twenty-two

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twenty-two: stupid summer birthday
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     Juliette knew that opening nights were always stressful, but Shallow Lake Camp's level of stressful was something never seen before.

     To start, she woke up being shaken as if there were an earthquake outside.

     "What?" she muttered, covering her eyes.

     "Come on, it's Ricky's birthday," Ashlyn whispered so as not to wake the girls that did not even know who Ricky was.

     "I already told him happy birthday eysterday, let me sleep," she complained, turning around.

     "We're gonna go surprise him, come on," Gina pulled her blanket off of her.

     "Fucking Ricky and his stupid Summer birthday," Juliette whispered as she jumped from her bunk bed and walked to the bathroom to, at least, brush her teeth and wash her face. In a couple of minutes, they were in the front of the boy's cabin and Carlos was opening the door for them, as he signalled for them to be quiet.

     "Okay, I'm gonna count to three," he explained.

     "On three or after three?" Kourtney asked, making Juliette laugh out loud. Gina, however, was quick to cover her mouth so she didn't wake up the still-sleeping Ricky.

     "Happy birthday!" Maddox yelled, changing all of their plans. The rest of them joined the cheer as Ricky woke up clearly scared. He nearly fell down of his bunk bed, which made all of them laugh.

     "And happy opening night, to those keeping score," E.J. added, which made all the cheers quiet down. "Our show might be in danger but right now out focus is Ricky."

      The aforementioned chuckled, "guys, you shouldn't have. For real, you almost gave me a heart attack."

      "You're an old man now?" Jett mocked him.

     "He's always been an old man. You should see him getting up in class," Juliette joked as Carlos told him there was another surprise in store for him. All of them looked at the boy, clearly confused. He hadn't told them anything about another surprise.

     "Please, tell me these bunk beds are air-conditioned," another head of red hair walked through the door. It took Juliette some minutes to realize that it was none other than Big Red.

     "Biggie?" Ashlyn asked, a huge smile on her face.

     "Of course you showed up." Ricky hugged him, ecstatic of seeing his best friend there.

     "We've spent every birthday together since pre-school."

     "And of course you brought a lotto ticket," Ricky continued, but his smile fell when Big Red told him that that wasn't the case.

     "You walked on the moon?"

     Jett intervened, "he actually did it all this Summer. I'm Jett. Who are you?"

     "I am Ashlyn's boyfriend."

     The romantic moment was cut short when Ricky sat down in front of the cake and Jett lit up the candle, telling him to make a wish. Before he blowed them, his eyes travelled all the way to Juliette's who was already looking at him with a soft expression in her face. She couldn't believe that Ricky was already 18 (and yet, he still acted like a 15-year-old sometimes).

     After the mandatory celebrations and once everyone had had a taste of the cake (although many of them had ended up with their faces full of it), they decided to go to their cabins to get changed and proceed which the day, which promised to be a very long one.

𝐒𝐔𝐌𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 𝐒𝐀𝐃𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐒 - 𝐡𝐬𝐦𝐭𝐦𝐭𝐬 (𝐢𝐢𝐢) | ✔Where stories live. Discover now