"Where are you!?" a voice screamed into my ear.

"Nicole what do you mean," I asked, still half asleep. I couldn't even see yet as the bright light from the window was blinding. "I'm home, just like you. Unless you aren't." I yawned, then, panic set in. If she's calling me, then she probably isn't at home with me, I realized. "Where are you?" I asked.

"I'm home. You're the one that's not home," she shouted.

"Where else would I be?" I asked. As I adjusted to my surroundings, I started to notice that I did not, in fact, recognize them. I definitely didn't have a painting of a snake eating a planet on my wall. Or, I didn't think that I did.

That's when the memories of the night before crashed in. The dancing. The drinks. The warmth. The— "I've got to go," I blurted out before my thoughts could go any further. "I'll be home soon. I promise." I threw the covers off of myself and onto the floor, happily saw that I was wearing my own clothes, and got to work re making the bed.

"Do you need a ride?" she asked. "I'm not mad that you stayed the night somewhere. Your life your choices, I'm just mad that you didn't think to call and tell me. Rob and I were so worried about you."

"Rob?" I asked, surprised. I moved into the bathroom, putting myself on mute.

"Yeah, he stayed with me last night. I was pretty sick and he said it felt wrong to leave me all alone. Especially because it didn't seem like you'd be coming home anytime soon. Actually, he's still here. Hurry over and see us."

"Don't I have work?" I asked, flushing the toilet. "I should probably head there instead."

"You're all set, Reina. After all the times you've covered for my sorry butt I took it upon myself to deal with the situation."

"Thanks," I responded through gritted teeth. I wasn't sure I even wanted to know what her idea of "dealing with the situation" was. "Ok, I've got to go now. I"ll see you as soon as I can, ok?"

"Great! Can't wait to see you. Buh byeeee!"

The second she was off the line, I snatched up my purse and raced down the hall to leave the house. "Rin?" I called out tentatively. "Are you there?" To my utter relief, there was no response.

It wasn't a very large house, but that didn't stop me from making quite a few wrong turns on my way to the back door. I knew there was a back door as it was the door that he had lead me in last night, but for some reason, it was now impossible for me to find.

I whirled around another corner, finding the staircase I had come down and feeling very lost, when I saw,through the window, a familiar black car pull into the driveway. Rin was home.

It wasn't that I was embarrassed about the previous night's events, I just kind of wanted this to be a one time thing, no strings, something he had made all the easier by not being there when I woke up, but could now turn into an extremely awkward situation if we ran into each other right now.

With this knowlege in mind, I ran up the stairs, crouching over out of breath when I reached the top. After my breather, I found myself back in the bedroom I had originally started in. Looking out the window, I discovered, to my delight, it faced the back of the house. Now, my only obstacle was the fact that I was on the second floor and had a pretty steep drop to the grass below.

Turning round and round, I scanned the room until I found what I was looking for. As I had suspected, spare sheets were folded neatly in the bottom dresser drawer. In a normal situation, I would never go through another person's things, but this wasn't normal times. The voices from outside only knocked into my head harder that this was, in fact, an emergency.

Though I knew it was awful to do so, I tore one of the sheets into strips and tied the ends together to form a rope. I rummaged through my purse, revealing a twenty dollar bill for the sheets and placing it back in the drawer. Then, I tied the sheets to the window. With one last glance around the room, I opened the window, climbed onto the ledge, and started my decent towards the grass below.

The back yard was fenced in, the fence too hard to jump, so I was going to have to sneak around to the front of the house. Slowly and quietly, I snuck around the side and hid behind a tree where I had a full view of the driveway.

To my dismay, I saw not only Rin, but a short, black haired woman and a child as well. The little girl had been running around in circles while Rin and the woman watched, but now, she ran into Rin's arms and planted a fat kiss on his cheek, glowing. The woman, I couldn't help but notice, had something shining on her left hand. Could this be Rin's family?

I held my breath, my heart pounding so loudly with anxiety that I was sure they could hear it, but I must have been quiet enough because they went right in the front door. Once they were inside and the door was shut, I took off down the road at lightning speed holding my purse and shoes tightly in my hands. My feet burned and ached, but adrenaline kept me moving. Once I was out of the neighborhood, I decided, I would worry about getting a ride. But for now, I just needed to get as far away from here as it was possible to be.

My final thought, as the house disappeared from sight, was a hope that Rin would get to the bedroom before anyone else.