salvation [ l.f & m.h ]

Thirty One.

Missy and I tell Riley that we are going out for a nice dinner with Minkus and that we just have to go pick him up at his house before we go. She gets excited and doesn't suspect anything.

Riley comes out of her room. "Is this okay?"

She's wearing a long purple dress, her special color.

"You look HOT!" Missy exclaims, whistling.

"Unbelievably hot!" I add, running over to give her a hug.

Missy has on a black long sleeve dress with her infamous red high heels. She always looks amazing. I'm just wearing a little blue dress, that Riley tells me brings out my eyes, and a leather jacket, which is a staple for me. We do our makeup together in Missy's room and then grab our bags.

"We look fabulous tonight, don't we?" Missy says as we stand in front of our floor-length mirror.

Riley flips her hair dramatically. "Don't we always?"

Laughing, we link arms and go out the door.

When we get to Farkle's house the lights are off.

"Is he even in there?" Riley asks, trying to look in the window.

"Let's go in and check!" I suggest, opening the door.

"SURPRISE!!!" Everyone jumps out from behind the walls and couches.

"OH MY GOD!" Riley squeals. She is beyond excited.

"Happy Birthday Riles!" I exclaim, hugging her.

Farkle walks towards us and gives her a big kiss. I see Zay across the room and we make our signature grossed out face. We've become good friends.

"You guys did this for me?" Riley asks, tearing up.

Missy squeezes Riley's hand. "Don't cry! We love you so much!"

There are a ton of people here and Riley seems to know all of them. She goes around hugging everyone and wiping away happy tears.

Missy comes up behind me and drapes an arm around my shoulder. "We did good didn't we?"

"That we did" I rest my head on her shoulder.

Lucas walks up to us.

He goes, "You guys did an amazing job with this party!"

I look around. The decorations look amazing. There are purple and silver streamers and balloons everywhere.

"We should be like party planners or something" Missy grins, hugging Lucas.

Lucas leans in to hug me. He's obviously forgotten about whatever it was that went down in the kitchen earlier.

Missy claps her hands. "Come on let's go get drinks!"

"BIRTHDAY SHOTS!!!" Riley yells at the top of her lungs.

Farkle, Missy, Zay, Lucas, and I gather around her. She passes each of us a shot glass.

She holds her glass in the air. "Cheers!"

"Cheers!" We all clink our glasses together.

We do a lot of birthday shots. Missy is dancing like a maniac, as she always does when she gets drunk, and Riley is telling everyone how much she loves them, which is her signature drunk trait. I look around the room at all of my new friends and smile. Zay grins at me from across the table. Farkle looks at Riley with his eyes sparkling... he is totally in love with her.

Missy and I play pong and kill it once again. Zay and Farkle come back for a rematch, only to be defeated.

"Unfair" Zay fake cries.

Missy high fives me. "We are TOO good!"

At some point we vacate the pong table and go to dance. We all dance together, laughing and having the best time. Riley decides she wants to make a toast so we yell and scream until everyone gets quiet. We help her to stand up on one of the couches.

"Hii everyone!" She is smiling uncontrollably. "I just wanted to say thank you sooo much for coming it means everything to me." She looks over at me. "Thank you to my bestest friend Maya Hart and my girl Missy for planning this amazing party! You guys are such great friends and I am so lucky to have you in my life." Then she looks at Farkle, her smile gets so wide. "And thank you to my perfect boyfriend. You mean everything to me..." She pauses. "I am SO in love with this boy!" She shouts.

We all clap and scream. Farkle runs up to her, picking her up and spinning her around in his arms. They kiss and everyone's yelling "get a room". Missy and I look at each other and laugh.

"LET'S PARTY!" Riley yells, turning the music back on.

Once people start to leave we pull out the cupcakes. Riley is so excited that they are purple.

"They match my dress!" She gushes, holding one up to it.

Missy giggles. "She is sooo buzzed right now."

We sit in the kitchen eating cupcakes and talking. Riley blows out some candles and we sing 'Happy Birthday'. The party was a lot of fun.

Riley pokes me in the side. "I love you so much and I am so thankful for this party but I really want to go upstairs with my boyfriend..." She grins.

"I love you more and it would be a crime for you not to do what you wanted on your birthday!" I hug her and push them out of the room.

I come back and start putting empty cups into a trash bag.

Zay walks in from the living room, holding cups in his hands. "You clean up duty too, Slugger?"

"Looks like it" I smile.

"Someone has got to keep this place looking livable" He laughs. "And since Minkus is getting that bow chicka wow wow, I guess it's going to be me!"

We talk about the night as I toss cupcake wrappers and napkins in the trash.

"I'm going to get more bags, I'll be back" Zay announces.

"I'll be here" I sigh, grabbing a deflated balloon from the floor.

When I stand up an arm snakes around my waist. I look over, assuming it's Zay with the trash bags, but it's not. It's Lucas.

"Hi" he says, his breath smells strongly of alcohol.

I shake my head. "Are you drunk?"

"Nooo" He grins. "I think you are."

Definitely drunk.

"Where's Missy?" I ask.

"Uhh... upstairs I think. I don't know."

"Well, I think you should go find her" I suggest, trying to wiggle out of his grip.

I'm not going to get myself into a situation I don't need to be in.

He groans. "Alright."

He drops his hand from my waist and starts to walk away. But before he leaves he grabs my hand and steps close to me. He leans down and whispers in my ear, "You look really good tonight." Then he leaves the room.

I stand completely still, unable to move. I can still feel his hand in mine.