You know, sometimes life gets overwhelming. I really can’t deal with it sometimes. But you have to. Heaving a big sigh, I rolled out of bed. I could almost feel my mom walking towards my room.

“I’m already up mom!” I screamed.

“Alright Tao!” She went off back to whatever she was doing before.

I remembered that my mother had told me that she couldn't give me a ride to school today, and that Lay was driving me in his car. Lay was pretty much my best friend. Him and Luhan and Xiumin. Lay was tall, with dark hair, and was almost constantly bouncing of the walls.

I checked the clock, and knew I had to get out of here by 6:10. I quickly grabbed my bag and rushed out the door. Once I saw his car sitting in the driveway, I dashed towards it, and threw myself in. He looked at me with wise eyes.

"Excited aren't we, panda?" He teased. I beamed at him

"I just have a feeling it's gonna be a great day Mr. Unicorn." I grinned.

**********

Three hours later, my brain was officially made into soup, and I walked out of Math. "Killer." Lay said, rubbing his temples. I walked to my locker with him. I put all my books into it, then pulled out my bag.  ''So, you're going to the party?" he asked for the fourth time..

''Again, yes. Luhan practically is begging me to go. And you know what happens when he doesn't get his way. Do you want me to say no or something?" He shook his head furiously.

"Nah, I don't want you to be killed by the Aegyo Killer." He responded glumly, referring to Luhan.

We walked out of the high school with Xiumin and Luhan and walked to my house to get ready for the party. As we were walking, I felt eyes on me. Like someone was staring straight at me. Looking around, I didn’t see anything, but it still creeped me out.

“Tao, you okay?” Lay asked, concerned. I nodded, and we kept walking. I noticed Luhan shivering too.

“You feel it too?” I asked, and he nodded, rubbing his arms.

“It’s creepy.” He muttered. I agreed. Luhan was freaked out easily, and so was I. Maybe we were just being paranoid?

"Hey, you think I should wear blue or black?" I asked Xiumin as we picked through my closet. "Black, definitely. It shows off your skin tone better." I pulled out my favorite black wife beater, I showed it to him. "This one?" He smiled. "A little -ish, sweet and innocent, yet manly. It’s perfect." I frowned at him. "But I am a ." I said, feeling stupid. He frowned at me, "Well nobody has to know that." I threw a pillow at him. He caught it and went into the bathroom with his outfit.

"Don't molest my pillow Xiumin!" I called after him. "No promises!" He called back. I grabbed my clothes, and slipped them on. Afterwards, I carefully styled my hair into a spiky messy style, and afterward Xiumin still wasn't done. "Xiumin, you got it in there?" I heard a quiet muffle then, "Yeah, about ten more minutes!" He usually got done in ten minutes and still looked good. I walked into the bathroom and saw him leaned over the sink, his wrist pouring blood.

"What the hell Xiumin?" I yelled, running over to him. He held up his hand shakily, and said, "Don't, you'll just make it worse." I ignored him, and ran past him to the closet. I grabbed a towel, then ran back to her, grabbed his wrist and wrapped the towel around it. He looked up at me through glittering eyes.

"I'm sorry. I should have told you." I glared at him, my hands shaky around the towel.

"Yeah, you should have." He surprised me by crying. Xiumin doesn’t really cry often. The last time I saw him cry was at his sister’s funeral. I reached up and wiped his tears away with my free hand.

"Thanks." he said, looking embarrassed.

“I guess it’s not exactly manly of me to cry, is it?” He scoffed. I grinned at him.

“Well, you were never much of a man to begin with. Especially with that baby face.” He reached up and smacked me. We sat there in silence for a couple minutes, and then I pulled the towel away. It wasn't bleeding anymore. I said, "It isn't deep, I'm going to put a bandage around it, then put a watch over that." He smiled at me. His face wasn't as pale and gray, and he seemed stronger.

"So you're still going to the party with me?" I looked at him, "Unless you don't feel up to it. I could call your mom or your boyfriend and tell them that you’re sleeping over. They won't mind." He shook his head.

"No it isn't that. And Chen already knows. I though you would bail. I cut myself, and your life is perfect. I though you would kick me out of it, to ensure it stayed perfect." He looked away from me.

"I would never do that. And my life is not perfect." he smiled ruefully.

"It sure seems that way to everyone." he confessed.

I got up then, and went and got the bandages, I came back, and he had grabbed my pillow, and his face was buried in it. I took the pillow and set it gently beside him.

He gasped as I wrapped the bandage around his wrist. He stood up and went over to my jewelery box. He got a Gucci watch and held it out, "May I borrow this?"

I honestly couldn't say anything. So I nodded, and he pulled it on. Xiumin and I had known each other for so long that we didn't even ask for each other’s clothes and shoes and such anymore. My thoughts were interrupted by the honking horn outside my house.

"It's Kai." Xiumin said, on account of my confusion.

"Oh, okay." I replied, feeling stupid. He came over to me, hugging me suddenly, I hugged him back, and when I did he let me go.

"Thanks Tao-ah." he smiled and whirled out of the room, obviously getting his strength back miraculously. On my way out, I turned at my sister's door. "Hey Jia, I’m going to be out for a while okay?" She frowned at me. "Why do you go to parties that you know have drugs?"

I glanced down. She was very observant for an eleven year old. "At least I don't do them." She sat up from her bed.

“Being around them is bad enough." I frowned.

"I know." I said.

"Then why don't you just take them if you're around them?" I looked at her, my mouth hanging open. Anger flashed through me.

"Because I'm better than that." She glared at me.

"Are you?" She inquired.  I huffed, and my heel and went out the door. I followed Xiumin out and joined him in the backseat with Lay and Luhan.

I don't know why, but I was thinking about red trees all the way to the party.

*****

When I came up to Kai's house, the party was already in full swing. People were outside drinking (like I knew they would be) and the house was shaking from the bass and treble. I never really felt comfortable around parties, and I only came because of Luhan. (And Lay because he’s too spaced out for his own good.)

We walked inside, rather Luhan and Lay dragged me inside.

While Lay let go as soon as she saw his other friends, Luhan stayed by my side. He looked at me with his trademark wide deer eyes, and then hit me with the ‘I wanna go so badly’ look. I smiled at him and waved my hand away from me in a shoo gesture. He grinned, and dragged Xiumin away to the living room.

As I looked around me something caught my eye. More like someone. He was standing in the very far corner of the hallway, blonde hair and brown eyes. And he was looking right at me.

“Tao! Over here!” I heard Luhan yell. I turned around and walked into the living room where a couple of lacrosse jocks where handing out . Kevin, another jock offered me a roll. "No, I'm fine." he laughed. "Ah, come on. Don't be a wimp." I shot him a dirty look.

Mainly my eyes are just a brown, but they pretty scary sometimes, so my dirty looks could commit mass murder if they could kill. He grimaced and looked away.

I suddenly remembered my promise to go home if there was any drug handling. I went to the front door, and let myself out. I was relieved that nobody noticed my leaving.

*******************

I walked out of there with people staring at me. Honestly, I’m shocked at the lengths I go to be a morally good person. I briefly considered calling the family drives to pick me up, but it wasn't that long a walk. As I was walking, my pocket vibrated. As I was so lost in my thoughts, I jumped, scared out of my thoughts.

"Hello?" I answered, seeing my mom’s ID on the other line.

"Hey sweetheart." my mother answered on the other end.

"I just called to tell you that I won’t be home until eleven tonight, alright?" she laughed.

 "Tonight, alright. They rhyme; I think I might have been destined to be a poet."

I laughed with her, for her own sake. "So whose house are you at?"

"Victoria's. She's having a wedding shower."

"But mom, she has one every year." I sighed.

"That's only because she hasn't found the right man yet. Don't judge too quickly okay?" Her voice wasn't concerned, but just annoyed. I felt my phone chime with another call. This conversation was only going to go downhill after that so I said, "Alright mom, I'll see you later tonight, someone is on the other line."

"Oh, alright, by the way I need to talk to you when I get home. It's about Heechul." She informed me. I groaned out loud.Heechul was her rich boyfriend. No doubt they were up to something.

"Fine, bye." I switched the phone to the other line.

"Tao!" Lay was obviously in his panic mode.

"Where are you? The police just showed up!" I listened to the background. I heard clamoring and whistles.

"Then why are you on the phone with me? Why aren't you getting out of there?" his voice was climbing higher and pitching to an entirely other octave as he said, "I thought you might be in the house!"

"Well, I got out of there as soon as drugs were involved."

"Whatever, just get home. We'll talk about it when I get there." He snapped at me.

Before I could answer him, I saw a figure coming up behind me.

"Lay, there's someone following me." I whispered quietly.

“Well then Wushu their !” He said, as if it were obvious.

Before I could answer, a weight like a small tree fell on my back. The phone flew out of my hands to at least five feet away.  I screamed as the drool from this animal slipped onto my neck. As I looked at the phone, I saw that it was still on, and Lay was probably still listening, listening to my screams.

Then I looked around me to see five or six incredibly large dogs circling me. They had to have been tested on to get that large. And their teeth were as sharp as a sword. I screamed out again, hoping someone could hear me. I looked at them again. No they weren't dogs, definitely not dogs, so not dogs. Wolves.

And very, very large wolves at that. The largest wolf came to circle me. It lay down in front of me to look into my eyes, like a wolf does to its prey that it kills. Its eyes were a deep emerald green that were probably going to be my last picture. And while I screamed as teeth from the wolf on my back ripped into my waist, I felt tears streaming down my face as I felt more teeth rip into me.

So this was it? Well that . I was out of fight, and so I was going to die, with a poor neighbor finding what was left. Ugh. Then I did something I never did in my life. I passed out.

*****

(A/N: I take suggestions for how I continue the story, so comment, and i'll definitely see if I can work them in the storyline I have! Please enjoy the story and tell me of any mistakes I made!)