"I can't believe you guys don't have anything planned for his birthday!" I frown. Xander holds up his hands in defense. "He doesn't like his birthday! He tells us the same shit every year. We try to take him out and shit but he always says no," Xander defends. I cross my arms over my chest as we walk to the building where we share a class. "Well we're throwing him a party whether he likes it or not!" I smile.

Xander starts shaking his head quickly. "I don't think that's a good idea, Nov. This man seriously got some shit against his birthday," He tells me. I frown again. Does it have something to do with his childhood? I don't think so. A lot of people hate their birthdays which I think is crazy. We should celebrate another year of life for ourselves and the people we love. I'm throwing him a party. I don't care if he gets mad at me. Seriously though, he can't even stay mad at me if he tried.

"We have to do something," I start "it doesn't even have to be like a big thing! Maybe just me, you, some of his teammates, Maddy, and our girls!" I clap once, smiling. Xander groans lightly. "What? That's not a lot of people," I say. "Does Maddy have to be invited?" He retorts. Oh. I smack his arm lightly. "Be nice! Yes, she has to be invited," I say, defending my best friend.

"You're telling me to be nice? She's nasty as hell to me," he argues. I roll my eyes. I can't stand them not liking each other. I'm sure Xander wouldn't mind being friends with her if Maddy would just let go what he said. It's hard to come back when you've been snarky with her though. Especially since Xander was someone she didn't even consider a friend and he decided to intrude our private conversation.

"Well then you'll just have to be civil for Christian's sake," I say. He looks at me like really? Yes really. I raise my eyebrows at him, trying to look intimidating. He rolls his eyes and sighs. "I'll try." I smile. "But if she opens her big ass mouth I'm not gonna stay quiet." Darn it. Well I guess I'll have to talk to Maddy about it too. We stop right in front of his class which is before mine. "I'll text you and we'll start planning, yeah? Do not say a word to anyone but the people invited! And make sure to let them know Christian doesn't know about it either," I say.

He nods at my instructions. "Got it." He holds up his hand for a high five and I give him one. "See ya," I say. He throws up a peace sign and walks into class and I fast walk to mine. I might be a minute late.

+

Christian has made it very clear to me all day how much he hates his birthday. I spammed his phone this morning with a bunch of happy birthday text messages in which he only replied with a simple. Thanks. Then I told him I was coming over to celebrate and he quickly said he didn't want to do anything "crazy" today. For these past couple of days he's been telling me that he's not at all excited for his birthday and I told him that was fine.

I was excited for him. November 6th was a special day because that's when Christian Valdez was born.

It took a lot of convincing to let me take him anywhere today. He had practice from 3-5 and after that he showered. I begged him to let me take him out for ice cream, my treat of course, and he actually let me. It was just an excuse to get him out of the house though. Xander, Rhys, and Cgc would be getting everything ready for the little get together Xan and I planned.

It's almost eight thirty as we're getting off Chris's car. We made sure to tell everyone to park away from the townhouse so that he wouldn't see all the cars. The only cars in the driveway were the three of his bestfriends. He wasn't suspecting a thing. I interwine my arm with his as we walk up the driveway.

"We're watching the first Spiderman tonight right?" I smile. Ever since I dressed up as Black Widow for Halloween he's been curious about Marvel. He told me he wanted to watch the movies so that's what we've been doing these past couple of days. He started practicing again, but we agreed to still squeeze in Marvel marathons to his busier schedule.

My schedule is about to become as hectic as his though. Finals are right around the corner and I also have to start reading and practicing my lines for my audition later this month. I read them every day but I'm going to start to focus on them more. The part, or parts, I'm auditioning for are roles for a new Netflix show called 'Made'. It's supposed to do really well so I'm scared that I might not get the part. It's taken me sometime to get to this point in my career. Getting auditions is never easy so I'm lucky enough to have scored one for this show.

I just hope it goes well.

"Yes," I say. Maybe after the party. He smiles. "Finally, I've been dying to see these," He says. Oh, well now I feel kind of bad. When we reach the door, he unhooks his arm from mine to unlock the door. I take a step back as he opens the door. I walk behind him as we walk into the quiet house. "I bet the guys are fucking knocked," He says. When we reach the living room, he flips on the light switch. "Surprise!" Everyone shouts. There's only about fifteen people here besides me and Chris. His mouth gapes a bit, but his face is expressionless.

He finally looks down at me. "What is this?" He says. I put on smile so people won't start thinking he didn't want this. Even though he didn't. Before I can say anything, Max comes over and wraps his arm around Chris' shoulder. "Happy 21st man, let's get shitfaced!" He presses a bottle against Chris's chest. "Birthday boy takes the first shot!" DJ shouts. Chris clutches the bottle and then looks down at me again. His lips are in a staright line. Oh no. He hates this.

He looks back at the bottle and starts spinning the bottle cap off. It's a bottle of Jack Daniels. He waterfalls a shot, his eyes shut as the liquid falls into his mouth. He passes the bottle back to Max as he swallows the whiskey. Gross. He sticks his tongue out to show that he's swallowed it and his teammates cheer. I turn to find Xander, who's already looking at me.

I think I messed up.

+

I sit on the couch with Maddy, we're both completely sober. I've seen Christian take a couple of shots, but he'll be buzzed at most. His other teammates are having fun though. He hasn't spoken to me since we got here. I haven't tried to talk to him because I'm scared that he's mad. I'm sure he is, otherwise he would have came up to me already. I bite on my fingernail as I stare at him from across the room. "Stop that," Maddy says. She clings onto her sparkling water like it'll run away if she holds it any looser. I drop my hand at her request. "Sorry," I say.

I already told Maddy that I think he's mad at me so she knows my anxiety is at a peak right now. I tend to bite my nails whenever I start to get nervous and she hates it. She always tells me to get acrylics so I won't be biting them anymore. I never last with them on though so it'll just be a waste of money. "He hates me," I say, still looking at him. He's in a conversation with Cgc, DJ, and Kaleb.

"I'm sure he doesn't, Novalee. He looks like he's having at least an okay time," Maddy retorts. I think I've said "he hates me" about ten times tonight. Xander came up to me earlier and said all the times he talked to him, he seemed 'fine'. He said he didn't know if he was just putting on a front because people were over though. "I'll be right back," I tell Maddy. I go upstairs quickly and find Christian's room. I got him a gift which I left here, it's right on his bed.

Luckily, he hasn't been up here so it's gone unnoticed. I snatch it from the bed and put it in a drawer. I pull out my phone from my back pocket and text him.

Me: come upstairs?

I press send and shove my phone back into my pocket. I sit on the neatly made bed as I wait for a text back. About a minute later the doorknob turns and Chris walks in. I get up quickly as he shuts the door closed behind him. "He-" "Why, Novalee?" He cuts me off. I don't say anything, but I feel my body begin to heat from nervousness. He looks at me with raised brows, waiting for an answer. "Hm?" He pushes.

"I know you didn't want a party, but-"

"Then why did you throw one for me?"

I struggle to get some words out, "I don't know."

"You don't know?" He chuckles, but he's not happy. "You don't know?" He repeats.

"I'm sorry, okay? I just wanted you to have something nice on your birthday," I say. I can feel my face heat with embarrassment. I should've thought this through. Xander warned me he would hate this. "Novalee, I told you I didn't care about my birthday. I would've had a good time here at my house watching fucking Spiderman movies with you. Instead, I have to entertain people out there and be the center of attention. No, I don't like that. Not in this case at least," He retorts.

"I'm sorry," I apologize again "I can tell everyone to leave," I say. He shakes his head quickly. "No, you can't. They're going to know somethings up," He scoffs. He doesn't look at me anymore instead at anything else that isn't me. He shakes his head, "I'm gonna go back down there." He starts walking toward the door. "Wait!" He pauses and turns to look at me.

"Is there anything I can do to fix this?" My voice is quieter than before. I feel terrible for doing this. I'm so stubborn and I should've known better. For some reason, I thought he'd appreciate it since it's coming from me. Since I planned it. I was so wrong.

"Yeah," He says. His jaw clenches a bit and then he says, "When everyone else leaves, you go along with them." He doesn't let me say anything as he walks right back out.