Haley's POV
The door slammed shut, and after I flinched just a tiny bit, I looked around at everyone else in the room. And then something happened, one of those 'you had to be there' moments. I couldn't help but burst out laughing, which caused Kyle and Ricky to laugh as well. Cameron then started laughing along with Grayson, and it was just a chain reaction until all nine of us were on the floor in tears.
"Did you see her?" Cam asked between laughs. "Ohh I still love you, please take me back. I didn't mean to cheat on you."
The way she mimicked Claire made me laugh even harder, to the point where no sound was coming out and I was basically just sitting there trying to breathe.
"Okay...stop...I can't...breathe." I said in between laughs.
"But did you see Anisa?" Kellan asked, basically rolling on the floor. "She went all she-hulk on Claire."
"Oh please, she was barely peter Parker before the radioactive bite."
"Okay, that's a little too far. Can I at least be Hawkeye without out his bow?" Anisa asked, sitting up from the floor.
"Yeah I guess I can give you that." I said, finally able to catch my breath from breathing.
I then stood up, coming up with a great idea. "We should celebrate."
"What? Have a 'the wicked bitch of the west is gone' party?" Cam asked.
"Exactly. Do you think they'd write that on a cake?" I asked, finding my flip flops and sliding them on.
"Probably not." Ricky said, scratching the back of his neck.
"Well I can just get my own icing and writing on their myself if they won't." I said, looking around for where Ethan put my keys. "What else would we need for a party?"
"Chips, guac, salsa, vegan burgers, vegan ice cream, streamers, those noisy things you blow into, balloons." Grayson started listed off oddly specific party amenities before getting elbowed in the side by Jaelyn. "I'm guessing," he coughed and cleared his throat.
"Um... okay?" I said as I walked over to Ethan and reached into his front pocket, finding the car keys.
"E, you going to go with me?" I asked.
"Umm actually, I should probably call my mom and let her know everything that just happened," he stuttered out. "Why don't you take Cameron and Kyle with you."
I narrowed my eyes at him, trying to figure out what was going on and he chuckled nervously.
"Cam can come. Kyle scares me."
"Why do I scare you?" Kyle asked, laughing from the bar in the kitchen.
"You're over a foot taller than me. I don't even know what you look like, and you could crush me if you ever spontaneously pass out and I happen to be walking behind or in front of you."
"Kyle has to go because he has to film you getting stuff for a party." Ethan explained, rolling his eyes.
"Why?" I asked getting even more suspicious.
"We're making a friendcation video."
I narrowed my eyes at him, trying to figure out what was going on and he chuckled nervously.
"Just to jog your memory, I don't like surprises. Maybe you should keep that in mind." I said, staring him down.
"Who said anything about a surprise?" He deadpanned.
"Grant, I'm warning you." I said crossing my arm and lifting my left eyebrow.
"Madison, there's no surprise. Go get the party supplies." He said using the same tone that I did, but kissing my forehead afterwards.
3rd Person
As soon as Ethan heard Haley's car pull away, he started ordering everyone else around so that they could get everything for her congratulations party done before she got back.
"Okay, there's a cabana about halfway between here and the private beach. It's got a table and beach chairs and all of the works, we should put everything down there." Jaelyn suggested.
"Wait? Private beach? How much in this place costing me?" Grayson asked, turning to look at her.
"Hm?" She asked, looking over at him confused. "Oh, um. Not that much."
"I don't believe you." Ethan said, raising his eyebrow at her.
...
"Kyle, get the camera out of my face." Cameron joked, almost hitting Haley in the back with the shopping cart.
"Can you stop goofing off?" Haley asked turning around to look at the both of them. They both stopped in their tracks before Haley spoke up again. "I'm supposed to be the star of the show."
"Oh please. Can we just hurry up and get the cake and stuff and go?" Cam asked, throwing her arm around Haley's shoulder. "I'm hungry."
I turned to face Kyle and looked straight into the camera lens.
"It's true though, I'm am the star of this surprising my girlfriend with whatever video that Ethan has planned. Because why else would he send you two with me to the store? Cam is a hard ass and he thought she'd be the least likely to break when questioned and then Kyle is obvious because he has the be here to film everything." Haley crossed her arms and looked at both of her friends, trying to read something in their faces that proved that she was wrong. They didn't say anything.
"Exactly. There is some kind of surprise. Question is, what's going on? Cam?"
"I don't know anything." Cam said grabbing the cart and continuing down the aisle.
"I will find out before this is over." Haley said pointing towards the camera before dramatically turning around and following Cameron.
..........
"Dude, your girlfriend watches way too many cop shows." Cam said to her brother when she snuck off to the bathroom to call him.
"Did she find out?" He asked, worried.
"Not technically. She knows there's a surprise party but not what it's for."
"Well good, keep it that way." And he hung up, walking back over to the rest of the groups of friends that were decorating the cabana.
"She knows there's a surprise." He announced.
"Well duh." Jaelyn said. "She may have been raised in a barn but she's not dumb."
"Yeah, it wasn't like you were being inconspicuous about it." Grayson said. "You basically just wrote it across your forehead."
"Me?" Ethan asked, raising both eyebrows up to his brother. "You're the one who started listing off everything that you bought for the damn party."
"Are you guys really going to fight over this?" Ricky asked, pausing mid-streamer hang to turn and look at them. "You're all terrible at keeping a secret or hiding any kind of surprise. Stop putting the blame on one person and help me hang these streamers, which I still think are completely unnecessary by the way."
Ethan's POV
Cam:
5 minutes.
Me:
Okay, has she figured it out yet?
No. She may be a
little upset when she
gets there though.
She thinks that Halsey
is going to be there.
Why would she think that?
Kyle did it.
Did what?
Told her that you were
surprising her with Halsey
tickets to lead her off the
trail but then she got suspicious
because she realized you
wouldn't throw a party just
for tickets so then she came
to the conclusion that by
some miracle, you were
able to come convince
Halsey to come to the
beach house.
Well hopefully she's not too
disappointed. I mean, she wants
to be a teacher more than she
wants to meet Halsey, right?
Bro, do you even
know your girlfriend?
She literally just said that
if she got the teaching job
but Halsey offered to let her
be a groupie on tour that
she would quit in a heartbeat.
But then come back
eventually because she'd
miss her kids, but still.
"Do you think Haley would break up with me if Halsey asked her to marry her?" I asked, putting my phone in my pocket, to no one in general.
Everyone collectively said yes, not even looking up from what they were doing.
"Well, maybe not. She'd probably just try to date both of you." Anisa said, shrugging.
"Yeah, you've got an asset or two that would keep her from completely leaving you for Halsey." Jaelyn agreed.
"No I'm pretty sure Halsey has more money than me." I said, sitting down so that I was facing the door to the condo, watching for Haley to get back. I heard laughing behind me and shrugged. "What?"
"Not those kind of assets dude." Ricky said, grabbing my shoulder and squeezing it before sitting on the sand beside me.
"Then what did she mean by assets then?" I asked, thoroughly confused. I heard a car pull up and the opening of a gate before I could make out the shapes of Haley, Cam, and Kyle.
"The kind in your pants bro." Kellan said, hitting the back of my head. I paused and finally understood what they meant. Did I feel dumb? Yes. But I wasn't going to let anyone know that.
As she got closer, I could see the smirk in Haley's face fade as she realized that there wasn't an extra person under the cabana.
"I really thought I had guessed it right." She sighed, putting the cake that she bought on the table. "Okay, I give up. What's going on?"
"Wait, Wait, Wait." I said standing up and grabbing her by her shoulders. "Were you actually convinced that Halsey was going to be here?"
"What? No. Of course not." She scoffed, avoiding eye contact. "That's completely ridiculous."
I laughed and kissed the top of her head before sitting down on one of the chairs and pulling her down to sit on my lap.
......
"Okay, seriously, we've been out here for an hour now." Haley said, grabbing another bottle of water from the cooler. "What is all of this?"
"I think it's time for cake." I said, standing up and walking over to the other cooler that was holding her congratulatory cake.
"The cake is on the table, why are you going over there?" Haley asked, sitting back down in the chair we were sharing. Jaelyn then stood up and walked over to her, covering her eyes.
"Okay, now is Halsey going to show up?" Haley asked, hopefulness in her voice.
"If she says Halsey one more time I swear I'm running into the ocean with all of my clothes on." Ricky joked.
"Halsey. Halsey. Halsey." Haley smirked. "Start running Rick."
"Can we just get this over with, I want cake." Cameron asked.
"And my phones about to die." Anisa said. She was on FaceTime with Haley's mom so she could see this too.
"I'm literally waiting on you guys." Haley said, crossing her arms.
Kell grabbed the other side of the giant cake that I was struggling to carry and helped me carry it over to in front of Haley.
"Okay, I feel people in front of me. Can you take your hands off my face?" Haley asked. I could tell that she was getting impatient.
"Fine." Jaelyn shrugged and took her hands off of Haley's face.
She blinked a couple of times before looking down to read the cake. Her face scrunched together before she looked up and me and then back down to the cake.
"Congratulations Ms. Holland!" She read. "I got the job?"
She looked up at me and I nodded, smiling. She jumped up out of the chair and screamed. "I got the job!" She then took off running down the beach, which quite frankly made her look like a maniac.
"She did the same thing when I bought her One Direction tickets." Her mom said, laughing over the phone.
Me and Kell put the cake down on the table before we all watched Haley run down to the ocean. I guess the water was cold because she quickly turned back around and ran back towards us, her arms still above her head like she was on a roller coaster.
She was almost back to us when she tripped and ate a face full of sand. I would have been concerned had she not stood right back up and continued to run back towards us.
"You're not joking?" She asked, out of breath when she got back up towards us.
"Why would we joke about this?" Jaelyn asked.
"I don't know. I really got the job?" Haley asked once again, not able to control her smile.
"Yes babe." I said walking over to her and grabbing her hands in mine. "You got the job. You now officially have your own classroom of 25 3rd graders."
"Could not be me." Jaelyn and Cameron said at the same time.
Haley squealed again and then turned to look at me. "You know opening someone else's mail is a felony, right?"
"What are you going to do, arrest me?" I whispered in her ear.
"Maybe."
I looked at the smirk on my girlfriends face and threw Haley over my shoulder, heading back toward the house without offering anyone an explanation. Haley shrieked as I jogged across the beach.
"What are you doing?" she squealed.
Patting her on her ass, I picked up the pace.
"I'm turning myself in."
Quarantine suckssssssssss. That's all I wanted to say.
Love y'all 💗💗💗