Blatherskite; a person who talks at a great length without making much sense.
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Birthday's are a thing you either hate or love. There is no in between.
But it's usually more common for you to hate it as you get older. And it's not necessarily that you hate your birthday, you hate the memories that come with it.
Most people though, continue to love their birthday the older they get.
I think River is one of those people. And I'm glad for that because I hate my birthday and hating a birthday sucks.
His birthday is today and it's on a Friday too. I feel like that's a pretty good combo.
Although, we do still have to go to school.
I already went to the gas station and got him his favorite drink and donuts and now I just have to get to school.
I pull in the parking lot and park, grabbing my things before locking the car.
"Happy Birthday!" I grin as I hand him the bag.
"Thank you." He says with a smile while looking in the bag.
He looks up from the bag and takes a step closer to give me a hug.
He's been doing that a lot.
Like every time we hang out, a lot.
I guess ever since I actually hugged him back he wants to hug more now.
I'm not complaining because even though I'm not a person who hugs, I love his hugs.
They're just warm and welcoming, comfortable.
"Is Ivy Reeves hugging someone right now?" Finn says.
"I'm witnessing it with my own two eyes." Aspen replies.
I scoff and pull away, facing the other three dipshits.
Well, two, Beah isn't a dipshit.
"I hate you all." I say before walking to the school doors.
"I beg to differ." River says from behind me.
He catches up to me and slings an arm over my shoulder as we head to first period and the others go their separate ways.
"So, how are you spending your birthday later?" I ask knowing well enough we're doing something he doesn't know about.
"I'm having dinner with my mom after school and I'm not sure what else. No one has mentioned anything." He explains, a small frown on his face when he says no one has mentioned anything yet.
"Don't worry," I pat his arm, "I'm sure your birthday will be amazing."
"Yeah, as long as you're here." He adds a wink at the end which makes me blush even more.
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"We should ditch the rest of the day." Finn suggests as we all sit down at the lunch table.
"I agree." I say.
"Can't, I have a test." Beah says.
I frown, "Can you make it up Monday?" I ask.
"Oh wait, Yeah I guess I could do that."
"What should we do?" Aspen asks as he slings an arm around Beah.
I grin and River and I fist bump each other. That ship is definitely going to sail soon.
"Laser tag?" I offer.
"I haven't done laser tag in so long, we should do that." River agrees.
"Finn, find some person to go with us so we can do teams." I tell him.
He stands up and leans against the table, "See this," He gestures between us four, "This proves that I'm lonely." After he says that he leaves to find someone to go with us.
Around five-ish minutes later of us just talking, Finn comes back with a girl next to him.
I won't lie, I wasn't expecting him to find someone so fast.
"Who's this?" I ask, wiggling my eyebrows.
"Guys this is Kat, from my English class. Kat this is River, Ivy, Beah, and Aspen." He says as he points to each of us.
"Hi." She shyly waves.
"So you actually agreed to skip school, play laser tag, and play it with him." Aspen asks her.
"Are you implying no one should ever hang out with me?" Finn asks, raising an eyebrow.
Finn sits back down next to Aspen and Kat sits next to Finn.
"I'm implying your weird so I don't know why she would agree to that." He jokes.
"You hang out with me." Finn shoots back.
I mean he's not wrong.
Aspens face falls and he mumbles something under his breath but leaves it at that. Finn is grinning like a cheshire cat.
"You guys ready?" I ask standing up.
Everyone nods and put our trays back before leaving out the front doors.
"Hey, isn't basketball practice starting soon?" I ask River as we walk to our cars. The others aren't parked too far away from us.
"Yeah, Monday."
"You ready?"
"I hope so, I've been trying to get back in shape before the season starts."
"I'm sure you'll be fine."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah."
"What ever happened to our handshake?" I ask just remembering we made one a while ago."
"I forgot it." He says nonchalantly.
"Okay, good because I did too. I'm not good at remembering those."
We both get in our cars. I throw my bag to the back and plug my music in. Soon I see Beah and Aspen in his car and then Finn following behind them.
As they're leaving the parking lot, I pull out and follow them as River does the same behind me.
I have no clue where laser tag is so it's a good thing I'm following them.
The longer we drive the more it gets familiar which is a good thing.
We pass by the mall but turn shortly after. We pull into a parking lot and we all park next to each other.
I never realized it was by the mall, goes to show I should pay more attention to my surroundings.
Once we are all parked we get out and head inside. She asks us all these questions and we fill out a form. We told her we were doing teams and finally paid.
Then we went over to a different area and started putting our vest on, as we were doing that a different girl came out and started explaining the rules.
"I'm sure if you have ever played laser tag, you know the rules but if you haven't here they are. No running, climbing, or crawling. No physical contact against other players. Keep both hands on the Phaser at all times. Also, don't block the vest sensors, that's just cheating."
She comes over and makes sure our vest are put on correctly and we each get our "phaser."
"Obviously, if a player's vest is red, you cannot shoot them because they have already been shot. If the player's vest is green, well then shoot."
She does not seem too excited about her job but oh well.
"The countdown will start from three, there will be five rounds. Last team standing with both players wins. Have fun."
She opens the door that leads into the area for us and shuts it once we're inside.
Some animated voice starts sounding throughout the place as it explains everything all over again.
As it starts it's countdown River and I separate from other teams.
Apparently there are five other teams in here making a total of eight teams.
We probably made it here just in time.
The countdown ends and we slowly start to move around.
"Wait! How do you shoot this thing?" I whisper yell. Rivers head turns so fast I think he might get whiplash.
"By pressing the trigger?" He whispers back. Shaking his head as if he can't believe I just asked that question.
"I was just making sure."
I follow behind him as we slowly make our way around a pillar but before we get any farther he comes back around, causing me to crash into his back.
"There's a team around the corner." He whispers.
Why is playing laser tag stressful? I feel like I might actually die if they shoot me.
The team comes around the corner and we both shoot them, their vests immediately turning red while making a noise.
Me and River high five before my vest goes red and makes a noise.
River immediately shoots who it was and I turn around to see it was Beah.
"What a traitor." I shake my head.
"Had to do what I had to do." She shrugs.
I sigh and turn to River, "I'm useless now but you can at least try and get Aspen."
He nods but it's a little odd that Beah is here by herself and I haven't seen Aspen anywhere.
The noise of Rivers vest going off and turning red answers our unspoken question. Aspen is standing behind River with a massive grin on his face.
"Gotcha."
I groan, "We suck."
"There's still 4 more rounds, we can win at least one." He says, determination radiating off of his body.
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We, in fact, did not win any rounds.
"You guys suck." Finn says as we walk out the doors.
Finn and Kat won two rounds, Aspen and Beah won one round and two other teams one the other rounds.
In our defense, River and I have not played in many years, and we also aren't good at looking around.
"Technically, birthday boy was on my team and birthday boy gets automatic win which means I do too, so no, we don't suck." I explain.
We still suck but I'm going to deny that for as long as I can.
"Don't even lie, Kat was carrying you, you wouldn't have won without her." Beah says from beside Aspen.
Kat is still a little shy but she's warming up. She seems nice which means I don't have to be rude.
That girl at the ice cream shop the other day deserved it, though. Like who does that? Especially when a girl is standing right by the dude you're trying to get a number from.
Idiots.
"That is such a lie, I shot more people than she did." Finn says defensively.
"Did not." She speaks up.
"Did to."
"Did not."
"Did to."
"Whatever." He huffs.
"What now?" Beah asks. We still have around an hour before River has to be home to have dinner with his mom.
School ended not too long ago so there will possibly be more traffic.
"There's this bakery on our side of town that I've been wanting to try , do you guys want to go there?" I ask.
A chorus of "Sure" is heard so we all head to our cars.
"I know where it's at so you guys can follow behind me." River says before getting into his car.
I get in my car and play my playlist before pulling out of the parking lot after River, the other two following behind.
Due to River's speeding abilities, we arrive at the bakery in no time.
It's not extremely busy but it's not completely empty either.
"I've heard they have really good desserts." Finn says as we walks up to us. Once we're all together we walk through the doors of the bakery and a bell chimes above us to let people know someone walked in.
No one is at the counter at first but a girl around our age comes from the back with a small smile on her face. I haven't seen her around so I'm guessing she goes to a different school or something along those lines.
"Hi, I'm Harper. What can I get for you?" She says with a warm smile. She looks happy to work here unlike the other workers I've come across today.
"Can I get a brownie, please?"
"Anything else?"
"What are you getting?" I ask River.
"Can I get a red velvet cupcake, please?" River asks Harper.
"You're total is $5.67." As I'm about to hand her my money, River pays even though it's his birthday.
"River, it's your birthday! I was going to pay." I scold.
"I don't care." He shakes his head.
"I know how it feels, my boyfriend does the same thing all the time." Harper says.
So it must be a guy thing, or a good guy thing because some of the dudes i've been with don't offer to pay at all.
"It's frustrating." I mumble which causes her to chuckle.
I gesture River off to find us a seat as Harper hands us our brownie and cupcake. The others order while I head to the booth River picked.
I slide in next to him and hand him his cupcake and wait for the others.
Beah and Aspen slide in across from us with Finn following and Kat sits next to me.
I'm a little surprised all six of us managed to fit in this booth but it worked.
"What's that?" I point to cake thing Beah has.
"Strawberry shortcake."
Oh.
River is in a conversation with Aspen as Finn is arguing with Beah about which dessert is better while Kat and I quietly eat our desserts.
"Are you busy later?" I ask her, making sure River doesn't over hear us.
"Uhm, no, why?" She mumbles, rubbing her hands together underneath the table.
"We're throwing a surprise party for the birthday boy and if you are free, would you like to come? You don't have to of course since you barely know us but Finn seems to like you and everything so-" She cuts my rambling off by holding up her hand with a small chuckle.
"Of course I'd like to come. Thank you for inviting me, not many people do." She says with a slight frown.
I frown, "But you're so nice."
She shrugs, "I guess being nice doesn't matter to other people."
"Want to exchange numbers? Since I declared we're friends now."
She nods and hands me her phone. I put my number in and then text myself so I have her number.
"Kat." Finn says which causes her to switch her attention from me to him. The break out into their own conversation as Aspen and Beah have their own.
I lean my head on to River's shoulder. "Guess what?"
"What?"
"Kat is officially my friend." I bring my hand up in front of us as he does the same and we fist bump.
"Why do you guys always do that?" Beah asks us.
"Because they're weird." Finn says.
"You're one to talk." Aspen says which causes Finn to scoff.
"I don't know, it just happened." I shrug, answering her question.
She nods and hums in response.
River sighs, "I should probably get going."
"I'll walk you." Kat slides out of the both with him and I following. She slides back in as we make our way outside.
"Do you know where you're going for dinner?" I ask.
"Nope, it's a surprise and it's usually a different place every time."
I hum, "How does it feel to be 18 now?" I always hate when people ask that type of question but I only did it to be cheesy.
When people ask me that my answer is usually "the same as yesterday" because it really is.
"The same as yesterday." He replies.
"Yeah," I nod, "sounds about right."
We make it to his car and I open the door for him before he can. I shut the door after he gets in and he rolls the window down.
"Drive safe and have fun."
"I will."
"You better."
"Nice of you to care for me." He winks.
"Shut up." I mumble.
"Bye!"
"Bye."
I wait till he pulls out of the parking spot before running back inside.
"You guys ready to set this up?" I grin.
"Hell yeah, let's go." Beah says.
"Oh and Kat is coming too." I tell them.
They all nod and we make our way to our cars.
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"The banner won't stay up!" I hear as I come down the stairs.
"Use more tape then." I tell Finn and Aspen who are standing on chairs while holding the banner that says "Happy Birthday Fuckface!" on it.
Their words, not mine.
My mom already discussed the details and plans with his mom and thankfully she was on board.
Beah is in the kitchen helping Kat organize the food and drinks while I set the living room up with blankets, pillows, sheets, stuff like that.
The many pizzas my mom ordered should also be here soon.
If they show up the same time River does, I'm going to be irritated.
Knight👻
Me: Come over after dinner, I have something for you.
I slip my phone back into my pocket and help finish setting up for the party.
The boys finally got the banner up, with the help of a lot of tape and put the chairs back.
I have no clue where my mom went but I can't look for her when the doorbell rings.
I'm hoping it's the pizza, if not then we're screwed.
I open the door and thankfully it's the pizza delivery guy with the five pizzas my mom ordered.
I don't think we need that many.
He hands me the pizzas and I pay him plus tip. I kick the door shut with my foot and make my way to the kitchen, making sure not to drop all the pizzas.
"I don't know what I was expecting but it wasn't give pizzas." Beah says.
"I wasn't either." I say, moving them to sit in a row on the counter.
Knight👻
Knight👻: On my way.
"River is on his way." I tell them.
My mom comes down the stairs and into the kitchen where all of us are, "When is River coming?"
"Now."
"Do you guys have everything ready?"
"Yes."
"Oh, and don't forget his cake is in my room on my dresser."
"Okay, I'll grab it when I grab the gifts."
She nods and heads towards the living room to sit on the couch and watch whatever is on the TV for the time being.
We all patiently wait in the kitchen for River, occasionally messing with a few things to make sure they're right.
Soon the door bell rings again and I'm sure it's him.
We all make our way over to the door and they stand to the left of it so when I open the door it hides them.
I open the door to see River awkwardly standing there. "Hey." I move to the side, inviting him in and as soon as I close it he realizes everyone is here.
"Surprise!"
A smile overtakes his face as he sees all of us here and then he looks back to me. "You did all this for me?"
"Of course."
His smile somehow gets wider as he pulls me to him. My arms come around his waist as his wrap around my shoulders.
"Thank you, Vee." He mumbles into my hair before placing a light kiss on my head.
"Anytime."
We eventually break away from the hug and head towards the kitchen. We all slowly break out into different conversations while filling our plates with pizza and our cups with drinks.
After we all finish up our food we make our way to the living room. "You want to open your gifts?" I ask him as we sit in a circle on the floor.
He groans, "I told you guys I didn't want gifts. You didn't have to get me anything."
"Well too bad." I tell him as I stand up and head towards the stairs. "Kat can you come help me?"
"Sure." She catches up with me and we make our way to my room as I grab the gifts everyone got for him.
"I feel bad, I didn't get him anything." She mumbles.
"It's fine, you didn't know you were coming until earlier." I brush her off.
"Okay, let's go grab the cake." I tell her once I have all the gifts.
She asks before opening my moms door even though I already told her she could go in and grab the cake.
She's so polite.
Once she has the cake we make our way back down the stairs, and Kat puts the cake in the kitchen before following me back into the living room.
I place the gifts in front of him before going back to my seat.
My mom is on the couch with her phone out as she takes pictures.
Not surprised.
"Does it matter whose I open first?" He asks.
I shake my head and he picks a random bag.
"This is from Finn." River says before opening up the bag. He pulls out a pack of peanut M&M's along with a pair of high socks.
"I figured I would buy you a new pair for basketball since I stole your other ones." Finn explains.
"Wait, you took them? I thought I just lost them." He shoots a glare at Finn before grabbing another bag. "You don't deserve a thank you for that." He mumbles.
"This one is from Vee." I didn't really want him to open mine up just yet but it's fine.
He pulls out a Propel that I got him along with some of his favorite candy, a journal, and then a small velvet box at the bottom.
He looks at the velvet box then back at me. He huffs, "You really didn't have to get me anything." He says softly.
"I know." I nod. "Open it."
He opens it and it's a customized silver ring. It's not anything extraordinary but it does have the letter R engraved onto it.
He slips the ring onto one of his bare fingers and I'm glad it fits. "Thank you, I love it." He smiles.
He grabs another bag and the tag says it's from Beah.
I find it a little funny we all put his gifts in bags. I sure as hell don't know how to wrap gifts but I don't know about them.
Beah giggled before he puts his hand inside the bag.
I don't know what I was expecting or what any of us were expecting but it sure as well was not a rainbow dick lollipop.
He gasps, "Beah! What the hell?" She breaks out into a fit of laughter at the look on all our faces and so does my mom.
My mom.
"Oh my god, I can't believe you." He chuckles. "I don't plan on eating it but thank you."
He grabs the last bag which by the process of elimination leave it to be from Aspen.
He pulls out a Minecraft hat along with a visa gift card.
"Why?" River laughs while putting the hat on.
"I ran out of ideas on what to get you then I saw that and had to get it." Aspen shrugs.
"Thank you guys for all the gifts." He says while putting the rest of the stuff back in the bags.
"Sorry I didn't get you anything, I didn't know I was coming until earlier and I feel bad but I would have gotten you a gift card or something so-"
"Kat." He cuts her off.
She hums.
"Don't worry about it, okay. You didn't know and I didn't expect a gift anyway."
She rubs her palms on her thighs, "Okay."
"Cake time!" Beah claps. I help River take his gifts up to my room as Beah goes to get the cake ready.
"Thank you, again." He says as we set the bags down on my bed.
"It's no problem." I tell him.
"I know, I just don't know how else to thank you."
Kiss.
Kiss.
Kiss.
"Well, stop." I say before making my downstairs.
We step into the kitchen to see the cake with candles that say 18 on them that have already been lit.
"Holy shit this looks good." He mumbles gazing down at the cake.
We all count down from 3 and start singing him happy birthday.
Once we're done he blows out the candle and we have my mom cut the cake.
She all serves us a piece before closing it up and heading up to her room, but not before taking a piece for herself.
We all head back to the living room and let Aspen choose a movie because he's so eager too.
He ends up picking Annabelle which is kind of scary, I won't lie, but not that scary.
We all get comfortable in our spots. River next to me, Aspen and Beah next to him with a bit of space in between. Next to me is Kat and and Finn, a bit of space between us.
Talking about he's going to be the only lonely one my ass.
"Scary movies are not my thing, I'm more of a comedy guy." River mumbles.
I chuckle but nevertheless pat my stomach.
"Lay down," I whisper. He sighs but complies.
He moves down a bit to place his head right under my boobs as he drapes an arm across my waist. I adjust the blanket once he's situated.
I glance over to see Beah in the same position on Aspen and I internally smirk. I take credit for this.
"Comfy?" I whisper.
He nods, continuing as he draws random shapes on my bare waist since my shirt rose up. The blanket is up to his face and refrain from letting out a laugh and interrupting the movie.
Though as a jump scare pops up he does jump a little. "Jesus fuck." He mumbles.
I chuckle and rake my hand through his hair to hopefully calm him down.
I prefer this over anything else.
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a/n: sorry i haven't posted in over a week. this week was rough and then i couldn't find motivation to write but i truly hope this was worth it.
hope you guys noticed that cross over too #harper. anyway if you haven't yet go read, falling for death.
and please don't forget to vote! it helps bring attention to my books:)
thank you for your patience and i wish i was in ivy's position right now.
toodles.