Me, Bre, and Tati spent the entire day running around getting me ready for this party tonight. Tati set up my nail and hair appointment. In between my appointments, I talked to my parents who were begging me to come home so they could have a dinner for me. I told them I would try but I knew I was getting bent tonight and would need tomorrow to recover.
Tati arranged for one of her friends to do my make up later. It was 7 o'clock and I was exhausted.
"Girl I need a power nap," I yawned.
"What got you so tired?! I told Clifford you needed your beauty rest! I can't have my birthday girl tired at her function." Tati went on.
"Bruh last night... was crazy." I bit my lip.
"Y'all are disgusting," She shook her head.
"I think I just threw up a little bit," Bre gagged.
"Y'all shut up," I laughed. "I will be just fine tonight if you give me like 30 minutes to an hour for a little nap."
Tati rolled her eyes. "Fine, but make sure you wrap your hair, I don't want you messing it up. I'll wake you up when my girl gets here to do your make up."
I hurried before she changed her mind and wrapped a scarf around my head so I didn't mess up my swoop bang ponytail. I laid on my stomach with my arms folded under my head as an extra precaution. As soon as my head hit the pillow in Tati and Tyreek's guest bedroom I was out like a light.
It felt like I was only sleep for 3 seconds before Tati was waking me up. "Time to get up sunshine." I got up, stretched real good and then went into the living room. I introduced myself to the girl who was doing my make up and we talked a little bit before she started. Bre walked through the door with Starbucks in her hand and I thanked God.
"You're favorite," She handed me an iced coffee. "You excited?"
"Yeah," I grinned as I sipped my drink. "I'm ready to turn up now."
"Well let's get you all pretty first." The girl said as she started doing my makeup.
It took about an hour and when I looked at myself in the mirror, I was in love. I looked like a bad bitch forreal.
"Oh my god, I love it," I grinned at myself in the mirror. "You got magic hands." I complimented the make up artist.
After she left it was already 9:30 and we had a few minutes to get ready before it was time for the party. We all got dressed in our costumes, I was a sexy Lola Bunny from space jam, Tati was dressed as Jasmine from Aladdin, and Bre was dressed as a cute ass pimp.
"Aww look at us," I cheesed as we took one last glance in the mirror. Tyreek was outside to pick us up and take us to the Airbnb that Tati got for the night. It was lowkey like a mansion type of vibe which fit my halloween theme perfectly.
Inside was decorated with cob webs, jack-o-lanterns, and your other typical Halloween decorations. I made my way to the kitchen where the liquor was set up ready to get started. "Come on yall let's take a shot before everybody gets here!"
Tyreek and his friend, who introduced himself as Justin, came in the kitchen followed by Tati and Bre. The DJ was in the kitchen setting up his stuff while I poured everybody a shot of my nigga Jose and passed them out. "Happy motherfuckin' birthday to me bitches, a real nigga is finally legal!" Was my toast as we held our shot glasses in the air. We all took our shots to the head as the music started blasting.
Reek and Justin made their way to the door and started checking people as they came in. I was behind them forcing everyone to take shots as they got past. A couple people wanted to take shots with me, so I was about 6 shots in before the living room was even filled.
"Okay that's enough for you," Tati said grabbing the bottle I had in my hand. "You gon be on the floor before this shit even gets started." She laughed.
"Aye let her rock out, this what you supposed to do on your 21st!" Justin chuckled.
"Yeah!" I co-signed.
"Girl bye," Tati rolled her eyes.
"Fine, we're going to do shot o'clock every hour then." I said as I looked at my apple watch. "And would you look at the time? 11 o'clock." I smirked.
"It's motherfuckin' shot o'clock!" I yelled as I started passing out mini red solo shot cups. "Fill your shit up!" I instructed.
"On the count of three, everybody say 'Happy Birthday Chey'!" Bre instructed before she counted to three. Everybody screamed happy birthday to me and took a shot or a sip of whatever was in their cup.
At about 1 am I realized that I was really enjoying myself, as anyone would on their 21st birthday. I had never had an actual birthday party and I couldn't imagine one being more lit than this. I hopped all over the party with my friends. At one point I was in the kitchen with Alexis and Andrea who had me taking waterfalls from a bottle that I didn't recognize, then I went outside with Treyvon and Marco, and I don't even smoke but I hit their blunt, and then I made my way back inside and took some more shots with Tati and Bre. Eventually I started to lose count of all the shots I was taking and all the liquors started to taste the same.
The house was packed with people up and downstairs and eventually Reek stopped letting people in. I didn't know 95% of the people in here, but they all said happy birthday to me and brought bottles or weed which was appreciated. There was a lot of Howard students here too, even some of the greek orgs came, so of course when the DJ played their shit they started strolling.
I was so happy that everyone was enjoying themselves. I knew I was drunk off my ass but I felt better seeing that basically everybody else was drunk too.
At 2 o'clock it was time to take another shot, and I was starting to regret my shot o'clock idea. "Yo," Reek said as he snatched the mic from the DJ. "This my fuckin little sis right here." He wrapped his arm around me. "I need everybody in this bitch to scream happy birthday on the count of three aight?! One, Two, Three..." The whole room screaming Happy Birthday for the one millionth time that night was the last thing I could vividly remember. I remembered looking at the faces of all of my friends who were standing around me, smiling at me and taking videos. The only person that was missing, was Kyle.
The rest of the night was a complete blur. I do know that at some point I was standing on the counter rapping 'I <3 My Choppa' by Tay-K, and Bre had to hold on to me so that I didn't fall off. I also recall sitting on the front lawn crying about how I loved all my friends before Reek came outside, put me over his shoulder, and took me back in the house.
Anything after that I heard about from Bre the next day. She was sitting on the edge of Cliffords bed as I laid in the bed telling me about everything I was too drunk to remember.
"You were so gone." She laughed. "I think after he brought you back in the house he let you take one more shot because you wouldn't stop crying about it, but after that you were done for, like literally slumped."
I blushed from embarrassment as I heard the stories of my drunk antics last night. I can say I really was lit for my 21st birthday and I definitely did enjoy it.
"You definitely did your 21st the right way," Clifford chuckled from his lounge chair.
I cringed as a vague memory of me throwing up in Cliffords bathroom came to mind. I was sick all last night after they got me home but I felt so much better this morning.
"I am so sorry you had to see me like that," I cringed. "But thank you for taking care of me."
"Of course," He smiled.
"Well my mission here is complete, I have to get on the road cause a bitch has an 8 am tomorrow." Bre rolled her eyes.
I poked my lip out. "You're leaving me already?" I whined. "I wanted to take you shopping!"
"Yes cry baby." She poked my lip with her finger. "Give me a hug so I can go!"
I pulled myself out of the bed and threw my arms around Bre. "Imma have to come visit you next!"
"Duh. I can't promise it'll be as extravagant, but we gone get lit for sure." She hugged me back.
I walked her outside to her car and waved at her as she pulled out of the driveway.
"How you feelin?" Clifford asked as I walked back in the room.
"I actually feel pretty okay." I admitted. "I have a headache, but I expected to feel worse."
"Well you've been sleep all day and haven't eaten anything so that could explain the headache."
I looked at my phone to see that it was actually 4pm. It didn't even feel that late.
"Shit, maybe I am hungry."
"You want to go out?" He asked.
I shook my head. "Can we order some wings instead?"
"Yeah we can get whatever you want, use my card." He said as he walked into his bathroom. At this point I had his card information committed to memory. I ordered us some wings and fries through door dash. Then I took a shower and got dressed while we waited for the food to come.
When the food arrived I went downstairs to get it and tipped the delivery driver. Clifford came downstairs to eat as we watched a movie on Netflix.
Once the movie was finished I could feel him looking at me. "What is it?" I eyed him.
"I actually have something I want to show you." He smiled as my face lit up. "But we have to get in the car."
"Do I have to get dressed?" I frowned at my leggings and hoodie.
He shook his head and chuckled. "No, you can really just go like that."
We got in the truck and Clifford drove us to the luxury condos that he owned. I looked at him with a confused look as we pulled into the parking garage.
"They finished furnishing the apartment and I wanted you to be the first person to see how your choices turned out." He quickly hopped out of the car and grabbed my hand. We took the elevator to the top floor and walked down the hall to the same apartment that we were in a couple days ago.
When he opened the door, the apartment looked completely different and it was stunning. "Damn... I did that." I grinned as we walked through the living room. The room looked like something straight off of my Pinterest board.
I could feel Clifford watching me as he opened the door to the bedroom. On the bed there was a little envelope with a big red bow.
I looked up at him and he motioned for me to grab the envelope. There was something jingling inside and I already knew. "Clifford you didn't..." I said quietly as I carefully opened the envelope to see a set of keys.
"Happy Birthday baby." He had the biggest grin plastered across his face. I just stared at him in shock.
"Wait... like you mean I live here now?" I felt the tears start to form in my eyes.
"Yeah, if you want it. It's yours." He shrugged still smiling at me.
"What?! I- yes- of course I want it!" I could barely find the words to say. My heart started beating out of my chest. "Clifford I really don't even know what to say. I keep saying 'Thank you' but that doesn't even come close to explaining how appreciative I am for everything you've done for me. And not just this weekend but for the last 5 months..." I stopped talking and just shook my head because I started getting choked up.
He just wrapped his arms around me and held me. "Cheyenne, I'll do anything to see that smile on your face every day. Believe me when I say, there aren't many things that I wouldn't do for you."
For the life of me I couldn't figure out why Clifford thought that I deserved this shit. Like, what did he see in me that made him want to do all of this for me? I almost felt unworthy.
As if he was able to read my mind he lifted my chin up so that I was looking at him. "You are different. Over the last couple of years I have ran into a lot of women. Women who took my money and disregarded me. They didn't care to ask me about my day, they didn't care to cook or clean for me, they didn't care to even hold genuine conversations, and they damn sure didn't care to buy me a gift. But you, you've shown me that you do care. It's not about the money for me... there's another million sitting in my bank account for the million that I could hand you right now. And another million for that million. But this... this genuine connection? There's nothing like it. You show me every day why you deserve it." He ended his sentence by kissing me on my forehead. "Now wipe them tears from your pretty face."
I laughed and wiped my face realizing how sad I probably looked right now. "So... when can I move in?" I asked.
He chuckled softly. "Whenever you're ready honestly, it ain't no rush. Just let me know so I can make sure I have some people to help you."
I thanked Clifford basically a million more times before we left as I walked through the apartment in awe that he actually gifted me an apartment.
At this point I knew Clifford and I were getting really serious. Could I actually deal with the backlash that would definitely come with dating someone almost twice my age? Did I give a fuck what other people thought?
These were all questions that were continuously running through my mind. I knew I had to make a decision on whether or not I wanted to be with Clifford for real, and I needed to make that decision like now.