"Breath darling. This is just a chapter, not your whole story."
🤍Nat🤍
It's officially the 22nd of september which means it's my best friend's birthday! I've also just finished the Ezra gift, it took me about a week to complete. Thankfully Theo isn't as difficult as his twin brother. I got him a big box of different chocolates, hot chocolates, a blanket and some face marks. Yes, he likes face masks, it's our secret.
But as for Ezra his present was a bit more difficult and time consuming. Me and Ezra both share the love of books. We always have, ever since we were kids, when Cole JJ and Theo were playing with trucks and stuff me and him were reading.
Now one thing about Ezra is that he loves annotating books but he says he doesn't know how to do it right. Luckily for him I do, so I decided to go out and buy his favorite book, ignite me from the shatter me series. He loves the whole collection but igniting me is his number one, mine too.
It ended up taking me a week to annotate the whole thing since I've got assignments due and all that jazz. I even went out and bought new highlighters, sticky notes, and tabs just for this book. Instead of just giving him the book I gave him all new annotating supplies, a candle, some jolly ranchers and lastly a handwritten note, along with theo.
Each year I give all the boys a handwritten note for their birthday. My mum used to do it for me. I found birthday cards mean a lot less because all you have to write is 'happy birthday love blah blah'. But when you give them a handwritten note it means a lot more, they've even started giving me a note for my birthday.
My cute idiots.
I really need to sleep at 1am and I have to be up in 5 hours for my first class, oh god. I quickly pack up Ezras gifts in a box then tidy my work space before shutting off the lights and heading into bed.
♡♡♡
"Happy birthday you old loser!" I ran up to Ezra, throwing myself on him.
"Thanks romanoff." he mumbles into my hair.
"Ok i'll give you your present at lunch so you and theo can open them both at the same time. Knowing he will throw a hissy fit if i give you your first.'' I let out a laugh and so did Ezra.
"How did you know what to get me, not even two weeks ago you were whining about having no idea what to get me.'' He gives me a weary look which makes me burst out laughing again.
"Guess you'll have to wait and find out.'' I link my arm through his and drag him to the back of the class room where we usually sit.
"Oh but i will let you have some of my jolly ranchers since you only turn 19 once.'' I gave him a wink before giving him 19 jolly ranchers, now I only have 6 for myself.
Crudds.
"Woah 19 you sure you want to give me this many?" He gives me an amused smirk, an evil man.
"It's physically painful for me to give you that many but it's your birthday so I have to. Don't get used to it though because it will only happen once a year.'' I point my finger at his face and he just bites it.
"Ouch!"
"Sorry love, saw the opportunity and had to take it." He took my hand and kissed the finger he bit. I felt my face heat up so I turned back to the front of the class and started taking notes.
♡♡♡
"Happy birthday chocolate boy!" i run up to theo also tackling him into a hug, i end up getting lifted off the ground and spun.
"Thank you so much bestie! My god, why do you weigh nothing?" he asks, still holding me off the ground like a child.
"Put her down asswhole." I hear Ezra grumble from behind me. I look at theo with a confused look because he's never like this but all i get in return is theo smirking at me before putting me down.
"Happy birthday you two." Abby jogs up to us, she bumps Ezras fist and pushes theo. A bit too hard since he nearly falls on his butt.
"Ok rude, it's my birthday, why am I getting treated like this?" he grumbles walking off to where Cole and JJ are sitting. I look back at Ezra and Abby giving them a stern look before joining theo.
"I got you a present. See that red box, it's all yours." I point to the red box that's placed on the grass in front of us. We all sit down in a circle like we normally do, in between the birthday boys this time.
"Yours is the gray box, was going to give you a blue one but then i remembered you hate color." he just glares at me but i've known him long enough to know that he doesn't mean it in a mean way, not to me at least.
"Holy fucking shit! Nat you are my favorite person in the world this is the best gift i've ever been given! Oh my gosh this blanket is so soft." Theo wraps me in a hug and kisses my cheek a good four times.
"Your welcome theo."
"Holy shit romanoff. How long did it take you to do this?" Ezra flips through the book I bought him and his face is priceless.
"A good week, also got you some other bits and bobs.'' His eyes widened and within a second I was also being bought into a hug and getting kissed on the cheek.
"Thank you sweetheart, couldn't have gotten me anything better."
"Your notes are in the bottom of the box by the way." I tell them both once ive been released.
"Fuck yeah." they both say, freaking twins.
They both take the time to read their notes and I notice theos eyes start to water, not long after I see a tear roll down Ezras cheek. I made them cry?!
"Oh no, why are you crying?" Before they answer I get tacked by both of them into a hug. Now I'm a pretty small girl. I'm only what? 5'4 and like 115 pounds so being tackled by two 6'3 hockey players, it hurts.
"Oh my god, you two are going to kill her, she's only a little lady!" Cole shrieks while he and JJ pull the white twins off me. Once they're both off me I let out a long deep breath finally being able to feel my lungs again.
"Nat are you ok?" Abby asks once I sit up she has tears in her eyes from how much she's been laughing.
"I'm fine, I feel bad for the people you guys tackle in games." We all let out a laugh before falling back into a conversation, only Ezra is zoned in on the note I wrote him. I move right up next to him putting my head on his shoulder.
"What's up?" I whisper in his ear.
"nothing , it's just this line on the note." he points to one of the last lines i wrote.
'Give yourself some credit for the days you made it when you thought you couldn't.'
Oh, right.
"It's true, I know you have days where you think you won't make it. But each day you get out of bed and you push through. So yeah give yourself some credit." I kissed his cheek and whipped the tears from his cheek.
"Give yourself some credit too love, i know you struggle with your own mind and yet here you are taking it one day at a time. I'm proud of you gorgeous." he kisses my cheek as well. I lay my head back on his shoulder, his arm wraps around my waist and we just look around at our friends.
Our idiots.
♡♡♡
So maybe the whole cookout idea wasn't the smartest idea we've had. We're all currently at the guys apartment since their kitchen is bigger than ours, and it's a mess. We decided on making pizzas since we can customize them as much as we like. Instead of one pizza each we're in teams. Theo and Abby, Cole and JJ, then me and Ezra. Somehow each group actually has someone who knows how to cook properly but me and Ezra are at an advantage since we're both great cooks.
I'm better but I don't want to hurt his poor ego.
"Cole I SWEAR TO GOD IF YOU GET FLOUR ON ME ONE MORE TIME I WILL THROW YOU OUT THE WINDOW!" Theo screams at the top of his lungs at Cole who keeps spilling flour on everyone, poor child.
"ITS NOT MY FAULT FUCK OFF!" oh gosh.
"You've dealt with this for 19 years?" Abby asks me and Ezra as we watch the other 3 fight over flour.
"Mhm don't know how.'' I say to her but I quickly duck when a bowl comes flying my way.
"OK ENOUGH YOU TWO NEARLY JUST KNOCKED NAT OUT WITH A BOWL. JUST PUT YOUR FUCKING PIZZAS IN THE OVEN AND CLEAR THIS MESS UP!" Ezra yells at the other three and I can't help but laugh at their faces. They look like they've seen a ghost. Ezra hardly ever yells so when he does it is a bit scary so i get their reaction.
But I also know what's coming.
"Yes boss." they all say together while giving him a salute.
Actual idiots.
"Aw daddy Ezra has been activated." Abby says in a deeper voice, almost sounding like a robot.
"Shut the fuck up Abby." Ezra throws a grape at her, hitting her in the middle forehead. I try really hard not to laugh but I just can't help it. As soon as I let out a small laugh, Abby sends me a glare.
Oh if looks could kill.
"Trator."
"Yo boss! Is our tidying work to your expectations?" Cole says standing in between Theo and JJ, all of them look like soldiers waiting for instructions.
"Fuck off all of you." Ezra grumbles.
"Hey, what did I do?!" I throw my hands up defensively. I look back at him and he just smiles down at me while rolling his eyes.
"Not you romanoff." he ruffled my hair before walking back over to the oven to check on our pizza.
"My gosh what is it with you guys and messing up my hair." I untie my hair by running my hand through it trying to control it as much as possible.
Me and Abby just sit on the bar stools at the island watching the four guys get the pizzas out. The room immediately starts to smell like an Italian restaurant. I think I'm in heaven. Ezra comes over to me with our pizza in hand and places it down in front of us and I think I start drooling. Others call us weird because we only like mushrooms on our pizza. Now it's not that we only like mushrooms, we just prefer it. You could give us a pizza with anything and everything on it and we would eat it.
"How the flying fuck does your guyes look so good.'' Abby questions looking at our pizza like its baby jesus.
"Well considering this girl is half italian and half french she's bound to be good at making pizza.'' Ezra nudges my shoulder, giving me his signature grin.
"No way you're half Italian and half french?" she asks me eyes wide.
"Mhm, mum's French and my dad's Italian but I never met him. I do, however , know my grandparents on his side and trust me they are the most Italian people you will ever meet." people think that if you don't have contact with your dad you also don't have contact with his family but that's untrue in my case.
My fathers family disowned him shortly after my mum fell pregnant with me. He's a horrible person apparently, I'm just glad I never had to meet him. I've got my mum so I'm good.
"God I miss your grandparents, they make fire pasta." Theo joins our conversation. His face shows pure admiration when he talks about my grandparents, honestly thinking he loves them more than his own.
"We need to visit them in Italy one day. Oh my gosh we could visit your mum's parents in France then make our way to italy." JJ states bringing his pizza over along with Abby and theos. Cole also comes over with a pizza cutter and starts cutting all the pizzas for us.
"I'm so down for that, basically i have really rich grandparents who have two houses each. One for them and then one for when family comes down so we would have our own privacy. If we actually plan this we could go in the summertime."
"Great, put it in your planner's French and Italian trip next summer!" Abby drums her hands on the counter, also letting out a squeal. JJ and theo highfive, Cole is still cutting pizza and Ezra just nudges my shoulder again with a big ol smile present on his face.
"Ok pizza is cut now, someone takes them to the coffee table, someone gets drinks and someone gets dips." Cole practically demands taking one pizza tray to the coffee table. I make my way to the fridge and grab the dominoes dip we kept. Before I can turn around someone comes up behind me and leans over me to get the bottles of pepsi.
"You couldn't just wait for me to move huh?" I turn around now being chest to chest with Ezra who once again is smirking at me. I have to crane my neck up just so I could see his face. Stupid height diffrence.
"You were taking too long to love, we were practically dying of dehydration."
"Go away Ezra." I duck under his arm and make my way back to the living room. Everyone is settled down, JJ and Cole are on the floor with their pizza, Theo and Abby are together on the far couch with theirs and there's a space for me and Ezra on the closer couch.
"What movie are we watching?" I ask, sitting myself on the couch, Ezra then decides to jump over the back and lands right next to me.
My gosh.
"Well since it's our birthday we decided to watch infinity war and endgame so be ready to cry." Theo says, looking at me with a smirk.
"Nope im out, i'm still not over their deaths i don't think i could handle it again. You guys have a nice night but i'm out of here.'' I try to get up off the couch but Ezra wraps his hands around my waist pulling me back down. He basically tucks me under his arm so i dont move.
"Evil, you're all evil." I grumble while relaxing into Ezra even more.
"Be quiet and eat your pizza romanoff, the movies are about to start." Ezra whispers in my ear.
"You're lucky it's your birthday."
"I know."
♡♡♡
word count:2510 words
aw the twins are now 19, so old.
- S🤍