I watched her weakly walk towards the balustrade where Tony assisted her climbing the stairs. The stupid, drunk boy with the bloody hand hollered in pain and some of his friends merrily lifted him up and carried him outside the house in a supine position, mimicking a stretcher. They still hadn't grasped the seriousness of the wound, all of them equally intoxicated. I decided to not meddle in their foolishness and I was relieved to have them gone.

"Let's go turn off the music. That'll make the others leave," Isaac suggested sagely and the satisfaction I derived from switching off the noise was insurmountable. Even after the house became eerily quiet, I could still hear the music ringing in my ears. I desperately wished for my eardrums to be intact because I was still young and full of potential. Even though all the potential was sluggishly unused.

All the sticky people left unwillingly, grumbling and moaning at how the magical night had just begun. It was beyond my imagination to envision how much obliteration could be further caused. There were glass pieces dangerously scattered on the floor, the house smelled of urine mingled with sweat and the lovely sofa sets were covered in hopefully food stains and not what I thought they were.

I took a broom and pushed all the perilous pieces to a corner while Isaac opened all the windows to make the stifling space breathable.

"This was a nightmare," Tony said quietly, his eyes sweeping across the trashed room.

"How's Ally doing?" I asked, fanning myself.

"Not quite well . . . Uh, she's taking a shower right now. I was going to the kitchen to take out the cake from the fridge. She hasn't cut it yet. Thought it would make her happy," he said, nervously scratching his neck.

"That's perfect," Isaac said encouragingly. "Are you hungry, Ana? Let's grab something to eat from the kitchen."

"Yeah, I'm starving, although the smell here kills my appetite," I grouched and both of them nodded in solemn agreement.

So with Tony holding a large, square blueberry frosted cake in his arms and Isaac and I armed with some leftover slices of pizza and two bottles of cola, we barged in Allison's pastel pink room while jauntily singing the happy birthday song. We instantly halted in our tracks and singing when a startled Allison, all wet and as naked as the day she was born stepped out of the bathroom. All three of us squinted in confusion.

Allison shrieked in surprise, dashed back in and shut the bathroom door on us. I looked at Isaac who was already awkwardly looking at me, trying hard to not process what had just happened. Tony was as frigid as a Swiss mountain beside me as he whispered shakily, "Blessed Virgin Mary . . ."

"You're her boyfriend," I snidely reminded him.

From inside, we heard Allison cry out, "This is the worst day of my life! I'm a disgrace! Let this be my death anniversary, oh dear God, let me die on the cursed day that I was born!"

Swallowing the laughter that was savagely rising in me, I walked to the door and lied softly, "Hey Ally, we saw nothing, I swear on my mother. You ran so quickly inside that we couldn't see anything. And we're sorry, we should have knocked."

There was a long pause and I thought for a second that she had mindlessly drunk all the shampoo to kill herself, but then she finally said, "You swear on your mother?"

"Yes!" She didn't know that I despised my mother and that I didn't care about her life whatsoever. "Please dress up and come out now, we can forget all that happened today and start new."

There was another long pause, but I could hear the ruffling of her getting dressed. I did a thumbs up to the boys whose faces had turned crimson and I glared at Isaac, hinting at him to pull himself and Tony together. To act normal when Allison came out. Thankfully, he effortlessly understood me and murmured something to Tony in his ears. Tony obediently nodded, but his adamant blush just wouldn't disappear.

The door slowly creaked open and Allison emerged out in her silk pyjamas, her eyes averted to the floor and her dripping blonde hair shielding her from our gazes. I snapped my fingers at the boys and we all started singing the happy birthday song again, this time our chirpy tone faltering, but she didn't catch on. We all plopped down surrounding her and the cake on her queen-sized bed.

"Mariana, Tony and the guy from Bailey's Nuts who saw me naked---"

"Isaac," I promptly offered

"Isaac," she continued. "Thank you for all this even after such a difficult night. Especially Mariana . . . You helped me so much today even after I threw away your gift in the bin, called your clothes rags and your personality cruel---"

"There's no need to mention them twice now."

"---you still with me like the true best friend you are. I'm so sorry for how awful I was with you today!"

"I know you were stressed."

"That doesn't excuse my rude behaviour," she said fervently and stared right into my eyes. "I love you with all my heart, my one, only, true, best friend!"

I shifted uncomfortably on the bed, clearing my throat. Nobody had said 'I love you' to me before. I never gave any firm reason for anyone to want to express their love for me. "Alright, cool, cool. Let's cut the cake now and eat."

We ate heartedly with Allison melodramatically recounting the incidents of her birthday (also now known as calamity) and all three of us listening intently to her without picturing her naked. Or trying to. All the chatter made me completely forget about traitorous time and when I did accidentally glance at Isaac's watch, I was alarmed. It was over ten pm.

"I have to go." I suddenly sprang on my feet, Isaac following me without a second thought as we hurried towards the door. "Have a fun night, you both."

Allison and Tony innocently nodded at us and went back to helping themselves with cake and talking engagingly about baking techniques.

*

"I'm going to get murdered today by my dad." I huffed as I jogged on the dark street with Isaac next to me. "He's jobless. No, he has a job actually. To torment me."

"He's right in wanting you to come home early. You know it's pretty unsafe."

"Yeah, in my area, definitely," I replied, roughly grabbing Isaac's wrist and checking the time on his watch again. The action was futile because not much time had passed. I let his warm hand limply fall back. "But I wish he had a job you know. He won't be monitoring my every move like some surveillance organisation from a dystopian movie."

"I think he'll be equally worried even if he had a job," Isaac said positively and under the flickering street light, I saw the lightness in his pale grey eyes. The lightness of someone who didn't have to anticipate a reprimand after going back home. He was serenely smiling. "He'll get a job soon, I'm sure of it."

"I wish I was as optimistic as you, Isaac." We were now jogging through the squalid, poverty-stricken streets. The streetlights here denied serving their purpose. "I think we should walk now. I don't want us to fall in a ditch."

"Why don't you think the best out of situations?" Isaac asked as he and I reduced our pace, breathing heavily.

"Isn't it obvious?" I said flatly, letting out a tired breath and he shrugged. "When I think the worst out of a situation and when the situation doesn't turn out half as bad as I thought it would be, I'm overjoyed and relieved."

"And when it does turn out as bad as you thought it would be?"

"It's wonderful then too because I can revel in the joy of being right."

"Yet, you would certainly hope," he said with an unexpected surety. "However tiny that hope is, you hope that things would not go bad, but good."

"Maybe . . . Yeah, you can say that."

"So why are you deceiving yourself by expecting the worst?"

"Aren't hope and expectation two different concepts?"

"Closely interlinked, but in theory, I think so," he said thoughtfully while gazing at the concrete ground, his curls framing his forehead. Some of them fell mysteriously on his eyes. He looked up at the full moon, pushing his hair back and shaking his head like a furry dog. "I simply don't see why you're trying so hard to secure your future happiness while compromising your present happiness."

"I don't see it too," I said, walking in front of him. Then I turned back and grinned, having found something clever to remark. "I'm rarely happy in present times so I want happiness in the future. That's why."

"Are you happy now?"

I crossed my hands behind my back, looking playfully at him and walking backwards. "I was happy dancing on the lawn."

With you.