I guess it's just been too long since I had really thought about how much I loved my friends. Nothing really hit me quite as hard as hearing that my best friend, Phil, was in unstable condition. Binge drinking. What the hell was that moron thinking? Does he think he's invincible? Well, there's a stupid question. All of our lives, Phil has always thought that nothing could kill him. Always thought that old age would be what takes him down, and to live it out while you're young. Such an idiot. I still love him, though. We all do.

I wondered how Lil was taking the news. Her only brother, getting his stomach pumped with possible kidney and liver failure. She had to have been taking it harder than the rest of us.

Anyways, when we all heard the news, we all flew in back home… just in case Phil doesn't make it. He was the only one who didn't move away from our home town. There we alll were, 5 years after graduating college, and we were all still single. None of us were married, or even in a relationship.

I walked in through my parent's front door, finding Lil, Kimi, Chuckie, Angelica, and Dil all sitting around the living room. Kimi was holding a sniffling Lil against her shoulder, comforting her. When they heard the door open, they all looked at me, as happy as ever.

They all rushed to give me hugs and hand-shakes. I was so happy to see them all. Lil gave me a hug, trying to fight her tears with smiles and happy-sounding greetings. Her face was red and her eyes were, too. She wasn't do too well, like I thought.

The last one to give me a hug was Kimi. Not that she didn't want to, but she just didn't beat the rush. I laid eyes on her for the first time in 2 years. Still as sexy and beautiful as I remember. Actually, she was even more sexy and beautiful than I remember. Damn, you should've seen her. This girl is fantastic. Her perfect, shapely, curvy, grown-woman's body barely pulled my attention away from her soft, make-up free, beautifully brown-eye'd face. Her hair was a little longer than what it used to be, about half-ways down her back. You could tell she had been crying, too. Not as much as Lil, but she had been crying.

"Hi, Tommy." She said in her angelic voice with a smile as she hugged me. She gave me a friendly peck on the cheek. The hug lasted longer than I thought it would, which was good. I think we stood there for a good 30 seconds, silently hugging. She was beginning to cry a little more, so I hugged her tightly. She wiped away her tears.

I had always liked—no, really loved Kimi. I don't remember almost anything of my baby-years, but one thing I do remember is when we were all in Paris, and we were watching the Reptar theatre show, and her Mom, Kira, sat her next to me and Chuckie. I just remember looking at her at that moment and thinking about how pretty she was. How do I remember that when I just a year old? I don't know...it must just just been a really significant moment.

She started a conversation. "So, how's the life of one of the country's best independent film makers?"

"Pretty good. I'm working on a film right now, actually. It's a horror movie, it should be out by this time next year."

"Well, that's great! I can't wait to see it." I went and sat next to her on the couch. Being the gentleman I am, I let her sit first. To her left was Lil, who had tissues in her hand.

I was trying to think of a way to take it all off of everyone's mind, for the moment at least. I could start up a conversation about our careers, I suppose. Dil, hell-bent on proving the existence of aliens, was a theoretical and practical astronomer. Lil was a wedding planner, and since she got a degree in it, she was making much more money than most wedding planners. Kimi was a fashion designer. And not one of those snobby, bitchy, better-than-everyone fashion designers. She distributed a lot of different clothes to a lot of different companies. She was making a good bit of money. Chuckie was college professor. He taught English.

Before I could break any ice, my mom walked in with tears in her eyes, and the phone in her hand.

"Uhm….I don't know how to say this, but….Lillian, one of your brother's kidneys just failed. He's still alive…but…if he doesn't get another one soon…." She walked over to me and gave me a kiss on the forehead. Lil started crying even harder. Kimi held her even tighter.

"Well, I guess we all better go head up and seem….we don't know when he'll…ya know…" Chuckie said. "We do, because he won't." Lil said, wiping the tears away from her eyes. "I'm going to give Phillip one of my kidneys." Lil said, to everyone's shock. Betty, Phil and Lil's mom, walked out of the kitchen. She was still as masculine and manly as I remember, just with grey hairs. "I don't think so, Lillian. Now think, what if that doesn't work? Even if you match Philly's blood type, his body still might reject the kidney. And what if your body can't do without both? I'm not losing both of you..." She explained.

"Well, we're just gonna have to take that risk. I don't want my brother to die. I'm going to the hospital to make a surgical appointment, right now. And no one here is going to stop me." Lil said, her voice breaking near the end.

We all rode to the hospital, to see Phil.

We all surrounded his bed, waiting for him to wake up. His mother petted his hair as he slowly opened his eyes. "Hey, Philly. Your friends are here to see you." Betty said to him. One by one, we each gave him a hug. Lil hugged him the tightest. "Why did you guys all use your money and come out here? I'm not worth that…" Phil said. Lil slapped him in the face. Not hard, just kind of like a little pat. "Shut up, Phillip. We just…we love you, ok?" Lil said. The whole room was silent. Lil asked to speak to Phil alone. We all stepped out.

When we stepped out, I spoke to Kimi. "So, how's fashion designing?" I asked her. She answered me, but I forgot to listen. I was hypnotized by her face. When she finished talking I simply just shook my head up and down and said "That's great." She smiled. I said the right thing. That was good.

"Well, tonight, I'm gonna be all alone in my hotel room, and I could use some company. I was just gonna order a pizza and rent a movie, probably fall asleep watching it, but you're welcome to join me. I'm staying at the Holiday Inn down the street, room 203. You don't have to be there if you don't want. But, if you do, be there at 8:30." She explained to me. "I'd love to be there, Kimi." I said, giving her a smile. "Thank you, Tommy. I hate being lonely." She said, giving me a hug.

I haven't spent alone time with her since before we graduated. This was going to be great, whether it classified as a date or not. I couldn't wait.

Lil walked out of Phil's room. "Well, I start my surgery tomorrow at 11 am. I'm giving Phillip one of my kidneys." None of us wanted to say anything… except Chuckie. "But, Lil….what if it doesn't work? What if…it fails and….we lose you, too?" Chuckie said, looking deeply at Lil's face. I never said anything, but I had just kind of knew that Chuckie has liked Lil since high school. He always acted weird around her, he always smiled when she walked in the room. It was painfully obvious.

We were all afraid of losing Lil. But, she was determined. So, we all left the hospital, and I went to my hotel room and waited for 8:30 to roll around.