The next morning, I got ready for school in a daze. The night before had been amazing, but Chad had been acting so strangely when he had to leave that it left me feeling strangely self-conscious.
I was just putting the finishing touches of mascara on when I heard a knock on the door. I quickly shoved the gold tube into my makeup bag and ran downstairs, though I had a feeling I knew who it was.
When I opened the door, Chad was standing on the stoop with a bouquet of multicolored daisies.
"Happy birthday," he said again, offering the pink and blue petals to me.
"You know," I said, smelling the flowers. "You're better at this whole thing than you think."
He chuckled and scratched the back of his neck.
"Come in for a sec. I'll just put these in water and then we can go."
Chad nodded and closed the door behind us before following me into the kitchen.
I grabbed a vase from the cabinet under the sink and filled it with water.
"How'd you sleep?" He asked, studying the magnets on my refrigerator.
"I slept okay," I told him, unwrapping the flowers and carefully sliding them into the vase. "Was everything okay with you last night?" I asked a bit nervously. He peeled his eyes from the silver Oregon magnet and grabbed my hand.
"Everything was fine. You know how my dad gets," he said, assessing me. I stared at his calloused hands, which pretty much devoured mine and let out a breath I didn't mean to be holding. "Hey," he willed me to look at him. "Last night was incredible. I'm sorry I had to rush out."
I squeezed his hand and looked up.
"Really?"
"Really." He smiled for what felt like the first time in a while. "Ready to go?"
I nodded and let go of his hand, grabbing my keys and backpack from the entryway.
Chad and I broke apart once we got inside the school, each going to our own lockers. As soon as he left though, Zac swooped in.
"Hey, birthday girl!" He yelled, wrapping me in a hug. I squeezed him back.
"How was your date last night?" I asked after we broke apart. "He couldn't stop talking about hunting."
"Ew," I agreed, turning my combination. "So, I guess I was the only one who got laid last night," I said, raising my eyebrows at him.
"Ex-friggen-scuse me!" He yelled, a little too loudly. I lightly smacked his arm in an attempt to shush him. He giggled and asked, more quietly, "With Chad?"
"No, the curry delivery boy," I rolled my eyes. "Of course, Chad!"
"Oh my god," he crossed his arms. "Tell me everything."
"It was..." I trailed off. I wasn't sure if I was ready to share all the intimate details about last night with anyone, even if it was my best friend. But, Zac was waiting, so I decided to keep it vague. "It hurt, like, a lot. But it was also really amazing."
I opened my mouth to go on and to tell him about Chad's abrupt exit, but I stopped myself. Zac was already too skeptical of Chad as a person. Plus, it was a family thing anyway. And that, I decided, was none of Zac's business.
"Oh!" I gasped, taking my history book out of the locker. "I can't believe I almost forgot!"
"Come on, don't bury the lead," he urged.
"He asked me to be his girlfriend."
"Shut up!"
"No, seriously," I told him, slamming the locker shut. "Can you believe it?"
"Honestly no," he said, pushing himself off of the locker and joining me to homeroom. "I don't think he's ever had like a real girlfriend."
Even though I already knew that, I blushed.
"You're a lucky bitch, you know that?"
I slung my arm around his shoulders. "Yeah, I know."
I didn't see Chad at lunch, so I took my usual seat across from Zac. Thankfully, he was being pretty hush hush about the events of last night. Either that, or he was just too focused on tonight's party to bring it up. Either way, I was thankful. It was one thing to tell him, but it was another to tell the rest of our friends albeit the whole school.
"So I think pretty much everyone is coming," Zac said, popping a baby carrot into his mouth.
"Everyone?" I asked. I must have looked petrified because everyone started laughing.
"Let me put it this way," Zac said. "Everyone who is someone will be there. It will be amazing, I will help you clean up the next day, and you will have a great time."
I sighed. I'd been feeling a little off kilter today and I think the party had a lot to do with that. Sure, I went to plenty of parties throughout high school, but I'd never hosted one. I'd lied to my mom before, but not about something so huge. My mind constantly went over all the worst scenarios -- the cops being called, someone breaking a window, a huge stain on the carpet, my mom coming back early -- the list went on and on.
But, my friends were excited. And, even though I was scared shitless, I was pretty excited too.
"Just promise me it won't get too out of hand," I said, staring into Zac's soul just a little.
"I promise."
"Also," I said, taking a sip of my water. "Please make sure Dylan doesn't come."
Zac held my gaze and nodded knowingly.
For the rest of lunch, we discussed every detail about the party. Zac had a college friend who was hooking us up with alcohol, and the decorations were all taken care of. All that was left for me to do was enjoy, but as Zac went on about the sequin-filled balloons he got, I felt a bit detached from everything. I still had a bad feeling about tonight, and balloons had nothing to do with it.
