[Claire and Gwen]
Claire didn't really feel ditched or anything. Gwen had her own friends and Shane and Alyssa were both around here somewhere. She just wasn't really a party person. And she didn't know how she felt about knowing Shane was somewhere in the house. Being at the same party made it kind of hard to avoid him. Living in the same house did, too, but she'd somehow managed it for the better part of the last year. At least, she'd avoided any kind of awkward conversation and she'd avoided anything that meant having to deal with her lingering feelings for him.
As much as she didn't want to deal with those, she also didn't want to watch him flirt with other girls, so she was kind of hoping to avoid running into him too much while they were here. Claire had a tendency to compare herself to every girl Shane ever talked to and 99.9% of the time she fell short. Most of his girl friends were outgoing, sexy, charming. Not awkward and small like Claire was. She felt like she just couldn't measure up. That was why she was sure he'd long ago past the point of wanting her back. Why would he when he had so many better choices?
"Hey," she forced a smile when Gwen approached and nodded her head. "It's a nice party. Good, quality soda, good music." And so far she hadn't really seen Shane, which meant she didn't yet feel like locking herself in the bathroom and refusing to come out until it was over. That counted as a good time, right?