Everything was ready; the time, the place, the guestlist, the gifts, the decorations. (Including a net that spanned almost the entire ceiling of the barn holding dozens upon dozens of multicolored balloons and confetti. The the simple pull of a rope would release the multitude of balloons down on the party goers.) Everything now we just had to get the birthday girl here.

Celeste had mentioned that Draya rarely celebrated her birthday anymore. I guess when you have been around for over a century and a half Birthdays might not have the same meaning or hold the same importance. But I love Draya more than I could ever say and I wanted to celebrate the day the love of my life came into this world. We were all gathered at Brian’s property and we were going to have the party in the barn. We needed plenty of space considering the fact that at least a quarter of the vampire coven was invited; with strict orders not to feed on any of the human guests. Hallie and I had spent the better part of two days decorating it after school. We were just lucky that Draya’s birthday landed on the weekend. Finally the 20th had arrived and everyone of the attendees was there.

“Well looks like everything is ready.” said Hallie.

“Yeah and you got the cake right?”

“Well I was busy helping you so I told Tracy to do it.”

“And I had prior commitments with Jeff so I told Brian to do it.”Tracy said.

“And I forgot to do it!” Brian exclaimed.

“Damn it Brian!” Raquel said with a stomp of her foot.

Thankfully Tracy stepped in to save the day. “Hang on maybe we can avert this crisis, we still have a few hours. Sare Bear text me the address of the cake place. Brian you’re coming with me.” she said grabbing her keys and heading out the door, Brian in toe.

Two hours later and they were back with the cake, but when we opened up the box we discovered that it was a dick cake. “Brain didn’t you check in the box to make sure they gave you the right one?” Tracy yelled.

“No, I mean we were kind of in a hurry.”

“Brian you always check the box first!” I yelled at him. I almost felt guilty when he actually flinched away from me, but only almost. I was trying not too freak out, but a voice in my head kept screaming _‘that’s it the whole thing is ruined might as well just call the whole party off and send everyone home’,_ but I knew I couldn’t do that it was too late.

“Don’t worry Sarah I’m sure everything will be alright. It was just a mistake and I bet when we tell Draya the story she might even find it funny.” Jeff said.

I liked Jeff, he was always the nicest guy and Treated Tracy like a queen and it was sweet of him to try to reassure me. I was just currently trying and failing to hold back tears.

“Sare Bear when Draya gets here and sees all the trouble you went through for her she won’t even care about the shape the cake is in.” said Kelsey.

“Come on Sarah you know I hate it when you cry and you are ruining your mascara.” Hallie said.

“I’m sorry guys but I need a moment.” I said to my friends.

“Come on Sarah, I will take you up to the house and when you calm down we’ll get your face cleaned up and get you back out here before the birthday girl gets here.” Hallie said taking me by the arm and leading me to Brian’s house. She sat me on the couch and got me a big glass of water.

“Here drink this it’ll help.” Hallie said.

I don’t know why, but as the cool liquid slid down my throat I did feel a bit better.

“I’m sorry for acting so emotional, but I wanted everything to be perfect.”

“It doesn’t have to be perfect Sarah. Nobody is expecting it to be and trust me you will look back on this one day and have a good laugh about it because in retrospect it’ll all seem silly.”

“Yeah well right now silly is not the word I would use to describe it.”

“Sarah you remember my 11th birthday party?”

“Yeah, you’re dad got you a puppy, Freckles as a Birthday present and you got really upset because he ended up eating half your birthday cake… good thing you had a vanilla cake that year.”

“Yeah otherwise that could have ended badly…anyway remember how I got cheered up?”

“Yeah you’re dad smooshed some of the cake on your face and Freckles licked it off and that got you laughing.“

“Right so are you going to cheer up or am I going to have to smoosh a piece of that dick on your face?”

I started laughing “Seriously Hallie did you have to say it like that?”

“It got you laughing didn’t it?”

“Yeah it did.” I admitted

“Come on lets get your makeup fixed, your mascara is running and we’ll probably have to do a complete redo.”

She took me into the bathroom and had me sit on this little vanity chair that was in there. She used one to those special makeup wipes to clean my face with before applying a powder foundation and blush. Next was the eyeshadow and mascara. Then the lipstick before having me turn around to look at myself in the mirror. I looked just as good if not better than before.

“Not half bad if I do say so myself.”

“You did a great job Hallie, thank you.”

“What are best friends for? Now let’s get back to the party before birthday girl gets here and don’t worry about the cake we’ll just blame it all on Brain.”

When we exit the bath room Forest is jogging over to us excitedly. “You guys, Brain fixed the cake!”

“Babe, what do you mean by he fixed it?” Hallie asked.

“It’s kind of hard to explain so come to the barn you have got to see it.”

We followed Forest back out to the barn and over to a table where Brian is piping the words ‘Happy Birthday Draya’ onto what appears to be a three tiered cake.

“How?” I ask.

“Well I just rounded out the top part a bit and then cut out two smaller round pieces for the other two tiers. I knew my parents had some vanilla frosting, and some red colored sprinkles which I thought would be nice on the bottom tiers since it is a red velvet cake, and food coloring, so I sent the guys up to the house to get the stuff and while I piped frosting around the sides of the other two tears Raquel and Tracy mixed some blue and red food coloring into some of the frosting for the purple letters.” Brian explained as he piped a purple heart next to the words filling in the inside part with red sprinkles.

“Brian in this moment you are absolutely awesome and I’m sorry for yelling at you earlier because you totally just saved the day.” I say throwing my arms around his neck and pulling him into a hug.

“Its nothing fixing it is the least I could do after screwing up.”

“It’s not nothing your the best Brian really.”

“You know I got your back girl, all of us do… now could you help me carry this over to the dessert table? I don’t want to lose my newly acquired awesomeness by accidentally dropping this thing.” he said gesturing to the cake. I helped pick up the cake and took it over to the dessert table and setting it down along with the assortment of treats that littered the table then someone said from near the door “Everybody Quiet Celeste just pulled up with the guest of honor.”

“Get ready everyone.” I said

Brian went and turned the lights off and silence fell. We could hear voices approaching the barn. “Remind me why we had to come here again.” Said Draya’s voice

“Because Brian mentioned that he had some old vinyl records that he was thinking of selling to pre played, but I asked if we could look through them first before he got rid of them.”

A few moments later a beam of light broke through the darkness and as the two women stepped into the barn the lights flashed on. The multicolored balloons and confetti were released down on to the party goers and guest of honor alike and of course everyone yelled “SURPRISE!” Before a chorus of she’s a jolly good fellow broke out, Halie and Kelsey filming the entire thing on their phones. Draya was smiling and laughing then her eyes fell on me and she strode over. “Was this all your doing darling?”

“I had a little help setting it all up but it was my idea,” I confessed

“This is very sweet of you princess, thank you.”

I smile as she pulls me onto a kiss.

After all the meets and greets and pleasantries were over Brian put on some music and everyone started dancing. After a few dances it was early afternoon and looking at the mountain of gifts I thought it was time to begin opening them. We sat Draya down in a chair at a round table and began handing her gifts to open. The first was from Brain and turned out to the an old Robert Johnson vinyl record.

“Robert Johnson was the best blues artist of all time, It’s rumored that he stood at a crossroad in Mississippi and sold his soul to the devil for his musical talents,” Brian said.

“Do you really believe that?” Asked one of the vampires who was present.

Brian shrugged and said “I don’t know, but speaking from a religious standpoint if there are angels then there’s got to be demons. I mean the devil doesn’t sit down there all by himself and even if it’s not true it still makes for an interesting story.”

“Agreed.” said a Dark skinned female vampire who I also did not know the name of (I really should try to get to know more of the covin)

Draya sets the record aside.

“Open mine next.” Hellie said thrusting a box in front of Draya. Draya opened it and inside was a see through mid thigh langth black nightie with black faux fur on the straps and around the collar and around the bottom hem as well it also had matching panties and bra and a silk black robe that fell about knee length.

“I have a matching set for you in red in my car. You can grab it before you leave” Hallie whispered to me from behind her hand.

“Hallie seriously…!” I grumbled.

Draya however smiled, “Thank you Hallie how… thoughtful of you.”

“Glad you think so because that was just the gag gift here’s the real one.” she said handing another box to Draya who took and tentatively opened it turned out to be a beautiful navy blue cashmere sweater.

“Thank you Hallie it’s lovely.” she said placing the lid back on both boxes and setting them aside.

Next was Kelsey’s gift which was three tall glass candle votives with the word faith etched into one, the word hope etched into another, and the word love etched into the last one and three lavender colored pillar candles “Thank you Kelsey they’re beautiful,”

Then came Tracy’s gift it was a rear view mirror ornament in the shape of a cloud with a lightning bolt coming out of it ingraved on the cloud were the words be more powerful than the sform “I saw it and thought this totally fit you.” Tracy said

“Thank you Tracy and I agree it does fit me,” said Draya.

Next was Raquel’s gift which at first glance was a simple compact mirror but was actually a LED travel mirror that lights up evenly and a rechargeable battery via usb cable “Every girl should have a good compact mirror” Raquel said.

“And this one is exquisite thank you,”

Jeff, Phil and Forest had all decided to go with visa gift cards. Inpersonal but appropriate gifts for the best friend’s girlfriend. The mountain of presents slowly began to shrink with each gift opened until there was only one gift left..,my gift. I set the gift in front of Draya and she eagerly opened it to reveal a 157 piece sketch and draw are set which included 24 Color Pencils, 12 Watercolor Pencils, 6 Flourescent Pencils, 8 metallic Pencils, 12 Graphite Pencils, 3 Charcoal Pencils, 4 Vine Charcoals, 4 Sketching Sticks, 3 Charcoal Sticks, 12 Soft Pastels, 12 Oil Pastels, 1 Sanding Block, 2 Blending Stumps, 2 Erasers, 1 Kneading Eraser, 1 Sharpener, 1 Artist Clipboard, 1 Artist Pencil Case, 1 Artist Pencil Wrap, 12 Sheets of Mixed Media Paper, and 35 Sheets of Drawing Paper.

“I have been needing new art supplies thank you darling.”

“Yeah I remember you mentioning it.”

“Again thank you darling.”

I smiled “Well I think that’s all the girts…” I say before I am cut off by a voice I not only recognize but was also not expecting.

“Actually I have a gift.” I turn to see Ruby leaning against a wall a purple gift bag dangling from her fingers.

“What are you doing here? I don’t believe you were invited.” I said.

“I wasn’t, but almost half the coven was and well vampires talk.” she said this part low enough so only I ( and anyone with enhanced vampire hearing) would be able to hear it “So when I heard about this party being held in dear Draya’s honor I decided to crash, but don’t fret, I only wish to present her with my gift and see her blow out her candles and then I will leave.” she says sauntering over to the table holding the bag out to Draya.

TO BE CONTINUED IN STORY TITLED The Gift

It’s been a long day and I am tired so sorry for any spelling, grammar and punctuation mistakes I also just got my nails done today and am still getting used to having the acrylics on so… yeah

Also from now on I will be putting thoughts in italics and will eventually go back and change that in all my other stories

I am glad I was able to get this out before my birthday which is this Friday on the 17th

Hope you enjoyed 😃💜🖤