I was getting chills and the cold had nothing to do with it. We reached the venue half an hour late but I decided to call Sasha after an hour or two. By then most of them would be. Mini was all excited like a little kid in a carnival and people all around us were smiling and socializing. I was smiling at some people I knew but deep down inside I was dreading that something bad was going to happen. It was a very strong feeling.

"If you are trying to be a statue all evening, I will go ahead and drop some money in front of you. I am sure by the end of the night you can make some pretty good money. Although I would suggest you pose a little, if you want to impress them." Ryan whispered from behind me, gesturing to all the guests.

I turned to my left and realize that Mini ditched me and went away somewhere,

"I am not" I tried to sound convincing turning to face Ryan. "It's just...you know" *sigh* "I have a very bad feeling about this. Something in gut says that something is going to go wrong and I am begging you Ryan do NOT do anything stupid. I can't deal with anything tomorrow. Please try to be responsible for one night. Just this one, please."

"I can try but no promises. And I can assure you, nothing will go wrong. At all. I have taken care of it. I asked the security to hide few baseball bats under my table. If you need any, you know where to find them. Relax that evil brain of yours a little and have fun."

With that he walked away, not before pushing me a little. I turned around to look for anyone I know and got a glimpse of Sara and Jack talking to a bunch of people.

I waved at them and started walking in their direction when I saw Mini talking to Kira, so I walked to them instead.

"You traitor, you left me"

"Like you would be lost, I was just talking to Kira about the guests and what important announcements might be made tonight."

"Hey Kira, you look great," and she did.

"Thank you, Riya. You do too. Sara was asking for you a few minutes ago. Go meet her."

"Fine and you stay right here I will come back. I can't search for you all the time," I warned Mini.

I slowly made my way to Sara, while smiling and talking to people I know on my way.

"You asked for me?" I slowly asked Sara. She turned around to face me and smiled. She opened her mouth to say something when something behind me caught her eye and she simple stared and murmured

"Oh my god, no"

It looked like she saw a zombie so I turned to see it for myself and what I saw was worse. Way worse. It was ROBIN Jr.

"What is he doing here?" I asked to no one in particular. It seemed like Sara had the same question because she was nodding her head repeatedly.

"Attending the dinner, he was invited to, by the two of you" Jack said in a 'duh' tone. As if we have rehearsed it, the two of us turned to give Jack a flat look and turned back to glare at Robin. And Robin, ladies and gentlemen, was smiling (not in his usual villain way but a genuine one) and shaking hands and talking to other guests. I looked around to see where Ryan was and was not shocked at all to find him near his table.

Sara and I walked towards Ryan. I was amused and Sara was confused to see Ryan's hands clenched and were holding a handful of table cloth for support. Although he had a smile plastered to his face his right foot was feeling for something under his table.

"What is he doing?" Sara asked with a confused look on her face.

"Making sure he is armed" when she looked at me, still not understanding, I stopped and whispered "he has *cough* baseball bat *cough* under his table." At this I expected Sara to yell or shout something like 'this is so stupid' or anything along those lines but to my surprise she grinned and cracked her knuckles.

We were smiling like idiots when I saw SASHA. What on earth was she doing here?

She is attending the dinner. Idiot

You know what annoying brain? I know that. I meant what was she doing here, before I called her?

Well flash news your plan failed. Now run for life or hide somewhere before she finds you.

And that is exactly what I did I ran towards the entrance only to run straight into a wall. Unfortunately, the very handsome wall had life and was named Nick.

"You know you don't have to keep doing these things to get my attention, right? I already know all about your mad love for me," I did not get a word of what he said. I was busy admiring how handsome he looked in his grey suite with black shirt. His lopsided grin, which was very smug, brought me out of my trace.

"Hmm yaa right, totally. Hi?" I rumbled not knowing what to say.

He chuckled and said "hi" and withdrew his hand that was on my waist.

"Where are you running off to? Anything important? Is there anything I can do to help?"

"No nothing I was just doing something. It is not very important but I better go before..."

"There you are. I have been looking for you. What took you so long?" Sasha's voice came from behind me.

... That happens, I mentally added. I turned around slowly and smiled at Sasha who looked perfect like always. Between the two of us, she was always the prettier one. She had the best green eyes I have ever seen with a perfect face, perfect shape and legs to die for. She stood at 5'7 and even when we were kids she was the cuter one. There was a time in my teen life, when I was jealous of her looks. Today she wore her knee length red dress, which looked like it was made for her.

"Hey Sasha, didn't see you there. You look..." she walked past me and held Nick's hand like I was not there at all.

"Nick do you hear anything? I sure don't. I mean it's not like we can hear Riya's voice here. She is at her home ."

Here, right here was the curtain riser for the horrible dinner that was to follow.

"Sasha it's not like that. I had some work so I came in early I was just rushing out to call you. Trust me."

"I knew you didn't want me to come to this dinner Riya. You can say whatever you want but I am not going to believe you." I was trying to come up with some excuse when she interrupted me again,

"Ah! Here comes your gorgon"

"Who do you think you are calling gorgon? You hag" came Mini's voice from behind me.

Sasha was fuming and I could see her ears turn red.

"I was talking about you, siren"

"You are the one to talk? At least I don't go after things that aren't mine" Mini said with so much venom and I did not understand why. What is going on? I turned to look at Sasha for some explanation but by then she was already looking at me accusingly.

Oh no! She got it all wrong.

"Sasha no. It's not what you think. I don't know what the hell is going on. Mini what are you talking about?"

"I don't know Riya. Why don't you ask your sweet-talking friend about it." with that Mini stormed off and when I looked back at Sasha she was nearly in tears and was trying to break free from Nick's grip on her hand.

Nick was gently asking Sasha what was going on but she was shaking her head saying nothing. I reached for her hand, but by then she broke free from Nick's grip and looked at me one last time and dashed away.

"Riya, what is going on?"

"I don't know okay. I will let you know once I understand," I whisper yelled at him. I was mad with these two stupid people I considered friends. I can never fathom how I always get caught up in the crossfire. I just wanted to go away from here. My night was ruined and nothing can make it better.

"I am going to go look for her" Nick said and squeezed my hand before leaving me to search for Sasha.

I walked out of the hall and into the lobby looking for either of my friends. I did not understand one bit of what was happening. Mini and Sasha were both sensible and never did anything stupid, not until now at least. I did not understand what really lead to their mutual hatred but it was getting to my nerves now.

"Hey there, we match. Did you do it on purpose?" I just looked at him, when he came and leaned on the wall near me with hands in his pockets. He looked nice in his black suite and white shirt. I smiled and shook my head as if to say no.

"I know, I was just messing with you. What's wrong? I may have overheard your friends fight."

"I don't know Jay, they are acting like idiots. They are both important to me and they are both pissed at me right now. They are acting like they were born to hate each other."

"Come on Riya. They will come around, they are your friends they can't stay mad at you for long. Actually, nobody can." He said the last part in almost a whisper.

I couldn't help but smile. Jay was my friend in his own unique way. Now that I think of it, every time something went wrong he would come by and talk like this to me. This wasn't the first time.

"You should know mister that I am not trying to match with you. I already bought the dress before you said me anything this morning."

"I know I saw you buy the dress. I was there."

"What? Were you following me or something?" I laughed.

"No. I had some errands to run. By the way I nearly forgot to mention, you look beautiful in the dress."

"Someone pinch me, is the mighty Jay showering me in compliments? Are you ok? Do have a fever or something?"

He laughed and turned in my direction.

"Actually, there were many instances when I wanted to say this to you and I couldn't, but I will now. You look beautiful every time, every day I look at you. You don't need a fancy dress or make up to make you look pretty."

I will bet my life on it; my face must have resembled a tomato. Compliments; one thing I can never take, they just made me uncomfortable and awkward. I squirmed and laughed nervously that came out more like cough.

Suddenly the ground looked so fascinating and I taught I could just look at it, but then a pair of men's shoes came in my sight and I looked up to see Jay looking at me. He cleared his throat and said

"Riya, I know this may sound stupid but there is something you should know, it is a confession actually and here it goes. It isn't much but you know sometimes I look at you and I get a feeling, that you are a girl with feelings too and so" he let out a heavy breath

"I lie. I lied to you when I said you are smart sometimes, I lied to you when I said you are a good friend and I lied to you when I just said you look beautiful in this dress. You don't. You look like the green witch in black robes from Tom and Jerry. Actually, strike that, she looks prettier. And the only thing you are missing is a pointed hat and I am going to go look for it."

I laughed once I made sure that he was gone and walked back to the dinner. I had all sorts of crazy people as my friends. Just when I walked in I observed that Ryan was on the dais speaking about the companies that have associated with VR Holdings recently.

Sara, Jack and Kira were on the left side of the dais and that was where I marched to and stood with them.

~*~*~*~*~

Picture of Ryan in the media.

How hot is he😍😍😍😍😍.

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Until next time stay happy.

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