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"God, I am so nervous," I told Sam as I fussed with my curls while staring at my reflection in the small mirror in her car. After school, Sam took me to her house so everyone else had time to focus on getting my house ready. Sam had made me pick an outfit for the party the night before, so I had gotten ready at her house since she put the outfit in her car before leaving my place. After getting ready and waiting around for an hour, we made the drive over to my house. We had now been in my driveway for at least ten minutes.
"There's no need to be nervous," Sam said through a quiet laugh. "You're a badass seventeen year old who's about to have the night of her life. Everyone in there is so excited to celebrate you." My eyes closed as I processed her words and I took a deep breath in as I tried to calm myself down. I knew she was probably right; there was no reason to be nervous, but that didn't change the fact that I had been freaking out for the last two hours.
"No surprises?" I asked as I opened my eyes and turned my head in her direction.
"No... big surprises," she responded with a sweet smile planted on her lips. I frowned at her and watched as she playfully rolled her eyes. "There is one teensy surprise that you're going to enjoy. So don't even look at me like that. Just get out of the car."
"Sometimes I forget how sweet and gentle you are," I told her sarcastically.
"That was never part of the agreement; so don't act like there has been some sort of false advertising." Sam pushed her door open without another word and prompted me to do the same. I let out a quiet sigh as I did so but started to tell myself that I had to go in with a good attitude, otherwise I'd ruin everything. Part of me was genuinely excited, so it wasn't too difficult to give in to those thoughts, but I was still anxious as we made our way up to the door.
Being anxious to walk into my own house was a new feeling that I didn't particularly enjoy.
As Sam walked ahead of me to open the door, a smile found its way to my face. I was excited to see what they had thrown together. When the door opened, everyone inside saved me the horror of yelling altogether, but they were there to sweetly greet me.
I looked around to see all my favorite faces; my eyes first landed on my dad who was trying his best not to stick out like a sore thumb among the dozen teenagers. We shared sweet smiles and I mouthed a 'Thank you' before my eyes landed on Calum and stayed there for much too long as I processed just how happy he looked.
"How's about we show you everything?" Calum asked as he stepped in front of the group and offered me his hand.
"I would be honored," I told him through a quiet laugh as I gave him my hand. I glanced at my dad and could tell he wanted to be the one showing me everything, but I was proud of him for letting the job go to someone else for a change. Calum first took me toward the kitchen; at the entrance, a small table was set up that read 'TICKETS.' I laughed quietly at the penmanship and wondered to myself who had the job of writing it, but I didn't dare make a comment.
