Ali's pov
"I brought them" Aria smiles, holding up a bag of sausages
"I'm not surprised, we all know how much Aria loves her sausages" Hanna pauses with a snigger "don't we Ezra?" She cheekily smirks
"Shut up, they are vegetarian" Aria laughs, throwing an outdoor pillow and hitting Hanna straight in the face
"Just put them there" Emily says, pointing at the table next to her while she continues to cook the burgers on the bbq
Aria places her vegetarian sausages on the table before joining us on the outdoor sofas. The kids play on the wooden climbing frame that Emily built for the girls as Emerson sleeps in his crib next to me.
"I can't believe how fast they have grown. Lily and Grace are nine today. I actually can't believe that" Hanna smiles as she watches our children run around our backyard
"Nine, eight, seven, four, three, two and this gorgeous boy who is only one and a half weeks old" Toby smiles listing our children's ages as he strokes Emerson's rosey cheek
"That's only five ages Toby" Hanna giggles as if Toby said something stupid "and there are seven children"
"Yes, because Lily and Grace are twins so they are obviously the same age and, Harper and Abigail are only a month apart and both their birthdays have been so they are also the same age"
"Oh yeah. I forgot me and Spence were pregnant at the same time" Hanna laughs before continuing "we should do that again"
"No we shouldn't" Spencer and Caleb say in sync before sharing an awkward smile between them
Ever since the whole Spaleb incident, they have never been the same. Despite trying their hardest to go back to being friends like they were before there is always a hint of awkwardness in the air between them: I think that the awkwardness is created by their question of "what if?";what if Hanna didn't break up with Jordan and Yvonne didn't die, would they still be together? If they stayed together would they be married now? what would their children looked like? Where would they live? What would they work as? I think this because my eyes used to have the same glaze over them whenever I looked at Emily and asked myself that same question "what if?". However Emily totally disagrees and believes they are awkward because they realise how stupid their relationship was.
Emily's pov
"Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear GraLil....cey..." we all sing in unison and as usual we stumble over their names as some people sing Lily first and some sing Grace. After the confusion of their names everyone goes silent except from Harper who finishes the song by sweetly singing "Happy birthday to you"
Alison and I have been mothers for nine years today however the lead up to Lily and Grace's birthday has always had the same questions; do we buy one or two cakes? Do we buy shared presents? If we don't buy them shared presents will we buy them the same things? Who's name do we sing first when singing happy birthday to them?
Lily and Grace always get a few big presents to share which they don't mind however, there are always tantrums when they get a card to share and there is no exception this year:
"This is from Grandad" Alison smiles, holding out a card. Grace stretches out her arm and takes hold of the card staring at the blank envelope
"Where is mine?" Lily questions
"There isn't a name on the envelope so I don't know who's that is and I'm trying to find the other one" Alison sweetly smiles as she flicks through the abnormally large bundle of cards
Grace opens the envelope, pulls out the card and slowly opens it. The adorable grin melts off her face as she disappointedly passes the card to Lily. Lily's smiles also disappears as she begins to read
"To Grace and Lily. Happy Birthday. From Grandad" with half opened eyes she sets the card down on the table
"He couldn't even be bothered to buy two cards" Grace sighs
"It's a pretty card" Aria smiles, trying to lighten the mood
"Just because we are twins doesn't mean we get a card to share. We are different people and deserve to be treated that way. He couldn't even be bothered to spend another dollar to buy us a card each" Lily shouts with anger
"Aunt Aria why did you buy us a card each?" Lily asks in frustration
"Because you are individuals and I wanted to wish you both a happy birthday. It just feels more personal" Aria sighs
"Exactly. Grandad doesn't care" Lily screams, grabbing their card and ripping it in half
"Here Grace. We've got a card each now" Lily moans, handing Grace one half of their card
"Who wants cake? We have a chocolate and vanilla" Alison abruptly asks, jumping to her feet in an attempt to change the conversation
Ali's pov
"No cake yet. The bbq is ready" Emily smiles as she opens the lid of the bbq
My eyes watch the flame and my mind is thrown back to the time is saved my friends from the burning building
As I watched the house from behind the trees I saw a small glowing light held in the black gloved hands of A. Suddenly the strange glowing light was thrown to the ground and it dawned on me that glowing light was fire. I watched it spread across the grass and engulf the house in flames, as I anxiously watched for my friends. "Why are they taking so long?" I panicked to myself before throwing the red hood over my blonde hair and running towards the house. Sweat melted off my body from the heat of the fire as I pulled the screwdriver from the lock, I pushed the door open to find my 3 friends and Mona lying unconscious on the floor. I jumped over Mona and Aria before wrapping my arms around Emily's torso and dragging her out.
When I came back home I admitted to my friends that Hanna did see me however, I didn't tell Aria that I literally jumped over her like a hurdle so that I could save Emily first.
I dragged Emily's perfect body along the dirt until she was a safe distance from the fire, and then ran back into the house and just as I did with Emily I wrapped my arms around Mona, Aria and Hanna; dragging them one by one out of the burning house. I delicately placed Hanna onto the ground before resting my hands on my knees trying to catch my breath. Hanna's eyes pinged open and I breathlessly stared into her blue eyes; Hanna's eyes sparkled with disbelief. I lifted my hands off my knees getting ready to run away before they realised I was alive because unlike the time I saved Emily from the barn I was not going to stick around to talk. However, when I looked to my friends one last time I realised that Mona was no longer lying beside Emily, instead she was standing up and walking towards me. My heart dropped and my eyes shifted around while I decided what my next move was going to be; I ran away and Mona began to chase after me. The heels of my black boots continued to bounce off the dirt ground until I was stopped dead in my path when my eyes caught sigh of Spencer who was standing far in the distance. "Fuck" I muttered before throwing my body against a tree. The sound of Mona's feet began to become quieter until she came to a stop just ahead of me, she looked around for me before turning around and running back to Aria, Emily and Hanna.
"Guys do you remember when I saved you from the burning building?" I mutter as Emily hands me a burger
"Yes. Why?" Hanna asks
"Because I didn't tell you something"
"Was it you who attacked me?" Toby laughs
"No. When I ummm...got to the house Aria and Mona were lying beside the door but I didn't save them first...I hurdled over them to save Emily first" I admit
"What? You jumped over my unconscious body to save Emily first?" Aria questions as her eyes fill with a tinkle of anger
"Yes, I didn't know how long I had to save you and I'm sorry but I wanted to save the love of my life first" I blush with slight guilt
"Aww you saved me first?"
"Yes" I smirk as Emily walks over to me and sits on my lap wrapping her arms around my neck
Emily pulls me close to her and her cold breath sends shivers down my spine before she kisses me
"Excuse me are we forgetting the part that Alison literally jumped over my dying body?"
"Yes we are Aria, because we are too busy watching our otp make out" Hanna giggles as she watches Emily's lips melt against mine
I hope you are all enjoying my marathon!!!!
I obviously don't know when Lily and Grace's birthday is but I'm just gonna say that their birthday is the same month as Alison's, because Oakley and TayTum Fisher's birthday is 23rd June (the twins who apparently played Lily and Grace in the finale) and me and my twin's birthday is also at the end of June; so I though I would continue the theme of (blonde female) identical twins being born in June
Kisses -E
(10th June 2018)