Three days had passed and it was finally my birthday! I had received so many birthday wishes and so many stories posted about me for my birthday.
My personal favorite just had to be Mason's story, it was really heartwarming.
It had said, "Happy birthday to the best girl in the entire world! I'm so grateful to have you in my life!! Love you lots, hope you have the best b-day ever!💙" with a picture of a BeReal we took while hanging out this one time... oh the memories (not even a month ago).
I checked the messages Sophia had sent me, she said that she's going to take me somewhere for lunch... hope it's good. She told me to wear something decent, not too fancy, but just decent. So, I was wearing jeans and a cardigan.
At around noon, she picked me up and then we drove to the restaurant that she wanted to go to. She handed me the aux and I started playing that one Taylor Swift playlist, it's an unhealthy habit.
Once we got there, she took me over to one of those private or party rooms, which got me so confused. We walked through the doors and then I heard several voices yelling, "SURPRISE!"
There were like 10 people there... I saw: Kai, Mason, Chilly, Mateo, Izabel, Joao, Magui, Christian, Reece, and my childhood friend that I lost touch with named Isla.
I was so shocked, my hands were covering my mouth. There was decorations all over the room, it was absolutely beautiful.
"Oh my god!" I said. "You guys did this for me?"
"It's your birthday, so... we had to!" Izabel had said, widening her arms to give me a hug.
Once we let go of each other, she handed me her gift for me. "Here's your gift!" she cheered.
"Thank you so much, Iz," I thanked. "Can we just pile all the gifts up in the corner, or something?"
After I had said that, they all started placing their gifts in the corner of the room.
Then, I walked over to Isla and greeted her. "Long time no see, I missed you!" I said, giving her a hug, then pulled away.
"Missed you so much, glad to see you again!" she mumbled. "Please, let's have plans for the future."
"Bet," I smiled.
Suddenly, I felt someone hugging me from behind. I turned around, and as expected, it was Mason.
"Happy birthday," he whispered, smiling like crazy.
I chuckled, "Thank you so much, love the BeReal you posted on your story by the way."
He started to laugh, "One of the best BeReals ever taken." Then, he turned my head to lean in for a small kiss on the lip.
Isla stood there awkwardly and then said, "I'm gonna leave you two alone for a bit... I'm gonna talk to Soph." That's when she started walking away.
I turned over to face Mase. "You really made her walk away?" I asked.
"Nora, it wasn't on purpose, I just love you so much I can't even resist keeping it secret..."
I nodded my head and joked, "Nice cover up, did you google that?"
"Shut up," he chuckled, letting go of me.
The speakers were finally set up, and Christian started playing his country playlist (I hate country so much).
"Do you mind asking Puli to play something else?" I asked Mase. "Country ain't it."
"Gotcha," he said, then started heading over to Christian.
I walked away from him and approached Sophia who was helping the workers get the food organized while talking to Isla at the same time.
"Yeah, the alfredo can go there..." she instructed, pointing. "How are you Isla? Haven't talked to you in a while."
"I'm good, miss you lots," she admitted.
"Hey guys," I said. "Is the food ready?"
Sophia shook her head. "We're getting it set up, they just finished cooking."
"Oh, okay... tell me when everything is ready so we can all get food..."
After I said that, suddenly a familiar tune started playing from the speakers. It was "New Romantics" by Taylor Swift, wonder who would be playing that— so fucking obvious.
I started approaching Mason, mostly because I wanted to tell him how much this song means to me... It's pretty much a special song that reminds me of us to. My thoughts were pretty much distracted with Chilly and Kai came up to me and wished me a happy birthday.
"Happy birthday!" they both greeted.
"Thank you so much!" I cheered.
""Of course," Kai said, nodding his head.
"What he said," Chilly pointed.
I started to laugh a little bit, "Great minds think alike."
Chilly had raised an eyebrow. "I thought I was immature? Especially to you and Mase."
"We were joking— I mean, I was, I don't know about him..."
"You should know since you two are dating and shit," he mentioned. "You guys should make it public now... I mean, it's your birthday."
"Yeah, that's true... I feel like we should post pictures from this party and like one of them is us two together..."
Kai snapped his fingers. "That's such a good idea!"
"I know... I gotta talk to him about it before, you know..."
All of the sudden, Sophia announced, "FOOD IS READY!" So, everyone started lining up to get their food.
There was salad, bread and butter, chicken alfredo, chicken strips, roasted beef, and spring rolls. There was also champagne, and god I love champagne. I loved the food choices, whoever chose it knows me so well! It was probably Sophia, which would make so much sense.
Once everyone got their food, we sat down at this large table that fit the 13 of us. I was next to Mase and Sophia, of course.
From then on, we all started talking about the most random shit ever. From conversations ranging from the UCL match against Madrid tomorrow to 90's movies, you would never know what would come next.
Then, Ben was dumb enough and decided to bring up how I felt ready to make my relationship public. "Nora wants to make her little relationship public now."
"Dude, I was gonna tell Mason that myself," I said, sounding quite pissed at him.
"Whatever," he scoffed.
Mason chuckled, "Was not expecting those words to come out of you today..."
"Well, I guess I am ready— I guess."
"What? So, you're just gonna post on your story or something?"
"Nah, I was thinking we should take pictures together during this silly party," I explained. "Then posting them... you can post some too and have a caption saying cheesy shit."
"Good idea, not gonna lie."
"Exactly."
"After Nora blows her cake, she should open her presents and then I'll take the pictures," Sophia said, pointing at the presents.
"Save mine for last, it's the best... I swear!" Mason yelled out.
"No, mine's the best!" Magui yelled. "I know my girl."
"She's my girl too," he laughed. "I know her damn better than you do."
Once everyone was done eating their main course, Sophia had brought the cake in front of me. It was an absolutely beautiful cake, it was purple with flower decorations on it. The text on it said, "Happy Birthday Nora!"
Everyone started singing the happy birthday song to me, brings back so many memories from when I was a child. After the song finished, I blew out my candles and made a wish. Of course I didn't say my wish out loud, it's something only I would know.
Most people got slices of the vanilla cake, some just didn't have the appetite. I felt kinda bloated, so I didn't have a slice just yet.
After everyone ate their slices of cake, I started opening the presents. I had gotten so many amazing presents! I got new jewelry, clothes, and lots of gift cards!
While I was opening all of these, Sophia was taking pictures of my reaction and then took one with me and the person who gave it.
Then, there was one box left... one box left to open. Assuming it was Mason's gift because he wanted his gift to be saved for last.
I opened it, there was a plastic bag inside. I tore off the plastic, then my jaw instantly dropped. It was Taylor Swift merch! He had gotten me a 1989 crewneck AND a "Karma" cropped t-shirt. There was also something else too... A CHELSEA KIT! It was obviously a Mount kit, what other jersey would he get?
"I love these so much!" I said, smiling so hard, looking up at him.
"You're welcome, also I have one more thing!" he said, pulling up something on his phone.
I was so genuinely confused, I didn't know what the fuck he was doing.
He turned the phone over to show me what he was pulling up. It was on Ticketmaster, IT WAS TAYLOR SWIFT TICKETS!
"HOLY SHIT!" I yelled, giving him a hug. "I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!"
"Love you so much more," he said, hugging me back.
"How much did you pay for this ticket?" I asked him, pulling away.
He scratched the back of his neck. "We don't talk about that," he mumbled, sounding like it was quite expensive.
"Oh my god, it's on May 13th?" I asked.
He nodded his head and smirked. "Yeah, her favorite number!"
"Thank you so much! I love you!"
"Come on, I need to take pics of you two! Make it look cute!" Sophia yelled out, getting ready to take multiple pictures. "You should wear your new jersey!"
After she said that, I started to wear the kit Mason had given me over what I was wearing— oh my god it suits me so well!
We both started hugging each other for a few pictures, then posed for some of them, and then Chilly (of course) literally decided yelling out the most random recommendation.
"YOU GUYS SHOULD KISS FOR ONE OF THEM!" he shouted very loudly and clearly.
Mase and I smiled at each other, yet also trying to hold our laughs. Then, we did it. Because of Chilly's dumb comment, we just kissed in front of everyone... We tried to make it look natural, but we just couldn't hold our laughs.
They all said, "AWWWWW!" but for sure, Chilly was the loudest. I'm probably posting that one though. When Sophia showed Mason and me the pictures, that one was probably one of the cutest ones in there— he even agreed with me.
Once I was done with everything, everyone just talked to each other for at least 15 more minutes and then it was time to go. Of course, we had to take a group photo before everyone left.
Once everything was cleaned up and all of our belongings were gathered together, Sophia had drove me back to my apartment. I had said thank you to her for everything she has done for me before leaving the car.
That night, I posted the pictures from the party. The first picture was just me smiling behind my cake. The next few were me, Izabel, Sophia, Isla, and Magui— just the girls. Then, the next one was a random picture of Chilly, Kai, Mase, and Christian. The next one was the most jaw-dropping one, the one of Mason and me kissing. The last one was of everyone, the group photo taken at the end of the party.
I put the caption as: "We're happy, free, confused, and lonely at the same time," which referenced from the song "22" by Taylor Swift.
Once I finished tagging everyone and typing the caption, I clicked on post and went to sleep. I wanted to surprise myself in the morning with all the fans' comments and the update accounts' posts.