“It is, isn’t it.”“I’m sorry about Chance,” she says, and I nod never knowing what I should say back“Thank you,” I tell her“I was at my sister’s bedside, she was sick,” she tells me, and I look at her“I hope it’s nothing serious,” she smiles, shaking her head“No, she fell, breaking her arm.”“Oh god,” Sheryl smiles“Don’t, she did it falling off of her boyfriend if you know what I mean?” she says making me chuckle“Oh,” I say, smiling and Sheryl laughs“Yeah, my niece was coming to look after her, but she was coming from Hawaii.”“Hawaii, wow, I’ve always wanted to go there.”“I think my niece is taking my sister back with her, so she’s in good hands.”“Are you and your sister close?” I ask her, and she smiles“Hell, no, we hate each other” I look at her a bit confused“Then, why did you go?” she smiles again“Cause she’s my sister.”“But if you hate her.”“Well, I say that, but really I love the bitch,” she tells me, and I smile at that“Where you and Chance close?” she asks me“Yeah, when we were younger, we were always together, then life happens, and you grow up, and you get on with your own lives and before you know it.”“You only end up talking on the phone a couple of times a year,” Sheryl says, and I nod“Exactly”“How often did you talk?” she asks me“At least once a month”“Well, he must have loved you” I look at her again“He never even mentioned me to anyone”“Honey, that had nothing to do with being embarrassed or anything, your beautiful and you have met the boys right.”“I have.”“Then you know he was saving his own life by not bringing you around.”“How do you figure?”“Because he would have ended up killing the first guy that made a pass at you” I laugh remembering my first date I ever had, Charlie Johnson it was senior year of high school and my first ever date. Brayden was always threating guys, so most of them avoided me like the plague, but in my last year of high school, Charlie Johnson asked me to the prom. When he came to get me, Brayden was waiting, and by the time I came out from getting dressed Charlie was white as a ghost and Brayden was smiling. The whole night if Charlie even touched me he apologized. To say it was a horrible night was an understatement. I felt like I was diseased with Charlie using napkins in his hands, so he didn’t touch me at all. I was humiliated and wanted to kill Brayden, but Grammy got sick a few days after prom, and I spent all of my time after that looking after her and Brayden was busy working, looking after both of us.“Come on, I’m sure the girls have something up their sleeves,” Sheryl says, and we walk back up to the hotel, and by the laughter of the girls, it seemed the party had already started.**By the third morning I was feeling the effect of the alcohol in my body screaming at me to stop, but once you got around these women, they were like a vortex, sucking you in where the alcohol flows and you lose all track of time. That night we headed to one of the local bars to drink more, and I’m so glad I spent the day relaxing in bed, the music was loud, and I look around at all of the women in the bar. Most of them dressed to impress, and I looked down at my own dress feeling frumpy when the girls came out, and I saw what they were wearing I had second thoughts about going anywhere with them. But I put my big girl panties on, undone a few buttons and relaxed after a few shots. The lights went down, and the stage fills with fog, women screamed and whistled as a song started up “Damn, I think I’m ovulating” Lena says and we all laugh“I WANT TO HAVE YOUR BABIES!” Abbey screams loudly, waving her hand the guy pulls her up on the stage and she sits in a seat, and he gives her a lap dance“Damn, he’s some fine piece of ass,” Tink says, and we look at her“What? I’m married, not dead,” she says the song ends all the woman screaming louder, and Abbey and the guy go backstage, and Abbey comes walking up sitting down, and we all look at her with that mischievous smile as the next guy steps onto the stage, and the women in the bar go completely crazy.The night flies by the drinks flow and all of the girls laugh, scream and jump up and down, I smile loving being around these women. They definitely know how to enjoy life, and maybe I could learn a few lessons from them all and from Brayden and Grammy, life is definitely way too short. I watch as the women shove dollar bills into men's g-strings as they swing their hips and I blush as one step in front of me, his crotch at my eye level and Abbey hands me some money, and I look at her. “Put it in,” she yells in my ear over the music, and I lift the side of his non-existent underwear and slide the bills under it blushing and he winks walking to the other side of the stage and Abbey bumps me with her shoulder laughing, and I smile again. By the last act I’m swaying feeling the buzz from the shots my eyes un-focusable.