Four letter word

25. Birthdays

Riley had already bought her present and now the two girls were just walking around the town looking for something to AJ could buy.

...things were not looking well.

"Well what did you give her last year?" AJ asked.

"Oh, I wasn't at her birthday last year. We recently became close so, ya know" she shrugged. Helpful...

"Right. Let's go into this vintage store" she said and they went in. The small store was filled with antiques - cutlery, chairs, decor... the owner barely even glanced at them when they walked in. The place had a very warm vibe, very comfortable. They looked around for a little while. Riley picked up every unusual item she could find and played with it. The owner was too sleepy to notice.

As they were looking, the sound of a hot kettle going off startled all of them. The owner, who had fallen asleep, jump up in fear and ran to the other room, which they assumed was the kitchen. He came back in a few minutes with a hot mug of tea and sat back down on his chair. The girls still hadn't found anything.

AJ noticed the jewelry section. There were beautiful rings for sail, they were old and had dramatic rocks in the middle.

"She wears rings, right? I've seen her wear rings" AJ said and kneeled down to get a closer look at the rings. Riley came up to her and stood behind.

"Yeah, she likes 'em. Oh, that one's pretty" she said and picked up a black ring with a red rock in the middle. It looked very gothic. Not for Lindsey, but Riley seemed amazed by it. She took it to the owner to purchase it while AJ tried to pick out jewelry for Lindsey.

Though the gift was still bugging her. Jewelry seemed like such an obvious choice. Like the thing you bought for people you weren't close to. Even so, the rings she chose were a lot prettier than your usual rings. One was silver with an emerald rock, the other was similar with a smaller green stone in the middle and silver carvings around the stone. Lindsey seemed to like green, at least she wore it often.

AJ still felt skeptical about her choice as she went up to the counter. There was nothing she could do now though, the owner of the store had already wrapped up the gift and she was about to pay for it.

When they walked out, Riley must have noticed the girl's disappointment,

"Still not satisfied? Don't worry, she'll love them" Riley shrugged.

"I know... but what if she thinks I didn't put any thought into it. Or what if she realizes that I don't know anything about her..." AJ started freaking out. Usually she kept those thoughts inside her head, but it seemed oddly easy to open up to Riley. She had proved many times that she wasn't the judgy type, and AJ was beginning to get comfortable with her. Maybe it was because they lived in the same dorm, or maybe it was because she was Lindsey's close friend... or maybe the fact that they had almost slept together... but AJ was slowly opening up to Riley.

Gosh... this whole thing was such a mess.

"That's not true. Of course you know stuff about her. Otherwise why do you like her?" Riley asked. They stopped walking and faced each other. AJ looked away as she spoke the next part,

"...I like her because she's smart and kind, and she wants to help everyone in every way she can. She's selfless and beautiful - inside and out. She cares about the world and everyone in it. She has a good heart and is honest. She's confident and fun, energetic as fuck. She spreads love everywhere she goes. How could anyone not like her?"

The unexpected speech took both girls aback. AJ looked back at Riley with raised eyebrows. Riley seemed confused as well, but she seemed to be going over everything AJ had just said in her head. She was considering her words and in a split second her expression changed, as if she just had a realization, but it went back to normal the same second.