One

Three days earlier

“Liss, please, I so don’t need a social life.”  I sighed lightly.  My best friend, whom I had known since we were like six, was really starting to grate on my already fragile nerves.  “You should remember that I am a highly trained bodyguard, not a party girl and socialite like you.”

“Oh, you so did not just imply what I think you did.”  Liss huffed from her seat across from me and crossed her arms against her chest.

The two of us had been arguing about this for the past half an hour.  She wanted to go out partying for my eighteenth birthday, which was in just a little over a week, and I wanted to stay out of the lights of the public.  Like I had said, I was a well trained bodyguard and I was the Dragomir’s daughter’s at that, who’s also my best friend.  The two of us were night and day yet we somehow became the best of friends over the years and she was always trying to drag me to some place or another.

I glared over at my friend from where I had leaned against the wall and crossed my arms as well.  I loved the girl to death but sometimes, like this, I wanted to strangle some sense into her for trying to enhance my life.  She didn’t fully understand my job so she didn’t know that I liked to lurk in the shadows and not in the light as she did.  Lissa only knew that I was her bodyguard and that was it, she didn’t know what I did after she had already gone to bed since my shift was over then.

“Oh, I so did.”  I pushed away from the wall and began to walk away, down the hall to the opposite end.  “I will be in my room if you need me.”

“One final thing,” she called out as I placed my hand on the doorknob.  I left it there and very slowly turned to her, she had an amused smile tugging at the corners of her lips.  “Can I at least plan a small party for you since you won’t let me take you to a bar or club?  Just family and close friends, it will be small.”