Little White Lie

Chapter 25

|25|

•Charlotte•

I felt someone jump on me and I immediately stopped myself from punching that person and instead groaned knowing it was Lizzie. 

"It's your birthday!" She said excitedly, pulling the duvet away from my face. The sun shined down on me as I tried to open my eyes. 

Blindly, I reached out for my phone and squinted at the time to see it was ten am but Mary had tried face timing me three times. 

Instantly I sat up in bed and pushed my hair out of my face before facetiming her again. Lizzie sat besides me just as Mary picked up. 

"Happy birthday!" Dad waved at me, the phone lowered so I could see his chin. "Mary!" He called out. "How do I work this thing? I need my glasses." 

I was laughing, smiling. The one thing I was afraid of didn't happen. He didn't forget me. 

"Lift the phone up, dad." I said to him and he raised the phone up and I could see his face. He grinned, noticing me on the screen and wished me a happy birthday again. 

"How is Italy?" He asked loudly, as if thinking his voice wouldn't reach me. 

"It's good! Have you taken your pills? Why are you awake so early though?" I asked the question, realising we were ahead by six hours. 

"We were going to wish you a happy birthday." Dad said with a smile on his face as he glanced at someone. I heard Mary whisper shush before she appeared in front of the camera with a small cake in her hand. 

"Happy birthday!" She grinned at me and I laughed, thanking her. 

"Is that cake for me?" I asked them and Mary and Dad shook their heads. 

"I'm going to sleep now so when I wake up, that's when I'm going to have it." Dad said to me with a smile on his face as I nodded. 

"I'll talk to you later, okay?" I said to him and he nodded. "I love you." 

He smiled at me. "I love you too." He said as I waved at Mary and dad who both looked extremely tired. I cut the call and grinned to myself. 

I felt happy, content today. 

"I want a cake as well." Lizzie said besides me as she climbed out of the bed and walked towards her bag. "Your actual present is at home because it's really heavy so I couldn't bring it here with me, but I bought you this." She grinned at me as she picked up a rectangular wrapped box and walked towards me. 

She climbed back onto the bed as she handed it to me. She watched me as I started opening it. "I know you would never buy anything for yourself, so I've been saving for it. I think you could do online classes once you're bored at home." 

It was a MacBook. A laptop. "Lizzie, I can't." We never bought each other expensive gifts, not because we couldn't afford it, it was just not our thing. We liked to joke around with our gifts. 

"You have to. I'm going to be joining classes, without you, and that's a big step out of my comfort zone." She started to say, "I want you to keep it just in case you want to join some online class. You can even just keep it to mark down your fights." She chuckled at me as I wrapped my arms around her tightly.