Free Falling

dix-huit

"Table cloth?"

"Check."

"Food?"

"Check."

"Drinks?"

"Check."

"Cake?"

"Check."

"Candles?" 

Rebekah glanced around. "Oh. Wait. I'm sure I packed them." She dug through the stuff in the boxes before reemerging triumphantly with a packet of candles. "Check."

Danny tucked his clipboard under his arm and clapped his hands in satisfaction. "Well, I guess we're all set then."

Rebekah gazed around at what they had managed to achieve in the past few hours. Fairy lights were draped around the gazebo and as afternoon faded into dusk, they twinkled like dozens of colorful stars. Situated at the sides of the room were tables filled with food, most of which Danny had ordered and a few bowls of snacks. Drinks of all sorts sat in the coolers next to the table, ready for when the guests started showing up. 

All in all, Rebekah thought that she and Danny had done a pretty good job.

Now all that was left was for the guests to show up.

"Hey Rebekah."

Rebekah turned around. "Yeah?"

"Thanks for helping me. This... this might not seem like a big deal, but it'll mean a lot to Elise." Danny smiled. "She'll pretend to hate it, but I know that she'll love it."

Rebekah returned his smile and waved away his thanks. "It was my pleasure. I'm glad that you asked me to help out. Neither Elise nor Seb mentioned that tomorrow's their birthday. If you hadn't told me, I wouldn't even have gotten them gifts."

Danny had perched himself on a ledge as she'd been speaking and now patted the space next to him. He checked his watch. "Yeah, I knew that they wouldn't want to mention their birthday after last year's fiasco."

Rebekah grabbed a can of Coca-Cola and opened it before sitting herself in the space next to Danny. "What happened last year?"

He shrugged as he dipped his hand into a bowl of popcorn. "Jane and Lukas happened." He threw some popcorn into his mouth and chewed thoughtfully. "I doubt either of the twins will ever want to speak about their eighteenth birthday."

Rebekah fell silent, watching Danny expectantly. Even though it was only half past five, the sun was almost completely set, a reminder that winter was slowly but surely setting in.

"I'm not sure if you've noticed, but Seb is a one-woman guy. He gave all his firsts to this one girl that he'd liked since fourth grade." Danny took another handful of popcorn and threw it into his mouth, ignoring those that missed and fell onto his shirt.

"Jane," Rebekah said. She tried to keep her voice neutral, but something inside her was hurting to know that Sebastian had liked someone so much before he'd met her.

"Jane," Danny agreed. "The most popular girl from lower school all the way to the end of high school."

Without asking for permission, his hand darted out suddenly and grabbed Rebekah's can of soft drink. He took several gulps before handing it back to her.

"Don't worry," he said when she glared at him. "It's not like I have herpes or anything."

"You should still ask." Rebekah frowned at her now contaminated can.

"Sorry," Danny shrugged. "Anyway, long story short, Seb was already blind when we celebrated their 18th last year. He didn't want a big bash because... well," Danny cast his eyes towards the ground. "He was struggling with... everything, really. His parents thought that all he needed to be okay again was to hang out with friends and have a good time."