Twenty Candles (Part of the Tx3U Trilogy)

18. Day Eleven

"Hi. Raven speaking. Psych! You got my voicemail, but leave a message and I'll get back to you as soon as I can." Beep.

"Raven, you picked the worst time to leave! It's Fiona's birthday for Pete's sake!" Prius bitterly reminded her over her cellular device, brisk walking in circles around her room.

"Raven, I can apologise a million times and that still wouldn't fix anything, but please. Fiona is one of your closest friends, fly back from L.A.?" Malcolm sat on his bed in his temporary place, he rubbed his eyes together, calling and leaving message after message to Raven's phone.

"Get your ass back here Raven!" Prius ordered to the voice machine. "As your best friend I command you. Come on, Rave. Don't make me drag you all the way back from Los Angeles."

It'd been six hours since the day officially started. Quincy and Lopez had slept in, yesterday they found their way into a nightclub and didn't get home until four in the morning.

Alosa laid on her bed cuddling with a blanket and pillow, staring at the phone. After Fiona left her on the bus bench the other day, she had an urge to not call the school, decided to wait until further notice. She lied on her bed staring at her cell phone that was laid out right in front of her.

Prius spent the entire morning leaving messages to Raven's phone, trying to force her to come back. Only a couple days left and then she'd get to head back to L.A., right now was too soon. Malcolm did the same, as well.

Fiona sat alone outside the retail store Madison's in the local mall. Disappointed in herself, how could she have let herself get demoted. The worst part was that she'd been demoted the day before her birthday, which definitely put a damper on her mood.

Masslie was pretty much off the radar after everyone left the arcade yesterday. She'd rather keep to herself for a bit after seeing Malcolm and Raven freak out at each other.

And Raven. At the time of day, she was outside LAX calling for a taxicab.

Quincy's eyes finally opened. Her breath smelt of brandy and her body of filth. She leaned up from her bed and yawned. Right away, she slipped out of Lopez's oversized hockey jersey that she had put on the night before, and tiptoed to the bathroom to take a shower.

Turning the handle, the shower rained water. Quincy scratched her head and had another yawn. Smelling something peculiar, she blew her breath on her hand and frowned. It was a repulsive mix of alcohol and vomit.

Just before slipping into the shower, she heard a vibration noise. Grunting, she reached for a towel and later wrapped it around herself, then walked back into the bedroom and began rummaging through her purse. Pulling her phone out she turned it on to four new text messages. She slid her thumb to open it up to the homepage and went into her texts.

"Fiona's birthday, yippee!" from Alosa.

"Twenty. Ugh, I can't believe I'm old now. BTW I don't want to go to any place stupid or boring, I wanna have fun," from Fiona.

The last two particular texts Quincy received caught her eye.

"Help!" with the letter P multiple times. "Raven went back to L.A, you can thank Malcolm for that," from Prius. And.

"Raven went back to LA," from Malcolm.

She grunted loud and annoyed, waking Lopez up. He rubbed opened his eyes to the sight of Quincy with just a towel. "Why're staring at your phone in a towel?"

Quincy just shook her head, she didn't even reply. Lopez heard her mumbling distastefully to herself, he could make out some of the sentences. "Malcolm is such an idiot!" or "why are all the problems brought on to me?". Abruptly she just dropped her phone and strode her way into the bathroom, slamming the door and heading into the shower. Leaving Lopez confused.