The Last of White Dawn

Chapter 28: It's My Birthday

"Come on in," Celine holds the door to her apartment open to let me pass in front of her. The set up in here is very similar to ours but the colour scheme is something to be admired. My friend has an affinity for yellows and blues with splashes of bright pink all across the kitchen and living room. Her couch is the hottest pink thing I think I have ever laid eyes on and it makes me giggle because she is the only person I know that could own such an item and it wouldn't be a surprise. What I do find surprising is the group of young men that are crowded around her dining room table, each with a stacked plate of bacon and pancakes, chatting with full mouths amongst themselves.

"And who do we have here?" I turn and raise an eyebrow at her.

"Oh, these are the volunteers I snatched up to help with today's set up." She seems unphased by the oddness of her statement as she brushes by me to pour us each a cup of coffee. She hands a bright yellow cup with a pattern of bumble bees on it to me and smiles from behind her own cup as she takes a sip. "Gents, why don't you introduce yourselves to our guest of honour?"

The young men seem to jump, suddenly noticing that we have returned from the hallway. As the first stands up I see Celines's smirk grow in the corn er of my eye. He's a tall man with a muscular frame, dark eyes with flecks of gold floating in them, and black hair that he's cut short at the sides. "I'm Gabe," he stretches out his hand which I accept, quickly dropping it. "These are my friends," he motions to the table pointing to each one of them. "Samuel, Dunkin, Drake, Victor, Garret, and Chad."

I lean around Gabe to give the table one smile and wave, instead of trying to meet them all individually.

"Dare I ask how Celine got you all to volunteer your day for set up?"

"A party invitation, for one," Drake pipes up from the table.

"As much beer as we could drink," Chad adds with a wink in my direction.

"And, we got the first opportunity to meet our new packmate and the birthday girl." Ahhh there it is! Gabe does that half-smile thing young guys do when they know they have the answer you've been looking for.

"Well, it's nice to meet you all. I'm afraid I have no idea what the plan is for setting up but I'm here too so I hope that means I get beer as well," I eye my friend over my shoulder.

"I suppose we should get to it," she chugs the last of her coffee and puts all the cups in the sink. The boys follow, clearing the table and then settling themselves into a line in the living room. It occurs to me that I did not notice all the boxes and bins that were strewn throughout the living room and even down the hallway toward the bedroom. There had to be two or three dozen of them, all with a black marker label. "Boys, you can start loading the Jeep and then head off to the cottage."

With the flick of her wrist, the boys are in motion and they are moving. Each one grabs a box or two and heads out the apartment door and down toward the stairs. "What can I do?" I offer Celine.

"Nothing. It's your birthday; so, you and I get to enjoy all the hard work these young men are going to do." She lowers her voice to add with a chuckle, "and the view isn't half bad either."

"For real," I shoulder her, but a laugh escapes me too.

"When they're done loading the car, we'll head out to the cottage and make sure everything gets set up. Once that's done, we'll get your makeup and hair done. By then, everyone should be heading over so we'll start introducing you to other packmates."

Even though the plan seems pretty straight forward and doesn't actually require much of me other than to show up, tell people where to put things, and then greet my guests, there is a nagging voice in the back of my head that says something is going to go wrong. I wipe my suddenly sweaty hands on my shirt. "Sounds good to me."