Love at Last Sight

Chapter Fifteen

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“Surprise!”

            I flinched back, not expecting the force the voices would bring when I opened the door. For a split second I thought about escaping, but Chace slapped my back, causing me to stumble forward and into his house. Knowing what he wanted, I put on a false expression of surprise. “Wow!” I cried, cringing at how fake I sounded.

            From the front of the sizable group in front of me, Katie snorted. “You sound excited.”

            I held back a grin.

            “Happy almost-birthday, Rose!” Naomi greeted me, rushing forward and throwing her arms around me. “The big one-eight!”

            “Yeah, you’re almost legal now! Go bang some hot teachers!” Julia chipped in with a sly grin.

            I shot her a mocking look. “Because that’s exactly what I want to do. You need to stop reading those illicit stories, Jules.”

            Laughing, she shrugged. “Hey, it’s only fantasy.”

            “Let’s keep it that way.”

            “Maybe.”

            “Julia.”

            Grinning, she waved me off. “Anyway, how ‘bout it? A surprise party?” Gripping my arm, she tugged me away from Chace and toward the crowd of people. “Chace really tried hard to get everyone to come. Even though he didn’t know half of them.”

            I glanced back at Chace, who was still standing by the door, chatting with Kate about something. “Is that so? How many people are here?” Judging by my welcoming party, the number had to be over fifteen.

            “Twenty-five.”

            Impressed, I took another look around. “I didn’t even realize I had twenty-five friends.”

            She rolled her eyes. “Come on, we’ve had to wait for the last half hour for you to show up. Now let’s go order the pizza.”

            “Why didn’t you order it before I arrived?”

            “We needed to know what kind you liked,” she explained as we entered the kitchen. “You’re the birthday girl after all.”

            I furrowed my eyebrows. “That’s stupid.”

            “Chace’s idea.”

            “Of course.” Smiling, I shook my head. It was just like him. “Let’s order some pizza for these hungry people.”

            Forty-five minutes, and four party-sized pizzas later, I was sitting on the couch, surrounded by ten of my friends, all yapping at me at once. Normally I was averse to having all the attention on me. This time it was no different.

            “So,” Katherine, who sat diagonally from me, began, an excited expression on her face. “Coach said to wait until the season began, but I figured right now would be a great time to announce this…”