If You Only Knew

Chapter 25 ~ Raise Your Glass

Kaley's POV

I awoke to the mouth-watering smell of bacon, my stomach growling loudly to inform me that it wanted that bacon and it wanted it now. Rubbing my eyes, I rolled out of bed and threw on my housecoat and slippers, and quickly made my way down the hall to the kitchen.

"Good morning!" Leah smiled when I walked into the kitchen. She was standing by our small stove, overseeing the pan of sizzling bacon.

"I thought that we agreed that I was going to do the bacon this year," I said with a yawn as I plopped down onto one of the stools sitting around our bar-like counter.

"Yeah, well, I was hungry and you were still sleeping, so I thought that I'd get a jump start on making breakfast.

"So, what can I do to help then?" I asked, rolling my eyes at her previous comment.

"I've actually almost got everything done..." Leah replied sheepishly.

"Leah!" I exclaimed, a frown forming on my face. "We were supposed to make this together!"

It had become a tradition of ours to make breakfast together on the 25th, the day between our two birthdays. The 25th had become our special Birthday Day, the day when we would exchange birthday presents and essentially celebrate both of our birthdays at the same time. That was one of the reasons why yesterday's party had surprised me so much, because I was not expecting to celebrate my birthday in such a way until the next day. That, and I hadn't told anyone when my birthday was... well, besides Leah, obviously.

"You could do the toast," Leah suggested. I shot her a quick glare to inform her that I was not happy with her as I stood up to get the bread. I pulled out two slices and slid them into the toaster. Because I had nothing better to do, I just stood there and watched the lights in the toaster turn red as it started to cook the bread.

"I'm bread, I'm bread, I'm bread, I'm bread," I started to mumble under my breath as I watched it. I kept mumbling that until the toaster popped, and I suddenly yelled, "I'm toast!"

Leah burst out laughing behind me. I felt my cheeks slightly flush with heat as I looked over my shoulder at her.

"That was adorkable!" she laughed, wiping tears from her eyes. "Seriously, Kaley, you say some of the randomest things sometimes!"

"I know," I shrugged, smiling as I turned back to the toaster and proceeded to take the toast out, quickly dropping it onto a small plate that Leah had left on the counter for me. It was still pretty hot and hurt to hold for too long.

I grabbed the plate and took it over to our very small, wooden table where Leah had already set everything else. I set it down as I slid into the chair across from Leah's.

"I propose a toast," Leah said, holding up her glass of grape juice. I mimicked her actions, holding up my own cup. "To us. To twenty-one years of life and to many years of friendship!"

"And to many more to come!" I smiled, clinking my glass against hers. "Happy Birthday, Leah!"

"Happy Birthday, Kaley!" she smiled back, taking a sip of her juice. And with the toasts out of the way, we hungrily dug into the food laid out before us.

Half a hour later, Leah and I, with full bellies, made our way over to our small living room. I flopped down onto the couch and let out a big, relaxed sigh.

"That was good," I said, closing my eyes as I leaned my head back.

"Yes, and the toast was exceptionally good," Leah replied with a slight laugh. I opened my eyes just so that I could roll them at her.