"So, January 2nd, huh?" I asked her. "Must be nice not to have your birthday on the craziness of New Year's."

"Yeah," she replied with a smile as she, too, looked around at the others. "My parents always joke that I'm an 'almost-New Year's baby.' It starts getting eye-rolling after a while."

"Is that why they're not here?"

"They decided to be super-cool and thought I was responsible enough to handle my own party. And, of course, I totally am."

"It's nice, though," I remarked. "You have a lot of friends. That doesn't surprise me, though."

"Why's that?"

I then let my mind take a backseat as I replied, "Because...