I was just throwing some popcorn into my mouth when Valeria moved next to me and put her head on my shoulder.

“I want to be like Baby too. She's so self-assured, she's pretty and she can dance damn well. And in these shoes", she said.

I nodded, muttering in agreement, just watching Baby walk across the bridge in her shoes, swinging her hips as she practiced. She was already iconic. The film – a classic that Ariana chose for us.

We were now sitting in the back of her father's pick-up truck, snuggled up in the blankets, watching Baby and Johnny do their lying-down dance.

The music was great, I loved it so much as a child and listened to it so often that I could sing to every single song.

"Maybe we should go to a summer camp like that sometime, then maybe we'll meet some great guys who can dance well", came it from Selma.

I aimed at Selma for throwing a popcorn, but it didn't hit its target and rolled off the back of the car to the ground.

“You just have to be able to dance well yourself, then you can lead the man. This is the new female independence”, Ariana commented.

The rest of us looked at her laughing.

“Dancing revolution then,” Valeria giggled and I put even more popcorn in my mouth.

I honestly didn't even like popcorn that much, but it kind of fit into the setting. For a movie night, whether in the cinema, from the back of a car or from the comfy sofa. Popcorn should be there. But if I had to choose, I'd choose salty. Valeria hated on me every time for that opinion.

“You don’t have to go to summercamp. It's such an effort. Just come to Yuma’s classmates’ party tomorrow and then you’ll meet someone. And maybe you can teach him to dance too,” Ariana said and threw a Popcon at Valeria.

"Hey,” she protested. “We should not waste good food like that. Besides, I didn’t know Yuma’s friends threw parties. I thought they all just sit in their dark rooms in front of the screen and ruin their eyes."

"I beg your pardon," said Ariana, snubbed.

“That is such a sticky and old-fashioned cliché, Madame. I have you also know that Yuma happens to have very good eyes, better than some others.”

I was laughing.

Ariana was making a reference to THE reading glasses that Valeria always had to wear glasses because her eyes were good for everyday life, but not for driving or reading. She'd had the glasses since she was 15, so they were appropriately bulky and, well, reminiscent of a stereotypical librarian - a sticky and old-fashioned cliché, Ariana would say.

“Oh, glasses are trendy,” Valeria tried to salvage the argument, but it was too late.

“Anyway, you’re welcome to come. His buddy brings all his medicine friends since they as far as I know share a campus somehow. Don’t ask me why,” she added as I looked at her confused.

Computer science and medicine on the same campus was a weird comination in my opinion.

”But it's gonna be fun. And the doctors know how to celebrate. They study the human body, so it's logical for them to know exactly how much alcohol they need to have fun. Maybe we can learn something from them,” she laughed.

“I wouldn't be surprised if one of them reenacted Breaking Bad. They're all pretty smart. Or well, almost all of them."

"Cliché," I grumbled and grabbed a handful of popcorn again. I realised I was probably just hungry and tried to fill up on it.

“But I’m serious,” Ariana then said, tugging on my sleeve. “Come on please, it will be fun if we are there together. “

“On a Sunday evening? I don’t know,” said Selma. “I have become quite a grandma. Sunday night parties sound like teenagers.”

Ariana then put her head in a headlock and rubbed her hair wildly.

"You're as young as ever. Come on, this is a bonding experience."

I snorted. "So we're your entertainment when an apartment full of guys wants to get drunk?"

She nodded eagerly. "Exactly. That's why you're my friends, isn't it?"

Valeria laughed, pinched her arm and then smiled with satisfaction at the "ouch" that followed.

Dirty Dancing then enveloped us again and pulled us into a world in which Baby's problems were the only things we were discussing.

__

“Oh my, I don’t even know what to wear,” Valeria complained as I sat on the bed in her room the next afternoon and played on my cell phone.

I was diligently planting sunflowers to buy plant bullets and shooting plants that would then fairy the zombies from my house. Last resort – the lawn mowers.

“Don't worry, just because we're women doesn't mean we always have to be super dressed. Trust me, most guys won't give much thought to what they're wearing tonight."

My mother hasn't been too happy about me going to a party with my friends in our last night together. But she had then agreed and let me go, grumbling, when I had promised to come for dinner twice during the week and also to come at the weekend back home.

“I’m not that far away, 30 minutes by car and we’ll see each other,” I had said and hugged her.

The final preparations for the move tomorrow were done, the boxes were packed and everything was ready in the hallway at home to be carried into the car tomorrow. I actually wanted to do it today, but Ravi had overruled me with the argument that the car was a pick-up and therefore had an open loading area, we didn't have a tarpaulin and the weather forecast predicted rain.

Well, we all knew how reliable the weather forecast was. But anyway, good to be safe.

"You look great too, haven't you made an effort?"

"Nope," I replied, hissing in annoyance as a Zombie devoured my best plant. “Damn those stupid undead thingies.”

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

Valeria looked at me confused.

"I just grabbed the first thing I could find in one of the boxes."

She nodded, but still looked at me with envy. "Anyway, you look great. What should I wear?”

“Thanks,” I mumbled and was again focussing on the game.

The first thing I grabbed from the box with my party/chic/fancy clothes - if I even could call them that - was a black, semi-tight dress that was closed up to the neck at the front, but was free at the back. The sleeves were half-length and the dress was mid-thigh-long.

Normally these would be too short for me, but I combined them with black boots and then felt a better. I also wore creoles as earrings that matched my curls. I had formed my curls with a little hair cream so that they now fell nicely over my shoulders. Okay, maybe I put in a little effort. But I had to admit, I felt pretty good.

“Take the blue skirt with the white top,” I said, while she was still standing in the room, undecided.

Ariana wanted to pick us up in about 20 minutes and I knew how long Valeria would need in the bathroom.

“Okay,” she said gratefully and disappeared.

Exactly 18 minutes later, she came out again.

“And?” she asks uncertainly.

Wow, she looked bombastically good.

The skirt reached just above her knees, was covered with blue patterns up to her waist and had a slit up to her thigh on one side. The white top was a simple crop top that had a V-neck in the front and accentuated her curves just right.

She had her hair gathered in a loose but beautiful bun at the back of her neck. She also wore gold jewelry that perfectly matched her light brown complexion.

“Wow, Val, honestly. I would definitely take you home with me.” I grinned at her.

“Really,” I emphasized again when she wasn’t completely convinced.

Normally she wasn't so insecure, in fact she was always very confident. But I knew that she was secretly hoping to meet someone who could give her what she always saw between Yuma and Ariana.

And I could understand her. Nevertheless, I was sorry that she let this unsettle her.

“You look great,” I said again, went over to her and hugged her.

“I just hope we're not overdressed, us pretty ones,” I joked.

When she looked at me in shock, I raised both hands quickly.

“Just kidding, it’s a party, so other people will be dressed up too. Believe me. It’s unspoken etiquette.”

She nodded and looked at herself in the mirror one last time.

Then we heard a short but loud honk from outside. “Ariana,” we said in unison and then went outside.

Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber were singing "Stuck with You" from the radio and we were singing along as we pulled into the street where Yuma's friend's apartment was supposed to be.

Ariana had explained that they had known each other since childhood and they wanted to celebrate his birthday. When Valeria and I both reacted in panic because neither of us had a present and that was socially unacceptable in our opinion, she calmed us down and pointed to a bag at the back of the seats, containing chocolate and a PlayStation game.

“Yuma was my snitch,” she said with a wink.

“Come on, you accompany me, so I am showing my gratitude by being responsible for getting a gift that's from all of us.”

“What about Selma?” I asked, remembering that there were supposed to be four of us.

“She'll get here on her own.” Selma also lived in the city and it therefore much easier going everywhere for her than for us.

I could hardly wait to live closer to the city from tomorrow.

Ariana parked the car on the opposite side of the road from the apartment. We were lucky, we found a spot, since the entire street was already full of cars.

"My goodness," Valeria commented.

But it made sense. These were residential complexes that housed a lot of apartments and so it was clear that a lot of people had to live and hence park here.

“How do they do the party when so many people live here,” I wondered.

Ariana pointed her head to the sky. “Rooftop."

My mouth dropped open.

“No way, a rooftop party?”, both my and Valeria’s eyes lit up. “How cool!”

We pressed the button with the name “Andersson” on it, but nothing happened even after the third time, so Ariana dialed Yuma’s number and called him.

He quickly answered his phone and she asked him to let us in. A loud buzzing sound and a short time later we climbed the fifth flight of stairs and could already hear the bass and the voices of the people who were already there.

“Who forgot to build an elevator into this building. And who throws a party on the rooftop without an elevator, for Christ's sake.", I cursed.

"Don't say that", Valeria objected.

"But we will all arrive completely exhausted and sweaty. I mean how are the other guests doing it?", I gasped and took a short break.

“Not all of them are in such a bad condition, sweetie. You should exercise more. Maybe with one of the guys here?” she winked at me happily and ran ahead as if she didn’t mind the stairs one bit.

“That’s why you’re my best friend,” Valeria whined, laughing with her arm around my shoulders. "You're just as unathletic as I am." I snorted.

We reached the top and as we slowly walked through the door that led outside, the music and the sound of voices suddenly became much louder and more present. The doors really seemed to dampen any sound very well.

It wasn't too crowded yet for the space of the rooftop, but there were already quite a few people there. Most of them were standing around, already moving slightly to the music, holding a cup in their hand and chatting.

It looked really great. The floor was paved with bricks and was spacious, it could easily hold up to 60 or people. To the left behind the door was a kind of chimney and a small wall. The wall prevented us from seeing to the space that was further back. On the right hand side they had put long tables, bordered by surrounding walls that marked the end of the roof. On the tables we could see drinks, appetizers, even some flowers for decoration. Damn, not bad. They even had put large beer kegs at each end.

“Dude,” said Valeria, saying what I was thinking. “Is he rich like that?”

Ariana nodded and grinned at us. “Yes, he is, and now let’s go find him and give him something that he could certainly have bought himself.”

We followed her flowing blonde hair, which was held in a glittering hair band. It matched the silver-coloured glittering dress, that flowed around her slender body, ending at her ankles. She also wore sandals that looked elegant and summery.

I was glad that she was dressed like that too, it didn't make me feel overdressed. But this uncertainty was unfounded anyway, because as we walked past the people already standing around, we noticed that most of them were wearing shirts, fashionable sweaters or polo shirts. Lucky.

I noticed some stares following us as we walked by, but I also noticed that there were other girls here. Not as many as boys, but still enough for us to feel comfortable.

I looked around and was pleasantly surprised. The entire rooftop area was covered with fairy lights that dangled over the guests' heads. There were tables with cups and drinks and some food at each side, spaced at regular intervals. Several trash cans were carefully placed in the corners and small LED light machines were installed in three corners, eluminating the wall of the house that was behind us.

The music was loud but not unpleasant and it sounded relaxed. If I had to guess, I would have estimated the crowd of guests already at around 30. Not bad for a birthday.

I hoped it was an important one so that all this effort they put in, was actually worthwhile for them.

“Hey,” Ariana said loudly and excitedly in that moment and I brought my attention forward again.

She was walking fast towards a tall, broad-shouldered, light-haired guy who smiled at her when he spotted her and they hugged. Then she handed him a gift and pointed to me and Valeria. I couldn't exactly hear everyone yet over the music, but I thought I heard her words, "my friends" and "party guests".

He looked at us and when we arrived at the group consisting of him, two friends and Ariana, he held out his hand with a smile.

“Welcome, I’m glad you’re here. And thank you very much for the gift. I’m Torben.”

I took his hand and smiled back.

“Thank you for letting us come. I'm Bonnie and this is Valeria," I pointed to Valeria next to me, nudging her as she distractedly looked to the side and watched as she blushed slightly and then shook his hand as well."Hi."

He grinned. “Do you have something to drink yet? No? Okay, then I'll send my two servants here to get you something."

He jokingly pointed to the two friends next to him. They introduced themselves as Matthew and Spencer.

"What do you like, rather sweet and fruity or spicy and savory?”, the one asked.

Valeria and I said “sweet and fruity” as one, and when Ariana added “spicy”, with a grin, the two of them went off to mix our drinks.

“I like women who know what they want,” he joked.

“But honestly, the gift is really fun, very kind of you, thank you. Unfortunately, I play far too much PlayStation. So now I have another reason not to stop,” he laughed.

Then he carefully placed the bag on a table behind him that already had several other gifts on it.

“There’s Yuma,” Ariana said, looking briefly at Valeria and me.

“I’ll be right back, okay?” And then she was gone.

Torben turned back to us and we were momentarily embarrassed looking for a topic to talk about.