“Shane, I know I didn’t say you had to be a social butterfly but come on!” Jenny nudged me in the ribs. I sat at the back of the caf, in the darkest corner, sucking on a cigarette and nursing my beer. ***** this *****.

“Jenny, you know I lov- Just piss off,” I ground the words out through my teeth and blew a steady stream of smoke. Jenny didn’t flinch at the words, or even let them touch her in any way. She reached out a hand and smoothed back my hair. I could tell she was grateful when I didn’t tug away the split second she reached out. But Shane only let herself be comforted so much.

The door chime sang sweetly and Jenny’s eyes darted toward it before she stepped in front of my view. “I’m going to go get these drinks back to Moira now, happy birthday girl,” Jenny said and pressed a kiss to her fingers, lightly brushing the tips against my cheek before she stepped out of the way and turned on her heel sharply.

“*****,” I spat out and Jenny quickened her pace. “Jenny!” I growled angrily but she was already gone. I rolled my eyes and sunk further into my chair. I tried to keep her bottom lip from whimpering as I watched Carmen elegantly slide in amongst the crowd. She made her way to the table where my closest friends had gathered, they all smiled sweetly at her and it made me want to gag. The girls had been understanding tonight, they hadn’t bit back when I snapped at them for wishing me a happy birthday. And they hadn’t tried to pull me mercilessly into their mindless chitchat.

I was glad when I noticed Drew had gone to the bathroom just before Carmen walked in but suddenly she was there again, plopping herself back down next to Bette and surveying the action once more. Carmen seemed unfazed and her eye’s darted around the Planet, looking for me I guess. I cringed when I thought her eyes caught mine and slid farther down the seat, I was being pretty obvious now but I would have done anything to stay away from those searing brown eyes. My back was where my bum should have been and I was barely breathing so that she wouldn’t see my chest in the glass window of the doors that separated the particular part of the Planet I was in. I waited a few more moments and decided it was all cool so I sat up a bit more and chugged the rest of my beer. There was no way I could get to Jenny, or the front door without her noticing so I’d have to wait, cause the last time I crawled out the window in the bathroom, my pants got caught on that damned nail and tore.