everything to her, even when she hadn’t known it. “ Wanna go play strip pong?” she asked as she wiggled her eyebrows up and down. “ I mean I know my body is sexy. Clearly Tyson has a type,” she said sarcastically, gesturing to herself before she stood on her toes and gave him a kiss.

[Mason Alexander Sutton]

Mason took in a deep breath and sighed as Keira basically pulled him away. But it didn’t take him long to be completely immersed in her, wrapping his arms around her waist and smiling down at her like she was the most beautiful thing in the world. She was, so that made it easy. “ Yeah let’s investigate,” he said, leaning down to kiss her as he held her closer against his body. After he pulled away he placed his hand into the side of her hair, holding her neck loosely, “ Have I mentioned today how lucky I am?” he asked before he gave her another quick kiss and lowered his hand to hers where he pulled her over towards the bar. Meeting his parents had gone perfectly, they were still gushing over how beautiful and sweet she was, talking about how she fit like a glove to their family. Once they got to the bar side of things he looked through the alcohol, picking out stuff he knew she liked. He pulled out midori and pineapple juice, whipped cream, various things he needed to make her a ‘ scooby snack’ shot, or about five. “ Would you like a cherry?” he asked as he held it up before he placed it between his teeth and lifted his eyebrows at her, grinning while trying to keep the cherry between his teeth.

[Joel Carter Foster]

Joel pushed through the door to the lounge, swerving his segway to the side quickly as he made his entrance. “ Sup,” he said, hopping off of the segway. He was met with hugs immediately and clapped his hand against Zack’s back, looking over where he saw Shane . Though he might not see him, he was sort of being suffocated by blonde hair right now. ‘ What the fuck are you doing here?’ ‘ How is tour?”. Joel held in his breath and then laughed, “ I’m just happy to be home, get a chance to see 8/10 people who matter” he said, knowing that he seriously missed Ryan and Madeline both. He looked over his shoulder, realizing that Tori wasn’t beside him before he stepped back out into the hallway. “Hey,” he said as he placed his hands in his front pockets and stepped up to her. “.. You scared?” he asked. Taboo could be overwhelming. His friends could be intimidating. Who they were, how they acted. “ I want to share my world with you,” he said quietly, taking his hands out of his pockets before he stepped close to her and kissed her. After a few moments he lowered his hand to hers, pulling her into the lounge. “ Hey you guys want to see the boyfriend video?” he asked excitedly before he looked at Tori as he held her hand. “ Baby, you got the cd?” he asked since he had handed her the disc the music video was burned on to have her hold in her purse. “ I’m gonna go get us a drink,” he said as he placed his hand on her lower back and kissed the side of her hair, taking the disc and tossing it in the air towards Logan before he made his way over to the bar but stopped when he saw sketches on a table in front of Shane. He narrowed his eyebrows, picking them up before he burst out laughing. “ Bro are you dressing up as me?!” he asked with a laughter in his tone as he held onto his side.

[Dani Marie Cooper]

Dani squealed happily as someone picked her up, but then continued to smile when they kissed her cheek and she realized it was Jake. People just picked her up all the time.. probably because of her size. It sort of made her feel like a little lap dog. “ Yay!” she said happily at the fact that he was here. “ Hola mi Corazon” she said as he set her down and kept his arm around her waist. It felt amazing to not have to hide him from her friends, she was already hiding so much. She licked her lips, looking over her shoulder to spot Logan as he came in. Logan, Ryan and Lance were the only other people besides Jake in the entire world that knew what was going on. It was sort of ridiculous how much she missed Ryan. “ Oh,” she said, looking down at her cup and just realized that it was empty. ” I think it was just sprite and malibu..” she said , looking as Joel was bringing in his girlfriend. “ Baby I’ll be right back, you smoke that” she said distractedly, keeping her eyes on Joel and Tori as she gave Jake a kiss before she slapped her hand against his butt and went over to Tori since Joel had left her all on her lonesome. “ Hey,” she said over the music, which was now being turned off since Joel’s music video was being put on as Collin yelled out that ‘technically’ he was still editing it. “I’m Dani Cooper,” she said as she smiled at her and gave a small nod, “ Joel has talked about you so much,” she said again, trying to make the girl feel a little more comfortable.

[Logan Chase Renner]

Logan held the door open for Blake, "After you," he grinned at her. Blake was sort of annoyed that every one was always pounding on the door, but come on. It wasn't like they were that discreet anyways. Logan took her hand, walking to the lounge with her, glad that Mack had voluntarily suggested taking Kenzie. He and Blake were just going to spend time together anyways, but now it ended up being perfect that they were baby free tonight. Logan laughed when everyone tried to hide the weed, but he just shook his head. As if he'd eve been a bigger stoner back in the day. oh listen to him, talking about 'back in the day' as if it were that long ago. Logan wrapped an arm around Blake, nodding at Alex and decided to not interrupt Shane and Claire, but did decide to interrupt Collin, who looked very confused. "Hey, cheers to you man, worst break up so far that deserved a party of this lengths," he laughed. "You looked like someone just slapped you with a rubber chicken or something..." Logan looked at him, confused as well. Before Collin could answer, Logan heard what he thought was Joel's voice, turning around and saw him on his friggin segway. What the hellll, Logan loved this kid. "Joel!" He threw his hands up, looking at him questioningly, looking at Collin, "Did he just get here?" Logan turned back around, seeing who must be the in famous Tori that he'd been hearing all about. She was a tall leggy glass of water. Perfect for Joel. "Hey, yeah, let's see this video, I'm all for it," Logan agreed, letting someone put it on the TV, looking at Collin, "I mean, come on, you directed it, it's gonna be awesome."

[Blake Emma Renner]

Blake stepped outside of the studio, straightening her skirt so that it fit correctly before she brought her hands up to her hair and tried to smooth the curls down. “ Thank you,” she said in response to him letting her step out first. She smiled as he took her hand and tightened her fingers around his. Things had fallen back into place so perfectly for them. She couldn’t have written it better herself. Actually that wasn’t true. She had written it better, she had enough number ones to prove it. Blake stepped inside and watched as people seemed to pounce on Logan. He was the boss after all. She let him step over to Collin and Ellie while Blake herself narrowed her eyes, watching Shane and Claire on the couch. She brought her hands and arms behind her back as she walked over to them, sitting on the edge of the couch cushion before she crossed her ankles. She cleared her throat the best she could before beginning to smooth out her skirt over her knees. There was so much going on, apparently Joel was here? And they were going to watch his music video. She shook her head as she looked at Logan and his mini me. Did they have to work ALL the time? “ Baby can you get me a ginger ale?” she asked as she smiled up at him, but when he walked past she reached up, fixing the bottom of his shirt which was still fitting funny from when he had put it back on.

[Victoria Jean Taylor]

Tori stood in the hallway, frozen. She had no idea who was in there. Nerve wracking. She wasn't anyone important, she didn't know what she was supposed to talk to any of them about. Joel came back, looking at her expectantly, asking if she was scared. Tori scoffed, crossing her arms, "Pshh, no." But then she smiled, dropping her arms, "Okay, yes. Completely. I should definitely not take up acting," she laughed nervously. As if pretending to be fine was believable. She smiled though, he was right. he was just trying to share his world with her, as if it were that simple. She supposed she'd have to meet these people eventually, why not all at once...? She let him kiss her, smiling still and then took his hand and followed him into the lounge.. Right off the bat there was both Logan and Blake Renner, the entire band of All Time Low, LIGHTS, Alex from Cobra Starship, Dani Cooper AND Jake Russo from Wizards, and Keira Scott from Glee. And that was just the ones she recognized. There were also their significant others, or people that just looked completely important. She completely stopped, realizing, oh no. There was more. There was Cody from Maroon 5, Tyson from AAR, and was that Rosie Madison? Tori took a deep breath, hardly hearing Joel say he was going to get drinks, but she'd nodded and handed him his CD from her purse, "Oh yeah, here," she'd smiled. Then he'd gone. And she was supposed to mingle...? Oookay. She could handle that. She thought. Dani Cooper had come over and introduced herself as Dani Cooper, as if Tori didn't already know, but she smiled, "Hi, I'm Tori." She smiled, "Oh well, believe me, I have heard a lot about you guys." Okay, what would normal people talk about? Because that's that it boiled down to, they were all just people, surely she and Dani had something in common. They'd both kissed Joel... haaa, no that wasn't it. "So none of you knew Joel was home did you?" she laughed, raising an eyebrow. There we go, they were all surprised to see him, as she had been. Just then a very tall, very smiley Rosie Madison approached her, "Hi, I'm Rosie, you must be Tori. ... And that is just like Joel to walk off. Well, that's okay, that's just Joel." she laughed, "So you go to school here in New York?" Tori nodded, "Yeah I'll be a senior next year." "Oh that's cool, so will my sister." Tori looked over at the TV, which was now playing Joel's new music video and it had gotten quiet. Tori looked over at Joel and smiled at the girls, going to stand by him. For as many videos as he already had, it was probably still exciting to see a new one. Tori took his hand, resting her chin on his shoulder, watching. Welp, he was hot. She'd tell him she thought so. Later.


Outfit

[Joel Carter Foster]

Joel smiled as he approached Logan, wrapping his arm around him before he pat him on the back. “ What’s up man?” he said eagerly , just happy to see everyone. He’d been in town but he had literally been working the entire time, and when he wasn’t working he was with Tori. It felt to be at work without Logan being there, and for the life of him he couldn’t figure out WHY he hadn’t told Logan about it. Some shit just could be explained he guessed. “ Hey Logan man, this is my girlfriend Tori.” he said, placing his hand on her lower back as he showed her off like she was the best award he’d gotten. Wasn’t she? Joel looked up as his video started to play, smiling at how easily Tori placed her chin on his shoulder but instead he moved behind her so that her back was against his chest and wrapped his arms around her waist, resting his chin on her shoulder. Joel kept his eyes on the video, wondering how other people were going to react to it. Dani was already dancing her way back to Jake, looking in a cup to see if it was full or empty. When the video was finished he straightened up, looking around to see whether it was okay. He could do it again. He could be up at three am if he had to. He could do whatever it took to get Renner’s approval. He lifted both of his eyebrows, looking at him hopefully before out of the corner of his eye he spotted Rosie. “ Hey,” he said before he lowered his arms from behind around Tori and made his way over to his second sister, wrapping his arms around her tightly. “ How’s England?” he asked as he looked into her eyes. But just in an instant she was being taken away from his sight by Cody Cavanaugh. ' My my my an angel must have fallen from the sky' he said, wrapping his arm around her shoulders as he escorted her away. Joel licked his lips out of habit before he reached into his back pocket and took out his cell phone, looking to see if Ryan had texted him back yet. It was a little hypocritical of him, wanting Tori to not be nervous of this when he himself was starting to become more and more scared each moment. It was all so much so fast, and now he was scared that one move would rip it all way. He was stuck in a paradox of losing it all, and at the same time being scared of keeping it all too.

[Shane Alexander Madden]

Shane sighed and looked over at Blake who had sat down, smiling. "Blake, hi. When did you get here?" he asked laughing. He had not seen her come in. As a matter of fact, as he looked around, he had not seen a lot of people come in. Which really, wasn't all that surprising. He was sure every one was thinking the same thing, 'No wonder she ended up pregnant'. Whatever, Claire was hot, why would he not want to? Not hard to figure out. And hey, they could still have fun. Just because they had a kid didn't mean they stopped enjoying each other. They were part of the small few that actually had a relationship still post baby. Shane wrapped his arms around Claire and watched the music video, laughing now about what Joel had said about dressing up as him. And seeing Joel's music video, it would be really fun to do so. Not that he was making fun of Joel, because honestly, it was a good video. But very not like All Time Low. They would just never fit in that mainstream category, would they? After the video was over, Shane clapped and cheered and then looked at Blake, "Well hey look at this, both of us childless tonight. Kind of like old times." He laughed, "Actually, this is exactly like old times," he said looking around. "Okay," he said, "Claire you want something to drink?" he asked and then set her down by Blake, offering to go get something. he stopped by Collin on the way, grinning at him, "Dudeeeee. I see Ellie caught up with you."

[Elizabeth Danielle Ridgefield]

Ellie smiled at Collin, letting him come to the realization of what she'd said, nodding when he agreed that he did in fact, need to get laid, "Mhmm." She watched him as he worked it out in his head, bringing up the fact that they worked together, "Well, we haven't. Yet." And he brought up the fact that would look a certain way. "Ohh," she scrunched up he nose, "Are we concerned about how it looks?" Ellie grinned when he leaned down and whispered in her ear about Blake. Well that was funny. her cousin was best friends with Blake, she'd heard things that contradicted that easily. "Hmm well," she shrugged, "I actually heard she gets kinda freaky. Guess neither of us will know for sure." Ellie thought about leaving this conversation alone, maybe he truly was worried about the whole working together thing, but she just thought, well fuck it, he also needed to be concerned about his well being. And what he needed to do was have a really fantastic night. Ellie smirked at him, pushing him down so he was sitting on the couch and then moved so she was sitting on his lap, one hand around his neck still and one holding her drink. "You know what you need?" she asked, rubbing his neck slightly, pausing for effect, "Boy, you are hot. You just need to be taken care of... someone should mend that broken heart." She leaned in close to him, biting her lip, "Right?" He could agree, or agree to disagree. She was laying the cards on the table. He could take it or leave it. But she had a feeling he was a smart guy. Ellie smiled and then stood up, leaving him to ponder that before she headed around, looking to refill her drink and maybe find some girls to talk to. Get the scoop on whatever there was to get the scoop on. Joel Foster showed up, showed his music video. it was actually pretty awesome, his first 'sexy' video. Even Ellie had to admit she was looking at him different.