I crossed my legs, getting more immersed into the book I was currently reading. I bit my lip trying to hold in the shriek that threatened to escape me. The poor escapee was about to be caught. I felt goosebumps raise on my skin as I was just about to turn the page, but was ripped out of my trance as a steaming cup of hot chocolate was slammed onto the table.

I looked up startled and saw Mrs.Walters giving me a sheepish smile. I felt my irritation at being interrupted fade as soon as it had appeared.
"You've been sitting there all day reading, so I thought I might bring you something to drink." She said, and I thanked her, offering her a small smile as I blew on the hot chocolate to rid it of the steam that rose from it.

"How's Cyrus?" I asked her, her husband a sweet elderly man, had recently been feeling very sick, he hated skipping out on work, but I hadn't seen him at the cafe in a while.

"He's getting better, slowly but surely and I'm fine Raine." She added as I frowned at her sympathetically. She was trying to look strong, but I knew how concerned she was for her husband. Maggie wouldn't look you in the eye if she was lying, and currently her grassy green eyes were darting all around the cafe, everywhere but me.

I reached out to straighten her name tag, Cyrus had new ones made for us very recently, they were outlined chocolate brown like the walls of the cafe, and were beige like all the furniture. He'd been so proud of them, initially he'd wanted ones that looked like little coffee mugs but Maggie wasn't on board with the idea. Apparently she was too cool for cute name tags. She gave me a grateful smile, but like all of her smiles lately, this one wasn't reaching her eyes.

I'd always envied her and Cyrus, the bond they shared was simply beautiful, I always hoped to have that one day. But then again looking at guys nowadays it was highly unlikely I would find someone. I always wanted a real gentleman, someone sweet and sincere, but guys nowadays were nothing like that so perhaps I would just adopt a few cats.

"Not that I mind you being here, but honey shouldn't you be out with friends? After all it is your birthday tomorrow, you're turning 21 and that's a big year." Maggie said to me.
"Maggie you know I don't like going out much. Sophie's been pestering me all month to allow her to throw me a big birthday bash. I'm not gonna do anything big for my birthday. Staying home in my pyjamas, watching movies and eating popcorn sounds like the perfect birthday to me." I said and she shook her head at me about to respond, when the little bell at the door rung signalling a customer had come in. She left to attend to the customer, and I got back to my reading.

I looked up from my book to see the cafe nearly empty, some customers had left their empty mugs loitered on the beige table tops, and some were careless enough to even throw their take away cups on the floors. Some days the dark hardwood floors looked as if our light blue take away cups were purposely put there as decorations, due to how many of them there were.

Glancing outside I was surprised to see it was pitch dark outside, there were so many lamps all over the cafe keeping it dimly lit, that I hadn't even noticed. I quickly gathered my stuff, getting ready to walk home. I set my empty ceramic mug on the countertop beside the trash can, where we had even put a sign asking customers to leave them here, but unfortunately the poor sign went quite ignored. I waved a quick bye to Maggie promising her she would see me tomorrow in time for my shift, before heading out the door into the cold. I'd long learned not to offer to help in the cafe when I wasn't scheduled. Cyrus and Maggie took offers like that more as a comment on how old they were, than a helpful gesture.

The cafe was adorable, but it wasn't located in the safest of areas, especially at night since it was completely isolated. Not that this town really had a high crime rate, but it wasn't smart to take chances. I walked quickly feeling my skin prickle with the feeling of being watched, that was one of the reasons I didn't like the dark. This certain paranoia that I was being watched was unavoidable. I started walking a bit faster once I heard the gravel crunching behind me, my heart rate picking up in fear. I walked at a brisk pace reaching my little apartment in a matter of minutes.

I struggled with the keys sighing in relief when I heard the familiar click of the lock opening and pushed open the door stepping into my warm apartment. I set my bag on the stand at the side slipping off my boots and coat, hanging up my coat on the coat rank. One of the perks of not living with your parents was even if you left your shoes right in front of the door, your mother couldn't yell at you.

I walked further into the apartment eager to just sink into the warmth and comfort of my bed after that terrifying walk. I felt my heart stop as I heard a groan come from my living room. Looking around for a weapon, I spotted a large bright red umbrella with black hearts, and grabbed that. My stature wasn't exactly intimidating so I would need the weapon to scare the intruders. I wasn't completely thin, perhaps just on the slender to average side, the amount of sugar I consumed daily ensured that, but for some strange reason I had always appeared to be petite, soft somehow. That wasn't exactly the ideal frame for intimidation and being 5'4 didn't help either.

I walked into the living room cautiously and slowly despite how fast my heart was racing. Looking around the corner my heart skipped a beat as I saw the top of a head from behind the couch. Giving up trying to be cautious, I raced towards the couch with what I deemed a battle cry, with the umbrella raised high in the air. A cringeworthy screech escaped my lips as I felt the umbrella connect with the intruder's head, I wasn't a particularly violent person, so this was completely new to me.

He frantically yelled for me to stop in a voice that sounded quite familiar, but in my adrenalin driven state I ignored it, bashing in the intruder's skull with the umbrella. I suddenly heard a giggle confusing me enough to stop trying to knock out the murderer.

The lights flickered on and I saw my best friend Sophie standing there giggling while Jay held his hands to his head scowling at me.

"What are you guys doing here?" I yelled absolutely exasperated.

"Why did you try to kill me?" My friend Jay yelled looking completely offended that I had hit him with my umbrella. In my panicked state the umbrella looked like a great weapon, but now in the light, it looked pretty harmless.

"You were sitting in my room behind the couch, how did you get in?" I asked still a little freaked out trying to calm my racing heart. He had the audacity to ask why he'd been attacked, when he had broke into my home. Although they both probably had their own copies of my keys. I was being a little hypocritical I did have copies to their houses as well, but I didn't hide behind couches and give them heart attacks.

"We wanted to be the first ones to wish you happy birthday." My friend Sophie chimed in.

"By giving me a heart attack?" I asked my voice shrill.

"Oh you don't get to act like that, you almost killed me." Jay said, clearly still mad.

"Stop whining you cry baby, it's a soft Steve Madden umbrella, it can't even keep out rain let alone hurt a person." Sophie told Jay rolling her eyes.

"But how did you know we were here?." Sophie asked turning to me.

"I heard a groan, and thought there were murderers in the house so I grabbed the umbrella and got ready to defend myself." I explained my face flushing a little at the way that sounded out loud. I needed to stop reading those murder mysteries, they were getting to my head. Although attacking someone you think to be an intruder is quite reasonable, I should have probably tried to get a look at the person before beginning my attack. Thank god it wasn't my parents visiting, I'd be grounded till death if I hit my mom with an umbrella.

"Seriously you think someone has snuck in so you grab a soft little umbrella with hearts on it and run towards them screaming like a mad woman?" Sophie asked incredulously, making me blush scarlet.

"Well anyways Happy Birthday baby pie." Jay said wrapping me up in a bone breaking embrace while Sophie whined in the background, for apparently they were supposed to say it together.

They had brought an adorable looking chocolate cake. The fudge was so dense and sugary you could feel the granular crunch of the sugar in between your teeth, just as I liked my cake. Although Sophie was usually invested in trying to improve Jay and I's diet so we wouldn't die years before her, she knew birthdays were too special to eat healthy food on.

As we ate, Jay got Sophie and I caught up on all the recent gossip, most of which was most probably a bit too wild to be true in our small town, or really even possible, but we listened to him all the same. Jay was such an animated storyteller, his bright green eyes would enlarge to the size of saucers as he approached the climactic parts of his story. He'd move his head around so much Sophie would have to reach over to fix his hair back into place for him, and he'd pass her a quick silly grin whenever she did in appreciation.

Jay and Sophie were opposites, Jay was loud and obnoxious while Sophie was super protective and much more proper but they got along so well. Sophie was basically the mother figure of the group, and Jay needed a lot more mothering than I did most of the time.

"Raine, look at this." Jay said breaking me out of my thoughts and I refocused onto the two, catching sight of what Jay's holding out and my cheeks turn bright red immediately. Of course that made my friends laugh, because apparently I was much too naive, but a man using a teddy bear to cover up his doodly doo was a bit embarrassing.

"Jay stop searching up weird stuff on my laptop, my google search history is pretty bad as it is, the last thing I need is you searching up more weird stuff. The government can look into that you know." I tell him, my voice growing hushed as I get to the last part and Jay's eyes widen.

"R-really?" He squeaks out, and Sophie nods in response making Jay gulp.
"Remind me, I've got to do some search history deleting, and searching of normal people things when I go home tomorrow." Jay said and Sophie opened her mouth to say something but I shook my head at her immediately, making her mouth close. She shrugged, reaching for one of the forks, and dug straight into the actual cake, not even bothering to cut a slice. Well it would just make her feel bad if she was the only one eating that way, so I was basically obligated to do so as well.

A/N-----------------------------------------------
Cover credits go solely to @Chatachino for the amazing cover. Also please do not copy this book, or translate it. We all have minds of our own please use yours and come up with your own book, don't be as low as to steal somebody else's work. I will find out, I will report it and your book will be deleted if you do. It's a pointless hassle that can be very easily avoided. If you see any copying or translations of this book please let me know, I have not allowed anyone to do so. Also for my rereaders it's amazing that you want to reread the book but please don't comment any spoilers at all even with warnings. Enjoy reading!