selfish | salia

Chapter 22

Hi! A new chapter of Look At Me should be out later tonight! Sorry I haven't been posting much, I've spent the last week or so with family and friends because I'm moving up to uni on Saturday! Love you!

Also, I've linked a song. You'll know when to listen to it!

It was the day before Freya's birthday and I was stressing out. I was stressing out for a number of reasons.

The first reason was that, her birthday present hadn't arrived. And it wasn't going to arrive until September third.

I knew that if I told her she'd tell me it was alright, but knowing her she would be disappointed, not having a present from me to unwrap on her birthday. I knew I would be, anyway.

I had to think of something else, something I could get her at such short notice. The original present was a silver chain, with a little charm of a tree at the bottom. She had pointed it out to me as a joke a while ago, but I had memorised it and saved it to my wish list.

If only I had purchased it sooner, maybe it would be arriving on time.

Anyway, the second reason why I was stressed was because it was my job to decorate the house for her surprise party tonight. Josh had taken her out for the day, and in front of me sat hundreds of balloons, confetti and party bunting. Not to mention a glitter backdrop and a whole DJ set.

Josh had really gone out with all of this, and he had landed it all on me. It was time to recruit some help, and by that I meant Simon.

He was tall enough to reach the ceilings, and generally just way more productive than I was. We would half the time if we did it together rather than me doing it on my own. I called his name, knowing he had his door open. He peeked his head out, an amused smile taking over his face as he saw me sat in the middle of all the decorations.

Running down the stairs, his eyes widened as he realised just how much there was. "How long until she gets home?"

"Five hours. But the guests arrive in four, so really we've got less than that," I said wearily, not knowing where to start.

"Right, I'll set up the DJ equipment first, and you start blowing up balloons. We can put them in the spare room until they're all done, and when everything else is up we can bring them all in here. Then, me and you can do the glitter backdrop, and I can then put the bunting up. The confetti is easy, we can just chuck it everywhere. Does that sound like a plan?"

Well now I felt more relaxed. "That definitely sounds like a plan."

I got to work on blowing up the balloons, working with a dodgy pump was not easy, and I was almost tempted to look around for another one, or just blow them up manually.

"You look like you're struggling," Simon laughed, plugging in a thick black wire.

"No!" I defended myself, my hand slipping and the balloon completely deflating. "Okay, maybe slightly but I'm managing," I protested, shooting him an annoyed glance.

"Well, I'm nearly finished with this so I can come help you in a minute?" He offered, and I accepted immediately. Who would've thought blowing balloons would be so much effort?

The two of us definitely made a good team. We had done exactly as Simon had suggested, and by seven that night we were proudly looking down on the decorations we had slaved over.

"Freya is going to love this," I whispered, leaning into Simon, who had his arm wrapped round me.

"She definitely is. If you want to go get ready, I'll be alright to stay down here and welcome guests in."