Chapter 11

Part 1

FUCK! I’m currently driving as fast as I could, breaking my 30 miles per hour rule, trying to make it in time to Xela’s house. It was only half an hour ago when I received a text from Rebekah saying that it was Xela’s birthday today and they were throwing a ‘surprise party’ for her. I figured there was no time to pick out a gift as she does live 20 minutes away, so I just grabbed along the ‘I Love My Big Brother’ shirt I bought for Hailee last week which was supposed to be for her birthday. Ah fuck, I’m gonna have to go buy another one of those again for her today.

As I was driving, I get a call from Rebekah. I quickly pressed the accept call button and put it to speaker.

“Where are you? She’s almost home!”

“Hold on, I’m almost there! I’m driving as fast as I can!” I replied.

“How fast is that?!”

“60 miles per hour”

“Drive faster!”

“This is double of what I usually go!”

“Go triple then!” she demanded.

“Do you want me to crash?”

“That’s not my problem. Just get here before she does.”

“I’ll try my best,” I said as I hung up the phone.

Pffh, it’s her own fault for telling me 30 minutes before the surprise. Whatever, I’ll just blame it on her if I’m late.

Trying to step on the pedal harder, I could only go an extra 10 miles per hour until I told myself I’d die if I went any faster and started slowing down to my regular speed again.

Ten minutes later, I finally arrived at Xela’s house. The first thing I notice is the abnormal amount of cars parked along the road opposite of the house. Are they even trying to make it a surprise? I had no choice but to park there as well as I needed to get in the house as quick as possible.

I ring the doorbell and the door almost immediately swings open.

“SURPRISE!!!’ everyone yells in my face, almost breaking my eardrums. Confetti was flying around everywhere and multiple party horns were going off.

“Wait! False alarm, it’s just Johnny,” I heard one of her friends in the crowd say. The party had around 20-30 people, most of which I recognized as they were almost all from our school.

“What the fuck? I told everyone multiple times Johnny was probably going to arrive earlier than Xela!” Will yelled to everyone else.

“Ah great, all the confetti’s gone now,” the girl who opened the door complained.

“Not my fault, I heard someone yell “SHE’S HERE’ so I launched the confetti,” someone defended.

“Stephanie that was you wasn’t it?” someone else accused.

“I thought it was Xela at the door!” Stephanie exclaimed.

“If it was Xela, why would she ring the doorbell to her own house?”

“I don’t know. Maybe she forgot the keys at her house?”

“Quit arguing!” Will yelled, shutting the two of them up. “Johnny hide behind the couch before Xela gets back!”

I did as I was told and waited for the door to finally open.

Another 3 minutes pass by until we finally hear the sound of keys opening the door.

“SURPRISE!!!” everyone jumped out and yelled again, this time without the confetti exploding everywhere. She entered her house, not acting surprised at all.

“You know it’s really not a surprise if everyone parks their cars outside my house right,” Xela commented, making everyone crack up.

“You could at least act a bit more surprised,” another one of her friends said to her.

Everyone was gathered around Xela. so I just figured I’d let her have her glory for now.

The party was nothing too crazy with no alcohol, no drugs, and DEFINITELY no strippers. It was just your average party with chips and soda laid out on a table and people dancing to music from these little speakers which were actually loud enough to cover the whole house. There were also people playing party games around the house such as ‘Coke Pong’, which was just pretty much beer pong replaced with Coca-Cola.

Part 2

After the crowd started to clear up a bit, I finally got the chance to go over and talk with Xela for a bit.

“Hey! Happy birthday!” I greeted Xela while walking over to her.

“Oh hey Johnny. You came too?”

“Did you not see my car parked outside?”

“Right, I can never forget that piece of shit car.”

“Hey!” I yelled, offended by her rude comment.

“Haha, I’m just kidding. But seriously, get a new car. You’re going to die in that car if you use it any longer.”

“Have you seen how slow I drive? The likelihood of me getting into a car crash is just as much as you getting a boyfriend anytime soon.”

“Right, that explains why you’re still alive.”

“You should have seen me drive today though! I hit a record SEVENTY miles per hour. Fucking Rebekah texted me 30 minutes before the surprise, telling me to get my ass over here as quick as I could.”

“Ah, she must’ve been the one who set this up then,” she said.

“Yeah, I didn’t even know it was your birthday. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

“It’d be weird just telling you out of nowhere ‘Hey, my birthday’s coming up this Saturday’.”

“No trust me, you’ve said weirder shit to me,”

“True.”

A few seconds of awkward silence was followed by this, just waiting for someone to say something. This time, I was the one to finally start a topic.

“So… how does it feel being the birthday girl?” I finally asked.

“What is this? A fucking interview?”

“We have literally nothing else to talk about. Answer the goddamn question.

“Fine,” she agreed. “It’s nice I guess. I’m not usually the centre of attention so it’s nice to have some change every now and then.”

“Are you sure you’re not the one making this into an interview?”

“Shut up. How do you expect me to answer?”

“Maybe something like ‘Fuck yeah! It feels great to finally be 18! I’m gonna get laid tonight!!!” I said, imitating a punk rock star.

“I don’t talk like that.”

“You get my point. You’re 18! Go have some fun and get wasted instead of talking to this loser who’s hanging out next to the snacks table.”

“I’d much rather talk to this loser who’s hanging out next to the snacks table than get myself arrested on my 18th birthday for underage drinking. Besides, talking to you is fun, even though we have literally nothing to talk about ever.”

“We could talk about-”

“We are not discussing how shit the Oilers have been doing this season for two hours straight,” she cut me off.

“Okay, fine. What do we talk about then?”

“I don’t know, you’re the one who came over to me to talk…”

“Do you think I walked over to you, prepared with a whole list of topics to talk about?” I asked.

“No, but you should have thought of SOMETHING! Literally anything will do at this point.”

“Oh! I know!” I said, remembering the shirt in my pocket I brought with me.

“What?”

“Here, happy birthday!” I said, handing over the shirt. She read the words on the shirt and gave me an unimpressed look.

“Did my brother force you to get this for me?”

“Nope.”

“Care to explain why then it says ‘I Love My Big Brother’ then?”

“Oh, remember last week when I asked you to come to the mall to help me pick out a gift for Hailee?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I originally bought this for her, and ran out of time today to buy you a present so I figured I’d just give that to you.”

“Wow, thanks,” she said sarcastically with a slight grin on her face.”

“It’s your own fault. If you told me it was your birthday earlier, I would’ve gotten you something better.”

“No, it’s fine. This is good.”

“Okay… Whatever you say.”

“No, seriously, I like it.”

“Okay fine, I believe you.”

“Good.”

As the conversation was about to die, one of her friends who was playing Soda Pong called Xela.

“Hey Xela, stop talking to your boyfriend and come play with us!”

“He’s not my boyfriend!” Xela yelled back at her.

“Whatever, just come over here!” she persuaded.

Xela turned her head towards me and started talking.

“Sorry Johnny, I got to play with them. I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

“Yeah sure, go have fun!” I replied.

Part 3

As the party was ending and people were starting to leave, I was forced to stay back as Xela asked me earlier to help her and her brother clean up afterwards. She was out right now buying more cleaning supplies at the supermarket.

“Nice to see you again,” I heard a voice call out to me from behind.

I turn around and see it’s Jeremy, Xela’s older brother. I’ve only talked to him once before, which was back on Valentine’s Day, but from that one time I’ve already learned that he’s 22 years old and is in town for just a couple of months before he moves back in with his girlfriend in Toronto.

“Hey, how’s it going?” I greeted him too as I started collecting cups and throwing them in the garbage bag. As soon as he saw what I was doing, he started helping too.

“Alright, except for the fact Xela forced me to stay in my room for the whole party so I wouldn’t embarrass her friends.”

“You know how it is. The older your younger sister gets, the colder they get too.”

“You’ve got one yourself?” he asked.

“Yep, in ninth grade now. You know she already has a boyfriend?”

“What?! Kids these days, ridiculous. I only got my first when I turned 20. “

“Yeah, she’s growing up so fast, I don’t know what to do.”

“I know what you mean. My little sis is 18 already! It’s going to be hard for me to swallow that for a while.”

“They grow up too fast, don’t they.”

“Way too fast,” he added. “Hey, by the way, I saw your little present you’ve got for her. I have to

admit, I’m impressed.”

“Oh that?” I remembered. “I bought that for my own sister’s birthday originally, but I forgot to buy Xela a gift, so I just gave it to her instead. I don’t even think it fits her anymore. Fuck, I feel bad now.”

“Don’t worry about it, It was thoughtful of you to actually get a gift. I don’t think anybody else got her anything.”

“Really? That’s surprising.”

“Yeah… I guess as you get older, you start to receive fewer birthday gifts and more parties and hanging out with people. Still, I’m glad you got her that.”

“Of course you are…”

“Shut up,” he said. “So how are things going with you guys anyway?”

“Great! She’s a really good friend to have."

“Come on, cut the bullshit. You know you don’t have to hide it from me too right? What am I gonna do?”

Oh my god, not this guy too.

“No, I’m serious. What makes you think we’re dating?”

“Well, first of all, you guys just seem like a couple, you know?”

“Yeah, I get that a lot.”

“Also how she tries to avoid talking about you at the dinner table. Oh yeah, and the way she talks to you. I’ve never seen her more comfortable talking to any other guy than with you. You know how she is with boys, right? And don’t think I didn’t notice when you brought her back home late at night that one time.”

“Fuck, I had a feeling you were there!”

“AHA! So you guys did have sex at your house which is always conveniently empty of people!”

“Woah, woah woah. Whoever said we had sex, or even went to my house for that matter?”

“So where did you go then?’ he questioned me.

“The beach.”

“To have sex, right? Wait what the fuck, the beach? You know it was still winter at that time right?”

“No, we did not have sex, and yes I knew it was still winter. Our dumbass friends had the genius idea of setting us up so we could have an afternoon to go to the beach together alone. Why the beach, I don’t know.”

“Oh. So you didn’t you have sex?”’

“Nope.”

“Thank god! I was scared I’d have to deal with a pregnant teen for nine months,” he said, relieved.

“What the fuck? You know there’s something called contraceptives now right?”

“Oh, I didn’t use those back in high school.”

“Wait, I thought you said you didn’t have a girlfriend until 20 years old?” I asked with a confused look.

“Doesn’t mean I didn’t have sex.”

It took me a second to know what he meant. “Ooooooh.”

“What, don’t tell me you’re a virgin too?”

“Yeah, I am.”

“Yeah right,” he said, not convinced of what I told him. “How is someone like YOU still a virgin? You’re pranking, right?”

“No, I’m not kidding.”

He put on this confused face for a few seconds, then finally spoke.

“Ah, I see now. You’re a lot like Xela, y’know?”

“What is that supposed to mean?” I asked.

“You’ll figure out sooner or later.”

“Okay….” I said, giving him a confused look.

“You know what, I’ll take your word about you and Xela not dating yet. You don’t seem like the type to lie much.”

“Thanks, I really mean it. You’re the first person to actually believe me.”

Right as I finish my sentence, I hear the door swing open as Xela walks into the house.

“First person to believe what?” she asked while closing the down behind her and taking off her jacket.

“Nothing,” Jeremy and I both respond simultaneously.

“Weirdos.”