I'm in the backseat of a car; blindfolded and pouting.
"Where are we going?!" I exclaim again for the fifth time.
"Shut up, Natalie," Risa tells me patiently. "You'll see in a minute."
Sarah laughs at me from the passenger seat.
"Yeah, you try being dragged out of bed at seven in the morning, blindfolded, and shoved in here," I mutter.
I can almost hear their eyes roll. "Untrue. We gave you time to get ready and everything."
"Whatever."
Thankfully, the car stops after about three more minutes, before I can truly go crazy.
I open the car door and step out gingerly, not wanting to crush anything. There's gravel under my feet, I can tell.
The driver door opens and I hear Risa step out beside me. She whispers something to someone, then laughs, walking off. A door opens, then shuts.
"Can I take this stupid thing off now?" I ask, possibly to empty air.
Someone's arms wrap around me from behind, and the person kisses me on the cheek. "Yeah, go ahead," says a familiar voice.
I barely contain a squeal. "Ed!" I exclaim, tearing the blindfold off and checking to see if it's really him. It is. I throw my arms around his neck and give him a big hug.
"You really flew over!!"
He grins at me. "Yeah, I did."
"What's going on, then?" I ask as I pull back, my hands still on his shoulders.
He points behind me.
We're at some fancy lounge I don't even know place; the kind of building I saw all the cool rich kids visit on Facebook but I'd never gone near it. "It's our birthday party!"
Oh, yeah! "Happy birthday, Ed," I say, smiling up at him. "I forgot. I would've called you eventually, though, I promise.
He laughs, studying his feet. "Yeah, well... That's not really necessary now, I suppose, is it?"
"Nope!" I lean forward and give him a kiss on the lips.
After a moment, we pull away and he says, "Shall we go inside, then?"
I agree. I take his hand and we enter the place.
I'm not sure what I was expecting, but this is pretty cool. There's plush chairs and couches all over. There's a bar against one wall, probably serving non-alcoholic beverages, seeing as many of us were under 21. Several huge plasma televisions are on the walls, and I spy a karaoke machine. Pool tables, air hockey machines, dart boards, ping pong tables... You name it, this place has it. The best part is that all of my friends, Risa's friends, and several acquaintances of mine here, all to celebrate me and Ed's birthday. I feel popular.
"Awesome!" I exclaim. "Did you rent this?" I ask Ed.
He shrugs, and I know it's a yes.
"Aww. I like this place!"
We go on to explore. I say hi and chat with tons of people, and introduce Ed to them. It's quite exhilarating to introduce Ed as "my boyfriend." I can't get enough of it.
He gets along with everybody quite well, although he does seem to be acting a bit on the shy side.
We go on to play games. I quickly discover that I'm awful at darts, but fairly good at air hockey. Risa and I pair up and play Kyle and Ed at ping pong. We lose epically. We switch partners; Ed and me against Risa and Kyle. It's a close game, but Ed and I pull it out. He spins me around in a hug in celebration, and I'm laughing like crazy. This is fun!
Once again, Ed and I pair up to play pool, this time against Sarah and Jason. I have never properly played pool before, and of course Ed being himself is a freaking prodigy at it. We're losing, because of me. I keep just swinging the stick randomly at balls, and I've knocked the white ball into a hole twice. I'm getting frustrated, and they're all laughing at me, which does not help. When it's my turn, I go up and start to carelessly whack something again, when Ed comes up behind me. "Here, babe. Try it like this." He shows me the proper way to place my hands, then wraps his arms around me to show me how to poke the stick. His chin is resting on my shoulder, and I can feel his warm breath on my cheek. "Got it?" He says.
Honestly, I haven't heard a bit of what he's told me. I was a bit too distracted by his closeness. I nod anyway, though. "Yep," I say. "Prepare to be amazed."
I actually hit a ball! One of our balls! It goes nowhere near a hole, but hey. It wasn't the white one again. I turn around to look at Ed excitedly. He rubs his chin with an expression like he's trying to hold back laughter. "Well, it's an improvement," he admits after a moment.
"You better believe it."
