Nova Grace

35

The night goes by faster than I expected, I drink a few beers, dance with the girls and thoroughly enjoy myself. When I mentioned to Rune that I thought I had seen Allan, he didn't tell me I was paranoid and imagining things, as I expected. We just talked around the whole place until I was sure I had imagined it. 

We even went as far as showing our friends a picture of him, with a brief explanation along the lines of, he hurt one of our brothers and is still free. So that they'll tell us if they see him around, I'm kind of freaked out still, honestly. 

But then I remember when Santi was fighting with dad and I had this same gut feeling that was telling me to prepare for danger and in the end, nothing was wrong they were just acting like normal people do when frustrated.

"CAKE!CAKE!CAKE!" Everyone starts chanting after we sing happy birthday to Jake, he looks so happy as he smashes his face in the corner of the ginormous two tier cake. But I realize that I was right and Henry is the worst asshole when he "playfully" pushes Jake into the pool and the table with the cake falls with him

I see the disappointment in Jake's eyes as he emerges form the water, but nobody around seems to care as they all jump into the pool after him, the music resuming and everyone partying as if it is their last day on earth

I frown at Henry a few feet beside me, "why would you do that? he's been talking about your granny baking that cake for him and how excited he was to try it" I say

Rune takes a step closer and surprisingly, the rest of our friends do too

Henry chuckles, "light up sweetheart, it was fun"

It just...makes something snap inside of me and I can't take it

"Really? How about this...is this fucking fun, too, asshole?" I say, and then impulsively grab a couple mini hamburguers off a table and smash them on his face. He clearly didn't expect that because he only reacts when the meat and sauce are smeared all over him

"What the actual fuck!" he screams

"Shit Nova" Rune says and pulls me back 

But I don't know if it's the accumulated anger from all the past years I have for the male race, or what, but I just can't stop. I tip my full glass of beer and throw it at his face for good measure too

"Bitch" he says with gritted teeth and makes to step towards me, but suddenly I'm shoved back by Rune while both Jake and Oscar get between us and push him back

Nobody around us seems to notice what's going on, thankfully, "Well? light up sweetheart, that was so fun" I tell him, just for the hell of it

"Shh" Rune shushes me but is holding back a smile, "stop provoking him, we'll make a scene and it's Jake's birthday"

I deflate, shit, what is wrong with me? Did I really need to do this? Jake and Henry are arguing, spitting words at each other that I can't hear until Henry walks away pissed as hell

"Wait is this like an enemies to lovers situation? OMG are we witnessing a true love story?" Lexi says excitedly, clearly very drunk. Oscar puts a hand on her arm and shakes his head at her to shut up 

Despite myself, I almost laugh, but I look at Jake ready to apologize. He's staring at me, dripping all wet, I open my mouth to tell him how stupid that was when he bursts out laughing. My eyes widen but one by one, we join him 

"Fuck I'm so glad you did that, I've been wanting to throw something at him for ages" Raven says in-between laughing 

"Yeah he's just so shitty to you Jake, I don't know how you put up with him" Oscar says