Not Very Stereotypical.

Chapter Twenty Four

Arriving in the back of the iconic white jeep, the girls and I pulled up to the Miller's house. The doors had 2 bunches of balloons waving outside, on the left they were a golden champagne and on the right varsity red- each to represent a twin.

On entrance to the party, the decor got even better. In the main living room they had gold and silver streamers hanging from the roof. Would be perfect for a party, but just so extra for a sleepover and I was loving it.

I placed the presents onto the table which also had a few other random wrapped items laid out on it. We took a seat on the sofa and began gossiping about another of Leighton's confrontations with Kate. That day she had asked why she hadn't been invited to the party on the weekend before and after a few childish insults, Leighton began walking away. However as she was turning the corner away from her, she did hear a final retort from the red bombshell. Something along the lines of "Wish Mitchell a happy birthday for me but not the other one."

We were about an hour in on listening to Gracie rant about how much she hated Kate with a passion when the boys walked into the room after their after-school lacrosse practice. Mitchell walked into the room, sticky faced from the humidity outside with a gigantic smile on his face and a cupcake in his hand. "Look what coach gave me!" He holds his cake proudly into the air.

"Wow it's very special Mitchell." Milly said unenthusiastically with a fake smile plastered on her face. Looking slightly hurt, Mitchell unwrapped the cupcake and took a large bite out of it and the lump of buttercream on top.

"I was waiting to share it with you, Miss Moody." He spluttered with cake crumbs spitting out of his mouth as he spoke. In the same outfit he was wearing earlier today, Noah walked in behind Mitchell chewing gum rather obnoxiously, with the slight limp dulling his efforts to look cool. Ginger Sam, whose nickname suits him aptly- also walked in behind them all, whose sweat which survived the shower glazed 
over his larger body shape.

"Budge up, Britain." Mitchell said, squishing his broad shoulders next to mine as he sits himself partially the sofa, however it was mainly me he ended up sat on. Groaning at the the discomfort he did eventually move up towards Gracie, leaving me next to the arm of the sofa.

Laughing at the charade Ginger Sam began walking towards the kitchen asking, "does anyone want a drink or are you okay?" Noah raised his hand, hopping over to the over filled sofa and shouted for attention.

"Beer." He said simply, leaning one hand on Mitchell and wobbling the other one  above my head. You could hear the cheeky smile in his answer long with a grunt as he sits onto my feet. Smacking him wildly, I managed to push his shoulders with enough force to get him to readjust quickly so I could release my toes from being bent in the wrong direction.

"You're not drinking on a school night, Noah." The voice came from the door where the twins' dad had returned from work. He was wearing a black suit shirt which showcased the silver hairs resting on his head and was holding his briefcase in his arm with the blaser stuffed underneath his arm. "But if you are going to open a can.." he looks carefully towards the door that remains open and lowered his voice, "pour me one too." Winking, he made his way towards the kitchen with Ginger Sam to empty his armful of work gear before coming to sit on one of the chairs opposite.

"Alexander could you please go and get those things from the trunk of the car." Walking in the room was an elegant lady, almost a carbon copy of Milly- just with a few more smile lines, the olive skin and brunette locks trailing along her sleek black work dress. "Oh hello everybody, thought we'd at least beat the boys back." She smiled through her nude painted lips.

"Hey Mom." Milly said waving her arms around, standing up from the tightly packed seat to give the luxe lady a hug. "This is Bethany the girl I was telling you about." Her brown eyes glossed over the seating plan and landed on me, causing me to feel warm inside.

"Ah yes of course, you're from across the pond aren't you!" She greets, clicking her heels slowly towards me, offering me a delicate hand to shake.

"I guess you could say that." I chuckled, noticing the accent difference immediately between us. My eyes flicked towards Alexander who grumbled as he pulled himself up off of his seat and locked eyes with me also.

"I didn't even notice you hiding there with this lump sat on you like a parrot, it's lovely to meet you Bethany." Roughly patting Noah on the head he turns his hand towards me and also lets me shake his hand. "Are you from London? I've got a new client trying to get out of prison from over there, you might know him."

I laughed, shaking my head, trying to understand whether he was being serious or not but simply decided to respond. "Not quite and I don't know any prisoners either, with my Dad being a surgeon I'm not sure if he's appreciate me messing around his reputation."

The man chuckled before beginning to back away slightly, "I like you." He chortled, "you should come round more often, I'd love to meet your father and have a conversation about over there, might help me out on this case." He waved as Milly's mum gave him a noticeable glare about not doing the job she'd instructed him to do.

"Right, although I think we're ordering pizza, do I need to know anything about your dietary needs? Milly wasn't sure you see." She looks at me, wringing her manicured fingers together.

"No I'm okay with anything, Mrs Miller." She sighs a breath of relief as she smiles at my answer.

"Oh please Bethany, call me Mandy." I have her one last smile before she left the room and headed for the kitchen. Turning to look at my friends, I noticed them all looking at me all with mixed emotions covering their faces, all laced lightly with discomfort from the squished situation they were in.

Mitchell was the first to speak after the whole introductions, his arms laid lazily over the back of the sofa behind Noah and Gracie. "So you'd eat anything?" He asked with a smirk resting on his face. Before work could react Gracie and Leighton were already reaching to hit him in the back of the head and even Milly had thrown a pillow in his direction, which didn't quite make it at her target and hit Noah who was protesting  his innocence in the situation. He picked up the cushion and turned over to me and started hitting me with it, which he didn't seem to stop until he was out of breath and had bum shuffled much closer towards me.

Caught in the glance of his breathless blue eyes, I cleared my throat and broke the look which made me realise I hadn't caught my breath for awhile. "Okay let's do gifts!" Gracie shouted jumping up, filling the growing awkward silence. Turning my head away from the longing gaze of Noah, I looked at Gracie who was reaching on the gift table for a red bag to give to Mitchell.

"It's not much but I think you're going to like it." She squeaks as she gives him the bag and takes a seat opposite him on the floor, looking as excited as a child on Christmas.

Not hesitating to make a mess, Mitchell pulls out yards of tissue paper before reaching into the bottom of the bag and getting his presents. He pulls out yet another wrapped gift and a smaller one attached to it.

"Thanks Gracie it's sweet." Revealing a dark grey hoodie from its packaging, he pulls it up to his chest and begins to fit it accordingly. He gives her a great smile as he then reaches for the other small box, opening it to a small silver band, a ring.

"You can now look cool and not like Archie Andrews on crack." She smiles cheekily before crawling back towards the table to hand out other presents.

After receiving an overwhelming amount of sports gear, Mitchell took armfuls of his items upstairs and out of the way with Gracie's kind assistance. Milly has also opened her presents, items ranging from luxurious jewellery from Leighton to a book store gift card from her brother and by then and had already changed into her new slippers before reclaiming her space on the sofa. Noah has already given Mitchell his gift this morning but when Milly unwrapped her silk peach robe everyone was surprised. His taste in style matched her perfectly, although he admitted that it was his Mum who told him which store to look for something in.

"Okay pizza time and then you can have your last gifts from us." Alexander shouted from inside the kitchen as a doorbell went off, indicating the delivery guy had arrived. So after making ourselves comfortable, we spread ourselves round the living room and began tucking into the variety of flavours ordered.