We walk into Starbucks and wait in line. We chat a bit and soon enough we are being called up to the register.

"Iced Chai Tea Latte," Kayla says.

"Very Berry Hibiscus please," says Calli.

"A Grande in a Venti of Pikes Peak for me," Gabbi says.

"And just this," I say placing a bottle of strawberry lemonade down on the counter.

"Really Mand," Gabbi questions.

"Yea, that's it I say to the Barista." I pay for the drinks, silencing the girls insists to pay for their own, and we walk over to wait.

"Logan alert," Kayla says nudging us towards the door where Logan walked in with

"Wait Bailie?"

"Yea she's the queen bee now," Gabbi says.

"Sierra and Mia are her little minions," Callie pipes in.

"Mandi," a Barista calls out. The girls grab their drinks and we head towards the door.

"Mandi?" I hear as we are walking out the door, "Thought your parents hated you enough to send you halfway across the world." I hear Bailie sneer.

"Yea but as you can see I'm back now," I say.

"Still a bitch I see," she laughs.

"You haven't changed at all either, except for the fake tan, blonde hair that probably took enough bleach to clean up a murder scene. And oh wait is that a pimple" I say. She freaks out and runs to the bathroom, and I smirk at Logan. He glares at me and we laugh as we walk out of the Starbucks.

"Well the shy, polite Bailie is definitely gone," I say.

"Yea, she's a total bitch now," Kayla says.

"And if you haven't noticed her and Logan are kinda a thing," Gabbi adds.

"I still don't ship it," Calli says.

"Says the one who ships like everyone," Kayla retorts. We all burst out in laughter and after a few more minutes we are walking through my front door.

"Albeana I'm home, oh and I picked up a few stragglers along the way," I call out into the seemingly empty house. Suddenly Albeana is flying around the corner and engulfs the girls in a hug.

"Oh my gosh girls it has been so long. How are you all? Oh I'm so happy to see you all here again, whatever you want I'll make or go buy. Oh this is so nice," Albeana says, grinning from ear to ear.

The girls all exchange pleasantries with Albeana and help me hobble my way upstairs to the loft.

"Your room has not changed," Gabbi declares as we toss our stuff down on any available floor space and throw ourselves onto my bed.

"So," I say breaking the silence, "what happened when I was gone?" We all laugh at my extremely vague question, but nonetheless the girls start talking.

"Well Logan's parents got divorced..." Kayla starts.

"Yeah, Vera picked me up from the airport," I tell them, "she told me then."

"Hence the absence of Carmen," Callie adds

"Don't remind me," I add.

"Well Logan is pretty much the same, just hotter," Gabbi gushes.

"And you're still boy crazy," Kayla retorts.

"Really Gabbi," I scoff at her remark at Logan's 'hotness.'

"What he is," Gabbi responds rolling her eyes.

"Ok, ok," Callie chuckles, "Bailie changed two years ago, as soon as we started high school."

"Shocking," I feel my eyes automatically roll.

"Yeah, she dyed her hair, started tanning herself and brainwashed Sierra and Mia."

"They actually used to be nice," I say.

"I know, but popularity is a bitch," Kayla deadpans.

We all laugh and just sit in silence for a second appreciating the fact that we are all finally back together. These moments make breaking my knee a little less devastating.

"Besides that nobody has really changed, friend groups are the same, and nobody else has moved up the social ladder," Gabbi sums up.

"What about boyfriends?" I smirk.

"They are all still nonexistent," Callie responds, "but we were able to get dates to the welcome back dance, and that ended up in slow dancing and kisses."

"Oh My God, who?" I question, shocked my girls finally had their first kisses.

"Nate," Gabbi says pointing to Kayla, "Jordan," she adds moving her finger over to Callie, "and Blake," she finishes pointing back at herself.

"Awwww," I exclaim. I've always been the romantic in the group.

"What about you, hook up with any Irish boys?" Gabbi asks.

"No, you know me," I smiled.

"Oh that's bullshit and you know it," Kayla exclaims.

"I'm serious, training was all we ever had time to do and all of the guys had girlfriends or saw me ask their little sister, courtesy of me being the youngest in my training group."

"I swear you're only one of us who could read sappy romance books all day, but you don't even take the chance to hook up with hot Irish guys," Callie rolls her eyes.

"Exactly, I'm not just gonna hook up with some random guy, I want an actual relationship."

"I swear your most innocent, non-innocent person I know," this time it was Gabbi rolling her eyes.

"That made no sense," I laugh.

"Whatever," Kayla joins in on the laughter, "can we order pizza? "

"Yeah I'll call, sausage and pineapple?" I ask.

"Always," the girls respond instantly.

"Ok I'll call, you guys change," I call out walking out of my room. I stand on the landing pulling up the number for Pizza Hut. With the pizza ordered I turn around the walk back into my room only to hear the front door swing open. I snap me head towards the sound, knowing neither of my parents would be home so early, to see a man who looked about my parents age standing in the doorway. I noticed a bottle of red wine in his hand, and as he closed the door I saw Albeana look up at him, then look back down at whatever she was cooking. It's not like her to not acknowledge a guest, but this guy seems to be pretty comfortable here. I'd be willingly to bet he's been here before. I still don't say anything, I just watch him move to sit on the couch and look down at his phone.

"Hey Mandi did you call already," I hear Kayla say from behind me. Turning around to face the girls, I see mystery man look up at me.

"Uh, yeah," I stutter, looking back at the man downstairs. "I'll be back in a second." There is a murmur of "ok's" behind me as I start my slow descent to the living room, where the man seems unbothered by me or my friends. "Hi," I start causing him to make eye contact with me, "do I know you?"

"The better question would be do I know you, Mary and I have been seeing each other for over a year now and I have never seen you around." As he says this he never breaks eye contact, he is obviously secure about his relationship with my mom.

"Well, you see I'm her daughter, Mandi, and I just got back from Ireland yesterday, that would explain why you have never seen me. So back to the question of who are you?"

"Oh, so you're Mandi," he smirks. "Mary has told me a lot about you, should't you be in Ireland for another four years?" The smirk never drops off his face.

"Well as you can see," I gesture down to my knee, "I broke my knee, so I decided to come home." His face falls and mine quickly turns up into a smirk.

"Well then. Since Mary should be home in a few minutes I suggest you hobble back up to where you came from and don't disturb us."

I say nothing as i turn around, purposely bumping into the coffee table that now held the bottle of wine, it rocks back and forth and falls to the ground before whatever his name is can catch it. Feigning innocence I turn around and apologize before using my three legs to get back to my room. Gabbi, Kayla, and Callie and not so subtly staring at the situation from the top of the stairs. I hear him call out for Albeana, but she just ignores him.

"He's such an ass," Gabbi exclaims. All of us nod in agreement walking back into my room. I move to my dresser grabbing my black nike sweats and pink, black, and white, Victoria Secret oversized shirt. I jump around putting them on, then sit down on the carpet.

"I just can;t believe he's been with my mom for a year, she's never kept another guy around this long," I roll my eyes.

The door swings open and Albeana appears holding our pizza and drinks. "Here you go girls," she says as she sets them down on my desk. We all murmur a thank you, getting up to devour the food. "Jeff has never treated anyone in this house with an ounce of decency, except your mother. Don't take it personally Mandi."

Her words are somewhat comforting, but I'm more shocked than saddened. "I just can't believe they have been together for so long. Does my dad know?" I ask.

"Yeah, he met Jeff a month after they got together, he won't come home until late in the A.M. if he comes home at all, I'm sorry sweetie, I know it sucks."

I just shrug and Albeana sends me a sad smile as she walks out.

"This blows," Callie remarked blowing her hair out of her face.

"Trust me, I'm used to it," I mumble with a mouthful of pizza.