The beginning

You saw me first.

I walk into the restaurant behind my 2 best friends.

One of them is Liv, she's beautiful with short black hair, blue eyes, and light skin. Her light skin is completely littered with tattoos. Her chest piece is of a bumble bee stretched out above her breasts. She has words on her ribs, a tree line tattoo on her wrist and the moon and mountains on her shoulder. Her nose is pierced in three places, her septum and the two sides. I still don't understand how she uses her nose with those things in it, and I joke with her about it all the time.

"How do you blow your nose? How do you rub your nose without pinching it?" I genuinely asked the question, however I'm laughing as I say it.

She replied with "Like this." And she blew her nose in a mock way and then pinched her nostrils together.

She's shorter than me but her personality is big. She's got a kind heart, and always knows how to give the best life advice. She's been my best friend for 6 months. It's not a long stretch of time, but we've experienced a lot together since we first met, and we became instant friends after meeting. We have been almost inseparable since.

In front of her is our other best friend, Natalie, but we call her Nat for short. She's very tall, same color hair as Liv, it's much longer though. Apparently we gravitated to people who look like us. She has light olive skin, green eyes and glasses. She has very colorful tattoos up her arms, they almost look like watercolor paintings. Her and I have been friends for 3 months now, she's very quiet most of the time, but she normally has a lot to say when she is talking. Nat and I are not as close as I am with Liv, but we get along very well.

And then there's me. Long-ish black hair, light blue eyes, the whitest ghost of a person you'll ever see. And I'm not very tall, only about 5'5. I don't have any tattoos yet, I'm still figuring out what I want, I mean it's permanent ya know. Im quiet, unless I'm comfortable with you, then I'll talk your ear off.

I have no clue who we are meeting up with today, apparently they are old friends of Liv. It's this one guys birthday, and she wanted to just drop by I guess. She recently reconnected with this group, and so now here we are.

Liv makes her way to the group, and me being my awkaward self, am following behind her and Nat. Liv goes and hugs some guy, he's got chin length hair and a black beanie on, I'm assuming he's the birthday boy. They're all sitting around tables that have been pushed together to include their whole group. I scan the table and the people around it, just taking quick glances to see what I'm up against here. I'm not the most social butterfly. I get anxious around a lot of people.

There's a couple sitting on the end, and there's a few other guys with their backs to us. Another girl sits at the end of the table with birthday boy, probably his girlfriend.

After Liv is finished talking to the birthday boy she gestures for us to follow her. We squeeze behind the couple on the end and make our way to the side by birthday boy. I really should've asked for names before we got here. Liv sits down, I sit next to her and Nat sits on my right side. I don't really know what to do, so I just sit there quietly.

The group has already got their food and are almost done eating, which sucks because I'm hungry and would love to order something, but I don't want to pig out in front of people I barely know. It's a self conscious thing for me.

Liv continues to chat with people about her life and what she's been up to, and Nat apparently knows the boy sitting in front of her, so they're having a conversation. I just sit there, thinking about what to do now.

I hear the birthday boy, which I think I caught his name as Cam, he mentions going to a bowling alley after they're done eating. I perk up a bit because I love bowling, and I really don't want to go home yet. Going home means I'll be alone. Which contrary to what you might think, I do not enjoy being alone. I might be shy, but I enjoy being around people more than not.

Liv looks to me and pats Nat on the arm, "do you guys want to go to the bowling alley after this? Cam, the birthday boy just invited us."

I guess I heard his name right ha!

"Ya let's do that, I'd like to keep talking with Shawn" Nat is a little bit of a hopeless romantic, and every guy she meets or talks to she hopes is her one.

"Ya I'll go, not like I know anybody, but I do enjoy bowling." Liv smiles wide and tells Cam that we'll come.

Everyone continues to chat and eat. After a few minutes Cam stands up, claps his hands together and says to the group "alright boys, I'll see you at the alley." They all start chatting and Cam makes his way to the front door with the boys. We stand up and walk through the same side Cam was on. I scan the table and nobody is left, everyone has already made it to the exit.

"Well, that was fun Liv! Thanks for introducing me to all your friends." I say it sarcastically but I'm trying not to be rude. I know she hasn't spoken to them in a while, but it's still awkward just sitting there not knowing anyone.

"Hey girl, we're going to meet them at the bowling alley. No sweat, I'll introduce you to them when we get there okay?"

"Okay, okay. Introduce me to the cute ones first though!" She just laughs, waves her hand toward the car.

"Let's go! I get Dj on the way!"