Kaley's POV
I awoke to the mouth-watering smell of bacon, my stomach growling loudly to inform me that it wanted that bacon and it wanted it now. Rubbing my eyes, I rolled out of bed and threw on my housecoat and slippers, and quickly made my way down the hall to the kitchen.
"Good morning!" Leah smiled when I walked into the kitchen. She was standing by our small stove, overseeing the pan of sizzling bacon.
"I thought that we agreed that I was going to do the bacon this year," I said with a yawn as I plopped down onto one of the stools sitting around our bar-like counter.
"Yeah, well, I was hungry and you were still sleeping, so I thought that I'd get a jump start on making breakfast.
"So, what can I do to help then?" I asked, rolling my eyes at her previous comment.
"I've actually almost got everything done..." Leah replied sheepishly.
"Leah!" I exclaimed, a frown forming on my face. "We were supposed to make this together!"
It had become a tradition of ours to make breakfast together on the 25th, the day between our two birthdays. The 25th had become our special Birthday Day, the day when we would exchange birthday presents and essentially celebrate both of our birthdays at the same time. That was one of the reasons why yesterday's party had surprised me so much, because I was not expecting to celebrate my birthday in such a way until the next day. That, and I hadn't told anyone when my birthday was... well, besides Leah, obviously.
"You could do the toast," Leah suggested. I shot her a quick glare to inform her that I was not happy with her as I stood up to get the bread. I pulled out two slices and slid them into the toaster. Because I had nothing better to do, I just stood there and watched the lights in the toaster turn red as it started to cook the bread.
"I'm bread, I'm bread, I'm bread, I'm bread," I started to mumble under my breath as I watched it. I kept mumbling that until the toaster popped, and I suddenly yelled, "I'm toast!"
Leah burst out laughing behind me. I felt my cheeks slightly flush with heat as I looked over my shoulder at her.
"That was adorkable!" she laughed, wiping tears from her eyes. "Seriously, Kaley, you say some of the randomest things sometimes!"
"I know," I shrugged, smiling as I turned back to the toaster and proceeded to take the toast out, quickly dropping it onto a small plate that Leah had left on the counter for me. It was still pretty hot and hurt to hold for too long.
I grabbed the plate and took it over to our very small, wooden table where Leah had already set everything else. I set it down as I slid into the chair across from Leah's.
"I propose a toast," Leah said, holding up her glass of grape juice. I mimicked her actions, holding up my own cup. "To us. To twenty-one years of life and to many years of friendship!"
"And to many more to come!" I smiled, clinking my glass against hers. "Happy Birthday, Leah!"
"Happy Birthday, Kaley!" she smiled back, taking a sip of her juice. And with the toasts out of the way, we hungrily dug into the food laid out before us.
Half a hour later, Leah and I, with full bellies, made our way over to our small living room. I flopped down onto the couch and let out a big, relaxed sigh.
"That was good," I said, closing my eyes as I leaned my head back.
"Yes, and the toast was exceptionally good," Leah replied with a slight laugh. I opened my eyes just so that I could roll them at her.
"Now I'm having second thoughts about giving you your birthday present," I teased her as I slipped my hand into my housecoat pocket. My fingers closed around a long, thin box and I slowly drew it out of my pocket, making sure to keep it concealed from Leah's sight.
"No!" Leah pouted. "If I can't have mine, then you can't have yours either!"
"I'm just teasing," I laughed as I held out the box to her. "Happy Birthday, Leah!" A small, excited squeal escaped her throat as she took it from me.
"What is it?" she asked, holding it up to her ear and lightly shaking it.
"Oh, just open it!" I laughed, earning a smile from her. She quickly tore off the gold wrapping paper, revealing a thin, white box. I watched her face intently as she gently took the lid off of it. Her eyes lit up with surprise and a small gasp slipped from her lips.
"Oh, Kaley," she whispered. "It's beautiful!" She carefully pulled the necklace out of the box. It had a small treble clef hanging off of it and was made entirely of white gold.
Leah had mentioned to me a few months ago how she had always wanted a treble clef necklace but had never been able to find one. So from that moment on, I had made it my mission to find her one, and not just some cheap, dollar store one, but rather one that was of good quality and would last for a long time. It took me a while, but I had finally found a place that sold them. I ended up paying more than I would have wanted to, but the look on her face at that moment made it worth every penny that I spent.
"Thank you so much!" she almost cried, hugging me tightly.
"You're welcome, Leah," I smiled, hugging her back. "I'm glad you like it."
"Like it!?" she exclaimed, breaking from the hug to look at the necklace again. "I love it! Help me put it on?"
"Of course," I laughed, carefully taking it from her and clasping it around her neck.
"I can't believe that you got this for me," she said softly, gently touching the treble clef.
"Leah, you're my best friend," I smiled, gently taking her free hand in mine and giving it a light squeeze. "I couldn't settle for getting you anything less than the best."
"Thank you," she said again, squeezing my hand back. "I know that this doesn't compare to what you got me... but I hope that you'll still like it." She slowly pulled a rectangular package out from behind the pillow behind her and held it out to me. I gave her a quizzical look as I took it.
It wasn't heavy, but it also wasn't light. I quickly tore off the blue, striped wrapping paper and a black, leather book fell into my lap. I tossed the empty paper to the side and slowly picked up the book. I flipped it over and on the front it read: Memories.
I slowly opened the book and smiled as my eyes fell on the first picture. It was a picture of me and Leah. Our first real picture together. I continued to flip through the book, slowly looking over all of the pictures on each page. There were pictures of us from each of the shows that we had done together, pictures of us from each of the trips that we had gone on, and pictures of us just in random places doing random things.
As I neared the end of the book, I found myself staring at pictures of us here in New York. There was a picture of us in the back of a taxi cab, in front of the Statue of Liberty, and one of us in Times Square. There was a picture of us on our first day in our new apartment, as well as a picture of us in front of the Radio City Music Hall building on the first day of our new job there. And at the very end, there was a picture of us from just the day before at my surprise birthday party.
I felt a tear roll down my cheek as I slowly closed the book.
"You don't like it," Leah's shoulders drooped as she noticed my tears.
"No, Leah," I replied, looking up at her through tear-filled eyes. "I love it. Honestly, this is the best present that you could have given me."
"But compared to what you got me it-" Leah started.
"Don't say that," I cut her off. "I got you something that means a lot to you and you got me something that means a lot to me. Don't ever think that this doesn't compare to what I got you, because it does. Honestly, just having you as a friend is a great enough present itself, and this will just remind me of that, remind me of how lucky I am to have such an amazing friend like you."
"Awww," Lea started tearing up as she pulled me into another hug. "Now look what you did! You're making me cry too!"
"But they're happy tears, so it's okay," I smiled, hugging her back. "Thank you, Leah. I seriously love it."
"You'd better!" she joked, breaking away from me. "Do you have any idea how long it took me to put that together?"
"I don't know," I shrugged. "But it was worth it, wasn't it?"
"Of course it was," she smiled, her eyes lighting up as she watched me hug the book to my chest. Her hand slowly found its way back up to her necklace and her smile widened as it closed around the treble clef. "Totally worth it."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Darren's POV
I peeked in the laundry room as I passed by and was surprised to find it empty. Kaley and Leah were usually here by now.
"They're not here yet," Chris commented as he passed by me, his eyes glued to the phone in his hands.
"Texting Leah?" I smirked, trying to look over his shoulder at his phone as I followed him down the hall.
"Kaley, actually," Chris smiled, briefly glancing up at me. "I'm not talking to Leah today." I stopped walking.
"You're not talking to Leah?" I was shocked. "Did you guys have a fight or something?"
"You make it sound as if we were dating," he laughed, turning back to me as he stopped as well. "And no, we didn't. I'm just not talking to her today, so if she asks about me, just tell her that I'm busy and can't talk."
"Why?" I asked, a little curious now. "What are you up to?"
"Oh, you'll see," he just smiled, turning and continuing to walk down the hall. "There is a method to my madness."
"More like a madness to your method," I mumbled under my breath with a light chuckle.
"I heard that!" Chris called back over his shoulder. I just laughed and shook my head at him. It was pointless to try to understand what was going on inside that mind of his.
More like impossible, I snickered to myself as I continued down the hallway. Oh, Chris...
My phone suddenly buzzed in my pocket and I smiled, thinking it must be Kaley. I quickly pulled it out of my pocket but frowned as I saw the name on the screen.
Vanessa. Even just seeing her name upset me. With a sigh, I opened her text.
Vanessa: Hey Dare Bear! I miss you so much! I'm so sorry about what happened. It won't happen again, I promise! Can we work things out? I miss having you in my life <3
I rolled my eyes at her text. She did the same thing every single time that we broke up. But this time, I wasn't going to take her back. I was going to hold my ground and tell her no.
Me: No, Vanessa. You said that the last time and it still happened again. We are done. For good.
Just to add a cherry on top, I sent her a link to Taylor Swift's new song, We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together. I smiled as I hit send, picturing her face as she listened to the song. And I seriously meant every word that Taylor sang. We were never ever ever getting back together.
I waited for a couple of minutes for a reply, but I didn't get one. With a satisfied smirk, I slid my phone back into my pocket and continued on my way, intent on finding Chris again to tell him about what I did, all the while silently singing Taylor's song in my head.
We are never ever ever getting back together.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kaley's POV
I looked up as Leah burst into the room. Her face was flustered and she clearly looked distressed. I quickly glanced down at my watch. It was 2:40. I was surprised that it took her this long to react.
"I think Chris hates me!" she burst out, tears brimming in her eyes.
"Why?" I asked tentatively, trying to keep my voice normal, but concerned.
"He won't reply to any of my texts and I swear that he's been avoiding me all day!" she looked so crestfallen that I almost wanted to tell her everything, but I held my ground. She was going to kill me when she found out that I was behind all of this, but I knew that it would be worth it.
"Maybe he's just busy," I suggested, going to her and giving her a light hug. "I'm sure it's nothing to be worried about. You know how stressful it can get during show week."
"Yeah, I guess," she sniffed, wiping the tears from her eyes. "It's just weird going from texting all the time to not hearing from him all day. It makes me worry that maybe I annoy him..."
"Oh, Leah," I sighed, hugging her again. "Don't even think that! You could never annoy him! I think that you're just overreacting. I'm sure that everything is fine. Don't worry."
"Ok..." she didn't sound sure, but knowing her, I knew that she wouldn't be satisfied until Chris texted her... which wasn't going to happen. I inwardly smirked evilly as I saw my plan slowly falling into place.
She's going to hate me, I chuckled to myself. But she's going to love it!