The day I found you annoying

Chapter 14: Girlfriend

"You look..." my uncle cleared his throat. "You look really pretty, Coco. You like a lot like your mom."

Okay, I wasn't expecting that compliment from my uncle, but the cherry on top was the comment about my mom. Did he want me to cry?

"Thank you." I said awkwardly, smoothing down my skirt. My uncle had been acting weird lately. Ever since Annie left a few months ago to be exact. Maybe he missed her?

I didn't know and didn't care. I was kind of mad at Annie for leaving.

"I'm staying at Justin's, so yeah. Don't wait for me."

"Do you need money?" He asked, standing up from the couch.

"Uh... Sure." I surely wasn't going to pass on that.

He gave me twenty dollars and I waved him goodbye. He had the house for himself tonight and I was beginning to think he was going to bring some company.

Some feminine company. Or whatever my uncle was into.

I shivered just thinking about it.

Today was march 15th. Justin's birthday. 15 years old, too. And even though he wasn't doing anything special, I wanted to dress up a little. I even styled my hair differently.

He was celebrating with his family first, since it was Saturday he had all day ahead to do whatever he wanted. Then at night, he wanted to hang out with some of his classmates. They were a year older than me, and I still hadn't have the chance to know them very well. Justin told me today could be the day.

"Happy birthday, J!" I smiled widely when Justin opened the door, a shy smile on his face. He hated to be the center of attention.

"Since when do you call me J?" He asked, wrapping his arms around me when I threw myself at him.

"Since today. Don't you like it?"

He shrugged, pulling apart as he checked me out. "Wow, you look..." he swallowed. "Really pretty."

I squinted my eyes, pinching his cheek. "And I don't know why you keep getting surprised by that." I smiled, letting myself in.

I knew he was rolling his eyes when he closed the door. I was greeting everyone, making myself comfortable when I heard a familiar voice in the kitchen.

I got shy all of a sudden.

"You didn't tell me your brother Ben was coming." I told him just as Ben stepped out of the kitchen.

As handsome as ever. A modern greek god right in front of my eyes.

"Hey, Coco."

My knees weakened. Yep. My crush for him was still very on.

"He's still a jerk, you know?" Justin whispered into my ear. "That hasn't changed."

I stepped forward and gave a quick hug to the Abercrombie model. "Hi."

Everyone laughed. Surely due to the fact that I became all shy all of a sudden when I wasn't even a little bit the moment I stepped into the house.

We all sang happy birthday and I took millions of pictures of Justin's red face as we did so. He made a wish and he cut the cake. His favorite was strawberries' but he made his mom make a chocolate one so I could eat it, too. Wasn't that cute?

Then it was time for presents. He got a surf board from Cara and her husband. Justin was really getting into surf lately, specially in France. Then he also got a PS5 from the rest of his brothers. It was clearly they didn't know him very well since he didn't like video games at all, but he just smiled and thanked them all. I was so going to steal that. His mom gave him socks, pajamas, underwear and everything he could need for a whole year. They all laughed when he unwrapped the Spider-Man boxers she bought him.