A few dancers started to make their way into the middle of the room, momentarily blocking Charlie's view of the girl in pink. She waited, fidgeting, for them all to move just slightly to the left. The silence on the other end of the line seemed to go on for far longer than it must have, really, and it was almost painful. Willow had taken off somewhere, dancing with some guy she dragged out of the corner. “Will? Willow?” Charlie muttered, but her friend just waved at her from across the dancefloor.

[b]“Food? Oh well, I was just going to skip today . . . What sort of food?”[/b] Charlie snapped her attention back to the bar; the dancers had moved just enough so she could see who she was talking to. She opened her mouth to respond, before the girl said something else. [b]“No, never mind. I'm sorry for calling you and being stalker like. I saw your card. Your name's on it, so I kind of just wanted to say 'hey, my name's Ashley', but um, sorry to bother you.”[/b] Damn it, that was going to bug her, if the girl thought she was being a nuisance. 

[i]What the bloody hell am I doing on the phone?[/i] Charlie questioned herself, pulling the device away from her ear and glaring at it. Newly resolute, she slapped the phone closed and marched over to the girl – Ashley. 

“Yeah, so I'm Charlotte, I know it's on the card. It's weird not to actually say it,” she started, standing back where she had been when they originally talked. She briefly noted a man nearby with a strawberry and banana smoothie, and resisted the temptation to ask for a third drink. The sooner she was out of this crazy glow-stick place, the sooner she'd feel better. Not to mention, food waited on the outside. “Listen, I'm really hungry, you haven't eaten, and there's a Chinese place across the street.” There was an unspoken invitation to her words, because really, the girl was skipping meals and that was never cool, in Charlie's book. She'd just feed her up, make sure she got home safe, and be back home with [i]Archer's Cross[/i] in no time.