Crazy World

The Execution: In The Rain

Madison

"Hope you come again next time!" I bid the customer goodbye with a smile but then sighed. It was my birthday today but the day had been so hectic, I had barely done anything. Forget cutting a cake, I hadn't even met my friends and family properly. Plus, I had to work a bit extra because Brie had a date and she had left early. Today it was my responsibility to shut the place and as Ariana had extra work too, I had to walk home. Amazing.

No one at Oh Bagel Cafe knew that it was my birthday today and I didn't want to use the birthday card to get out of work. Mr. Teller was counting on me and he already was one employee short. And for me, duty always came first.

My parents weren't in Brooklyn today, neither was Haily. But we had long talks over the phone anyway and I was doing okay. I had called Ariana a couple of times and we chatted for a few minutes before she had to go back to work. I wanted to talk to Anne too but she did not pick up the phone and same with Brooke. To be honest, I did not want to call Andrew because of course, I felt obligated to maintain a distance with him, even though I had no wrong intentions in my head. This probably happens when your friend has a crush on someone, you automatically keep a healthy distance with that person. Lastly, I tried calling Lex but no luck. His phone was switched-off.

Now it was time for me to leave too. My last customers were a couple who were on a date, I suppose. After kissing in front of me and making me feel extremely uncomfortable, they left and I closed the place down and started walking home, it was already pretty dark and I couldn't think of celebrating anything now. Plugging in my earphones and not caring much about my waitress uniform, I walked quickly. I just wanted to get home and lie down on my bed, I was drained of all energy.

My senses became alert when I found out that the door of my house was open. Ariana was not home yet, and she was not careless enough to leave the door open. The lights inside the house were off and there was no noise of any kind. I carefully turned the knob and stepped inside.

"SURPRISE!" Came the loud voices, hitting me like a truck as my bag flew out of my hands and lights got switched on.

I had trouble adjusting my eyes in the room due to the sudden change in brightness but with the skip of a beat a realised what was going on. My friends were all jumping in front of my eyes with happy birthday posters, late bursting party poppers and huge, crazy happy smiles on their faces. All my tiredness faded away within a second and I felt a surge of emotions. Happiness, shock, gratitude, love, and many other things I do not know the words for.

"Oh my Gods! You guys- Aaaaah!" I shrieked and threw myself at the group. I was not expecting this at all, I genuinely thought everyone was busy today and my birthday would go completely uneventful. I was so wrong, this was the best! While hugging the big group (not a hug, more like a huddle), I managed a few words of thanks but really, nothing I said would ever be enough for what I felt.

Looking around with a better consciousness, I found Ariana, Anne, Brooke, Andrew, Brie and Joey. Brie was lying about the date. I smiled but then cursed myself for not realising his absence earlier.

"Where's Lex?" I asked as the smile on everyone's faces faded a bit.

"He couldn't come, his father didn't let him. He had to go to some formal fathering with his family. He said he will try to come." Anne said.

"Yeah, but he contributed in this awesome gift we bought you, and he wanted us to wish you a happy birthday from him." Adrien said and showed me a wrapped box.

All my friends had gotten me a gift together, that was so sweet of them and I was really happy. But with this happiness came an unexplainable pain. So, Lex wasn't here. I tried not to frown at this, my friends had put their hearts into this and I knew I couldn't let all of that go to waste just because Lex couldn't join us. But I felt so bad, it was stupid. I didn't think I would feel that way for anyone. I mean of course I would be upset if any of my friends didn't show up on a special day, but being so upset that I didn't even focus on the gifts, or the beautiful cake and wanted him here at any cost made me feel weird about myself.