The Unbroken

XXIV

One foot down the stairs after waking from a shitty night's sleep, the device in the pocket of my jeans begins ringing with its irritating tune of 'Party Anthem'. What is it with people calling me at the most inconvenient times? It's obviously the group chat, and most likely from it not ceasing, the girls are getting impatient for me to answer. It has just turned eleven, meaning they all have a free period.

Continuing down the wooden steps, I try pulling out the vibrating thing from my pocket whilst yawning and rubbing at my eyes. I've got a full day of finishing up unpacking, cleaning every room, and rearranging some furniture. I am going to be relying heavily on coffee. I started moving around some furniture yesterday, leaving me with a sore back. There's no real need to shift anything around, I just feel like they'll look better in the new positions I've decided on.

Swiping the accept button, all of their happy faces pop up on the screen. "Morning!" I didn't even get a chance to accept their existence before being deafened by Holly's overly energetic voice ringing above the rest. "Who gave her coffee?" Jeremy covers her mouth with his hand, which she doesn't mind all too much with the frequent amount of it being done - she knows she can be too loud sometimes. "She did it herself." The boy says. My eyebrows raise, fascinated by not having to deal with it firsthand.

They glance between each other, warning me to turn my volume down, "Happy Birthday!" I laugh to myself, missing them already. "Have you opened your presents yet?"

"Rox, I've been awake for ten minutes. I haven't even thought about looking in those bags yet. My current thought is of making breakfast before I starve." The sweet girl starts giggling, allowing me to see one of the rare loving smiles on Ant's tight lips. "Well, grab some food then! You have to get your arse back up those stairs to open some gifts!" Car's far more energetic and excitable than usual, dangerously so.

Taking out some leftover pasta from last night, I take the distraction as a chance to give the boy a certain look. Upon seeing it, his eyes pop with realisation. He quickly swallows down a tablet from its case. Rolling my eyes, I gather the food and my phone before stomping back up to my room as I have been commanded.

Placing the phone on the nightstand, I let them chat away while I begin hauling out the giant box full of wrapping paper and gift bags. I roll my eyes at the excess of gifts having told them not to go crazy, yet they never listen.

Allowing their conversation to come to a natural end, I cross my legs on the bed to munch through a few forkfuls of the tomato carbs. The shop I stopped at only sells fresh ingredients, resulting in making a homemade sauce for the first time in my life - it is actually rather delicious.

I've managed to get through the entire container, and the girls are still gossiping over something while the boys talk about Chris' training next week. Therefore, I resort to smacking my hands together to gather all of their attention at once.

"Who calls dibs for being first?" Before anyone has the chance to think about the question, Ro's hand is in the air while Oliver holds his face after being elbowed. "Alright, calm down, Woman." She kisses his bruising nose, waving her hand around above her head. "Jeez, Kitty, I get it. Which is yours?"

!The red ones. We've colour coded to help you. There's even a sheet in there to tell you who is who." I do in fact find the sheet after rummaging to the bottom of the mountain. Since we're such a large group, I've been insisting every year that we coordinate our gifts to a colour each for a long time. The fact they've continued it without me, leaves me chuckling.

"This is a lot of stuff, Guys." I mumble, concerned that they may have spent a lot of money they don't really have. "It's your eighteenth, we weren't about to skimp out." Holly states, bouncing on Jer's lap. He winces at possible broken kneecaps.