My Human Mate

Great Friends

My poor heart has been terrorized too many times in a span of two days. I was still coming down from the adrenaline high but the fact that Nora was standing in our living room in the middle of the night wasn’t helping the cause.

From the lack of any movement or sound from anywhere behind me, I was pretty sure she has left him temporarily paralyzed too.

"What the hell are you doing here ?", I whispered, still shaken up to the very core.

She smiled sheepishly. “I thought I would surprise you. I mean to -”, I cut her off. “Yeah scare to death, I know”, she visibly cringed.

“How did you get this address?”, finally finding his voice, he asked her, quietly climbing down the rest of the steps.

“Um-”, looking between the both of us, she said, “It’s not like you are going to sue me right?”, she grinned awkwardly at Ryan when she didn’t get any reply, she continued, “I found it on the contract you signed when you were in my office”, she looked even more mortified than before.

Wow. She did some Sherlock kind of shit right there to get the address. But why?  She could’ve just asked me, even though I didn’t know what I would’ve said to her and even if she found out the address somehow, she could’ve visited in the daylight, like any other normal human being.

I was wondering about a lot of questions but they got stuck in my throat when I saw an exasperated Eric run through the front door.

Shit! “It’s alright, Eric. It’s our friend”, he gave a subtle nod and probably mind linked him to explain the situation, “He’s our security”, he told Nora.

“Wasn’t doing a good job, was he?”, she giggled at her own joke and was surprised when Ryan joined her.

“What are you doing here, Nora?”, I addressed the situation at hand, “It's the middle of a night”. She looked appalled.

“Are you kidding me?”, she went from shocked to offended to shocked again.

“What?”

“It’s your birthday”. Oh.

“I didn’t drive 30 miles in the middle of the night for you to say that to me”

Yeah well, when you were in the middle of a werewolf attack and later got to know that the attack was targeted for you, you tend to forget things.

“Why don’t you two take a seat? I’ll get you some water”, he left us in the living room and disappeared into the kitchen.

“I guess, I forgot”, seating her on the couch, I sat next to her.

Other than the fact that she managed to sneak into a werewolf territory and broke into the house while giving me an early heart attack, I was actually delighted that she took the efforts to come here, breaking a few laws here and there.

“How did you get in? You didn’t say anything about coming here when I called you this morning”, she didn’t trigger any alarms and didn’t see any broken windows.

“That’s why it’s called A surprise, Bella.  And about that, why is this place in the middle of the woods? And you guys left the front door open”, she complained like a concerned mother. I was surprised that Ryan forgot to lock the door.

“He likes his peace and solitude. Alice lives nearby too. Just a five minutes drive from here”, we settled into a brief silence and Ryan came back with two glasses of cold water and sat across us.

“It’s sweet of you to come here”, Nora grinned at Ryan and looked at me, “Of course. Like you said, nothing’s different, you just eat and sleep here. No offense”, Ryan held his hands up in a mock surrender, smiling.

“This is your first birthday away from home and I thought I would bring our tradition to you, to here”, she looked proud. She should be.

My heart swelled with happiness when she said ‘home’. For her, I was just away from home.

I looked inside the bag she was holding. I didn’t exactly celebrate birthdays. Not after my parent’s death. It was too painful. Nora and I would stay awake all night and through the early hours of morning, playing every game we could get our hands on, sleep through the whole day, wake up and get dressed and visit my parent’s resting place after lunch and end the day with baking or some other stuff with Nora, Alice and Jimmy. That was my birthday tradition.

And that’s what we did. Nora and I shared my bedroom while Ryan went to his. We got drunk with the beers she brought with her, god bless her soul, since I was officially turning 21, we played and laughed a lot, catching up on everything we both missed. As it turned out, she went on more than one date with Mike and they were getting serious. She seemed genuinely happy when she talked about him.

I missed nights like these. The nights where we used lie on our cheap rug, having the silliest and deepest conversations.

We went to sleep, or more likely passed out when the dawn finally broke and the first rays of sunlight rose over the forest skyline.

  I woke up at the shuffling sounds around the bedroom. I cracked open my eyes and immediately regretted it at the bright light coming through the window.

A mild pounding was forming at the back of my head, which I was sure in a few minutes, would develop into a full blown hangover.

I sat up against the headboard, careful to not make any sudden movements and kick start the headache and slowly opened my eyes.

Alice and Nora stood by the foot of the bed, giggling like a couple of school girls, while John and Jimmy stood by the door with an unreadable expression on their face.
 
What? Oh. My birthday! Aww...

"Thank you gu- ", my words got caught in my throat along with my scream when they splashed a jug of ice cold-water on me.

“Happy Birthday”, their sing-song voices were muffled by my jittering as I sat there, drenched in cold water with ice cubes getting lodged in uncomfortable places.

“Bring me a towel”, I whispered, breathing through my mouth.

“What?”

“Bring me a fucking towel”

Who in the universe would think that it would be a wise idea to wake up their probably hungover friend with a pitcher of cold water on a November morning to wish them happy birthday? My friends would.

“Fuck”, I tried to keep the wet clothes away from touching my skin but they kept on sticking on to my body.

Unbothered by my glare, Alice pulled me into a tight hug and the other followed.

“Where is Ryan?”, It was quarter past one in the afternoon, and he probably was at his work but staying back to say a little birthday wish wouldn’t put a dent on his schedule.

“He’s at work. But he said he’ll be here when we are back”.

They waited for me downstairs while I got ready. I got out of the wet clothes as fast as I could and hopped in a hot shower.

Alice, who was insisting on this this day being a girls day out, flipped John a bird, who was insisting on coming with us. He finally gave up and Alice and I hopped into Nora’s car and drove off.

Individually or together, all of my friends have been to my parent’s grave. It was a ritual of remembrance for me and they’ve always been a part of it. Bill and Lisa Hunt would’ve liked them all.

I sat by their resting place and talked about everything since the last time I was there. It was my therapy. Even though they weren’t with me, I knew they were listening to me and I wanted them to know that I was doing good.

We drove around our town, getting pedicures, raiding every bookstores, stopping at every dive bar because we were nerdy that way and were proud of it and it was after noon and you wouldn’t be considered as an alcoholic. I might regret getting wasted tomorrow but in the wise words of Nora Finn, ‘The best cure for hangover is staying drunk’. Wasn’t much of a life lesson but I didn’t complain.

They were actually surprised by how well I could hold my drink for a first time drinker. The drive back was loud and wild. Nora whipped out her mixed CD and we jammed all the way back.

The boys were in the living room, playing video games when we walked in. Maybe it has all quieted down or maybe because it was long enough, all the shots I did to show off how well I could hold my liquor hit me all at once.

I remembered bits and pieces of my tearful goodbye to Nora and Jimmy promising to get her home safe. I remembered snuggling into a warm chest and then a comfy blanket. And the last thing I remembered before passing out blank was a kiss on my forehead and a faint ‘happy birthday’.

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Hiya readers!! Since, the next part is the important thing in this story, it'll be a dual update.

Thank you for all your votes and comments. I'm planning to end this story. Probably five to six chapters. But not sure. Coz, my exams are choking me to death and I find it difficult to manage my schedule.

Thank u for the support you gave me. What Do ya think will happen in next chapter?? Guess. Stay connected...

With loves and kisses....

Nisha Amol >_<

Muah!!