21 Questions | Matt Sturniolo

13. (1)

Given that the blonde's birthday was on a Sunday, Alex was obviously still awake when the clock hit midnight and she was officially turning twenty years old. She might have been expecting her best friend to casually come into her room and wish it to her, but she was far from imagining what Lily had actually planned for her. As Alex's bedroom door was gently opened, she could see Lily trying to keep her balance as she was holding a huge box in her hands.

"What. Are. You. Doing?" Alex asked, confused with what was about to happen.

"Me?" Lily replied innocently, "I'm merely here to wish you the best birthday of your life and give you a small present of course."

Alex wasn't buying anything: the "small present" was as tall and large as a chair. As Lily put the box down, she was looking expectedly at Alex.

"You wanna open it?" Lily was definitely excited to see her friend's reaction.

Alex hesitantly nodded and stood up towards the box. She carefully unwrapped the bow at the top and started removing the wrapping paper. When she was about to actually open her present, she dared look up at Lily who was simply standing and smiling at her. Eh, fuck it. Not like I'm gonna die. Well, she should've thought better because she may have had a minor heart attack when the top of the box was removed and confetti exploded in the room while the famous "Happy Birthday" melody started playing.

"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you Alex", Lily started singing. "Happy birthday to you my best friend in the whole world that I love very much, happy birthday to you!"

As Alex – covered in rainbow confetti – was looking dumbfounded at Lily, she realised what just happened and her eyes began to tear up. She didn't know why this was her body's reaction, but this was honestly usual for the girls: they both had always been very sentimental when it came to birthdays and showing love to one another that they knew that the best thing to do was simply to hug the one crying – which Lily did – and then tightly hold each other for a few minutes.
After her tears had dried, Alex composed herself and did her best to get an explanation.

"Girl, what the actual fuck. I thought a bomb was exploding right to my face."

"Oops, I should've asked for less power I guess," Lily laughed at her miscalculations. "But don't worry, the others are completely harmless to your life!"

"What?" Alex snapped her head towards Lily. "What do you mean the others?"

"Well, you weren't expecting me to only give you this, were you? You know me better than this honestly, what kind of best friend am I if I don't give eight presents to my favourite person for our eight years of friendship?" Lily shrugged while rhetorically asking.

Alex didn't know what to say. Eight gifts? What is this girl on? As her friend was about to protest about the crazy amount of gifts she was going to receive, Lily quickly put her finger on Alex's mouth to prevent her from talking.

"No objections accepted. You can't say anything about it, they're already all in the house so at the end of the day, you'll have them all one way or another!"

Lily's serious expression showed Alex that she wasn't taking no for an answer. This was an important mission: making Alex's twentieth birthday one of the best twentieth birthdays in the history of twentieth birthdays.

~~~

Apart from almost inhaling and choking on some confetti that were still on her bed, Alex's night had been relatively peaceful. She was quite sceptical when she woke up around ten o'clock and couldn't hear anything – Lily was probably going to sleep until noon so Alex was ready to enjoy a couple of quiet hours before her best friend would start her "birthday mission".
When Alex arrived downstairs, she realised that she had spoken too soon as Lily was actually awake and cooking two metres away from her. The confusion on Alex's face was obvious.