"We're going to be late to your own party." He looked at me, one hand on the steering wheel and the other relaxed on his lap.
"That's how I roll, yo. Fashionably late." I smiled and he laughed. I turned on the stereo and plugged my phone into the aux cord.
"PLEASE, don't play that god forsaken song again!" He knew me too well. For weeks, I'd been obsessed with "All time low" by john Bellion. I'd first heard it my freshman year in college, but I'd forgotten the name of the singer for years until recently.
"I'm sorry but it's MY birthday and I can do whatever I want."
"Legal stuff only, please." He joked, moving his free hand over to mine, interlocking his fingers with my own.
"We're only ten minutes late," I said as I stepped out of the car, grabbing my over-the-shoulder bag and my placing my phone in my back jeans pocket.
"We still have to find everyone. This park is huge. They probably chose a table in the center, closer to the creek." He took his backpack out of the trunk and I helped him carry the ice chest. We walked, each carrying one side of the cooler, to find my friends.
"I'll call Yasmin and see where everyone's at that way we don't head in the wrong direction." I dialed her number and waited for her to pick up.
"Hey, girly! Where are y'all?!" She was energetic, as always.
"Hurry up and get here!" a few very recognizable voices screamed in the background. Everyone was there.
"Haha. I'm with Yasper. We're walking into the park right now, but we need a location. Where in the park are you guys located?"
"Oh! We're by the giant compass, with all the park directions. We didn't want to walk too far into the park until after we ate, since we could put our stuff back in our cars and head into the park during the night with glow sticks like we did that one night, just me you and Alice."
"Alrighty, weirdos. We''l head right over there. See you in a couple minutes." I told Yasper everything and we started walking, joking about the fact I'm always late for everything, even my own birthday party, one that I'd planned by myself.
"You know, I've known you for six years and I have never seen you show up on time. Stop denying it."
"I'm not denying it. I've been on time to several things. Tournaments, prom, ALL of our dates-"
"I always picked you up or we'd have dinner or a movie night. There's no real way you could run late." He argued, as we made our way through the park trails.
"Late to her own birthday party?" I recognized that voice instantly.
"Franklin! You made it." I walked over and hugged him.
"It's been a while and Alice was pretty convincing." There was a girl with him. I assumed it to be his girlfriend. I'd never met her or seen any pictures of her on Facebook.
"This is Yasper, my lovely weirdo." Yasper waived and smiled.
"Nice to meet you. Oh, this is Maranda. My girlfriend." I shook her hand and tried to make her feel welcome.
"Everyone's at a table near the giant compass statue, so you can walk with us." Yasper suggested, picking up the cooler by himself since I dropped it in order to hug Franklin.
"Well, we were going to walk around a bit since I haven't been here since middle school, when we took a field trip here." I told them to meet up with us before sunset because there would be games and stuff. Yasper and I headed in the direction of the compass statue.
