What am I going to do on a saturday night after deciding I'm not going to the dance that all my friends are going to and when my brother already have date plans with someone - I honestly was surprised to find out he's going out, I thought he wouldn't find the time. It's good for him, though.

But I had to ask this to myself:

Am I gonna die alone?

I sat on one of the chairs in our library, too distracted to focus on the book in my hand.

I looked around the dusty room and I felt my heart slowly break as memories came flooding in my brain.

I remembered my dad reading stories to me here, in this very place.

I remembered my mom doing research to find inspiration for her next piece to put in the art gallery.

I remembered watching my dad doing his work here because I've asked him to come with me.

I remembered them both helping me with a hard science project.

I remembered my dad smiling at me as I read a book aloud while he worked, contented to be there in that moment with me.

I miss him. I miss my mom. I even miss my brother. I miss the way we were. I love that I can count on him to help me but I'd give up our bond if only we can have our parents back. Most of all, I just wish we had more time.

I closed the book shut and tried to breathe calmly, begging myself not to cry. I hate crying. I'm supposed to be over it, I'm supposed to be getting better, it's not supposed to hurt this bad anymore. Here in this room, my parents felt so alive and I had to get out.

I bumped into Margarita when she was coming in while I was coming out of the library.

"Oh, ms. Hannah.. Your friend called and asked to give you this message." She said, trying not to look into my eyes. She probably saw the tears fighting to fall. She handed me a paper and then slowly walked away.

"Um, thanks.."

It's the cellphone number of my friend I had a maths class with, Dennice. I took out my phone and quickly saved it on my phone before sending her a text.

'Hey Den, it's Hannah, you called?'

After a couple of minutes, right after I got to my room, she replied.

'Hey Hannah, I heard you weren't going to the dance later and I just thought I'd invite you out, me and some of my friends are going to the gallery to celebrate my 18th birthday, wanna come with?'

Hmm. I didn't even think anyone else wasn't going to that dance aside from me. I guess there are people getting bored to go to those as well. After all, the first week formal was just the first, there are a lot more parties to be held at Paul Hall.

Dennice and I had know each other since middle school, we occasionally had a class or two but we never had the same group of friends. We spoke to each other occationally, usually about concerts or bands we both liked so I considered her a friend but we didn't hang out a lot.

I had nothing against her and galleries so I decided to come.

'Sounds nice, count me in.'

I quickly typed in the message and instantly recieved a reply.

'Great, pick you up at 8-ish. see ya! xo D'

I put the phone back into my pocket and immidiately looked in my closet to see what I'd wear at a gallery. Funny, I never pegged Dennice as an admirer of art. I guess I don't really know her all that much.

By the time the clock turned to eight, I was waiting by the door and I started thinking of who Dennice hung out with then remembered they're the band fans as well, which is one thing we all had in common. Den came a few minutes later, I saw her from the window, her porche was parked right infront of our house.

She rolled down the window on the shotgun side and an attractive boyish brunnette grinned at me. "Hey Hannah!"

I grinned back and sat shotgun. "Hi!" I chirped and handed her a small box. "Happy birthday!"

She didn't wait and opened it immidiately and her grin got wider. It's a bunch of wristbands of bands we both liked, I had a lot of those and decided to give her a few that I barely wore.

"Oh, thanks!" She said happily. "Now I feel bad I didn't get you anything for your birthday."

My last birthday was a funny memory. Because my friends were.. well, my friends. they decided to throw me an exclusive children's party - because they thought that's the best way to celebrate my eighteenth birthday - where no one aside from the six of us was invited and we had to wear clothes designed for kids. I had no idea about their plan so they had to pick a dress for me and it was horrible. I felt like I was chucky's bride. It was the best party ever.

And no one else was invited so I felt bad that Den invited me now.

"No worries. That's okay."

"Well, thanks." She told me. "And sorry the invite was late. I thought you were going to the dance and I didn't want to make you choose on which one to go to." She explained as she pulled out of parking and headed to her party. "When the word got around that you weren't going because of that doofus Clint I thought I'd invite you like I originally planned."

"Well, you did come to my rescue, I had a boring saturday night ahead of me actually." I said truthfully.

She grinned.

"Glad to be of service." She said. "You know, I wasn't even sure if you wanted to come, celebrating at a bar and all.."

Bar? what bar?

I was going to ask what she was talking about but she continued talking.

"You don't have to worry, though. The gallery is the fanciest bar 'round town, in hotel talk, it's kinda like a five star hotel."

Oh my goodness. A bar called the gallery? I'm actually going to a bar? I mean, I don't have a problem with bars but ever since my parent's deaths and we found out it was caused by a drunk driver, I became very scared of drunk people.

I was frozen but managed a smile. Why had I not asked further about where she was celebrating before agreeing?

Who the heck would name a bar 'the gallery'?

When the bar got into view, I couldn't help but roll my eyes. Sure enough it was really called 'the Gallery' what asshole came up with such a confusing name? Whoever that asshole was, it's his fault I'm here.

Den's friends met us at the front. They said they're glad I joined and stuff as we went in. Good thing about the bar is that it's pretty calm.. unlike how my friends described it. "This place is kind of exclusive, that's why we like it."

She probably meant that only rich assholes can hit on you here. Which sucked even more cause rich guys are much worse, they think they're all that and they stop at nothing to get you.

"Hannah, baby, you look smokin'" I bit back a curse because that sounded familiar. Ashton Blake, one of the school players. I had just mentioned rich assholes and one magically appeared before me. Great. A magic trick that will do me no good.

"Leave me alone." I warned, telling him with my eyes that an 'or else' followed that sentence. He was a football player and was surprisingly a bigger asshole that their quarterback, Aaron Wade. Ashton's like the spawn of the devil, nobody alive could possibly be worse than he is.

One of Den's friends shoved Blake away. "Who invited this dickhead?" Ashton wasn't famous for being a nice guy which basically means that everybody besides his friends and a handful of stupid girls hated his guts.

"What? You own this bar, baby? I can come here whenever I want." He responded, throwing his arms in response.

"Yeah, well, this is our table so fuck off." Jessica retorted, pushing the guy farther away and he smirked before finally leaving us alone.

"Asshole." Jess muttered and smiled apologetically at me. Okay, this is not as bad as I've thought, this really isn't like the bars Mitch told me about. This is calmer. And about a few hours later I was actually having fun, nothing's better than drinking at eighteen, like some weight had been lifted off, well, that's how it felt for me, at least. Also a little scary at first because the guilt of being underage was burning inside me.

"Hannah's round!" Andrea chirped, a little tipsy. I laughed as she raised her glass, being all pouty like a kid.

It's my second round and I've already memorized all of their drinks. After making my way to the bar and ordered all our drinks, the idiot made another appearance.

"Drunk enough to come home with me?" Ashton asked teasingly but something tells me that's really what he was waiting for.

What did I say? All drunk people bring trouble. It's a proven fact that I learned the hard way, alcohol even cost me my parents and I had a moment of hate towards myself for even drinking. This is the reason why I had no parents and I'm starting to like it? I shook my head and tried to remove my thoughts.

I faced Ashton instead and glared at him. "No, but I'm still sober enough to know that you're an asshole that better leave me alone." I hated getting hit on, because it only means that when a guy sees me he thinks he could get me to bed. And that's just arrogance and a bit scary.

"Feisty, just the way I like it, baby." He said, winking at me.

"Hey, fuck off." A guy said, appearing next to me, flicking Blake's head.

I turned to face him, he had a long dark unruly hair, gray eyes and that typical handsome guy look that anyone would fall for. He was wearing a black tank top and promoted about half a dozen necklaces and bracelets. He looked cute.. but he also looked like a jerk, it must be because of how proud he stood, as if he was the king of the bar. It's probably just because he's older. Well.. he looked older anyway.

"I got dibs, man." Blake replied drunkly. It sounded like he was trying to whisper the words but the guy must be way out of his head right now that he couldn't even try to whisper.

"Dibs? This a game? Fuck off you loser and shove that sleeping pills on your own mouth instead of using it on innocent girls." He said shoving Blake away. I looked at Blake's hand and he was, indeed, holding a bottle of pills.

Pills?

And how did he think he was going to use that on me? Just how does he think that's gonna work out. I couldn't hide my irritation and started to go after him. The older guy stopped me. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, hey, chill.. the guy'll pass out on his own, don't even waste you time."

I sent daggers through my eyes before Ashton finally left. I would've been grateful to the guy if he didn't check me out after Ashton left.

"No thank you?" He asked, with a smirk playing on his lips. Oh so now he's got the 'dibs' on me, is that it?

I studied him for awhile.

"Thank you." I said with a hint of ungratefulness, took the drinks I got and left him alone there to find another bait because he may be hot but I'm not interested.

He frowned for a little while, probably wondering why I didn't seem too grateful.

"How about I buy you a drink?" He asked, following me. Guy can't take a hint.

I stopped to face him. "Look, I'm thankful you stood up for me and that you made that ass leave and all but will you just leave me alone now? I can handle things on my own."

"Look.. I did help you out, how about you let me buy you one drink?"

"That is when I realize that chivalry is truly dead." I said but he probably didn't even know what 'chivalry' is, he kinda looked stupid.

He spread his arms and shrugged. "I'm not your knight in shining armor, we're not in the medieval times and I just asked to buy you a drink, what's wrong with that?"

I can't deal with this nonsense. I just took a deep, exasperated breath and then I went back to our table. Unfortunately for me, the stranger apparently could not take a hint and actually went over our table and even sat next to me.

He smiled charmingly at the group I was with. "Don't mind me girls, I just got attracted to this lil' lady," He said pointing at me "but apparently, she's not impressed."And apparently, that was enough for them to ignore him and get back to their conversation.

This is the time I long for my best friends, if I was with them.. they'd shoo the guy away or the guy would probably even be going after someone else. Maybe Amanda, she's the most charismatic one in our group. Snapping back to my thoughts, I looked at the guy in total confusion, "What the hell is wrong with you?" I asked honestly.

He shrugged.

"Just tryin' to figure you out."

Olivia, another one of Dennice's friend said, "Seriously, there's just no escape for you Hannah." She shook her head as if she actually felt annoyed on my behalf. "If you went to the formal, Clint's there and now you're here and some guy's still flirting with you. It's like you're a playboy magnet."

Stranger faked hurt. "Some guy, that's harsh." he said and looked at me again. "Hey, this 'some guy's' name is Will." He offered me a hand and pouted when I didn't take it."Come on, It's just a hand, I wasn't offering my body." He joked. "Unless you'd prefer that more."

The rest of the group laughed but it didn't sound funny to me, it sounded like an invitation that I could take and if rejected, his game's not totally lost because he made it sound like a joke. Yes, I'm thinking all this carefully.

"Seriously? You won't give me even just a shake hand?" He said with a pout. "I expected you to be a little more grateful since I just saved your ass from that prick that had almost slipped a pill down your drink."

"I could've handled him alone." I pointed out.

"Sure." He replied, sarcasm filled the word. "So, who's Clint?" He wasn't asking me, she looked at the group because he probably knew they'd say.

"He's none of your business." I said.

"It's her ex." Olivia said.

"Oh, well, if he's not leaving you alone, I do fake dates." He offered, looking at me this time.

"Yeah? Do you do fake strangers too? That way, you can pretend to leave me alone." I asked sarcastically and my friends laughed.

"You're trying to piss me off but I'm just liking you more." He informed me. He turned to my friends. "How do I impress her?"

It was Dennice who answered. "You can leave her alone so she'd like you better." I was thankful she's trying to help me.

Finally, he said. "You know what, I'm gonna leave this up to fate. I'm gonna see you again, I know it. And when that time comes, I'm gonna ask you out."

"Sure, whatever. If that'll make you leave me alone." And I meant it. I have no interest in guys who thinks they're such a chick magnet that they could get any girl with enough patience.

He smiled a smile that just made me hold my breath for a minute. god damn, the boy is hot.

"Just wait and see." He said then left.