I'd never felt disconnected to Lily before, but as she rambled about some of our casual friends and the latest scandal among them, I couldn't have felt farther away from her. I kept up with the occasional question and "Mmhm' to show I was listening, but for some reason I didn't feel a part of that anymore. I guess distance has a way of doing that. It made my chest ache a little to think it would be like that with my friends when I went to college.

"So Jenna finally just broke up with him. Isn't that crazy? Everybody thought they were going to last for such a long time," Lily said.

I smiled a bit—Lily, at least, wasn't different. She loved to gossip ever since we were little, but also had severe loyalty to her close friends. That clearly hadn't faded.

"It's crazy," I agreed, not even quite sure who Jenna was even dating in the first place. She never liked me much, so I took care to ignore her.

"I know," Lily agreed. "But who cares. She's really awful to you."

Lily had gotten into many verbal arguments on my account, one of the most vivid ones with Jenna.

"Thanks," I chuckled.

"I should probably go and take a shower," Lily sighed. "My dad wants to go to dinner—just me and him. Some fancy new place that just opened. It should be interesting."

I cringed for her. A product of divorce, Lily split her time between her parents, but her dad always seemed to be in competition with her mom. Lily was spoiled rotten as a consequence, but I knew she didn't like the extravagance just to gain her affection. She always hated when they tried to buy her.

"Good luck Lil," I said apologetically.

"Thanks Kris. I'll talk to you later."

I said good-bye and hung up, throwing the phone on Angela's bed. She was out with Ben somewhere, so I retreated upstairs. My cousins were playing video games so the television was taken, and my aunt was in the kitchen so I didn't dare rummage for food. My uncle was out back, and I supposed I could've gone outside, but he looked peaceful so I left him alone. Paul was being weird about his plans for today, so I figured he wanted some guy time.

I sat on the bed, looking around. I needed some hobbies. At home, I loved to play my drums, but the Weber's didn't have a drum set here, and I doubt my aunt would've liked the noise anyway.

I wanted to go on the computer, but the internet was so slow here I just didn't have the patience. I could go running, but I just took a shower so I don't really want to get all sweaty.

Was there anything to do in Angela's room?

Looking around, I realized I so rarely spent time in here besides sleeping. I looked at the pictures Ang had by her bedside, a few of her friends, one of her and the twins, and one of the family which I was in. I smiled slightly as I traced our faces, bright and smiling and covered in birthday cake. We must've been six or seven. I could see my mother laughing in the background, my dad's arm around her waist. I let my smile fade slightly and put the picture back down.

Angela had a bookshelf, of course, and I scanned over the more familiar titles. I could read if I got bored enough.

On the opposite wall was a picture of just Ang and I. I had drawn it a few years ago, when I was still in art class. It wasn't the best thing I'd ever done. The class I took the next year really helped me, so this seemed a little pale by comparison. But every time I thought of canvases and paint and colored pencils I could only see my dad. His hands were always covered in some unnatural color, and almost every time I hugged him I could smell oil paint and wood, the scents of his studio.

Some dads taught their kids to ride bikes, my dad taught me how to do shading and cross-hatching. Well, he taught me how to ride a bike too, but he wasn't as enthusiastic about it.

I looked out the window quickly to see it had started to rain. Typical. I rolled my eyes and lay across the bed, staring at the ceiling. I don't know how long I looked at the white tiles before I heard my cell phone ringing.

Glancing at the screen, I saw a picture I had taken of Paul when he wasn't suspecting it. I smiled at his mixed look of surprise and anger, and flipped open my phone.

"Hello?"

"Diner?"

"No, this is Kris, I think you have the wrong number," I said.

"Ha ha," Paul said flatly.

"What am I now? I don't even get a hello? Just a grunt of a plan?" I asked, frowning.

"I'm sorry darling," Paul emphasized. "How are you today? I hope good. Did I mention you were beautiful? Well, my friends are going to the diner and they would love you to come, as would I."

"Too formal!"

"I can't win with you," Paul groaned.

I could hear his eye roll—that's how good I was getting at judging him. I could also hear the smallest, tiniest of smiles that I would point out if I were standing next to him.

"I would love to go. Please break me out of this house," I said, hopping up.

"Done. I'll be there in ten minutes," he said. "Is that enough time for a girl to get ready?"

"I'm not a girl girl," I said, already slipping my shoes on, nearly ready to go.

"Oh really?" Paul asked, amused.

"Not a girly girl, I mean," I said, rolling my eyes.

"Listen, if you're not a girl than I have been seriously misinformed about some things—"

"Shut up," I interrupted. "Kindly get your ass over here."

"I like my men bossy," Paul growled.

"I hate you."

I hung up, but not before hearing his booming laugh echo through the phone.

"This is Jared, Kim, Embry, Seth, Brady, and Jake," Paul introduced.

I smiled at all of them, but was severely overwhelmed. With the obvious exception of Kim, they all had similar features and were smiling really oddly at me. They all, Paul included, looked vaguely related with their dark skin and bulging muscles. I felt a little odd with my paleness and scrawny-ness, but they seemed friendly enough. I waved, especially to Embry and Seth, the only ones I knew.

"This is Kris," Paul said.

I felt my stomach flip at his proud tone, and I couldn't control my stupid smile.

"Say hello everyone."

"Hello," they chorused, with a few variations in the combined effort.

"There's so many of you," I said, as Paul wrapped an arm around my waist.

"We're missing some, actually," one of them...I think Jake said, grinning goofily. "You'll learn names eventually. Mine's Embry, in case you forgot."

"Don't confuse her, stupid!" Paul scolded, glaring harshly.

"More like don't use the name of one of the people I actually know," I said, winking at Embry who smiled shyly.

"Well as fun as this is, let's not stand here. I don't know about everyone else, but I'm starving."

It didn't matter which one of them had said it, because a look at this huge group of guys was enough to guarantee they'd all agree.

Paul grabbed my hand as we walked, immediately enveloping me in warmth. I was glad it was air conditioned in here. We followed the group to a table big enough to fit us. Paul sat on my left, while Kim sat on my right. I smiled at her, eager to talk to another girl.

As if sensing my thoughts, she smiled and began talking.

"Nice to have another girl here," she said. I could tell she was shy, but I was pretty sure we'd bond just over our similar circumstances.

"Right? You must be drowning in testosterone," I said sympathetically.

She laughed and nodded, before we were rudely interrupted by the waitress.

"Are you ready to order?"

Her gum smacked loudly around her mouth as she looked at us boredly.

"A few minutes please," the boy to Kim's right said.

She rolled her eyes and walked a few feet away, starting to talk to a bus boy.

"Someone's asking for a low tip," Paul growled next to me.

I smiled and nodded. Sometimes we had the same thoughts. We could hear her complaining about something in a nasally voice to the boy, and both rolled our eyes.

"This is where we came on our first date you know," Paul commented, eyes scanning over the menu.

"I remember, it wasn't that long ago," I chuckled.

"Yeah, but doesn't it feel like it? Like it's been a while, I mean?" Paul asked, looking up at me.

I smiled, nodding.

"Yeah, it does," I said, pushing some hair our of his face before kissing his cheek which burned under my lips.

"You're so warm," I said, frowning.

"High body temp," Paul shrugged.

I shrugged too, ready to say something else when the annoying waitress was back, standing almost in between me and Paul. She still had that crackling gum and was now checking out Paul quite obviously.

Back. Up. I felt my jealousy rise.

"Are you ready now guys?" she asked in a sickly sweet tone, as if she'd just realized who she was talking to.

"You get used to the girls flirting," Kim whispered in my ear.

"The price of being around tall, dark, handsome men?" I asked.

She nodded, smiling.

"Let's both glare at her," Kim said, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear.

"I like the way you think," I chuckled.

After a long, loud dinner, I felt more at ease with the guys. Most of them had great sense of humors, but were nice to match, which made me feel much better about fitting in. Kim and I also had a few side conversations, and I decided if I needed advice on the guys I would go to her.

Finally, after messing up three of our orders, flirting with almost every boy at the table, and annoying the hell out of us, the waitress handed us our check. She started to grab the plates, leaning across the table so that her chest was very much in all our faces.

Gag. Me.

Paul and I continued to make fun of her as Embry calculated the check.

"Could her boobs be in our face a little more?" I groaned.

"Could her voice whine a little more?" Paul asked.

"Does grilled cheese sound anything like chicken salad?" I asked.

"Does refill mean ignore me for an hour?" Paul growled.

I was about to retort when we heard the sudden clank of dishes and a scream. We both instantly looked over to the corner of the restaurant, unable to stop our responses.

We watched as the annoying girl suddenly tripped over a customer's shoe and pitched forward. Immediately, Paul and Kris could not stop their laughter as she squealed and huffed. She picked some food out of her hair and looked at the broken dishes in anger. They leaned into each other, laughter echoing as the rest of the boys looked at them in astonishment.

"It's like Paul in girl form," Embry whispered to Seth.

Jared must have heard him because he nodded with a grin, winking at Embry.

"Kris doesn't bite people's heads off," Seth whispered in protest. "I think she's the nicer one in the situation."

They looked back at the couple, who were now leaning against each other for support. The annoying girl had recovered, and was now walking away carrying the plates that hadn't been broken. Just as she passed our table, however, the girl lost her footing and tumbled forward again. Paul quickly pulled Kris away before the girl could hear Kris's huge cackle, and Embry and Jared turned to Seth with a knowing look on their faces.

"Maybe I was wrong," Seth mumbled.

Embry watched as Paul high-fived Kris and looked at her like he was going to propose marriage that very second.

"Maybe Paul's a bad influence?" Jared suggested.

They got up from the table, leaving their money before following Paul and Kris outside.

"At least they found each other," Embry shrugged.