Chapter 134

“How does it feel being sixteen?” Jack asks me.

“I feel like I’m fifteen” I shrug.

As you’ve probably guessed, it’s my birthday! Woo! The whole group have come round for a little gathering at my house which is cool. We’re all just sat in the living room talking and stuff at the moment.

“Do you not feel older?” he frowns, taking a sip of his beer.

“No” I chuckle. “What’s so good about being sixteen anyway?”

“Well you’re legal now” he shrugs, making me gasp. “To buy a lottery ticket! What did you think I meant?” he raises an eyebrow and I just roll my eyes.

“We both know what you meant”

He chuckles, “Well, legal or not, it’s never stopped you from doing the humpty dumpty with Conor”

“Jack!”

He rolls his head back in laughter, “I’m joking”

“Can you open your presents now?” Eleanor groans. She’s been begging me all day.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. Eleanor came to Brighton yesterday with her family. I’m not sure how long she’s staying but she’ll definitely be here for her birthday in five days. I’m pretty excited about it to be honest. Although she needs to go back to school on the 22nd to get her exam results and to see if she can get into the college she applied for so I have no idea how this is going to work out. Just roll with it.

I haven’t really done much today. I woke up pretty early and opened all my presents from my parents but except for that, nothing special’s really happened. Although, me, Conor, Jack and Eleanor attempted to make a birthday cake for myself. It looks pretty crap but I won’t judge a book by its cover.

“Yeah, alright then” I roll my eyes.

“Yay!” she squeals. “Guys, she’s opening her presents now” she announces.

People pass me their presents one by one and the majority of stuff I get is either money, clothes, or a joke. For example, Alex got me a thong to wear ‘for Conor’. It would be him to get me something like that...

I start to tear open Jack’s present, far too excited than I should be. The Maynard’s always get me the best presents.

The first thing I open is a bath set from Lush which smells absolutely delicious. It makes me want to jump in a bath right now. The second thing I open is a personalised bottle of Vodka in a pink case with my name on. Mum will be pleased... I actually love it to be honest. And the final thing he gets me is a pillow with his face on it. I knew it was far too good to be true.

“Don’t you just love it?” he smiles, pulling the pillow up to his face.

“It’s actually terrifying” I shake my head in amusement.

“Well at least now you’ll never forget me” he shrugs.

“Why would I forget you?” I frown in confusion.

“I don’t know, things could change”

“You’re scaring me. What have you done?”

“Nothing” he chuckles. I roll my eyes and grab the pillow off him.

“Thank you, Jack!”

“No problem” he smiles.

I choose to open Eleanor’s next, saving Conor’s to open last because I have the feeling it’ll be my favourite. She gets me a make-up bag, some new shoes which I literally love and finally, my favourite, a necklace with a tiny heart on the end.

“Eleanor, I love it” I smile.

“Wait” she says, fiddling with something on her neck before pulling out the exact same necklace.

“Oh my god!” I squeal.

When we cool down, I turn to Conor and he slides my bag of presents towards me, rolling his eyes when he sees how excited I am about this.

I open the envelope first and examine the small ticket inside it. I look up at Conor to see his face is literally about to burst out in excitement. I look back down at the ticket and read the first line to see that the ticket is to see Drake at the end of August.

“Drake?” I frown in confusion, looking up at him.

“Yeah! Are you excited!?” he practically squeals.

“Surprisingly, yes” I smile, nodding. “But are you sure this is just so you have company? I don’t even like Drake”

His face drops, “I’ll ignore that last bit. But the whole group are going”

“Really!?” I gasp in excitement, looking around at everyone nodding. “Oh my god!”

“Oh, now you’re excited” he rolls his eyes teasingly.

“We’re just going for the craic. Conor, Jack and Alex are the only people that really want to go” Leila chuckles.

“It’ll be fun” I laugh. “I don’t know any songs though”

“You know ‘Make Me Proud’” Conor smirks, making me flash back to that memory of us dancing in his room.

“One song, Conor” I smirk back.

“I even got Eleanor a ticket” he smiles proudly and my face drops. I look at her and she just smiles back at me, nodding for confirmation.

“I thought it was a fake at first” she shrugs.

“Aw, I knew you liked each other secretly” I coo.

“Next present” he rolls his eyes. I pick out the next present and open it to find a beautiful black dress with small mesh cut-out’s at the belly. I’m in love.

“I love it so much, thank you” I smile. How did he even know I’d like this? Eleanor must’ve helped him.

“Why are you more excited about a dress than Drake tickets?” he frowns, pouting slightly.

“Aw, Conor. I was just shocked, I’m glad you got me a ticket. Thank you” I chuckle, pulling him in for a hug.

“Next present” Alex gags. I huff, pulling out of the hug and going to the last present. It’s a box with the word ‘Pandora’ engraved into it. I gasp and excitedly pull it open. As if he’s got me more!

“I missed out a couple of months” Conor shrugs, referring to our break-up.

“Oh my god” I gasp, staring at all 3 charms in amazement. I still have the bracelet on now. “You need to explain them” I smile, shuffling over to him. I hand him the box and he chuckles, pointing at the first one as the group stare intently at us.

I’m not crying. I refuse to cry this time. Nope, no way. Not happening.

“So this one’s obviously from when we went to Sweden. It’s a little snowboarder” he coos. I chuckle, staring down at the pink snowboard with a tiny snowboarder on top. “I got it in pink because I thought you’d like it better than silver” he shrugs. He’s right.

“Thank you” I nod, smiling.

“This is just a promise that I’m not going to be an asshole, I guess” he shrugs, pointing to the plain infinity charm.

“Simple but affective” Lois points out, making me chuckle. I actually love it. And by the sound of things, Lois helped Conor choose these for me like last time.

“And Lois was rushing me at this point so I just got you an ‘L’ because it’s the first letter of your name” he glares at Lois. I smile and look over at her in amusement as her jaw drops.

“Are you freaking kidding me?” she gasps. “Lucy, we were in that shop for at least two hours and we tried to relate every damn charm in there for you. It was past closing times so he just got you that!”

“You liar!” Conor frowns.

“Well don’t expect me to come Pandora shopping with you again. We’re through, Conor” she snaps, turning away from you.

“Motherfucker” he mutters. By this point, I’m literally crying with laughter. I’m not even bothered about the fact he just got me an ‘L’ because I still love it. He could’ve got me anything and I’d love it to be honest. The fact they we’re in the shop past closing times means a lot to me.

“Chill out, would you?” I chuckle. “I still like it”

“It would’ve been better if Lois had any patience” he glares at her again. She rolls her eyes and mimics what he just said.

“Well I really like it so I don’t know what you’re arguing about” I shrug, attaching the new charms to my bracelet.

“Told you she would” Lois rolls her eyes.

-

Everybody left mine at something past one in the morning. It’s been a really good birthday to be honest. After opening all my presents, we blasted music, drank alcohol, ate all my birthday cake which was surprisingly really good, and finished the night by just chilling on the sofa. We turned off the music and just put on the music channel on TV whilst we talked as a group.

It was really cute. Jack and Eleanor were talking about their relationship and stuff, Lois went into detail about what her and Sam get up to seeing as he doesn’t hang around with us (most people blocked their ears at this point and I guess the only reason she was telling us all this was because she was drunk), and Charlotte was telling us about some guy she met on holiday at the start of August. She went to Tenerife for 2 weeks and wouldn’t shut up about this hot guy she’s still in touch with, so we made her spill the beans about it all. It wasn’t as exciting as I expected it to be.

But now it’s just Jack, Conor, Eleanor and I and we’re just about to go to sleep. Of course it would be Jack and Conor that sleep out of everybody in the group. I did ask for everyone to sleep but we literally don’t have the room and enough mattresses. Plus, everybody was so drunk that they just wanted their own beds.

“Can you two not do any funny business tonight? Keep in mind that we are in the same room as you” Jack cringes as I get into bed. I roll my eyes and look over at Conor. Jack hasn’t shut up about this all night and I don’t know why he’s so panicked about it all of a sudden.

“Jack, mention that one more time and you’ll be sleeping outside” Conor mutters, half asleep.

“I’m only warning you” he shrugs.

“Why would we do something in the same room as you? That would be awkward as hell” I frown in confusion.

“Well it’s your birthday isn’t it? Birthday sex?” he suggests and my jaw drops.

“Jack!” I gasp.

“What? Don’t tell me you didn’t do anything on Conor’s birthday. There’s a reason why Alex stayed in mine that night” he scoffs and Conor starts laughing.

“He has a point, Luce” Conor smirks up at me.

“Conor!” I gasp. He’s not supposed to agree with Jack. This is embarrassing.

“Lucy, you’re acting like I think you’re a virgin” Jack rolls his eyes. I groan in embarrassment and lie down next to Conor.

“You’re embarrassing her, stop” Conor moans, pulling me into him.

“Oh god, give it a rest” Eleanor huffs. It speaks then! I almost forgot she was here.

“Oh, not you as well?” Conor sighs. “If you keep talking about it, we’re gonna get the feels”

“What the fuck!?” Jack and Eleanor gasp in sync whilst Conor cries in laughter. Conor just knows how to push it.

“You don’t need to worry about it, Jack. We’ve already done it” Conor cuts to the chase. I slap my hand over my mouth as they both cover their ears and almost throw up.

“Shut up, Conor” I snap, knowing that Jack and Eleanor will actually sleep outside if this goes any further. I guess that’s Conor’s plan.

“Now let’s talk about anything else” Eleanor sighs.

“Yeah” I agree with her. “Why have you been so quiet? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine” she nods. “Just tired”

“You and me both” Conor agrees with her.

“At least we agree on something, Maynard. Progress” she mutters.

“Yeah, progress” Conor rolls his eyes.

“I was being nice” Eleanor whispers to Jack and he just nods in agreement.

“Let’s get some shut eye” Jack breaks the silence and I frown in confusion.

“What?”

“Some sleep, Luce” Conor tells me and I just chuckle to myself at Jack’s choice of words. I’m not even sleepy but it turns out everyone else is. I swear I’m nocturnal.

“Okay” I whisper, tucking myself into bed. “Night guys”

“Night” everyone mutters. I scoot closer to Conor and he wraps his arm around my waist, kissing my cheek.

“I hear moving over there” Jack pops his head up from his bed opposite mine and Conor’s.

“Chill the fuck out, Jack” I snap. “We have standards”

He puts his head back down on the mattress so I slowly close my eyes and drift off to sleep.