the new year

seventy-eight

S E V E N T Y - E I G H T :

Like usual when someone turns a new age, the birthday anthem was sung, aloud. It was always embarrassing, which was why Elias had bright red cheeks. His hands were in his long hair as he chuckled away, the giant chocolate cake coming towards him at a pace he wished was slower.

His mum, Amara was smiling joyously as she held the cake that had twenty-one pink candles. Their family was going away tomorrow to Greece for a few weeks to see their wider family, hence the reason they were having a small get-together this evening.

Oak had gotten him a large selection of different fabrics for his designing, some pre-made business cards, which he was baffled by at first until he opened his third present that said go to Eikonografiména Yfásmata dot co dot UK. His eyes widened and he immediately pulled out his phone and typed in the web address, he almost cried.

It had a cream background with a fancy fonted name, it had fading photos of his work as he scrolled further down the page, it was so brilliantly done. Oak had also told him that she'd paid for a batch of advertisements that would be ready to publish whenever he wanted to launch his actual website.

He cried, a lot. He cried at nearly everything his friends and family had gotten him because they were all just so surreal and thoughtful. Elias had asked his friends if they'd help create the advertisements, he wanted to create a lookbook type of thing but in video form that had all of the prices or rough prices of what an item would be.

The five of them, of course, agreed and said they could film it whilst he was away so that when he got back he could start up straight away. He was over the moon.

His twenty-first birthday had been a blast so far, he loved spending time with his family and friends, they were the most important people in his life. Lucas, his not boyfriend, apparently had come over with a bunch of flowers and some tickets to the dance exhibition that was on in November--it was the cutest interaction his five friends had ever seen.

"Next time we go you'll all have to come," Amara spoke, her light Greek accent shining through. She gestured to her sons friends with the brightest smile on her face, they were her children too, she loved them a lot especially for making Elias feel welcomed when they moved to England eight years ago.

They helped her son grow to be who he wanted, they made him not afraid to be himself, they were his rocks. Amara was so glad he had people like them in his life because they were Eli's wider support system and his full family adored them to the moon and back.

"Please!" Eli smiled widely at his friends in total agreement with his mother. They never went back to Greece much but they went as much as they could, they tried to go at least once a year of vice a versa by them coming to Manchester.

"I think that'd be fun," Alex nodded, his lips in a frown but it meant a good thing. Honestly, Alex had always wanted to go to Greece and had always hoped to tour there one day; he kind of just wanted any excuse possible to put his slight grasp of Greek to the test.

"Good because you definitely are coming," Amara chipped in again, tidying the table from paper plates. She looked at each of her sons friends individually to get her point across, there was no way they weren't, her 'mama and babas would adore them, probably too much in all honesty.

"I look forward to it," Oak smiled sweetly. Thanks to Eli she was practically fluent in Greek, she'd be sauntering around the towns communicating with everyone. She was glad her friend had a good day so far and was going back to Greece because she knew how much he missed it, it was always difficult though with his sister still being in school and finding the money and time to travel over there.