I woke up the next morning to the sound of my alarm clock going off. I groaned very loudly and pushed it off the table next to my bed. I put my hand to my head and groaned again.

" Damn it, my head hurts. " I softly moaned and got up out of bed with the feeling that I was going to be very sick. After grimacing upon looking at myself in the mirror, I walked out of my room to where Sarah and the rest of the girls were in the kitchen.

" Aspirin? Coffee? " I made a slow plea as I sat down on one of the stools in the kitchen.

" We got ya covered. " Tabitha handed me a steaming cup of coffee and Helen put two aspirin in front of me with a glass of water.

I swallowed the two pills effortlessly and started sipping my coffee. " Do I look as bad as I think I do? " I grumbled softly.

" Yep. You look like complete and total shit. " Amanda was never afraid to tell me the truth and I appreciated that from her.

" Thanks. " I grimaced once more and ran into the bathroom to throw up.

" Isn't she ever going to learn? " Helen asked my friends. " Drinking just isn't something for her to do, because she overdoes it sometimes. "

" She was actually better than other times last night. " Sarah offered an encouraging thought. " She didn't invite Nick in or anything.."

" Yeah, but it's illegal in the first place! " Tabitha sighed with a sprig of disappointment and everyone turned to look at me when I came out of the bathroom.

" Please. Remind me that alcohol is a bad thing? " I leaned up against the wall.

" Always did. Still do, and always will. " Helen saluted to me, and grinned. " So I wanna hear...what were the other guys like? Especially AJ? "

" Oh, " I laughed. " They were really nice, and surprisingly all single. I found out from Nick on the airplane that AJ broke up with his most recent one of nine months, Kevin and Howie weren't really ever serious about anyone, and Brian was dumped by his steady! But, I gotta admit, they're exactly as they've always seemed. They're really down to earth. " I glanced across the faces of my anticipating friends. " Oh yah, I told them about you guys. " I grinned and casually walked over to my stool and sat down.

" What did they say? " Helen plopped down next to me and the other three gathered around me.

I laughed. " They think it'll be cool to meet you. Nick's supposed to call me, but by judging how much he drank as well, he's probably still sleeping. "

My friends were all smiles and giggles as they discussed meeting their dream guys and I sat back happily. " Lauren, did I ever tell you that I love you? " Sarah grinned and put her arm around me.

" No, but I'll bet you'll love me even more when Kevin looks into your eyes with those big eyes of his and smiles. " I grinned as she happily melted away. " Don't worry, I'll set up a...a um...what the heck do you call it when five people go out on dates together? " I looked puzzled for a second.

" Quin-dating? " Tabby suggested.

We all laughed. " Sure, why not! I can't think of anything better. " Amanda smiled and I groaned.

" I can't think. " I put my hand to my head once again.

They all smiled at me comfortingly. " Go take a hot shower and you'll feel better in a little bit. " Sarah pointed me in the direction of the bathroom.

" Thanks. " I blew my bangs out of my face with a long breath upwards and went into the bathroom to take a shower, hoping that it would rejuvenate me.

Once I came out, I actually felt better and went to get changed into a tank and some shorts. I smiled as I walked into the living room. All four of them were sitting on our couch. " When did the furniture arrive..? " I scratched my wet head.

They laughed. " It came while you were in the shower! " Helen laughed at me as I pulled my hair up into a clip.

" I guess I really am completely oblivious. " I shrugged and sat down on the arm of the couch. " I think we're gonna need some new patterns soon. These old ones are starting to bug me. "

" I agree, but it'll have to wait! We have a lot of other stuff to do with this place. First objective: paint. " Sarah immediately took charge of writing out a list of things to do.

" Okay, let's go shopping for home...erm, stuff! " I was still slightly out of it.

They all agreed. " Let me grab my keys. " Helen went into her room.

A week ahead of time Helen and Sarah had driven their cars up. Amanda, Tabby, and I were going to look for new cars in New York because we sold our other ones back in Florida. However, that was the last thing on my list.

" I'll get mine too and we can take two cars. " Sarah ventured into her own room.

" We'll just wait here. " I grinned and looked at my watch. It was going on 10 o'clock. I was sure that Nick was still sleeping, but I turned the answering machine on before we left and I recorded a new message. " Hey! You've reached the place of Sarah, Helen, Amanda, Tabby, and Lauren! If you wanna leave Sarah a message: press 1, Helen: press 2, Amanda: press 3, Tabby: press 4, and Lauren, that's me! Press button 5! Have a good day and thanks for calling us! " I clicked the off button and replayed my message.

" That was so gay. " Tabby and Amanda laughed at my comment.

" Come on, we don't have time to perfect it. " I went out the door with my friends and we got into the cars. I drove with Helen and Amanda.

We drove around until we found a store that looked like it would have a good selection of paint and went inside after parking the cars outside.

Each one of us started picking up the sample cards and immediately became attached to our favorite colors. " Damn, we're gonna have a really colorful apartment. " Tabby looked at all of our choices.

Luckily, each of us had chosen a pastel color, but they were all different. Sarah had picked up a light blue, Amanda had chosen a turquoise color, Tabby was set on her lilac, Helen liked her pale yellow, and I had my light green. We spent a few minutes finding our matching cans on paint and we decided on a milky white for the rest of the apartment and each of our bedrooms would be different colors.

Once we made our purchases, we cheerfully made our way back to the apartment. The song, " Larger than Life " came on the radio as we were driving back.

Sarah saw this as an automatic cue and pulled up next to Helen's on the road. Both cars turned the radio up very loudly and we all began singing and drove like that the entire way back to the apartment.

" Ya know, one of these days we are going to get pulled over for disturbing the peace! " Tabby laughed as we pulled into the parking lot of our apartment complex.

We all laughed and followed her in.