Here's part two of the party. R&R please, I will to hear your comments and requests xxxx Enjoy!

Thalia's Tree x x x

Claire's POV

I looked all around me, taking in the sights before me. I couldn't believe that my friends had gone behind my back to do this and they obviously didn't hold back at all.

First the beautiful gifts.

Then the romantic walk in the park.

Then the . . . the proposal.

And now this. It wasn't till then that i realised I hadn't thought about my illness while all of this was happening.
It was wonderful, I felt free.

Suddenly the music changed to a different track, completely blaring and my head snapped over to where Michael was stood at the DJ's box. He smiled an winked at me as he saw me stare.
Happy Birthday. He mouthed.
Thank you. I mouthed back.

The music was all it took to get the party started. People began to crowd me and wished me happy birthday, enveloped me with hugs, gave me cards and back pats of congratulations. It was all so much.

All these people were here for me. Well, and probably to get wasted, but I was surprised. Genuinely surprised. Out of all the years I've been in Morganville, I've never really had friends, apart from Eve, Michael and Shane (and the odd Vamp.)
But I realised as I took a moment to see who was here, that at some point during my life here, I had actually shared a laugh with most of them, been partners in chem with most of them, and even hung out a lunch with a few.

I realised that I could actually class these people as friends.

"All right, all right don't suffocate the girl. Excuse me coming through! Ok who just squeezed my ass?" Eve pushed her way through the crowd that was gathered around me. She was dressed in a short black and white Gothic dress with various patterns on. It had a netted layer underneath. She didn't have too much over the top makeup on, just some black eyeliner and a little light gloss. She looked beautiful.

"Eve I cant believe you guys did this!" I shouted to her above KE$HA playing in the background.

"Well believe CB, this is just to say we love you." She gave me a soft kiss on the cheek and whispered "Happy Birthday."

"Ha I feel like I should slap you." I replied laughing.

"Maybe you should go talk to your parents first." Oh god I'd forgotten about them.

"Yeah, ok. Be right back!"

My parents were still in the same place they were in when I'd first come home. They looked a little awkward to be honest, a little out of place.
"Mum! Dad!" I called over to them. Hearing me they looked to see me approach and smiling they made there way towards me too.

"Oh Claire, we are so glad to see you, oh baby come here!" My mum pulled me into a hug. I've had lots of hugs today I thought.

"Hi Mum." I repeated, patting her back awkwardly. As she let me go I could see her eyes were red and filled to the rim with unshed tears.

Ignoring this detail I turned to dad. "Hi daddy, how are you? What are you guys doing here?" I exclaimed as I had momentarily forgotten that my dad was meant to be in hospital.

"Hey kiddo, yeah i'm still alive. Got myself a day pass. Its like a bloody prison there!"

"Unfortunetly," My mother continued "That means we cant stay very long. But I had to see my baby on her eighteenth birthday!" She was shouting over the music, we all were. Obviously she was thinking the same thing because she said "Do you think you could tell your friend to turn the music down a bit?"
I laughed, "Come on we'll go into the kitchen."

In the kitchen, it was eerily quiet. My parents and I stood in awkward silence for a bit.
We all knew that there was an awfully big elephant in the room.

"So . . ." My father began, clearing his throat. "How have you been?"

"Um, fine." I said, not really knowing what to say. I mean, how do you talk about this kind of thing to your parents?

"Claire we're so so sorry we can't be here more often to help you get through this um . . . . problem." My father said.

"Its not exactly a problem is it?" I replied. "It's life, sometimes these things happen. But I'll get through it." Though I didn't know how true that was. My mother pulled out a handkerchief from her sleeve and began to wipe her eyes to stop the mascara dripping. Oh great she was crying again. I knew I had to confront my parents about this sooner or later, but I was hoping it would be later. But hey, no them like the present right?

"Oh you are so brave!" My mum wailed, reaching out to give me another hug, but I side stepped it and replied, "Mum, I'm ok, I feel fine and I know everything will be fine soon."

"Claire, don't get all uptight now, your mother and I just don't like the thought of leaving you alone with this. We worry." My father reasoned. Was he trying to get me to go home with them?

"Well don't worry! And i'm not alone, I have my friends, and my boyfriends and they will never leave me by myself."

"Is that what you think?" Mum cried. "You think that we are leaving you?" She fell into my father's arms in a very dramatic state.

"No!" I exclaimed, shouting once more. "How could you even think that?"

"Um hi, am I interrupting anything?" Came a small voice from the kitchen door way. I turned to look and saw Aria stood there, wearing a pretty pink dress with matching shoes and a purple rucksack on her back, an oxygen tank wheeled behind her with a line running from it to her nose, not noticable from a distance though.

I let out a sigh of relief at the interference and smiled at her. "Not at all. Mum, dad, this is my friend Aria. Aria, these are my parents.

"Its nice to meet you Mr and Mrs Danvers." Aria said as she came to stand next to me. I couldn't help it. I laughed. Everyone looked at me questioningly. She was so polite to them, which she should not be, not right now anyway.

"Ok, well its nice to meet you, but we should probably be going. We have to back at the hospital at 7 and we want to stop off and see your aunt before we get there." My mum said, who had now stopped crying. well, stopped crying so much anyway.

"Bye darling." Mum came and gave me a kiss on the cheek. "Stay in touch and let us know how everything is going.

"Bye Claire." My father said, not even really looking at me.

"Bye, you know the way out?" I asked. But they had already left.

"That was strange."Aria observed from next me. It was weird, she was the best part of two and a half years younger than me, yet she was only the slightest bit shorter.

"No, that was my parents." I replied. "I'm glad you're here Aria. You didnt have to come you know. I know this isn't really the best of situations for you." But she just shrugged, like it was no big deal. "I'm alright, I just have to go at 6 so I have time to do my treatments is all."

I looked at my watch. It was about half two. We had about three and a half hours left before she had to go. "Then lets go make the most of it." I told her with a smile.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

"Haven't forgotten about me yet have you?" A male's voice came from behind me. So many people had turned up that we ended up using the garden as well as the front room. Michael had decided to put a BBQ on, seeing as how the weather was gorgeous. The sun was still shinning, music was still playing and the air smelt of food coming from the BBQ. I know what you're probably thinking, hang on Michael is a vampire and outside in the sun? That's not right surely. Well, luckily for him we had one of those big gazebo type tents which acted like a block from the sun. "I'm alright for a bit." He'd told me when I'd expressed my concern. "I'll just have to keep going inside now and again."

"Hello? Anyone there." I'd completely forgottent that Shane was behind me, waiting for me to reply. I spun around and smiled.

"Hey babe. Sorry I'm just distracted. There are so many people here!"

"I know." He said laughing. "No offence or anything, but we didn't expect this many people to turn up. I mean, I know Eve put a post out on Facebook . . ."

"She what?"

" . . . so I was expecting a few. But damn girl I didn't know you were so popular!" He finished.

"Neither did I." i admitted.

"So," My boyfriend began, pulling me closer to him. "If this is how many people turn up to your birhtday party, then how many people do you think will come to our wedding?"

I giggled, still not quite believing that I was engaged. "Do Michael and Eve know?" I asked. I hadnt really had chance to talk to Eve about it yet, so I had no idea if she actually even knew.

"I'd talked about it with Mikey a while back but I didn't tell him I was planning to do it today, so probably not. But lets wait till later to tell them, when everyone is gone."

"See you later Claire, got to go!" A random girl who I may or may not know said to me as she walked past. "Thanks for coming. " I said quietly.

Shane laughed.

"Whats so funny?"

"The fact," He said "That now everybody knows you, your life will never be the same again."

"No, it won't. " I replied. But not just because of the reason he thinks. Shane took my hand and together we sat down on the recently layed decking. I smiled at people who walked past until my boyfriend asked, "How did it go with your parents?"

"To be honest, not very well. I'm started to wish I'd never told them about this stupide brain tumor. Is that bad?"

"Of course not. " He said softly' running his thumb gently over my left hand. "Its completely understandable. But we wont talk about." He decided. "Lets dance i stead. Come on!"

Shane yanked me up and began to jog over to the dancing crowd near Michael, pulling me along with him laughing the whole time.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Aria's POV

I felt completely out of place.

I would never normally come to these type of things, unless it was a family event or a CF fund raising gig, and even then Chace would be with me. I stayed inside and stood with Eve for a while at the DJ box, watching everyone partying. it was moments like this that it really got to me how un-normal me and my life was. I've always had to do treatments, and be careful with the things I do and the things I eat, so its always seemed so normal. But when I see other people my age doing things lI cant, it hits me.

Eve said she had to go and talk to someone who had turned up and walked off, leaving me by myself, sticking out like a sore thumb. After a minute or two I decided to go and sit outside to get some air as it was very hot in the front room. As I walked through the hallway, into the kitchen and through the back door, I thought about how nice this house was. It felt . . . I dunno, like it was alive? It had that kind of warm presence. I found a spare garden chair and, placing my oxygen tank next to it, I sat down. I didntalways have to cart the tank around with me, but when I knew I would be up and about for a while, and I'd had a gunky morning, it was kinda nessecary, as much as it sucked.

I spotted Claire with her boyfriend dancing and laughing like I'd never seen her laughed. She deserves to have fun. She's so nice to me, which is something not many people have been.

I stay like that for a while, watching them dance with the sun shining above us. I was so relaxed that at one point I thought I was going to fall asleep. But then Michael walked over to Shane from his tent, an umbrella held over his head. Huh? I watched as he muttered something to Shane and they both walked inside, leaving Claire by herself.

I felt myself drowning slightly as I attemted to clear my throat, pretty unsuccessfully. I grabbed a drink from my bag and drank quickly. I refuse to have an episode infromt of these many people. So instead I slowly made my way over to Claire, wheeling the oxygen tank over the grass.

When she saw me she smiled that sisterly smile and waved. "Hey." I greeted. "Where'd your boyfriend go?"

"Michael wanted to talk to him. Dunno why. Probably somehing manly, like 'dude we've run out of beer! What do we do?'"

I took in a breath to laugh but ended up choking instead. I coughed and coughed, trying to take in breathes but only able to get gasps. I reached over turned up the oxygen compressor until I could here the reassuring hiss of oxygen running through the tube and into my nose. As the spasm began to end i was aware that people were staring. Great.

"Alright?" Claire asked, concerned. I just nodded, trying to get my breath back. When I was sure I could talk without coughing again I rasped out "Do you think I could go to your room a sec? I think I need to do a suction."

Claire just nodded and took my hand, saying "Sure, I'll show you the way."

Thank God for friendship.

oxoxoxoxoxxoxox

Michael's POV

"Bro, can I talk to you for a seond?" I asked Shane as I stood by him. "Inside preferably. I think I'm gonna burn in a minute." I think I'm goin to burn now, but I didn't say that.

"Better be quick, cause I'm getting my groove on man!" He replied, grinning like an idiot, making Claire laugh.

"Don't worry little Claire, you can have him and his groove back soon." I said, ruffling her hair like I used to. Natuarlly she swatted my hand away.

Not being able to take the sun anymore, I made my way inside, hearing Shane follow me. I got into the hall way and turned to talk to him.

"Can you watch the BBQ for a bit, I need to do something."

"Sure man, anything to get a chance to take my top off and feel like an Aussie. Mind me asking why?" He replied, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning against the banister.

I hesitated. I couldnt tell him the truth, not yet.

"Just business. " i shrugged, playing it cool. "Vamp business."

"In the middle of the day?" Shane raisd his eyebrows. Damn he was sharp.

"Look can you mind the BBQ or not?" i snapped.

"Fine, whatever. Just be back real soon or I'll be angry. " Shane said.

"You'll be angry? I'll be pissed off. " Came a female voice. We both turned to see Eve leaning against the front room doorway, not looking very happy. "Wanna tell me where you're going?" She asked sweetly. "Or are you going to lie your way out of an answer. Again. "

I sighed. "Come on Eve, I told you . . ."

". . . Nothing. You told me nothing!" She cut in. She stood up straight, her hands shaking with anger. "You can't keep doing his Michael. Your scaring me and I do 't like it. We don't keep secrets in this house!"

"What do you want me to say?" I yelled. I pushed past her and into the front room, hoping that by mingling with peope she'd let it go. Fat chance.

"Just say something!" She yelled back, following me into the front room. I saw Claire going up the stairs with Aria, completely oblivious to what was going on. God I couldnt tell them. They'd hate me. Even Claire would hate me.

"You wouldnt like the truth even if I told you." I muttered, but loud enough for Eve o hear. Shane stood in the doorway, knowing better than to interfere. "You'd hate me." I saw a look in her eye then, and I knew I had gotten to her. "I can't do this right now. I've got to go, we'll talk later." And I turned to leave, but not before I heard Eve shout "You got that right Michael Glass." Then a pause before "What you all looking at? Going on, carry on dancing."

And then I left, to do what I had to do.

oxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

hey Thalia's Tree here. Ok so there will be another short chapter to round it off at the end, and that one will be posted next week hopefully xx so I guess the party was ki d of in three parts lol xxxxxxxx k well hope you enjoyed that x