"We're going to be late if you guys don't hurry up" Rain said irately, glancing at the time once again as I shuffled around my room to grab the essentials I needed. The fact that my birthday was today had me in high spirits; if not, I would have strangled Rain a lifetime ago. Angel hissed as she struggled to put on her heels, pausing to glare at Rain.

"Rain, it's nine o clock okay? The party's for Shay! She does not have to be early" Angel said through gritted teeth. I laughed and picked up my purse, before grabbing my phone off the nightstand. Rain cursed to herself and rolled her eyes at Angel, before storming out of the room.

"She's driving me crazy" Angel muttered then, mostly to herself as she grabbed a black s.h.i.+ny purse off the bed. I laughed, slowly patting down my hair that had been curled into ringlets.

"You and me both," I said with a smile. When I was sure I had everything, I sauntered out of my room with Angel right behind me. We walked down the stairs, me taking each step slowly because I was so not ready to fall flat on my face, Rain waiting impatiently at the bottom.

"Are the guys even here yet?" Angel said, glaring discreetly at Rain as we reached the landing. Rain pursed her lips and ignored Angel's retort; instead she walked over to me with a smile, and straightened out a crease in my dress. Angel sighed then, rolling her eyes as she walked away from us and disappeared into the kitchen.

"Where's Lolita?" I asked, walking over to the couch. I slowly sat on the arm, placed my purse on the seat next to me then looked to Rain for an answer. She shrugged, glancing at her phone that was ringing. She picked up the call with a smile, muttered some stuff, and slowly made her way towards me.

"It's Lolita"

She handed the phone to me, before taking a seat on the other arm of the couch I was currently settled on. I put the phone to my ear and laughed as Lolita yelled a "happy birthday" in my ear.

"Hey"

"Are you guys still at home?" Lolita asked, ignoring my greeting.

I rolled my eyes and smiled before replying, confirming that we were still in the house. Lolita started talking to someone else in the background, probably her best friend Heaven; they had always been inseparable so I was pretty sure that was who she was with at the moment.

"Okay, Shane says we'll just meet you guys at the party"

Shane?

I scrunched up my nose.

"I thought you were with Heaven"

Lolita sighed over the phone and was quiet for a couple of seconds.

"Look, I know you don't like Shane" – correction, I didn't like Shane with Lolita – "but just give him a chance okay?"

I sighed and glanced at my freshly manicured fingers. I just didn't understand what she saw in him; or maybe Rain was right and I was a little over-protective but I couldn't help it. She was my only sibling and the instinct to protect her was natural.

"Hey guys, they'll be here soon. Let's go outside" Rain said, glancing up from her pager. I picked up my purse with my free hand and stood slowly.

"Whatever," I muttered into the phone "just be careful"

"Don't worry," Lolita said, a smirk evident in her tone "besides, Heaven's here too."

I smiled and walked towards the door as Angel came out of the kitchen, a chocolate chip cookie between her lips; I laughed.

"Okay, we'll see you at the party then" I said into the phone. Lolita muttered a reply, so I hung up and handed Rain's phone back to her with a smile, opened the door, and stepped outside.

The night air was sultry; the only noises about us were the sounds of crickets nesting in the nearby bushes and the chirps of exhausted birds settling in for the night. There were horns in the distance and faint echoes of laughter and a group of kids hanging out down the street.

"They'll be here any second" Rain said with a sigh, before placing her phone into her purse. As if on cue, headlights appeared in the distance, turning onto the street where my house was. I smiled as the car neared where we stood, before turning to glance at my friends.

Angel sighed then, and slowly walked over to join me on the sidewalk.

"Finally," she muttered, causing my lips to stretch into a smile. Rain walked towards where we stood and stood next to Angel.

"Guys, is this a good idea?" I muttered, turning to look at my friends.

The thing was all day, I had had some sick feeling at the pit of my stomach.

You know, the kind of feeling that you aren't sure what the problem is. I'm not sure how to pinpoint these feelings or even begin to describe them.

Throughout the day, the feeling had settled in different parts of my stomach. Earlier on, it had sat dead center, smack in the middle and it just felt weird, like I wanted to throw something up but I hadn't eaten anything to throw up. After that, it crawled into the bottom part of my stomach, right beneath my abdomen, and made me feel completely nauseous; like I had eaten a ma.s.sive black hole that was sucking in my guts.

Whenever I had tried to describe the feeling, or even make some sense of it, it only got worse; like the universe was trying to tell me something. All-day, I had been helpless because I was incapable of explaining what was going on with me whenever Alex or anyone of my friends had asked me what was wrong; I just didn't know.

I couldn't justify why I felt like this in the first place, but as I glanced at my two best friends at that moment, my subconscious was yelling profanities in languages I could not understand.

"It's a party," Angel shrugged carelessly, glancing eagerly as the limo that would be taking us to my birthday party closed in "what could go wrong?"

I sighed and glanced at Rain.

"You have us, Shay," Rain smiled and walked over to hook her arm through mine. She tucked her bangs behind her ear and nudged me gently "we'll be fine."