Vira's eyes widened, and she jumped up and down beside me. "Oh my fricken God he's actually gonna ask her!" she whispered, grinning manically. I blinked.

"Ask who what?" Kira looked at me like I was an idiot.

"My God. I barely ever hang out with these people and I get it!"

I decided it was probably safer just to remain silent and try to figure out what they were talking about with my own logical little brain.

Chris was speaking again. "Could I get my wonderful girlfriend, Tyla, up here with me?" I watched as Tyla made her way out of the crowd, her hair, which had been pulled out of the chopsticks by Chris earlier, curling around her shoulders. She jumped up onto the stage, looking a bit confused.

He pulled her beside him at the mic, and then, grinning self-consciously, dropped to one knee in front of her. I got it right away, then.

From beside me, Vira sighed, and yelled "Just get it over with!!"

Chris laughed nervously, and pulled a small black velvet box from his pocket. "Well, as I've been told to hurry this up," he took Tyla's hand between both of his own. "Tyla Keola Kalau, will you marry me?"

There was a short silence, everyone in the club seemingly holding their breath. Tyla opened her mouth, however she never got a chance to answer. Beside me, Kira made a strangled gasping sound, clutching her throat, her eyes wide and panicked. "Kira?!" Vira pushed passed me to support the older girl.

"Somebody call an ambulance!" Gabriel called out over the confused patrons. Tyla and Chris bounded off the stage, coming to join us. Kira's face was turning red, and she was shaking, desperately trying to take in air.

I backed away, feeling useless. Most of the club-goers had lost interest, either too drunk or too heartless to care that Kira was having some sort of violent attack.

"Does she have asthma?" Tyla questioned the world in general.

"Where'd Carmin and Neil go?" asked Vira. "They'd know better than any of us if she does and what to do if this is an attack."

"I think they left," I offered up, feeling very awkward and out of the loop.

"Of course they did," muttered Vira.

"Has someone phoned that ambulance?" Chris called out.

"They're on their way," a tall, gawky boy near me replied, staring at Kira's struggles for air with the same fascinated horror that one would give a particularly bad car accident on the side of the road.

"Should we get her outside?" asked Vira uncertainly, her body tense and rigid with the anticipation of action.

"Wouldn't the cold air be a shock to her system or something?" Chris asked.

None of us knew what to do, that was fairly obvious. "Screw this. Let's take her outside, it's smokey in here," Tyla decided, taking Kira's arm and leading her toward the door through which I had reentered not five minutes before. We all trailed after them, Gabriel appearing a bit affronted that Vira had seemingly lost all interest in him.

Outside was cool, with a light rain misting the street in a halo of murky gray water. Cars whipped past, kicking up mud and water in their wake which splattered harmlessly back into the sludge of the road from which it had originated. Looking around, I wondered where the ambulance was. All I could see on either side was the movement of dark shapes that were cars and trucks plodding through the wet, mucky streets on their way to an unknown destination. On the sidewalks were the usual crowds of people, pan handlers, stoners, whores, and then of course all the regular folk making sure to avoid the former. I had always been one of those people. The golden citizen who didn't want a single scratch on their perfect view of life and therefore turned a blind eye to all that was going on around them. Now, standing with the gasping Kira, and the very Goth looking Gabriel and Vira, with Tyla and Chris both cursing into cell phones while trying to keep Kira calm, I could see the Golden Ones taking that little bit of extra time to cross the street or choose another destination to avoid us. I wiped the accumulated rainwater off my face and hair and tried not to wince.

The ambulance pulled up, scattering vehicles and pedestrians before it like some mammoth beast of myth. Kira, still struggling for breath, was taken in immediately, Vira jumping in beside her, looking worried. Tyla and Chris were talking to the paramedics, explaining what had happened, and Gabriel was nowhere in sight.

I walked away, feeling the rain strike down on my exposed skin, chilling my flesh and making me wish for a jacket. The crowd milled around me, sucking me up into the flood of normalcy as soon as I was away from the dwindling group on the sidewalk. I hailed a taxi, curling my legs under me as we pulled out into traffic, watching as I became just another vehicle in the struggle to get to a destination.

"Cold out," the cabby muttered in my general direction.

"Uh huh."

I entered my brother's house, a little while later, shivering at the cold, emptiness of the place being that my brother and his wife were on holiday. Sighing, I dropped my purse on the sofa, and it was only then that I remembered leaving my books at Tyla and Vira's apartment. Angrily kicking off my shoes, I stalked over to the phonebook on the counter. And of course then I remembered that I didn't even know their last names. I tried to remember what Chris had said up on stage, however nothing came and I slumped down into a kitchen chair, feeling dejected. I didn't have a car. I could barely remember where the apartment building was and doubted I could find it again, and I had no way of contacting them, nor they me.

I leaned my head down on the table, and contemplated the situation. The best I could hope for, I decided, was that maybe Tyla would check in the front of one of the books and find my name. With this thin strand of hope playing in my mind, I dozed off.