wander

49|birthday

Chiara's Birthday:

My eyes blink open to Romeo peppering my face in soft yet warm kisses.
"Happy 19th Birthday baby." He whispers as he presses a kiss to my cheek. I mumble a small thank you and close my eyes tightly.
"Hey don't go back to sleep. I've been waiting hours for you to wake up." He whines.
"What time is it?" I groan, covering my face with the pillow.
"Half Nine." He shakes my arm, urging me to get up.

I lean against the headboard and rub my eyes. As I go to move my hands from my face, Romeo holds my hands over my eyes.
"Surprise." He explains and pulls my body off my bed.
"Woahh I need to get ready before all of this." I wiggle from his grip but he catches me again."
"Nope. We're going downstairs now." He reinforces and I sigh.

He guides me down the stairs, my arms now by my sides but his hands over my eyes. We reach the last step and I hear the sitting room door open. I hear Rose giggle to herself and I sigh to myself. Romeo steps into the door way and kisses my cheek one last time.

"3"
"2"
"1"

He removes his hands from my face but I blink from the sudden light. I'm greeted by Rose, Romeo and my Dad stood in a line watching me. They each have an envelope in hand and there is a small stack of wrapped gifts on the dining table. A smile covers my face and I feel myself biting my bottom lip.

My Dad steps forward and hands me his envelope. I take it from him and he pulls me in for a hug.
"Happy Birthday." He says while kissing the top of my head. I thank him and open the card. It's a simple card and I open it to read.

'Dear Chiara,

Happy Birthday Chi. I'm so grateful that you chose to stay here with me, you've made me so much happier and I'm glad that we have this bond we have now. Rose and Romeo are happier than ever too, all because of you. I wanted this birthday to special so we may or may not have gone over the top.

All my love,

Dad x'

I look back up to him and hug him immediately.

"Thank you, for everything." I say close to his ear. I pull back and he nods.

"My turn!" Rose chirps, passing me her card.
"Thank you Rose." I dip my head down to read the card.

'To Chi,

Happy 19th! Have an amazing day. I'm so glad to have met you and I can't wait to see what waits for us in the future. We made this birthday special so enjoy your day. I'm glad R ended up with someone like you and I'm glad to have become such amazing friends.

Much love,

Rose '

I pout my lip and thank her. "Thank you Rose, that was so sweet." She smiles in response and Romeo hands me his envelope and sits me down next to him on one of the chairs. He brings his lips my ear. His breath fans my ear and when I expect him to speak, he pulls away.

His card reads:
'To my beautiful girlfriend Chiara,

Happy 19th Birthday. I hope to make this day as memorable as possible and I worked my ass of to perfect it. All will make sense soon...

Love, R x'

I turn my head, confused. He shrugs his shoulders playfully.
"Ew! I don't even want to know what you just read!" Rose squeals.
"Woah! Who said it was like that. I'm just confused!" I defend.
"Just kidding. I know what he wrote." She gives a look to Romeo and I know she helped him write it. I can tell from the 'R' since that's her nickname for her brother.

Romeo moves from his seat to pick up one of the gifts. It's a medium size box and he pushes it over in front of me. I tug at the wrapping paper. I nervously look around the room; I'm kind of uncomfortable being centre of attention. Once the gift is uncovered, my mouth drops. 

A record player.

"From me." Romeo smiles at my reaction. "But these go with it." He hands me to thin wrapped gifts. I open the first one. "Budapest!" I squeal, it's the vinyl to play. Romeo urges to the other gift. I let him open it with me. Let it go, James Bay. My favourite song and the song play during our second kiss. By the lake.

My hand covers my open mouth as he wraps my body between his arms. 
"I love it." I say lowly to him.
"You're very welcome." He kisses my cheek again. 

Rose jumps up, a small box in hand. Her hands clasps over mine for a quick second until she pulls it away.
"Open it." Her voice is calm. I so as she says and tear away at the wrapping paper to uncover a Dior box. I gasp, my mouth falling open.
"Look inside." My head dips back down to reveal what's in the box. I bite my lip nervously. I've never been this spoiled, I don't deserve this. 

A gold chunky necklace, with the letters 'CD' in the middle of the chain.
"It's beautiful Rose, you shouldn't have." I feel Romeo's hand on my back.
"Don't even go there." She playfully scowls. I hand the necklace to Romeo for him to put it on for me. His hand brushes the bare skin of my neck as he swipes my hair to the side.

He clasps the metal together and pulls my hair to flow down my back. I turn towards the closest mirror and inspect the necklace.
"You look..."Rose began
"Beautiful." Romeo finished her sentence. I feel myself blush.

"Okay okay, my turn." My Dad chimes in. He hands me a smaller box. I cock my head a little, it's similar to the Dior box. "Just open it." My Dad read my expression. I open the gift to find a matching ring. I slide it on my ringer finger on my right hand. I hold my hand away from my face.
"You have spoiled. More than I-"
"I told you not to go there." Rose reminds me. I not my head in understanding.

"Oh, one last thing." Romeo nods his head to Rose and my Dad. I'm left alone in the room. I walk towards the door to walk to my Dad's office but the door is locked. I hear some shuffling from the room. I sigh and go back to the sitting room. I lean my face against my palm and wait for them to greet me again.

I hear the door unlock and I prop my self up, strengthening my posture. Romeo holds another envelope ahead of him.

"This is from all of us, my idea but we all helped."
"Romeo." My Dad warns.
"Just saying it was my idea." Romeo sticks his hands out in defense and nudges him with his elbow. Rose rolls her eyes at the men and I roll my eyes with her.

Rose fake coughs, bringing the attention back to me.