Indie-America

34

 (((Edited•)))

   Veronica's house is a little bit far from mine. The area's definitely classier and I can't seem to differentiate one house from another. I've only ever seen her house in pictures she posted on IG, it's looking more real now that I'm seeing it on real life. 
Ted stops the car and Ronnie jumps out first but we're slower to come out.
"Hey Ravi," Ted says before I can follow Ronnie. I turn back.
"Um...I don't mean to be nosy but is Luca ok with us hanging around together? He just looked off earlier."

I wasn't expecting him to ask me that so it takes me a while to construct my sentence.

"He is ok with it. Maybe yeah he wouldn't exactly wish for it but he trusts me. And I trust you and I see no reason for us to act like bombs about to explode around each other." I give him my warmest smile and he nods, probably content with my language.

"Hey are you two coming up or what?!" Ronnie screams from the front door and I run towards her while Ted locks his car.

The house is prettier inside than out. It's walls are painted white but have a glossy shade to it that makes it appear silver...or maybe it's just silver. The first thing I see when I get inside is the large flat screen television, it takes almost all the space on the wall and they use the sparse space left to hang a few pictures of the family. There aren't many pictures. The family is only 3–Ronnie, her dad and mom.

I stand in the centre of the living room, not wanting to stain the white chairs. How do they keep this house so clean?

"What are you doing standing over there?" Ronnie gives me an odd look.

"Nothing... won't we greet your 'rents?" I ask.

"They aren't home yet. Ted close the door and follow me." She orders after her backpack has successfully fallen off her bag. I expect her to go upstairs but she goes to the kitchen and I follow her, wondering if we were going to bake today.

But no, the kitchen leads to a large french door that, when she opens, reveal a beautiful green garden.

"Oh wow, your garden is beautiful." I murmur. I knew Ronnie had a thing for flowers which she might have inherited from her mum but I never expected her to be such a guru.
She turns pink and bats her eyes but Ted just grunts, ruining her show.

"Let's not make this long or else Ravi might lose interest." He says and I perk up, no matter how much I hate my birthday there's no denying that Ronnie and Ted throw great parties for me. They're OG's.

"Tell me it's happening here." I squeal even though I know it's not possible. The garden is large and all but it's also empty and I doubt they've planned for everything to fall from the sky.

"Even better. Follow along B."

Of course I have no choice but to follow.

She passes a narrow path straight ahead and we follow, the path is so narrow the stalks of the shrubs scratch me severally. I am getting quite impatient and I think they notice because they quicken their pace and suddenly I'm in a circle. A grass circle, if that makes any sense.

There is no window, no door. Just tall grass in the shape of a circle. If not for the open roof we would never know when evening came. And simply lying on the grass were long picnic mats, a picnic basket, and a boom box.

"This is it!" Ronnie says with so much enthusiasm I can't help but laugh. Never would I have imagined that Ronnie would ever agree to have a picnic birthday party.

"Wow. Teddy made you do this right?" I give him a side eye, he was always the least frugal of us.

"Yes and no. I know it's hard for you to even do this and I didn't want to pressure you by doing something large. You've been through enough drams this year." Her voice turns milky and I wipe an invisible tear off my eyes.

"Hey now. This is a birthday not a burial. I know it's impossible to ask you not to think of Rohan today but I'm sure you can make those thoughts positive. Right?" Teddy makes his voice as jovial as possible and we both nod quickly.

"Ok then! Let's get this party started!" He screams as he grabs the boom box and plays the first track. It's Uptown Funk, one of our favorites. Ronnie and I sit down next to each other with little ceremony and start unpacking the picnic basket.

"Oh my God you got the Sundae!" I scream in disbelief as I slowly bring out the Sundae ice cream from the basket. It's freezing cold and that shouldn't be the case because it's not hot in here but it isn't cold enough either. But of course I can't really be bothered about the temperature right?

Teddy grins as he settles beside me. "That was my idea."
I blow him a kiss at the same time wondering if that was appropriate. I had been wanting a blueberry sundae for sometime now but the only place where it's sold is a 4 hours drive away from my house and I can't even drive so...

"We've got sandwich; meat and vegetarian for myself. Three sundaes, cake and a bottle of Blanc de blancs." Ronnie raises the bottle of Chardonnay and I cough.

"I don't think we should be drinking that." I say but they completely ignore me.

"Hey now, everyone here is officially legal right? Besides, I can hold my alcohol," Teddy says joyfully and reaches to take his own sundae and sandwich.

"Me too." Ronnie winks at me and grabs her glass.

"I don't think that's the right order of food intake Ronnie." Again, I am ignored. "You're right though, we're all legal. And somehow we're legal before we're even in Senior year," I add. This time I get their attention.

"We'll be graduating this time next year. Don't sweat it." Ronnie waves me away. But it's easy for her to not sweat it, she's an amazing cheerleader and yes there's a scholarship offer for her already but she doesn't even need a scholarship. She's freaking rich!

Teddy's sure of what he's gonna study in college, mechanical engineering. But me? I'm stuck between my two worlds of science and art. My parents will kill me if I decide to study English like I want to. Ken has already broken their hearts by focusing on the beauty sector.

"What should we watch?" Teddy pulls me out of my thoughts.

"Jurassic World." Ronnie and I echo immediately and Teddy groans.

"You've watched that like a billion times now!"

"Wouldn't hurt to watch it again. Besides, it is my birthday." I make a face at him and he rolls his eyes,

"It isn't yet actually." Even as he says it he's already playing the movie.
We rearrange ourselves into our most comfortable positions and I really wish Ronnie brought popcorns.

The movie is wonderful but like Teddy said, I've watched it so many times I know all the lines already. So half of the time I'm not paying attention to it, I'm just watching my best friends. Relieved.