The Unfortunate Task of Dating

Chapter Sixteen

"I love it mum, so much," I say giving her another hug.
"Well we have no time to discuss it right now because we have to get going," she says as she stands up.

"Get going where?" I question.

"It's your birthday Ava, we're going out for dinner," she responds as if I'm a child.

I run to my room and grab some shoes, and quickly take off my shirt and shorts and replace it with a simple white dress. I run back to the lounge room but see that no one is there and so I make my way to the garage and see that they are already in the car.

"Shouldn't I automatically get the front seat since it's my birthday?" I question as I slide into the back seat.

"Snooze you lose," is all Mason says in reply. I don't even have time to respond because he turns the music up loud but I catch the smirk on his face. That stupid smirk.

©

We pull up in a parking lot and I see that we are at Sizzlers. Nice choice. There's no queue so we get in straight away and I expect that we get to chose our own seats but instead we get taken to a table where Lizzy, Grace, Jessie, Shay and Alyssa already are.

"What a surprise," I say genuinely shocked as I go and give everyone a hug.

"Why are you always shocked when people remember your birthday?" Jessie says jokingly.

I take a seat at the table and straight away Lizzy shoves a gift in my face.

"Happy birthday cutie," she says as she watches me with excitement.

I open the present and inside is a onesie.

"I have a matching one!" Lizzy blurts and I can see how excited she is.

"Well we will just have to have a fashion show with us wearing these now, won't we," I giggle as I pop it to the side.

Jessie passes over his present and says "happy birthday little sis."

I open the gift and inside is a polaroid camera with a little note attached which says 'make your own memories xx'.

"Thank you," I say looking up at Jessie and Shay, "thank you to everyone. You have all spoilt me rotten."

"I don't know about you guys but I'm ready for some food," Mason says as he rubs his stomach. Everyone mumbles in agreement and most of us get up to serve ourselves some food. My plate is full of potato wedges and pasta but before I walk back to the table I grab a piece of watermelon. I've got to balance it out, you know.

"Wow Ava, carbs, carbs and more carbs," mum laughs as she sets down her bowl of soup.

"It's my birthday, I'm allowed to eat whatever I want," I say with a mouth full of food.

"You have been hanging out with Lizzy too much," she laughs as I continue to stuff my face.

"Do you still want to kiss me?" I ask Mason as I smile with mashed up potato in my teeth.

"I think I might try your brother instead," he jokes and Mason and Jessie wink at each other.

Shaking my head, I stand up so I can go and fill up my cup. I decide on a raspberry flavoured soft drink and make my way back to the table.

Jessie holds his cup up and everyone joins him. "To Ava!" he cheers and everyone clinks their classes together before taking a drink. I follow their lead but somehow, I miss my mouth when I go to take a drink and I consequently pour it all over myself. All over my white dress may I remind you. With a red drink. Mental note, if you are clumsy do not wear white because you will become a magnet to any and all spillage.

"Why am I like this?" I cry and everyone looks at me before bursting out laughing. "I'll be right back," I mumble as I make my way to the toilets. I dry myself off as best as I can but I know that there is no getting rid of this stain so I make my way back to the table, defeated by a drink.

We laugh and talk the night away. I take plenty of photos with my new camera and I tell them all about mum's present.

"You really do have to tell us this whole story Ava," Shay says and I look to see everyone nodding their heads in agreement, "I mean you've told us bits here and their but we want to here the whole thing, from start to finish."

"Are you guys sure? I mean it's a pretty long story," I say before I take a bite out of my watermelon.

"We've got nowhere else to be," Jessie says as he sits up to pay attention.

"Okay. Well it all started on my nineteenth birthday. So this time last year. I woke up and I don't know what had changed but I had decided it was time that I got a boyfriend and that you see, lead me to signing up to findyourlifelonglover.com which is actually where I found Mason," I say laughing. Everyone looks shocked for a moment but then I add "just kidding," and everyone has a chuckle. "No, but I really did sign up for findyourlifelonglover.com and Lizzy was the first person I told because she came over to my house to celebrate my birthday and her engagement."

Everyone listens attentively as I tell my story. They laugh when I talk about the disasters of each date and add their own commentary as I go. As I tell my story, I can't help but look at how much everyone around me is enjoying it and how hooked they are on each sentence. I guess it was actually a good thing that I experienced it because it ended up giving me a really good story to tell.

Maybe I should right a book about it since everyone seems so interested about it?

Nah, maybe not, I highly doubt anyone would want to buy a book about me going on a bunch of different dates.

Mental note, push yourself to do things out of your comfort zone. I promise you, it will give you a good story to tell.