Our Toxic Love

Chapter Forty Six

-Ariana's POV-

Today's my birthday.

Nathan had a family emergency and left last night. I'm guessing he's New York already right now.

"I'm so sorry I couldn't be there for you, babe," I hear him through the phone.

"It's fine," I try to sound like I'm not bothered by his absence at all. "I already said birthdays aren't a big deal to me at all, you know?"

"Yeah but -- look, I really have to go down. Happy birthday, I miss you so much."

"I miss you too."

I hang up the phone and stare at it for a while. It's seven thirty on a Saturday and I just turned seventeen today. I should be partying like any other teenager does but instead, I'm home alone with no company but the sound of crickets outside my window.

To make matters worse, there's a crime scene in my pants right now -- I'm on my period.

I hear someone knock on the door. I frown. I'm not expecting anyone. My dad's working really late too.

I get up and leave my room, descending the stairs. The door knocks again. I stare at it. What if it's a murderer?

No, don't be stupid Ari. I slowly walk to the door and twist the doorknob, opening it.

"Ethan?" I question.

"Happy birthday," he grins.

I blink. "I-but what are you-"

He presses his lips to my cheek and comes inside.

I'm surprised that he's here. It surprises me even more than he knows it's my birthday today. And it shocks me to see him holding two pizza boxes and two plastic bags filled with who-knows-what.

"What're you doing here?" I ask.

"It's your birthday, isn't it?" He questions, placing the things on the couch.

"Yeah, but-"

"And you're on your period, right?"

"Okay, how the hell do you even know that?"

He shrugs. "I still remember the date. From the ski trip. Remember?"

I can't decide whether that's creepy or extremely cute. I'll settle for both.

"And what's all this?" I ask, gesturing to the stuff he brought.

"This is pizza," he points at the two boxes of pizza. "This is filled with random food," he points to one of the plastic bags, "and this has a few movies I bought we could watch tonight."

My heart swells at the sight of all this. Ethan actually did all this. For me.

"Oh, and," he adds, "we can wear this while watching the movie."

He tosses me a pikachu lap-linder hat and puts an identical one on his head.

I catch it, laughing. "What is this?"

"I don't know. I just thought you might randomly get bloody mad at me tonight. Just in case you do, you can just look at me wearing this hat and you'll hopefully burst out laughing."

I can't stop the smile taking over my face right now.

"Where's all this coming from?" I ask.

He grins. "It's your birthday. I wanna be here for you. And I wanna make it memorable."

My heart flutters.

"This is all so sweet," there's no doubt in my mind that I'm blushing like crazy right now.