#cornelia.nye

as it turned out, he'd worked for the catering company who was working the new year's eve party, so when one of the bartenders had come down with a bad case of the stomach flu, theo hadn't hesitated to offer his services to his old boss with the caveat that he wanted to be off the nonexistent clock by 11:30 so he'd be able to ring in the new year in style. after handing a glass of champagne off to a giggling girl, he turned his attention to the next partygoer.

"hey, what can i get...you." theo looked to his left and then to his right, eyebrows raised slightly before he turned his gaze back to carter standing in front of him. "you look amazing. where's the boyfriend?" he reached for a bottle of her preferred wine and started pouring her a glass. "don't tell me he ditched you or i'll have to kick his ass." he slid the glass towards her.

somehow, ty had lost both the girl he'd come to this party with and the one he actually had feelings for on the dance floor during a particularly rambunctious group dance and ended up standing next to rory on the outskirts of it. he felt better over here anyway. the music changed to that one weird, kind of slow song they always played when the ball dropped even though that was at least an hour or so away. ty knew because he checked his watch. once he confirmed he wasn't missing his chance at a picture perfect new year's kiss -or one with syd- he slid his hands into his pockets and turned to look at the person next to him. "auld lang syne," he said with a shake of his head. "what does that even mean?"

"so there's this thing," jo said to the person next to her at the bar. she'd had enough flutes of champagne to make her chatty. "where if you can eat twelve green grapes before the clock strikes twelve, you're destined to have a good year." she moved her glass back and forth on the bar and smiled when the bartender replaced it with a fresh one she hadn't asked for. "do you have any new year's traditions?" well, if it was here...she took another sip. "...do you think we'd be able to get a dozen grapes somewhere?"