When we got back to the castle, Luke brought up the surprise I had promised him.
"Oh, right," I smiled awkwardly. "Well, I set it up in my room." I led Luke to my room, and a few other girls in my hallway saw us walking to my room together and gave me intrigued glances.
It's not what you think, I thought, blushing slightly.
"Okay, close your eyes," I said once we were standing outside the door.
A big grin spread on Luke's face, and he placed his hands over his eyes. I opened my door and gently pushed him forward and shut the door behind us. I scurried around him and picked up the party hat from my dresser with polka dots and a little shiny bauble on top and placed it on my head and prepared my party horn in my hands.
"You can open your eyes," I said. Luke uncovered his face and I blew my party horn. "Surprise!" I cried, showcasing my attempts at party decorations with a few random balloons taped to the wall and poorly hung up streamers. "In my defense," I started. "I didn't know that we were going to a party, or that your mom would have such cute decorations."
But Luke didn't seem to mind from the big smile on his face.
"You set all this up for me?" he asked me.
I clasped my hands behind my back and smiled bashfully. "Well, of course I did. And—and I also made a cake for you." I took a step to the side and displayed my chocolate cake sitting in the cheap cake holder I'd found at the store over the weekend. "Ta da!" I announced. "Again, I didn't know we were going to a party with dessert but..."
Luke walked over and placed a sweet kiss on my lips. "It's perfect," he said. "I love that you did this." His comment made it all worth it. "And I would love to try some of your cake."
"It's chocolate," I said. "Your favorite."
"You remembered," he beamed.
"Before cake," I started. "I have to give you a party hat." I took my spare party hat and snugly put in on Luke's head. "You're so cute!" I gushed, pulling out my phone to take a picture.
"You're one to talk," he said, biting his lip.
I giggled, and then turned back to my cake. I took off the cake lid and pulled out the lighter I'd bought from my drawer (I'd already put 23 candles on the cake). Once each candle was lit, I picked up the cake and turned around to Luke, and thus began my Happy Birthday solo.
I had a nice singing voice—I wasn't Mariah Carey or anything, but I was good enough.
"Make a wish!" I said at the end of my song to an absolutely beaming Luke. He closed his eyes for a moment—presumably to make a wish—and then with a deep breath proceeded to blow out every candle on his first try!
"You did it!" I praised, setting the cake back down on the dresser. "Oh no!" I said, suddenly realizing a mistake.
"What is it?" Luke asked, coming up from behind me and wrapping his arms around me.
"I forgot plates!" I said. "I only have forks and a knife!"
Luke rested his chin on my shoulder. "That's okay," he said. "We don't need plates." He then came over to stand next to me and picked up his candle-ridden cake. He sat down on the bed with the cake in his lap and I took a seat next to him with the forks—my room was much smaller than Luke's and it didn't have a place to sit other than the bed. I passed Luke his fork after he placed the cake down between us.
"Bon appetite!" I said as we clanged our forks together before diving in.
"Cassie," Luke said after a couple of bites. "This cake is amazing!"
"Really?" I asked after I finished eating my mouthful. I felt like I had to ask that, but I happened to agree. My cake was pretty freaking amazing.
"It's great!" he said.
"Thank you!" I asked. "Though, I must admit, Chef Jonathan did help me with some of the hard parts."
"Chef Jonathan?" Luke rose an eyebrow, and glanced at his forkful of cake. "It's not poisoned, is it?"
"No!" I laughed. After we had our fill of cake and it was placed back on my dresser, I began telling Luke, "So, when we were at the Autumn Festival, I remember your friends mentioned that you played '22' by Taylor Swift for your previous birthday."
"Oh, don't remind me about that!" Luke laughed.
I grinned. "No, no, I think it's cute!" I assured him. "So, unfortunately there aren't any songs by Tay Tay called '23,' but I did do some digging thanks to the internet, and I found a song called '23' by an artist named IU that's kind of a bop."
Luke laughed. "Did you now?"
"There is a catch," I started.
"Oh?" Luke asked.
"It's mostly in Korean," I said. "But! She does say '23' in English once or twice!"
He smiled. "Let's hear it then." I played the song on my phone, and as it started, to my surprise Luke stood up and grabbed my arms and started dancing with me. I was laughing and smiling the whole time as he made up dance moves, which he was surprisingly good at. When the song ended, his arms were around my waist and he was staring into my eyes, smiling.
"What did you think of the song?" I asked.
"Well, I must admit, I've actually heard it before."
"You have?" I was surprised.
"I dated a girl in America who was a big Kpop fan."
"You did?" Again, I was surprised.
He nodded. "Mmm hmm. She even once flattened my fair across my forehead and put eyeliner on me to see how I would look if I was a Kpop star."
"She did?" I wrinkled my nose.
"Mmm hmm," he answered. We didn't say anything for a second.
"Well, I still have you present to give you," I told him. I started to wriggle away but he held me steadfast in his arms.
"The present can wait," he whispered, leaning down to kiss me. Our kiss started off light, but soon developed into something more passionate. However, though I was thoroughly enjoying our kiss, warning bells starting ringing in my head. We were alone in my room with no one expecting us and nothing to cut us off. Unlike our steamy encounter in the closet, there was no time limit or something we had to get back to.
I thought about the promise I had made to myself several years ago, and so I broke off the kiss and placed a little distance between myself and Luke. He looked a bit taken aback.
"Luke," I started, dreading this conversation. "There's something you need to know about me."