Hurtful words,
From my enemies of the last five years,
What's it like to die alone?
How does it feel when tears freeze,
When you cry?
The blood in your veins is twenty below.

[chapter one

This house is so damn cold. I shivered and trotted upstairs in search of a sweatshirt. Biggest bedroom in the house: my bedroom. Formerly my mothers, but I moved into her room four years ago in favor of using the others for storage. Oh, big baggy fuzzy jacket. And SOCKS. Thick socks. Thick wooly socks over leggings. God aren't I attractive. I sighed in my sudden warmth and went back downstairs. I yawned as I glanced out the window, squinting in the seven AM sunlight. I scratched my head and stopped to look in the hallway mirror. I combed my hair with my fingers disapprovingly. I still wasn't used to the hair. I'd cut most of it off, so it now rested right below my earlobes and itched the shit out of my neck. Oh well. I plopped back down on the couch and put my feet up on the coffee table. I flicked on the T.V. Crap. Crap. Crap. Crap. SHIT. Crap. Oh! Spanish soap opera. And I sat there mocking the actors until I heard a knock at the door. Assuming it was Sofia, I started towards the door. Sofia like my all purpose person. She does odd jobs for me while I'm at work on the weekends, whatever I need, for about fifty a week. It's nice. She doesn't speak much English though, and that's difficult. I wondered why she was knocking, and so loudly. She has a key. She probably just forgot it again.

"Coming." I said lazily. I yawned and unlocked the door. I opened it and just kind of blinked for a minute at the person before me. A tall skinny figure in tight jeans and a clandestine t-shirt and huge sunglasses. Short brown hair over the left side of his forehead. He leaned against the doorframe and smirked at me. I cracked a slight smile, still nervous about the whole moving thing in case it wasn't him. He spoke:

"Mornin' little lady." he said, his smirk widening to reveal white teeth. "Lookin for a Miss Heather Matheson at this address would you happen to know her?" he asked. A huge smile broke across my face.
"PETER!" I shrieked. His smirk broke into an equal smile and he held me up as I jumped on him, wrapping my arms around his neck and my legs around his middle. I started screaming into his shoulder and he laughed.

"Hey you." he said. I let go of him and dropped to the floor.

"Hey." I said. I took off his glasses and looked at him. "Mr. Famous face." I said.

"Shut up." he rolled his eyes. I shrugged.

"What the hell are you doing here?" I asked. He held his arms out to his sides.

"I said we'd come back." he said. I rolled my eyes.

"I assumed there'd be a gap of slightly LESS than five years." I said, crossing my arms. He sighed.

"In case you didn't notice we've been busy." he said. I laughed and nodded.

"I noticed."

"HEATHER!" someone shrieked from outside. Before I could look I was taken to the floor and almost suffocated with a famous fatal Parker Morgan hug.

"PARKER!" I screamed. We sat up both screaming incoherently at each other. She was pointing and glaring at my hair, I was pointing and glaring at her body. "YOU GOT A FUCKING BOOB JOB." I screamed.

"And a tummy tuck." she said proudly, exposing her scar. "AND YOUR HAIR IS GONE." she shouted indignantly.

"I like it this way! Besides it was probably the best way to shed ten pounds other than lypo..." she rolled her eyes at me and helped me to my feet. "Jesus child you wreak like cigarettes."

"That I do." she said.

"Hey there." chorused two voices from the doorway. There stood Joe and Andy. I screamed.

"Oh my god get OUT." I shouted. They pouted and turned to walk away. "W...Wow. Guys get back here." I said. They laughed and took me in a hug at the same time. I looked outside and saw a big purple tour bus. It was bigger than the one they'd left in...much nicer. A pretty shade of purple too. But I digress. I was speechless. It'd been five years since I'd last seen any of these people outside of a T.V. I just kind of stood there stunned, staring at them.

"Why now?" I asked. Parker bit her lip, Pete sighed, Andy jammed his hands into his pockets, and Joe stared at the ceiling. "What?" I asked. They didn't move. "WHAT?" "MOMMY!!" Shit. She was awake. Everyone jumped. Pete looked at Parker, Joe stared at Andy as he looked wildly around the room looking for the source of the sound. Little bare footsteps padded down the stairs as my daughter ran to me. You heard it here folks: I have a daughter. Four years old. She ran into the room, and upon seeing my friends, clung to me.
"Who are they?" she asked, pointing.

"Sweetie don't point." I said, pulling her hand down gently. She nodded. They were all staring down at her like she was some alien life form with a deadly contagious disease. "Well, that's Andy, that's Joey, that's Parker, and that's Peter..." I said slowly. Someone was missing. She looked at each of them in turn as I indicated them to her. She waved and smiled. Only Joe came out of his haze long enough to wave his hand back at her. Pete was glaring at me like I'd just murdered his mother. Andy was putting it together, staring at me, then at the girl, then craning his neck to look at the bus outside. But finally Parker spoke, well, spat.

"And big daddy's a little hesitant about coming out of the bus."