Graffiti Boy

Chapter 8 - The Birthday Incident

Eli opened my door and ushered me inside, "The many perks of being the nephew of the city's greatest criminal. I can also wink with both of my eyes. I'm a man of many talents."

Eli began driving. I watched the houses blur by. I asked Eli where he had been all day. He told me that Xavier had asked him to spray paint another Beware, Lockhart near the police station, probably to freak Dad out. Eli had, however, made sure to inform Dad about it beforehand.

I couldn't help but wonder if Dad had figured out anything yet. In the back of my mind, June 25th was worrying me. I also tried to get Eli to tell me where he was taking me. All he did was shrug.

After five minutes of driving, we finally arrived. Eli led me into a banquet hall.

"What are we doing?" I asked Eli, "Are we even allowed here?"

The lights were all out, Eli's phone's light was the only thing illuminating the hall.

"I'm not really sure. I think it's meant to be a birthday gift from someone."

"No one else remembered though," I frowned.

"Actually, we all remembered."

Suddenly, the lights flickered on. I turned around and was met with dozens of people cheering and a lot of confetti. I caught sight of one person in particular.

"Riley?"

"Hey, Val, happy birthday! I hope you like your party!" Riley yelled squeezing me into a hug.

"Kind of struggling to breathe here, Riles," I wheezed.

But I was truly taken by surprise. I had never had a surprise birthday party before.

This was the sweetest thing Riley, in fact, anyone, had done for me. I looked around. There were hundreds of balloons, a whole table piled with gifts, a lot of junk to eat and a lot of unexpected faces. I saw Stiles, Adam and even Scarlett. What?

Riley followed my gaze and rolled her eyes, "I never invited her, she just showed up out of the blue."

I decided to ignore Scarlett and enjoy the party. Eli had disappeared into the crowd. I stuck with Riley. We danced, ate cake, played cup pong, ate some more cake, and played JustDance. It was a lot of fun. The first time in a long while where I wasn't stressing. Soon enough it was time to open my gifts.

Riley passed me her gift first, she had bought me two tickets to a meet and greet with the cast of Supernatural. I squealed -like a pig, and threw my arms around her. She was an angel. A literal angel!

No one else's gift managed to top Riley's. I got a lot of gift cards, perfume, and jewelry, though. I unwrapped the last gift. It had no tag on it so I had no idea who it was from.

It was a box. I lifted the lid and immediately dropped it.

Inside there was another doll that looked like a replica of me. Attached was another message, Now you see him, now you don't -X.

The message was confusing. Whom was Xavier referring to? Also, why the hell was he still sending me threats if he knew Eli was doing a good job of "befriending me"?

Riley looked over and gasped. The realization hit me, someone working for Xavier was in the room at that very moment. Eli quickly shut the lid of the box before anyone else could see it. I silently thanked him, I didn't want to deal with anyone's questions or Xavier's crap right now.

Worst birthday gift. Ever.

At first, people were a bit curious and wanted to know why I'd dropped the box. Riley quickly blared some music, dimming the lights and Eli dragged me away from the crowd, preventing people from questioning me further. He was leading me out of the banquet, but not before I managed to grab another slice of the cake.

Eli snatched the plate from my hands and looked around to see if anyone else was there, "You need to kill yourself."

I burst out laughing, "Hey, it's my birthday, who cares if I eat too much cake?"

Eli shook his head, taking a bite of my cake. Greedy much?

"You're going to commit suicide," he emphasized.

I waited for him to throw in a smirk, tell me that he was kidding.

He just stared at me without a hint of a smile.

"Oh. Wait, you're actually being serious?"

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Hello, lovely peopleee!

Decided to give you another short little part today because you're all being so active!

What did you think of this chapter? :) Remember to vote if you liked it!

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QOTC: Would you rather be able to sing or dance really well?

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