The day before his birthday had perhaps been the busiest of the two weeks yet. Mainly because his parents wanted to make sure that things were perfect for him as they knew it was going to be one of the last few birthdays that they were going to be able to celebrate with him in the way that they enjoyed doing birthdays. It meant a lot to him of course even though he felt at the same time that they were going to too much trouble.

Both his parents had argued though that it was one more important birthdays because 18 only happened once and it meant that he was technically officially considered an adult even if he did have to wait another three years before he would legally be allowed to drink which would be the next important milestone in his life.

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His mother decided to start making the cake that day because she knew that it would have time to set better if she made it the night before and put it in the fridge overnight. It was going to be a limoncello cakes as that happened to be one of his favorite flavors. As she had anticipated that there would be more guests these year, she doubled the recipe that she usually made to account of the extra people that would be showing up.

Samuel was less inclined than his parents to want to invite too many people over. One because he didn't think that there home could accommodate too many people and two because he had come to the conclusion that Lena didn't like large groups of people and having too many people in such as small space as his house was would end up making him uncomfortable.

She was another issue he had to deal with. He had tried his best to explain what she should wear, plain clothes. Something like a t-shirt and jeans or casual slacks would be fine, but he wasn't certain that she exactly understood what he was talking about when he explained this. Then the second problem was that she was planning on bringing a gift with her for him. He hadn't been expecting that and he didn't exactly want any extra gifts either. His family would probably already be providing too many for him as it was plus the few friends he was inviting would probably be bringing gifts of their own as well.

It wasn't an argument that he was going to be able to win with her however when he tried to argue it out with her over text and she plainly told him that it was a gift that was non-negotiable and would be considered rude to not accept it as his birthday. His biggest fear was that whatever she was going to bring with her would turn out to be too extravagant or over the top compared to what everyone else brought and that would just end up making him feel uncomfortable.

The conversation ended though with her telling him that he was worrying too much about something he didn't need to and that she would text him later but she had to leave now because she had more work to get done before tomorrow came along This pretty much settled the matter as he knew it wouldn't be wise to bring it up again later since she had made it clear that there was no way she wouldn't be bringing whatever it was with her.

At least one thing that Samuel didn't have to worry too much about was relatives. Aside from his parents and siblings, he didn't really have that many relatives that his family was close to.

On his mother's side, there had apparently been some type of fallout with them prior to his parents meeting that never was made up and she didn't bothering because a mixture of her not feeling that it was worth the time and that she knew they probably wouldn't accept her marriage even though his father made her very happy.

On his father's side, he knew his uncle and his wife would be coming, probably his cousin as well. It wasn't likely that his father's parents would be coming since they were getting older and it be a bit to ask them to be around so many people. His cousin was engaged as well, but they weren't planning on getting married for a while yet until she finished college and her fiancé managed to secure a better paying job so that he would be able to take care of her. He wouldn't be coming to the birthday however as he had work that day and couldn't afford to take the day off.

Outside of family, the only people that Samuel had intended to invite out of his friends was of course Roger who would appear whether he was invited or not and give him a hard time if he somehow forgot to invite him, a few of the other guys he played paintball with frequently and maybe Jennifer if she was interested in coming. He had no idea outside of those people who his parents were going insist to invite as well. He just hoped that they were reasonable about the number of people.

The rest of the day blew by fairly quickly with everything that they were finishing up that before Samuel knew it, it was late night and he was exhausted after eating dinner with his family and retiring for the night. He still needed to figure out what he would be wearing the next day. Even though it was his birthday, he still needed to make sure to dress in a way that gave off a good impression to everyone that would be showing up.

The next morning he had been hoping to sleep in a bit since as far as he was aware everyone wouldn't be arriving until later on in the day as that was the time his mother requested so there would be time for any last minute preparations that needed to be taken care.

His plan to sleep in however was cut short when he was awoken by what sounded like a soft knock on the front door. Glancing at his phone clock, he saw that it was half past seven in the morning. His fuzzy mind couldn't process who would be at the door at such an early hour, but since it didn't sound like his parents had gotten up to answer the door, most likely because it was too soft for them to hear as their room was further away from the front door in comparison to his own, he got on a slipped on something more comfortable before he went to go and see who was at the door.

When he opened the door he was surprised to see Lena standing there looking rather different than he was used to seeing her. Her long red hair had been pulled back into a braid, only allowing a few strands to flow freely on either side. She had on a plan t-shirt with a casual open button over shirt on with black jeans matched with black sketchers.

"What are you doing here so early?" He asked, closing the door behind him so he wouldn't disrupt his parents.

"I left early because I wasn't sure if I left too much later if I would end up making it in time." She replied with an air that made it seem like that was the most obvious answer to why she was at his house so early.

"It's still a few hours yet before everyone will be here and my parents aren't even up yet." He told her, still trying to process the fact that she was here far earlier than he had anticipated her to be.

"Then we can just sit out here and talk for a while until they would normally get up." She replied, waving him off with her right hand. It was then that he noticed there was bandage wrapped around the middle of it.

"What happened to your hand?" he asked concerned.

*Author not here*

Hello again dear readers I am putting this out here again please don't forget if you're interested in joining a discord server for this story that the link for it can be found on the synopsis area of the book. Let me know if it doesn't work.