DAYS REMAINING: 10
TODAY WAS RICKY'S SEVENTEENTH BIRTHDAY. He went out to dinner with his parents and his girlfriend to his favorite Italian restaurant. True to his word, so far he was having the lowkey birthday that he wanted. He wasn't aware of the scene he was going to return home to see.
As Ricky got out of the car, he thanked his parents for their evening birthday meal. "Thanks for the wonderful dinner. Today was really great," he said gratefully, grabbing Luna's hand to help her out of the car.
"Of course honey," Mrs. Bowen replied. "I can't believe you're getting so old now. I loved watching you grow up to become the amazing man you are today." His cheeks turned red at his mom's words.
"He's pretty great, isn't he?" Luna piped up, agreeing. The adults laughed at her comment while Ricky just smiled even wider. He squeezed her hand gently.
They had reached the front door at this point. Mr. Bowen got the last word in before they went inside. "Happy birthday kiddo," he said as he opened the door to reveal the dark interior of the house.
Luna followed Ricky in with a big grin, still holding his hand. The lights suddenly turned on, revealing the group of people who had been invited to the surprise party. "SURPRISE!"
Ricky was in shock, jaw dropped and everything. Luna squealed next to him, "Surprise babe!"
"W-What is this?" He replied with a grin on his face, scanning the faces in the room. No one had ever planned a surprise party for him before, and he was so excited about having one now. "You did this?" He turned to his girlfriend next to him.
She gleefully nodded before pointing out his best friend. "Yup. Me and Big Red did a couple weeks ago. Happy birthday!" She replied, nudging him forward to greet his guests. First, he pulled her close to kiss her as a way to say thank you, which made the room erupt in "aw's".
Ricky left her side to go greet his guests. Luna bid a goodnight to the Bowen adults as they split to go to their respected bedrooms for the night to let Ricky enjoy his party without them hovering. Mrs. Bowen would be returning to Chicago tomorrow to be back with Todd.
Big Red approached Luna, grinning widely. He threw an arm around her shoulder as they looked out at the crowd of around 14 people who arrived for the surprise party, keeping it lowkey like they had promised.
A content sigh slipped from his lips. "We did good, Lu," he stated.
"Indeed we did, Red. He looks really happy," Luna replied, smiling at the sight of her boyfriend talking enthusiastically with Seb and Ashlyn. "Thanks for the help."
Big Red waved her off. "Of course. My best friend deserved a great party, and we delivered."
The party went off without a hitch. There was not a moment where a smile left Ricky's face. He was so happy to be surrounded by so many great friends on his birthday. It warmed his heart to know that his best friend and girlfriend cared so much about him to plan this surprise party for him. It must have been a lot of work to coordinate things, set everything up, and get everyone here for him. He was really appreciative of them.
•••
In the middle of the party, someone suggested that they play a game of spin the bottle. It was a full circle moment for the couple. Her boyfriend seemed a little too eager to play the game, but Luna shrugged it off to him just being excited about the party still. Luna sat in between Natalie and EJ, while Ricky was across the circle next to Carlos and Ashlyn.
The first person to spin was Seb. It landed on a certain black haired boy with glasses. There was no hesitation. Seb got up so quickly and pressed his lips to Carlos's, which caused the group to erupt in cheers.
"SEBLOS!" Ashlyn yelled out. When the boys pulled away, they both had bashful smiles on their faces. Their cheeks were dusted pink.
Seb slowly retreated to his previous spot. "I've been wanting to do that for a while," he admitted with a little laugh.
"Me too," Carlos admitted as well. The group awed at their confessions. It would be no surprise if they became a couple soon.
The next person to spin was Nini. By some force of nature, the bottle stopped spinning and landed on Luna. Both girls eyes were wide. "Uh, I'll just kiss your cheek," Nini said, quickly reaching across the circle to peck Luna's cheek. The girl just flashed her an awkward thumbs up after it was done. Imagine having your boyfriend's ex-girlfriend kiss your cheek. Weird.
A couple more rounds passed until it was Luna's turn. She took a deep breath and spun the bottle. It slowed to a stop on the person to her right: EJ Caswell.
Her eyes immediately caught sight of her boyfriend staring at her. She could tell he was pissed that out of all people it could have landed on, it was EJ fucking Caswell. The boy who took his previous girlfriend and who was now about to kiss his current girlfriend.
Ricky just silently watched as Luna sat motionless, deciding what to do. Her eyes then landed on Nini, who looked like she was silently telling her to not kiss the boy. Everyone in the group knew that this decision was not easy. Does Luna ruin the game by refusing to kiss EJ? Nobody wants to be a party pooper. Or does she kiss him and risk the fate of her relationship with Ricky?
The girl wrung her hands out. She turned towards her right to EJ. He turned towards her too, wondering what she was going to do. He wouldn't be upset if she refused because he knew how important Ricky was to the girl.
The girl leaned in towards the senior boy, causing him to lean in too.
Everyone held their breath as they watch Luna's movements. Ricky sat up straighter, eyes widening as he watched his girlfriend in shock. What the fuck. Was she really about to kiss his arch enemy in front of him on his birthday? He couldn't believe it.
Despite what everyone was thinking she was about to do, Luna missed his lips, swerving to kiss his cheek instead. You could hear Ricky let out a big sigh of relief. A few people let out a chuckle as they watched Ricky visibly relax.
"Sorry," she whispered to EJ before she pulled away. She turned towards the rest of the group, "I'm cheating at the game, but I'm kissing someone else."
It was no surprise when she crawled across the circle, straddling Ricky's lap to lay one on him. His hands immediately went to her hips, holding them tightly as he kissed her back. Their friends let out whistles and cheers, clapping for them. Their kiss lasted a little longer than it should of, but it was Ricky's party so they let them have a pass.
"You had me worried there for a second," Ricky said after they pulled away from the kiss.
"I have to keep you on your toes. You can never be too comfortable, Bowen," she replied with a wink, getting off his lap to return to her spot.
A few more rounds passed by before it was Ricky's turn. He spun the bottle as a courtesy, but was already on the other side of the circle before it stopped. He locked lips with his girlfriend once again. When he pulled away, he looked at the bottle to see that it had landed on Big Red.
"Sorry dude. You know I love you man, but it's not gonna happen," Ricky laughed with a shrug. His best friend was completely fine with that decision, not really wanting to kiss his best friend either. Don't get him wrong. Him and Ricky are super close friends, but not close enough to kiss one another for a game.
•••
The game ended after a while. It resulted in quite a few interesting kisses and some awkward rejections.
Out of nowhere, Luna suddenly felt very light headed. Her vision was getting a little spotty. The first person she could make out through her bad sight was Nini.
"Hey, can you get me some water and then bring it up to Ricky's room? I think I'm going to pass out," she mumbled out, gripping the table really tightly so she didn't fall over.
Nini could immediately see the girl looked faint. In a split second, she wrapped an arm around the girl to help her stay up. "Yeah, you need to lie down. Here, I'll help you up to Ricky's room."
The two slipped away from the party unnoticed, making their way upstairs slowly to Ricky's room. Luna's vision was going in and out, and she was feeling incredibly weak. Nini was basically carrying all her weight as they walked up the stairs. They managed to reach his room, but Nini struggled to open the door all the way while keeping Luna upwards. The brunette basically collapsed on the bed once they got inside.
Luna's eyes were struggling to stay open. Nini's face appeared over hers as she directed, "You have to keep your eyes open for me, Lu. Stay awake. I'll be right back with some water." With that, she bolted out of the room to get the girl a bottle of water. It was a struggle, but Luna managed to keep her eyes open while Nini was gone.
When she returned, she helped Luna sit up to drink the water. This made the girl feel better, but not much. The light headedness went away for the most part, but her head was pounding, and she felt sick to her stomach.
"Thank you, Neens," Luna said, laying back down on the bed.
Nini set the water bottle down on Ricky's bedside table. "No problem. How are you feeling now?"
The girl shrugged. "Less light headed. Stomach hurts. Head pounding. The usual."
Nini rolled her eyes playfully. She replied sarcastically, "Oh, that's totally the usual." Luna smiled slightly in response. "Are you sick? Or what's going on?"
Luna knew exactly what was going on, but did she want to tell Nini? Not really. When you get close to your amount of days being up, your body starts to give up and have symptoms that are common with when a person is sick. To others, it may seem like you just have a common cold, but it really could be the sign that your time is almost up.
Luna's dad was really good at not showing his sickness. He hid it from her so she wouldn't have to see him at one of his lowest points. A part of Luna knew that he was acting weird and that he was probably experiencing some symptoms of being sick, but she tried to push that to the side of her mind when she was around him.
There was a time when her and her dad were going to watch Hunger Games together, but he claimed he left his phone in his room and that she should start it without him. He didn't return until 25 minutes later. It was obvious he was probably throwing up in the bathroom as she kept hearing the toilet flush. She would be naive to think that he was looking for his phone that entire time.
"Probably just coming down with a cold or something," Luna fibbed, refusing to meet Nini's eyes.
Nini could see right through the lie, picking up cues that she was lying. It wasn't hard to connect her education with what Luna was experiencing. There was a sharp intake of breath from her after she realized. "Luna, I think I know what is really going on." She took a seat on Ricky's bed next to the other brunette, taking ahold of her hand. "You don't have much time left, do you?" She asked softly.
Luna's eyes widened. Her mouth opened and closed, unable to find words to reply. There was no point in trying to lie to her. Then she sighed, confessing the truth. "I don't... You can't tell anyone though, Nini. Please. Not Ricky, or Kourtney, or Big Red. No one."
"Ricky doesn't know?" Nini asked, shocked. The other girl shook her head, fiddling with her fingers. "Wow. So no one else knows?"
"Well, I told Gina before she moved."
"Oh wow. Well, your secret is safe with me, I promise." Nini managed to give the other girl a small smile, but it faded quickly. "I can't imagine how you're holding up through this with only Gina knowing."
Luna bit her lip. "If I'm being honest, denial is how I'm getting through this," she laughed bitterly.
Nini cracked a small smile. "Whatever works I guess." There was a moment of silence before Nini broke it to ask an uncomfortable question. "May I ask how many days you have left?"
Luna looked towards her left wrist, the black inscribed number appearing boldly. "Ten."
"Oh." Nini tried not to react outwardly, but hearing the number broke her heart. Ten days. That's it. That's all she had left on Earth, with her boyfriend, with her friends, in school, with her mother.
"Can you promise me one other thing?"
Nini immediately nodded. "Of course, anything."
"When I'm gone, can you promise to watch over Ricky?" Luna asked quietly. This was something she needed to do before everything was said and done. She needed to know that Ricky would be okay after she was gone.
"I can definitely do that. I promise I will watch over him for you."
Luna smiled lightly. "Thanks Nini. Not just for that, but for being a good friend lately."
"You're very welcome, babes." Nini smiled back. She stood up from her spot on the bed. "How about you get some rest, and I'll check in on you in a little bit. I'll tell Ricky that you aren't feeling the best so he doesn't worry about your disappearance." Luna agreed, thinking that sounded nice.
Before Nini left, she grabbed a garbage can for Luna in case she was going to get sick. She shut off the lights, closing the door to Ricky's room so Luna could get some rest.
•••
True to her word, Nini came back 45 minutes later to check on her friend. While the girl did get some rest, she seemed to be light headed again. She nearly blacked out while trying to sit up, which prompted Nini to force the girl to lay down again.
"Ricky is telling everyone goodbye right now. I told him I would come check on you while he saw everyone out," Nini informed her.
Luna nodded gratefully, taking a sip of the water bottle from earlier. "Thank you again for helping me tonight. You really didn't have to."
"Lu, it really was no problem. Friends help friends when they need it. So don't worry about it." The two then heard footsteps coming from the hallway outside of the room. "And again, your secret is safe with me."
Just as she finished speaking, the door opened revealing Ricky. "Hey," he breathed out, taking in the sight of his sick girlfriend. "Thanks for looking after her, Nini."
Nini waved it off. "Of course." She turned back to Luna. "Feel better, Lu. I'll text you tomorrow to check in, okay?" The sick girl nodded, shooting her a grateful smile. With that, Nini said goodbye and happy birthday to Ricky as she slipped out of his room to leave.
Ricky replaced Nini at the side of the bed, looking down at his girlfriend. "How are you doing, babe?" He asked, moving hair out of her face.
She sighed, tired of being asked that tonight. "Not good." That's all she wanted to say about it. "Can I stay over tonight and you just hold me? Please."
"Of course, Lu." Ricky responded instantly, already kicking off his shoes. He quickly replaced his jeans with a pair of shorts and remained shirtless. He slipped into the bed to lay next to her. She rolled over into his arms, laying her head on his chest. "I hope you feel better tomorrow," he stated, running his fingers through her hair.
"Me too." She could already feel that Ricky was getting sleepy. "Happy birthday again, Ric. I hope you liked the party."
He moved his head to press a kiss on her temple. "I loved it. Thank you again for planning it, Lulu. Best birthday I've had in a while. My favorite part though is just laying here with you." He cracked a wide smile to himself.
"Glad to hear it." She smiled even though he couldn't see it.
"Get some sleep now. I love you," he said, running his fingers through her hair soothingly.
Allowing her eyes to flutter shut, Luna whispered back, "I love you too, Ricky."