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The sound of my ringtone cut through the dark room, waking me up from a dream that had somehow already slipped my mind. I pressed the pillow over my ears and let out a muffled groan. Please, just five more minutes. The ringing continued and I drowsily reached over to the nightstand and felt for the phone.

“Hello?” I mumbled.

“Happy birthday!” three familiar voices shouted at me.

My eyes snapped open and I glanced at the caller ID, but it was a video call. Melissa, Callie and Kevin laughed as I scrambled to turn on the lights.

“Hi guys,” I waved sleepily.

“You’re finally an adult now!” Melissa laughed. “Welcome to the club.”

“Yeah,” Callie said, bouncing around on her bed. “But don’t forget we’re still older than you.”

I looked at the time as I tried to rub the sleep from my eyes. “It’s twelve a.m guys, technically, I’ll be turning eighteen at a two thirty-seven a.m. To get even more technical, I’ll really be eighteen in December.”

“You and your details,” Callie fanned my protests away. “Nobody keeps track of their birthday like that.”

“I need my beauty sleep,” I laughed, lying down and placing the phone on my pillow.

“Hmm,” Melissa smirked. “Beauty sleep for who?”

“I can take a guess,” Kevin chuckled.

“For her man Ashton,” Callie sang.

I blushed at that. Ashton was supposed to pick me up at eight this morning so we could go to the resort. His mom had gone ahead and made a full reservation for the day. It seemed like it would be fun and then I would spend tomorrow with my parents and have a sleepover with the girls in the night. Last night I had gone to the movies with Kevin and we went bowling after that. I got to spend three whole days with all the people I loved.

We ended up talking until the sun came up and then I got ready for the day. As soon as I opened my door, confetti rained down on me.

“Happy birthday!” my parents yelled. They engulfed me in a gigantic hug and I had to remind them to let me breathe.

“Thanks mom and dad,” I laughed as I brushed confetti out of my hair and followed them downstairs. I ate the huge breakfast that mom had whipped up and posed awkwardly for the millions of pictures that they insisted on taking.

“Ashton will be here soon,” mom hummed as she did the dishes. She turned to me with a smile. “I never thought the day would come when you would be going out on dates.”

“I was hoping the day wouldn’t come,” dad sighed. “But you’ll always be our little girl no matter what.”

Before I could respond, they continued with wide smiles. “You’ve showed us throughout the years that you are responsible and we trust you.”

Mom placed her hands over my eyes as dad led me out of the house.

“Where are we going?” I laughed.

I heard the garage door open and mom dropped her hands. I stared at the sleek red car in the garage in front of me. I looked back at my parents dumbfounded and dad nodded and placed the keys in my hand. “She’s all yours.”

“Oh my god!” I screamed excitedly as I crushed them into a hug. “How did you… how much did this cost? You shouldn’t have. A car costs so much-”

“No problem, sweetheart. We’ve been saving up to get you this,” mom said as she patted my hair. “It’s an older model, but it works just fine.”

“We’ll lift your curfew too,” dad said. “You’ve earned it.”

“Thank you both so much!” I beamed as I ran over to my new car. It was beautiful!

Now, I could finally drive myself around. I already missed the feeling of my friends’ cars. I opened the door and slipped in. I inhaled blissfully; the new car smell was popping.

“We’re glad you like it,” my mom grinned. “I told you she’d like it,” she said proudly to my dad.

“I don’t like it, I love it!” I exclaimed running my hands along the smooth red paint.

“Now come on,” she said dragging me away from the car. “You can admire it all you want later, but now you should go get ready. Ashton will be here soon.”

“But-” I protested, still clinging to the car.

“No buts,” she laughed. “You always do your best at school. You’re even the top student for your year. You should have some fun too instead of staying cooped up in the house all the time.”

Dad nodded hesitantly and then shut the garage door. “You can take us for a drive tomorrow.”

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It was a few minutes until eight. I had already packed a few days ago, after Melissa and Callie had dragged me off to go shopping. It had been a long process of choosing a dress for the dinner and a new swimsuit for lounging by the pool during the day. I had to pull Callie out of the stores as she wiggled her eyebrows suggestively at some lingerie.

I was finally going to tell Ashton how I felt about him today. Hopefully his dad would leave him alone and stay out of it but I doubted that would be the case. I sighed as I stared at three the books in front of me, trying to decide which one to bring. In the end, I caved and dropped all of them in my bag.

I put my hair up in a high ponytail and wore a casual white dress with white sneakers. I applied some gloss to my lips and headed downstairs. My mom brought out the photo album and was beginning to get teary eyed when Ashton arrived.

“Bye.” I waved as she contemplated inviting him in to show him some of the pictures. I could do without the embarrassment.

They came out onto the porch and Ashton waved at them.

“Have fun!” mom shouted.

“But not too much fun!” my dad hollered. “I’m trusting you with my one and only daughter, Mr. Rivera!”

“Remember the talk we had about the birds and the bees!” my mom yelled and my face turned the brightest shade of red as I pushed Ashton into the car before they could embarrass me any further. I hurriedly got into the passenger seat as my dad yelled something else.

“Drive now,” I said burying my face in my hands.

Ashton grinned and sped off.

“Happy birthday, princess! So what was that about birds and bees?” he laughed as my house became a blur in the background.

“Just pretend you didn’t hear any of that,” I groaned.

He reached over and gently yanked the scrunchie out of my hair. My hair cascaded down around me.

“Ashton!” I yelled. “Do you have any idea how long it took me to get it that neat?”

He shrugged. “Don’t tempt me so early.”

“Tempt you how?” I grumbled. “Did your dad insist on you marking me?”

“Yeah, he did. But that’s not what I’m talking about.” He laughed. “You’re lucky I’m driving.”

I rolled my eyes at him and turned the music on. I stole a few glances at him as we drove. He looked okay physically, but the dark circles around his eyes had been gradually getting darker. I even noticed them on CaVaughn the last time I saw him.

“You look tired,” I mumbled.

“I’m fine.”

I crossed my arms. “When was the last time you slept?”

He frowned slightly. “Maybe Wednesday?”

“And today’s Saturday. Are you a robot or something?”

“I’m fine, really. I’m doing endurance training. Running for miles every night isn’t anything compared to what my brother’s doing.”

“That sucks,” I pouted.

Ashton laughed and ruffled my hair. “It’s worth it if I get to be here with you.”

I smiled and then chatted to him about my parents’ present.

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