I glance at the crowded table where Matty is holding court and stare at it longingly. If I thought I felt lonely before, now I feel ten times worse. If things were different, Austin would be on my arm or Liz would be standing next to me.

Liz and I would have had the best time daring each other to approach Pam Anderson or Bono. She'd be the one telling me to ignore all the people talking about Family Affair's ending and just focus on tonight. We would have cooed over everyone's dresses and worried whether we'd been photographed eating. Suddenly, I really miss my best friend. This is silly. So we had a little spat. We've been friends forever! I'm going to call her.

I make my way through the crowd to the bathrooms and move to a quiet(er) corner outside the entrance. The line is long, but I don't think anyone is paying attention to my call. I dial Liz's number. She picks up on the second ring.

"Hello?" The phone is full of static and I can't tell if it's my connection or hers.

"Liz, it's me," I tell her. "Listen, I'm at the Vanity Fair party and you'll never guess who I just met." The static is getting louder. "I really wish ..."

"Can't. Hear." Liz's words are all jumbled and she hangs up.

". . . you were here," I finish the sentence out loud to myself and wait for her to call me back. I'm sure my number came up on her caller ID so she knows it was me. If she's out of range she'll just find someplace with good reception to call me from. She knows where I am tonight so I'm sure she'll call me back. Suddenly I wish I could call Austin but he's in the middle of his scrimmage. I'd give anything to hear his voice right now; I miss him so much. But instead I wait for Liz to call me. And I wait. And wait.

But Liz doesn't call. I stand there for fifteen minutes, but my phone doesn't ring at all and I have four bars so I know I have a full signal.

I try to fight back my tears. I cannot cry in front of all these people. But that's all I want to do: cry. I want to forget about my fight with Lizzie. Forget about Family Affair ending. Forget about Mom and Dad and Laney and Nadine and Seth putting pressure on me to find my next big thing. I'm sick of hearing it all. And now I'm not just stressed, I'm getting angry. I don't know how much more of this I can take.

"Kaitlin? Are you okay?"