Dear Freya,

7

It was quite. No one had shown up to my 12th birthday party. Not that I was surprised. Colton sat next to me and we played the wii. I was beating him in Mario cart, which by the way I was a pro at. "So," Colton starts, not looking away from the tv. "You okay?" I threw a red shell at the CPU in front of me and passed them, becoming first. "Yeah, this is fun." He got the rocket power up and passed five people so he was now in fourth place. "They could have just been busy." He reassures me. "Doubt it." We were now on the final lap and I finished first and he finished fourth. He pauses the game and looks over at me, "I'm sure they'll be free next year." He smiles brightly and I melt a little. (Spoiler: they weren't "free" next year either)

"Yeah." I reply, even if they were free... I would still only want to hang out with him. Just like we are now, and just like it will always be.

...

"Arizona, I can't do this," I say trying to squeeze into this skin tight white dress. "I feel like the mystery meat they shove into the sausage casings." Arizona busts out laughing, "Was that the only example you could think of?" I sigh, giving up. "Yes, now can I please wear something else?" She rolls her eyes, "No, it looks great on you," she comes over to me and assists me in the struggle of pulling it up. "Plus it's your fault you dyed you hair red, cause to be honest this is such a look with your hair." I immediately regret everything, "I can dye it back, I mean there's still like, what, five hours till the party?" She does the final pull that imprisoned  my body in the dress. "No can do shortcakes, you're in and I'm not taking you back out."

She was wearing a light tan, off the shoulder romper that complimented her deep tan skin and chestnut hair. We decided that instead of having a "fancy as fuck" party, it was going to be more casual. Not that this dress by any means was casual, but Arizona said it was only right for me to stand out on my sixteenth birthday.  The dress clung to my curves, making me slightly self conscious about my bigger butt. 

"Knock knock." I hear my mother's voice in the other side of the door, "Why aren't you girls gorgeous," she lets herself in, smiling. "Listen, me and your father wanted to get out of your hair for the party, so we'll see you tomorrow." She smiles and gives me a kiss on the forehead, "There's alcohol in the fridge if you want some for your party." I give her a look of disbelief, "Really mom? That's great parenting huh." I say sarcastically. I hear Arizona stifle a laugh from behind me. "Well I rather you get it from us than someone else." Her blonde locks bounce up and down as she walks back to the door. "Whatever bye." She leaves and closes the door with a slam.

I now drive Arizona to a small diner called "The Red Room" where all my friends were planning on meeting us. I recognize all their cars so I park next to Nathan's. We get out quickly and enter the double doors. Once we were in I see my friend group sitting in our usual booth in the back corner. We walk over and sit at the ends of the booths, I sit next to Luke and she sits next to Wisty. "So what'd we miss?" I ask, taking one of Luke's fries.

"Well, we were just debating what to get you." Gerald says also taking one of his fries, earning a nasty glare from Luke. "Y'all haven't got me anything yet?" I ask mid-chew. "We have, like individually but we want to get you something from all of us." Nathan chips in. "Ya'll I'm fine I don't want anything." I assure them.

We eat for an hour and make pleasant conversations. "You look really good today." Luke whispers in my ear, I can feel my cheeks turn bright red. "Thanks." I mutter embarrassed. "So who all in coming to the party." I change the subject quickly, not knowing why I was so nervous.

"Alright so," Wisteria starts, "Since we're literally the only people you liked enough to invite, I had to invite a lot of other people." I laugh a bit, "Ew, why?" "Uh because, it's not a party with like five people, not including you." Arizona chokes on her orange juice, "It'd be six actually."