Ignitable

Ignitable - Chapter Eight

Sophia...

"Go on then, birthday girl...open it." Jemma is excitedly urging me to open my gift bag that is from both herself and Zara.

Laughing, I start pulling out the shocking pink shredded tissue with my fingers, eager to see what is inside. "How much of this stuff is actually in here?" I ask with the widest of smiles.

"Well I know how much you love tissue paper, hun." Jem cheekily quips with a teasing little wink.

Agreeing with another one of my smiles, my fingers feel a small present at the bottom of the boutique paper bag. "Oooooo, I've found something." I now look at my two wonderful best friends, Jemma and Zara, with my face displaying much more of my excitement. Pulling out a pretty pink presentation box, I keenly lift its lid. Inside, are two beautiful bracelet charms. One is intricately carved with dazzling flowers of cubic zirconia and the other is a sterling silver heart with an engraved message on. Bringing the tiny charm closer, I start reading it: Three...always one

Feeling so utterly loved, my emotional eyes lift to my faithfully sweet friends. "Thank you, girls...these are so gorgeous." I quickly get out of my seat, to earnestly hug them both. Three...always one, it has always been our friendship motto. We met as spotty teenagers at secondary school, and have been the best of friends ever since. Many say that three is a crowd, but not for us. We don't have any brothers or sisters, so being the only child in our families, has made us appreciate our friendship with one another so much more. Jemma is now engaged with a gorgeous little boy who is two and Zara is married and has five fur babies, of the equine kind. No matter how much our lives have changed, and continues to change, our friendship always remains strongly the same. I honestly love these girls so much. Since my split with Paul, they have been especially thoughtful and attentive. Between them and my parents, they have been ensuring that I'm okay. And I think I am. After nearly two months since the breakup, I am starting to embrace my single status. Time has given me the strength to accept that Paul and I just weren't meant to be. To be honest, I don't know why I journeyed as long as I did with our lacklustre relationship. Something was definitely missing from our being together and I'm now past caring what it actually was. Paul has even texted and called me, but we're over...so I'm no longer interested in anything he has to say.

"There's more in that goodie bag." Zara energetically tells me as I'm sitting back down at our table in the very posh Italian restaurant that the girls have so kindly brought me to.

"You girls are really making me feel special on my birthday." I know I am emotionally gushing, but they really are. Both Jems and Zara have pulled out all the stops to make my thirtieth a fabulous one, and for that, I love them both so muchly.

Zara grins. "Stop being a soppy cow, just open the rest of your presents."

Peeping deeply into the gift bag, I pull out a rectangular shaped present. Unwrapping it slowly, I get more and more excited to see my favourite perfume being revealed to me. "You both got me a bottle of Ghost. Thank yoooooou!" Clutching it appreciatively tight against my chest, I am beaming from ear to ear. "God, I love this stuff so much." I gush some more as I carefully place the perfume down on the table to see what else my fabulous friends have bought for me. Against the inside of the bag, snugly sits an envelope. Pulling it out, I eye up the girls with a faint smile hovering around my lips. As I start to open it, the girls remain unusually quiet. Inside, is a voucher. Slipping it completely out of the white envelope, I am now able to properly read what kind of voucher it is. "Oh my god! You've bought me a spa day at Revival Resort?"

Both friends enthusiastically nod, joining me with their widest of wide grins. "We are all going." Jemma is quick to tell me, growing more excited by the second.