"Wake up sleepy head, it's urgent." Someone screamed in my ears and I pushed that certain someone using all my force.

"How can someone sleep at 9pm?" the same person said again and I groaned in annoyance.

"Go away Em." I emitted wearily, yawning.

"Wake up Ali. Sophia needs us." she straightened me by lifting me up by my back.

"What happened?" I asked, rubbing my eyes.

"I don't know. She called me and she was crying a lot. I asked her but she didn't tell me anything." she lamented.

On hearing this, my head cleared and all the sleep flew out of window. "Is she alright?" I asked in a worried voice.

"How would I know?" she sighed, pulling me out of the bed and throwing my hoodie at me. "Come on, let's go check if she needs us."

"Lemme ask Dad first." I argued but she told me that she had already asked my Dad. In my same confused, disoriented stated, I made my way to her car and she revved the engine. Soon, we were out of our area to the more populated part of the city.

I have never been to Sophia's house before so I had no idea where Emily was taking me. If she was any other girl, I would have felt scared like what if she had planned of killing me or throwing me off a cliff but it was Emily. Sweet, innocent Emily.

"Didn't she live near the school?" I asked when Emily turned the car towards the opposite side. "Where are you taking me?" I grew paranoid.

"To her beach house. Remember she told us that she was spending the week there?" she asked and I stressed on my brain but didn't remember when Sophia told us anything about her beach house.

"You must be dreaming about Adam then." she teased and I blushed at her words. It was possible, me being lost in his thoughts while both of them were busy chatting about weird topics.

The roads grew silent and the wind turned more chilled than before. Her car was now wiggling between huge, expensive beach houses and I was looking at them in awe. I had always wanted a beach house but Dad said that he would never buy one. Though Uncle Caleb told me one time that Dad used to have one, in his hometown.

"I wonder why she was crying." I whispered, looking outside the window. "What if Andrew did something to her?"

"Let's not think about the worst for now." Emily responded.

She stopped the car in front of a black gate. I stepped out of the car and touched the gate to knock it but it was already unlocked. Emily and I exchanged a look after which I walked inside.

We passed through a beautiful lawn to reach the wooden door. Like the main gate, it was unlocked too and it took only a gentle push to open it. There was pitch black darkness inside the house, not a single ray of light was there.

"HHAPPPPYYY BIRTTTHDAYYY"

Many people screamed at once, giving me a mini heart-attack. The house immediately lit up and a swarm of girls and boys rushed towards me. Most of the faces were familiar, few were not. And in the front of the crowd stood Sophia, who was now running towards me and pulling me in a hug.

I was still too surprised to respond.

"How did you- Um.. How?" I was still looking around in surprise, feeling overwhelmed. I never had a surprise birthday party before so it was weird for me, wonderfully weird.

"Happy 18th birthday Alicia." Emily hugged me from my side. I returned her bear hug and Sophia joined us too.

"You guys actually managed to surprise me." I said, looking around at the decoration. Everything looked like it was perfectly planned, as if they both worked really hard for it.

"Beach time guys." Sophia announced and everyone cheered. The girls stripped off their frocks and skirts, leaving them in bikini or swimwears and everyone rushed outside, towards what looked like the door to the beach.

"But I don't have swimsuit." I pouted and they both giggled. Sophia led the way to her room while Emily and I followed her. The room was really beautiful, the contrast of blue and white enhanced the beauty of it.

Opening her cupboard, she pulled out three shopping bags. One for me, one for Emily and one for herself.

We changed one by one. Mine was a cute one-piece swimwear in darker shade of peach. When I looked in the mirror, I realized that I looked really good in it. The color complimented my complexion and my dark waves and it wasn't very revealing, much to my happiness.

Sophia had a pink bikini on, her athletic figure made her look really appealing. Emily was wearing a black swimwear and she looked flawless in it. The neckline accentuated her chest and the black material contrasted well with her pale skin. Both of them had their hair down, just like me.

"Oh Damn!" I winked at Emily, teasing her and her cheeks flushed red. Sophia and I chuckled at her shyness and she just let out a whiny noise in return.

"I bet you are going to give Adam blue balls tonight." Sophia nudged me and I jumped in surprise.

"Adam is here?" I asked with widened eyes, my jaw almost dropped to the ground.

"Do you really think we would throw you a surprise party without inviting your crush?" Sophia raised her eyebrows and asked.

"He is not my crush." I countered.

"Whatever." she just shrugged as we three exited her room and reached the living room. The place was almost clear because almost everyone had shifted to Stone's private beach.

She led us outside where everyone was busy singing and dancing. The girls were dressed in colorful bikinis but only a few were actually going near the ocean. The winter was nearing its end so the weather was quite pleasant, not cold enough to make us shiver but not warm enough to make us sweat.

Though everyone was wishing me, my eyes were in the pursuit of a single person. Even Sophia had noticed my curiosity, judging by the smirk on her face.

"Who invited these piece of shits?" Sophia exclaimed when she found Justin and Chloe at one corner. It was one of the very rare instances when they weren't sucking each other's faces. Instead, both of them looked quite irritated with each other.

"I guess Noah brought them along." Emily suggested, pulling her neckline up.

Ignoring the dynamic duo, I searched the beach in search of a pair of grey eyes and the aloofness in them.

"Looking for someone?" Sophia grinned, showing her pearly white teeth and I rolled my eyes.

"Lose this grin idiot. I was just looking for my gifts." I lied and trudged forwards.

"Oh, so you don't want to give Adam some company?" she pointed towards the isolated part of the beach where just one person was sitting. By the look of it, it was Adam, throwing small stones in the water and observing the ripples created by them.

"I'll be back." I excused myself, earning another one of Sophia's smirk and made my way toward's Adam.

He rotated his neck to look at me when he heard me coming towards him. His eyes assessed my appearance from head to toe, causing tingles to appear on my skin with the intensity in them.

"Hey." I managed to say despite the lump in my throat.

"Hey." he answered and then turned his attention back to the ocean.

"Beautiful. Isn't it?" I whispered, sitting down beside him. The water looked like it was shining because of the reflection of moon on it's surface. In the cold water, his skin felt wonderfully warm when our arms brushed for less than a second. I felt the electricity and I hoped he felt it too.

"I didn't think you would come." I said, picking up one of the pebble and throwing it towards the water but it landed on the shore instead.

"I won't have." he said.

"Why did you come then?" I asked.

He sighed, deeply. "Everyone must be waiting for you birthday girl. Don't let me steal you from them." he said in an amused voice.

I didn't want to leave his company though. I would never trade this comfortable silence for anything, let alone the crazy party going on at our left.

"Tell me first, why did you come if you didn't want to? You skip every other party." I asked, changing the topic.

His hands stopped and he turned towards me. I bit my lips to stop them from trembling when I felt his gaze on my face, the butterflies in my stomach had somehow returned.

"Because Alicia King's birthday is not just another ordinary party." he chuckled and stood up, pulling his hand out for me.

Aww. I felt gooey inside, my heart thumping faster than it should.

"Come on, it's about to be midnight. The cake must be waiting for you." he said and I gripped his hand, letting his warmth envelop me. We both made our way back to the crowd, with him silently following me.

"Here comes the birthday girl." Noah chirped when looked at me and before I could stop him, he pinched my cheeks, making me growl.

"Easy tigress." he chuckled and then winked at me when he observed my swimsuit-clad body. He himself was wearing just swimming shorts, with his athletic chest out there for the eyes of horny teenage girls.

"Like what you see?" he winked, running his fingers through his wet hair. He was one of the few people who actually dared to take a swim at this time of the night.

"Nah. I have seen better." I teased and walked past him, to the highlight of the event aka the cake.

I thought Adam was still behind me but he had left, causing me to frown. I wanted him by my side when I cut the cake but he was nowhere, as far as I could see.

"Come on, everybody wants the cake." someone shouted and everyone started laughing.

Casting another glance at the crowd, I sighed in disappointment when I couldn't find him and then plastered a fake smile on my face for my friends who worked so hard for this surprise.

A series of claps and hoots erupted in the crowd as I sliced the cake. I stood there silently, watching as Emily cut the cake and everybody took a small piece of it. After the cake, people gave me their respective gifts and cheered me to open some of them.

Amidst the noise, I opened Emily's gift first. It was a teddy bear, like the one I had in my room. It was so cute and fluffy that my heart melted at it. After hugging Emily and and thanking her for the gift, I opened Sophia's present which was a gorgeous Gucci shoulder bag in red color.

"Thanks Soph." I hugged her and then looked around for another gift to open. A small box caught my attention with a card on it.

"Noah?" I looked at him and found him rubbing the back of his head. He looked like he was blushing but one could never be so sure about him.

Smiling, I opened it and my jaw dropped in awe when I looked at the diamond earrings inside, their shine blinding my vision temporarily. They were shaped in small teardrops design, with a big pinkish diamond in the middle and few small ones all around.

All the girls around me were gushing at their beauty but I was concerned more about their cost. I was sure it cost him a couple of grands.

But why would he waste so much money on me?

"Do you like it?" he asked in a slow voice.

"Um.. It's.. It's beautiful." I smiled at him, hiding my confusion from him.

Somewhere in the left, behind everyone else, someone caught my attention. It was Adam who was looking at a small gift box in his hand, with a big frown on his face. I stared at him as he put the box inside his pants pockets and then walked away from the crowd towards the house.

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