Bria Murphy as Nina
Trevante Rhodes as Arlin
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" Everyone at the long table yelled before the new, 30 year-old Nina Walters blew out her number candles. Her silver sequin dress glistened in the flashlight shots from iPhones as she smiled while sitting beside her best friend Arlin Edwards who has always been beside her every birthday since they turned 2. Just two weeks ago, he celebrated his own 30th birthday surrounded by friends and family, much like what Nina had set up.
"Did you make a wish?" Her mom asked her.
She looked at Arlin, immediately thinking about a pact they made and agreed to back on their 21st birthday. "No not this time."
After dinner, Nina's close friends, her brother and cousins all gathered for drinks at a lounge. Arlin had hooked her up with a section so she wouldn't have to worry about standing. She rode to dinner with her mom and stepdad but left the restaurant in Arlin's G-Wagon. Towards the end of dinner, her random thought about the pact she made with Arlin flooded her mind and she honestly couldn't tell you what she got for her birthday because her mind was elsewhere.
"You aight?" Arlin asked her as he drove in the direction of the lounge they were meeting everyone at.
She nodded, "Yeah I'm good."
"Towards the end of dinner you got mad quiet. Whats on ya mind?"
She contemplated not bringing it up but she also knew Arlin was persistent as fuck which meant he wasn't giving up on finding out. "Remember we made that pact on our 21st birthday?"
He smirked, glancing her way before looking back at the road in front of them. "Of course. I was gonna say some shit when you called me on my birthday but I decided to wait until today since you didn't turn 30 yet. What about it?"
She played with the sequin pieces on her dress. "Is that something you still want to do?"
He shrugged as he looked at her, "It was my idea so yeah I still want to. But why don't we table this and talk about it tomorrow?"
"Yeah, our birthday dinner." Every year on the day after her birthday, she cooks them dinner and they celebrate each other's birthday again but its always just the two of them.
At the lounge, Nina tried to keep her mind off of what they had to discuss together but every time she looked his way, she couldn't help but think about it. He noticed her being quiet and barely dancing and knew she was sitting in her forehead about it. So he ordered two rounds of shots and really got her out her head...
Nina groaned at the sound of her phone ringing. She opened one eye and saw a picture of her older brother as a baby, indicating that he was calling. Only one person called her this early in the morning with no regard or care for her not being a morning person. He knew he was waking her up but this couldn't wait.
"Its 7 in the morning Bubb."
"And? I had to make sure my nigga was alive. You good?"
"No." She said groaning as she rolled over onto her side. She could feel the puke coming but it wasn't up yet. She looked onto her bedside lamp table and there was a bottle of Pedialyte and a bendy straw next to it with a bottle of Excedrin medicine. "Ugh!"
