A different feeling

Chapter 4, Romance and butterflies

After Lilah's party, Louis and I hung out nearly every day for the rest of the summer.
We went to the beach, the cinema, and even the fun-fair. But the night I'll never forget, was when he surprised me for my 17th birthday.

It was Sunday 16th August.
I woke up that day to my room COVERED, to the brim of my king sized bed, with confetti filled balloons. Keign slept in my room on a blow up mattress that night. Since we were 7 years old, it became a tradition to sleep in each other's bedroom on the night of our birthday. We stay up late to watch movies, eat ice-cream, sweets -and candy floss of course- until we tire ourselves out from a sugar high.
I hopped off my bed to wake up Keign.
For a second, I considered running down stairs to grab a wooden spoon and a pot, but I thought I'd leave my revenge for another day.

"Keign." I whispered, shaking him lightly.
"Yeah." he said sleepily, rubbing his eyes.
"Happy birthday." We both said at the exact same time.
"Wow, I see our twin telepathy is still intact."
"Yep." I pulled out his two presents from under my bed. "Here."
"It's not much, but I hope you like it."

Keign had given me his present at midnight. It was a silver necklace with an 'R' pendant covered in diamonds. 90% sure they were fake, but I loved it either way.


Keign took it from me shaking it in an attempt to guess what it was then opened it.
"Oh, more candy floss and OMG your lucky stone." He said gobsmacked.
"I haven't seen this in forever."

"You used to carry this around everywhere you went as a kid. You wouldn't let anyone touch it, not even me."

"You begged me to touch it every day for years. You even tried to steal it from my box, remember?" I said.

"Yeah." He said smiling, admiring the heart shaped stone.

"Are you sure you want me to have this?"

"Yeah, I figured you could use a bit of luck, you know, since you get your exam results in a few days." "Besides, I don't need it anymore."

"Aww, thanks Rye." He said, pulling me into a tight hug.

"You're welcome." I squeaked. He was suffocating a bit.
"Now open the second one."
His last present was rectangular and it was wrapped in white confetti wrapping paper.

"What! How?" He exclaimed, excitedly.
"You like it?" I asked.
"Are you kidding me?!"
"You got me the new Nike tracksuit! You said it was out of stock!" He whacked me playfully on the shoulder.
"I had to. How else was I meant to surprise you?"
The tracksuit was dark blue covered in lots of silver Nike ticks.

"Sooo...."he said, grinning.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Yes."
"I get first dibs on the chocolate ones!" I said, running down the stairs.

In the kitchen, mum had baked our favourite, chocolate chip and blueberry muffins. I looked forward to this every year. She only ever baked them on our birthday, so we called them birthday muffins. I reached across the counter and was about to grab the biggest, fluffiest muffin on the plate.

"Nope, back up." Keign said, slapping my hand out of the way.

"Keign!!!" I yelled angrily.

"I'm a whole 10 minutes older, it only makes sense that I get first pick." He snatched MY muffin and devoured it in one huge bite.

"Can't you let me have it for one birthday?"
"You do this, every SINGLE year." I growled, giving him the death stare.

"You, just have to be quick enough." He chugged a carton of milk from the fridge.

"Gross."

"I see you guys have found my muffins then."
Mum said, smiling, as she made her way down the stairs in her purple dressing gown.

"Yeah, but Keign stole my muffin AGAIN."
"Did it have your name on it?" Keign said.
"My hand was clearly on it!"
"Cap. If your hand was on it, how did I get it before you?" he asked.
"You took it from me!"

"Mum!" We both yelled.

"Are you two, seventeen or seven? I can't tell." She laughed.
She walked over to me and gave me a big hug.

"Happy birthday honey."
"There's a surprise for you in the microwave." She whispered.
"OK."

"What are you two whispering about?" Keign asked.

"Don't you worry about it. Come here and give me a hug." She held her arms out wide.

When Keign was busy hugging mum, I slipped past him and opened the microwave door.