September 6th 2013; 7:02pm

"Will you ever speak to us again?" the screen of my phone lit up and I glanced down at the message Rain had sent to me.

I was sprawled out on my bed, still fully clothed, complete with the contacts in my eyes and the wig on my head.

Avoiding Rain and Angel the entire week had not been as easy as I had thought it would be.

It seemed that the only cla.s.s I did not have with them was biology, but after that cla.s.s, they would either be waiting for me at my locker or at the entrance of the school. It was because of their 'stalking' that I had started taking all of my books home with me and discovered that the school had more than one exit, one through the gymnasium and the other down a flight of stairs at the far north end of the campus.

"I'm sitting here, with this blank expression," I sang along to the song 'Last Night' by P-Diddy that floated from my stereo and tapped my fingers on the sheets along to the beat.

"Come on Shay, don't do this again" the screen lit up once more with another message and I let out a sigh, dragging my gaze from the screen of my phone to the white textured paint on the ceiling.

Apart from the music playing, the entire house was quiet.

Empty.

"I love you so much, I'm yearning for your touch" I sang loudly, ignoring the uneasy feeling that had set in the pit of my stomach most likely from my subconscious giving the song more meaning than the artist probably originally meant for it.

"Come and set me free, Forever yours I'll be" another voice sang suddenly, causing me to sit up startled.

Lolita sat in the armchair, her legs crossed and a magazine in her lap, her fingers tapping and head bobbing along to the music.

I smiled, before reaching over the side of my bed to turn off the stereo.

"Baby, won't you come and take this pain away," she stopped, realizing the music wasn't playing anymore and stared up at me with an accusing expression.

"Hey, I was listening to that!"

I smiled and crossed my legs Indian style on my bed, ignoring the screen of my phone that had lit up once again.

"When did you get here?" I asked, taking off the wig that was still on my head. I shook out my hair, ran my fingers through it then tied it up in a ponytail.

"Two songs ago," she said, turning the page but not before glancing up briefly to throw me a smirk.

I rolled my eyes and flopped back on my bed, head smacking against the pillows. Moments later, the bed s.h.i.+fted and Lolita's face appeared next to mine, her breathing slightly ragged.

"How was cla.s.s?" I asked quietly, twirling a strand of her straight blonde hair in my forefinger as music filled the air once more. She turned the volume down and twisted to face me with an excited grin on her face.

After she had told me she was taking a fas.h.i.+on designing cla.s.s downtown, I hadn't been happy at first but it dawned on me that that's what she always wanted to do.

Running on the track team came first, but Lolita's second love had always been fas.h.i.+on.

This, of course, had always worked in my favor but right now, I wasn't so sure about it.

"It was wicked" she answered with a full smile, clearly glad to have something exciting to talk about, then launched into tales of how her week had gone, how awesome the cla.s.s was, and my personal favorite, how hot her instructor was.

"His name is Michael and he is extremely gorgeous!" she flushed, her cheeks a pale pink "The first day, he walked into the cla.s.s and I thought he was a student, but it turned out he was the teacher. I was disappointed at first, but then I realized "Hey I'm old enough and I can definitely fraternize with the teacher" so I ignored the whole 'teacher-student' bull and made my move…"

Her voice faded off in my head as I stared at her face.

I took in the facial features of the girl that lay in front of me; features that I knew by heart: the tiny crease by the right side of her mouth, the one wrinkle that formed by her eyes when she smiled, the dimples that went deep into her right cheek, and the tiny mole on the left side of her lips.

I soaked in her voice, mostly replaying itself in my head and I willed myself to not forget…

"Shay, are you listening?" she asked, snapping her fingers in my face and drawing me back to reality.

I blinked and stared at her apologetically, shook my head slightly, and asked her to repeat what she had said.

"I asked what we were doing tonight?" she said with a sigh as she turned herself over and lay on her stomach "Is it same old order pizza and watch c.r.a.p TV?"

My phone caught my attention from the corner of my eyes, so I dragged my gaze from Lolita's face to the screen.

This time it was Angel.