illuminate s.m

[1.14] sweet 19th

sweet 19th

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I wake up to the beautiful sound of Shawn's voice, along with a few others. As my eyes flutter open and the world clears in front of me. I rub my eyes and smile to myself at the wonderful wakeup. I see that there are six people here, that are all standing with something in their hands; my mom – with a tray of cups and a small cake, Nadine – with a bag that obviously holds a bottle of wine, Magnus – with an envelope, Nick – with a gift that matches the one in Jasmine's hands, and Shawn – with a box.

They all look at me with happiness blossoming in their eyes, and it makes me warm inside. As they finish my song, they each take a turn and hug me. "Happy birthday darling." My mom says as she holds me tight against her body. I bury my face in her hair and smell her perfume. It's on days like this that I remember how great it is to live with someone. Usually I wake up to myself, and I'm alone, and even though I enjoy it, I sometimes wish there was someone here to wake me up with coffee in the kitchen. I've thought about getting a dog, but I'd have constant bad feelings, for leaving it with my mom whenever I go somewhere, even though I don't think she'd mind.

"Thank you." She lets go of me and picks up a cup from my bedside table and she hands it to me. I smell it and it's like heaven is on earth. Chocolate-coffee. Probably the best thing on earth. "My god. I love you." I take a sip and motion for everyone to sit down in my bed or pull the small sofa and chairs I have next to the bed. They find themselves positions and, in the end, my mom, Shawn and Nadine are in bed with me while the others are in chairs.

First, Nadine hands me her gift. "I know it's obvious what it is but-"

"Shh." I pull the tape of the top and reveal a bottle of white wine that looks extremely fancy and I gasp at its beauty. "Wow, thank you."

"I asked at the wine store in Bond Street and they told me this one is perfect for your taste, and it's really sweet so it'll be perfect for just drinking and eating crackers or something." She smiles widely, and I hug her and thank her once more for the fantastic gift.

Next up is Magnus, and the envelope he hands me ends up with being a gift card to go your and eat at this posh café we walked past in New York, but never had the chance to find again. "So next time, we have an excuse that we need to go there." I laugh at his joke and thank him for the kind gesture. He knows that I don't like people spending too much money on my gifts because I have enough myself and I don't want people wasting anything on me.

The same goes for Nick and Jasmine that gives me this beautiful pair of Swarovski earrings that they packed in two boxes so that they could give one each. I nearly die of laughter when I understand why the boxes are similar and we all have a good time with it. As for my mom, I never allowed her to give me big gifts after I got recognised, but this year, apparently, she hasn't listened. She gives me the best gift ever. That she has taken three months off from work to come with me on tour. She knows how much I've wanted it, but she is hard on herself with taking breaks from work. She doesn't want me to be the only one paying for her things and life. Her gift makes me shed a couple tears and that goes for her as well.

The last gift is from Shawn, and I can see the excitement in his eyes as he hands me my gift. The giftbox I itself is pretty and it looks like he made an effort in making it great. There is a card attached that I'm told to read after he leaves, and I take it off and look forward to it. inside the box there's an envelope, and as I open it my jaw drops. Plane tickets. I look to him for an explanation and he smiles widely. "You're coming with me to Canada for our thanksgiving." My eyes widen even more at this and I can't form any words. "I've taken care of everything, cleaned your schedule, found tickets, obviously, and you're staying at my place for the week. Plus, you're attending dinner with my family while you're there."