Whenever my phone buzzes at 2 a.m., I tell myself that it’s preparing me to be a doctor and I need to get used to it. If I didn’t, I would wind up killing my friends. Neither Cassie nor Jillian abused the power of the cell phone very often, but I’d been called to pick up their drunk asses from the bar more than once. I’d also been summoned to bandage a sprained ankle, pranked during finals, and been butt dialed on more than one occasion. After tonight’s insanity, I hoped they had a a good reason for calling. Fumbling for my phone, I yanked it free of its charger.

“You better be bleeding,” I mumbled as I answered.

“I’m on my way over,” Cassie said. The phone went dead, and I sat up straight in bed. I adored my best friends, but they could be a tad dramatic. Not that they didn’t have their reasons. They usually did. But whatever reason Cassie had for heading to my apartment at this hour had to be serious. For one thing, it was 2 a.m. on a Friday night. Normal people were having sex or still at the bars right now. For another, she hadn’t cursed. Instead, her voice had been totally monotone. A calm Cassie was the scariest thing in the world. The girl didn’t do calm.

Pushing out of bed, I pulled my blonde hair up and padded down the hall, stopping at Jillian’s door. She’d hung a do not disturb sign that one of us had stolen from a hotel on her knob. It was our way of announcing that there was a boy behind that closed door. She was definitely having a normal Friday night. Against my better judgment, I pressed my ear to her door and held my breath. Hopefully the wild monkey was over for the night. It was surprisingly quiet with only a few giggles punctuating the silence. God, Liam had stamina. I took my chances anyway and knocked.

Twenty seconds later, the door cracked open. Jillian raised one eyebrow at me. The door exposed the curve of her hip, and I realized she was naked. It was totally uncool to cock-block her, and I felt terrible interrupting, especially since she’d only worked things out with Liam recently. However, this was an emergency.

“Cassie is on her way over. Jills, she sounded calm,” I said.

Her eyes widened. Jillian was the only person who would understand what that meant. “Shit, give me five minutes.”

Jillian disappeared behind her door, and I tried not to eavesdrop on the muffled voices. She was back in less than two minutes, slipping out the door and following me to wait in the living room. She tried to rake her fingers through her tangled hair, which had obviously fallen victim to an amazing night of sex. I couldn’t help wondering what that was like. I rarely had a strand loose from my ponytail when Brett and I finished doing it.

I was still considering this when Liam emerged from the bedroom, half-dressed. I looked away, blushing, as he zipped his fly. But as he barreled around the apartment, his six pack on full display, it was hard to ignore him. By the time he laced his shoes and finally put on his shirt, I was the color of a candied apple.

Jillian escorted him to the door, and he paused, leaning against the frame. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Bright and early,” she reminded him, popping onto tiptoes to kiss him goodbye. A strange mix of happiness and jealousy flooded through me. I was thrilled for them. Jillian had tried to sabotage their relationship, but love had been more powerful. They were totally perfect together, and Liam was more than a nice guy. He was a catch. I turned away as they finished their farewell with a PDA worthy of a porno.

Liam left with a soft “I love you,” and a final kiss on the forehead.

Jillian didn't lock the door behind him. She joined me on the couch, glowing like a lightbulb, contentment radiating from her. But I could tell she was doing her best to look natural and serious for the sake of Cassie.

My stomach began doing gymnastics with each second that passed. I was already on edge after Brett’s impromptu proposal and this thing with Cassie was only making me more anxious.

“What do you think happened?” I bit my thumbnail absently.

She swatted my hand from my mouth. “Stop that.” Jillian paused and let out a long sigh. “I have a feeling I know what this is about.”

I waited for her to tell me, but she seemed reluctant to do so. “Which is?”

“I ran into Trevor at the library and he was acting weird, like I had caught him doing something he wasn’t supposed to be doing.”

“Caught him doing what? Studying?” I asked. Trevor was the kind of guy who wouldn’t want the rep of being studious. He threw around money to look carefree and wealthy. It was obviously an act, but Cassie had fallen for it—hook, line, and sinker.

Jillian snorted. Apparently, she didn’t share my views on Cassie’s boyfriends. “I doubt he was having a tryst with an economics journal. I think”—

Before she could tell me exactly what she thought, Cassie burst into the apartment. Her calmness was gone replaced by a visible anger that shook her entire body. “That son of a bitch!”

“Uh oh.” My eyes flashed from Cassie to Jillian, whose shoulders slumped. Whatever Jillian thought was going on, it was clear Cassie had confirmed she had been right.

“You want a drink or something?” I offered. I knew exactly what I needed to do. Get her comfortable. Calm her down. Distract her. Then discuss options. I called it my chill pill list. It was a bad habit of mine to fall back on my bedside manner when one of my girls was freaking out.

“I would like a baseball bat or some pepper spray.” Cassie rattled off a list that grew scarier with each item. She ended on “one of those giant medieval devices with the spikes that you shut assholes up in.”

“I’m not sure we have an iron maiden,” Jillian said, a note of apology in her voice. She patted the couch in an effort to get her to sit down, but Cassie kept up her manic pacing. The whole room was filled with the frenzied energy of a woman scorned. Normally, Cassie was totally put together, but right now her black hair was pulled into a messy ponytail and her clothes were wrinkled.

“You’re going to be a doctor.” She pointed at me, and I shrank back against the couch cushion. This couldn’t be good. “What do they use to castrate assholes?”

I shook my head. “Um, we generally don’t do that…even to assholes.”

“Knives,” Jillian spoke up, and I shot her a look. Even without details, I knew arming Cassie was a bad idea.

“Good. You have knives, right?”

“Noooooo,” Jillian lied, but her gaze flickered to the kitchen.

I made up my mind to tackle Cassie if she took one step towards a cabinet.

“Tell us what happened.” She needed to talk about it, and I needed her to dial down her homicidal mood.

“Let’s just say I went over to Trevor’s and there was a pair of legs around his neck that definitely weren’t mine.” The revelation exploded from her but as soon as the words were out of her mouth, she crumbled onto the floor in a deluge of tears.

Jillian and I shared another oh shit look before we scrambled onto the floor to join her. We wrapped her into a tight hug and let her sob, nodding supportively as she tried to choke out more of the story, but between her sobs and her cursing, we couldn’t follow it.

One thing was clear: Trevor had screwed up big time, and Cassie was the casualty of his idiocy. Over Cassie’s shoulder, Jillian was looking positively murderous herself and echoing Cassie’s half-coherent ramblings.

He is a worthless piece of shit.

I’ve always thought he was an asshat, too.

I was glad Jillian was around for this. My talents consisted of calming someone down to have a rational discussion. I was never any good at just getting verbal about my anger. Once we got Cassie calm and she got some sleep, I’d be able to reason with her. We’d talk this through and she’d see what we had all along. Guys like Trevor didn’t last. It was so obvious to everyone but Cassie. Now even she’d see that. Still some wounds would take longer to heal—like the tattoo Cassie had gotten for him.

I couldn’t tell Cassie that she was better off without him right now, there was no way we’d be having that conversation tonight. Instead, we sat there, letting Cassie cry until she was so tired that she didn’t fight it when we dragged her to my bed. She climbed in with mascara-streaked eyes, her body still trembling from sobs, and let me pull the covers over her. I wrapped my arms around my best friend and held her until we both fell asleep.