The Fault In Our Stars: After Augustus

Chapter Twenty One

I was surprised. A lot of my family was here, Kaitlyn, Matt, Isaac, Nicholas, and... Lidewij.

"I-" I did not even know what words to let out of my mouth, and I was grinning widely.

"You're welcome," Kaitlyn said smiling and heading towards me.

I smiled back, "this was all your idea?!"

"Yes," she admitted, "but I couldn't have had my ideas come true without the help of everyone else."

"H-how?" I was very shocked, (a) by the looks of all the effort put into planning this, and (b) all my close friends and family were gathered.

Kaitlyn just laughed, "well?! You have a birthday to celebrate! C'mon!" she affirmed, as she tugged on my arm, pulling me towards the crowd.

As I was about to go around and greet all my family and friends, Isaac and Matt came up to me. "Happy Birthday Hazel!" they said in unison, followed by a big hug from both of them.

"Thanks guys!"

"Now Hazel, how come you've never introduced me to Matt over here; he's a pretty fun guy!" Isaac addressed. Matt and I just laughed.

"So you two are friends now?" I asked them.

"TOTES," Matt asserted.

I giggled, "well, enjoy your new friendship!"

"Enjoy your birthday!"

~~~~~~~~~~

"Hazel!" I heard a Dutch accent call. "Happy Birthday!"

I turned around to see the beautiful Lidewij Vliegenthart. "Lidewij! How did you-"

"Oh, that's besides the point!" she insisted, "what's important is that you have a wonderful birthday!"

"Thank you, I'm really glad you came."

She just nodded and smiled, "oh! And I have something for you!"

She pulled out a frame of René Magritte's painting 'The Lovers'. "I noticed the shirt you wore that day in Amsterdam, "The Treachery of Images", so I thought you'd like this."

"I love it," it was beautiful, "thank you so much Lidewij."

"No problem Hazel, happy birthday."

~~~~~~~~~~

"Hazel Grace Lancaster."

I looked up. "Nicholas Grady." Now I couldn't help but smile.

He grabbed my hand, pulled me up out of my seat, twirled me into his arms, then grinned and said "happy birthday."

I chuckled, "slick."

"It's my middle name."

"I thought you didn't have a middle name."

"Yeah, but if I did it would be 'slick'."

"But you said 'it's slick' not 'it would be slick'."

He scoffed, "oh forget it. You win."

"Don't I always."