With my ongoing illness, I finally tear myself away from the comfort that my bed gave me with its many cloud-like pillows and a blanket that protects against the cold.

Immediate regret is shown in the form of goosebumps that run down my back. I flinch briefly, but then shake the cold off my skin by pulling an oversized sweater over my head from my closet, which I had fetched from the men's department.

I drag my feet across the cold floor to my living room and find one of my slippers next to the sofa, the other hiding somewhere in the middle of nowhere. I probably just took it off last night and left it there.

"Come out my sweet slipper, I have no strength to look for you now and my feet are about to turn into a block of ice," I say as I look under my sofa and when I notice that my pink slipper is not there, I let out an annoyed breath.

I make my way with one slipper to my kitchen to brew myself a tea, hoping that my cough will ease and my sore throat will go away. Searching my kitchen cupboard, I come across a pack of relaxation tea. My colleague gave me this tea, saying I was always too tense. I don't have a kettle, so I use a small saucepan instead and put it on the stove to boil the water.

Just as I pour my boiled water into my cup, I hear my cell phone ring again. Annoyed, I force my tired body in the direction from which the ringing comes.

I answer chuckling. "Do you love me so much that you have to call every 10 minutes?"

"Girl, you have no other friends asking for you anyway, so don't complain." Ouch, that kind of hurt.

"Wow, thanks for that. Anyway, why are you calling again?" I ask as I walk back to the kitchen to get my brewed tea. I hiss when I take my cup in my hand and get a small amount of water on my thumb, the spot burning immediately.

"A friend of mine and I will go to the mall tomorrow. We will stroll a bit through the shops and then have lunch together. So I wanted to ask you if you would like to come along. I was too excited so I forgot to ask when I called earlier." 

"You have friends other than me?" I tease. I can't help laughing, so I put my hand over my mouth so that she doesn't hear it. Otherwise, she'll get mad at me and that's the last thing I want. I can still remember the last time I commented on her hair, which wasn't even meant badly. She hasn't talked to me for a week.

"Why are you getting on my nerves all the time? I swear to God I won't ask you anymore and you're going to die out of boredom," she threatens me, but I can hear from her tone that she is not serious and is also about to laugh.

"I was just kidding," I raise my right hand in surrender although I know that she isn't going to see it "I don't know if my exhaustion will ease up by tomorrow, but I think I'm in."

"Great, get well soon and don't get out of bed today. Feel forced to call me if you need anything, or I'm gonna whip your ass." She scolds me. 

I laugh at her maternal instincts and we say goodbye afterward before we both hang up at the same time. Knowing that you can always count on someone, no matter what happens, always makes you feel much better and safer. I don't know what I would do if I hadn't talked to Nora back in elementary school and we hadn't become best friends. She helped me with a lot of stuff in high school. She always offered me a shoulder to cry on when I was feeling down. She got my crush to take me out on a date, then I ruined everything because of my stupidity, but that's a different matter now. Well, in general, I can say that I'm not very good when it comes to dates.

I carefully sip my tea but notice that thanks to our telephone call, it has already become cold so I drag myself back up the stairs into my bedroom and throw myself onto my comfy bed.

The day passes by like a train and very soon I see the sun hiding behind the horizon, transforming the sky into a canvas decorated with pastel shades of pink and purple in contrast to the strong yellow and orange.

_____________________________

"Come on, El, don't fall behind." 

I'm beginning to take the friendship termination thing into consideration. 

I have been dragged through the mall for an hour and a half now and considering that I'm still a bit groggy from yesterday, it makes me even slacker than usual. Normally I don't mind Nora dragging me from shop to shop, the joy on her face is worth everything to me, but her friend is beginning to get on my nerves too. How do these two know each other anyway? And how stupid can Nora be that she can't see the sneering grin of the two-faced and insincere 'friend'.

"Can we at least get something to eat and then stroll on afterward?" I ask whining.

"We want to stop by this new store for a moment to see if the clothes are to our liking. You should come, too. I promise you we'll have lunch afterward. Besides, you haven't even found a dress to wear on Friday. Knowing your closet, you don't own the, well, how shall I put it, most suitable dresses for a girls' night out." 

Just at this moment, when Nora finishes her sentence, I see her snake friend standing behind her grinning nastily as if she is about to mock me. 

Ugh.

Okay. Take a deep breath and don't get angry, Elaine. 

"Okay, all right, if you're done dissing me for my style, I'll go look for a dress," I say while rolling my eyes, the annoyance being very clearly noticeable in my voice. 

We are now in the shop she mentioned before my inner outburst of anger, beautiful and eye-catching clothes are hanging on all the walls and clothes rails. People here are looking everywhere for anything even if they don't like it, so that they can walk around with a shopping bag afterward, just to show that they have bought something in the new shop.

I, in turn, am looking for something inconspicuous but elegant, preferably in black, because black, even if it is not a color, is my favorite color. The store has sorted all their items by color for the benefit of the customers, so it is not difficult for me to find my section. I am about to reach for one of the black dresses, when Nora comes out of nowhere, startling me and yelling. "Black again? Please, for God's sake, will you look for another color? We're not on our way to a funeral."

"You've been dragging me around all day, at least let me choose my own dress." I jump down her throat without realizing what I just said, her facial expression immediately changes from happy and excited to sad and disappointed. She looks around without making eye contact with me, which makes me realize that she is not the one to blame for my sudden snap. She's actually right. But the pain in the ass she brought with her just pissed me off the whole time.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean that. You know what? How about for this time you pick out a dress for me, and I promise I won't even butt in. You can pick out whatever you want." I'm hopefully trying to get her to turn her gaze back on me, and I'm actually doing great. Her eyes sparkle instantly and the next second I'm grabbed by her arm and pulled through the store.

She lets me try on umpteen dresses, each one worse than the other, well at least for my taste. I actually said I wasn't going to intervene, but I'm definitely not going to let her make me buy a pink glitter dress either.

In the end, we agree on a black dress, which is too short and too tight, but I should rather be happy and not complain that she let me buy it, the other ones were just terrible. Her snake friend managed to make a few comments in between to humiliate me, but luckily Nora stepped in and shut her big mouth.

After we had lunch, we say goodbye to the fake Blondie, of whom I didn't even know the name, and make our way to my place, since Nora wanted to spend some time alone with me.

"I can't wait until tomorrow. I'm so excited about it," she says as we walk past a bakery, the water runs down my mouth at the sight of the treats, but I pull myself together and refocus my attention on my overexcited friend.

"Why though?" I didn't get a chance to ask about it yesterday, but now that she has brought up the subject again, I dare ask. "You even made me buy a dress. This can't possibly be a regular karaoke bar. Or is it a club, and you've been playing me for the whole time to say yes?"

Her arm twitches, which she had been linking to mine, she looks ahead again and answers "Um, well, to be honest, it's not a regular karaoke bar. We won't have our private room where we can sing our hearts out. In this bar, everyone sings in front of everyone else. So, to be more specific, you're kind of being picked. There is some kind of a host who randomly picks someone from the crowd and then a machine randomly picks a song for you to sing." 

"What? There's no fucking way I'm going to that place tomorrow. Why didn't you tell me? Now I've bought a dress for nothing that I won't need." A woman turns around angrily because of my high-pitched voice, but I don't care a damn bit right now.

She answers defensively. "Because I know exactly that you would react like this. We have to go there in any case though because I've already made a reservation and I've paid a deposit." She grins cheekily. "Do you even know how hard it is to get a seat there? All the city's most popular men and women spend time there."

"Nora, no jokes, I'm going to kill you someday. What if I get chosen? I'm absolutely not going to sing a song I didn't even choose in front of that many people." Whining, I turn away from her and refuse to look into her puppy eyes, because I know that she will make me say yes without even saying anything. 

"I hope you know that I hate you." I turn my head skywards and say. "Dear God, why is it always me?"

She jumps up and down, her hands forming small fists, which she brings to shoulder level and then shakes. "So is this a yes?"

"If I have to. But this is the first and last time we will be going to that place and next time you will give me this kind of detail in advance!" My eyes give her a warning look, which intimidates her for a brief second, but of course, she is not going to let the excitement be taken from her.

"Oh yes, baby! We're going to have so much fun. Besides, you have one of the most beautiful voices I've ever heard, so I should be the one worried if she gets picked. And not to forget, as I mentioned before, there will also be some tasty dessert, if you know what I mean. So it will be a win-win." She winks at me and I give her an eye roll in response.

This is going to be something...