Falling fast

Chapter 4

-Sharon

"Yeah, but Alex despises being behind the wheel of Mom's cherry red Rover," the speaker said. I extended my bouquet of flowers to him. "Would it be possible for you to ask your mother to put them in a vase for me?"

Luke poked fun at the end of my ponytail while saying, "We'd better get going, Sharon," as he stood behind me and pulled on the tail of my hairstyle. I gave him a wry grin and took the hand that he was offering before allowing him to drag me out of the kitchen. I had no choice but to give in to the urge to grin broadly with glee as it spread across my face. Since I was the youngest member of my circle of friends, reaching this milestone seemed to take an eon to accomplish. Today, I turned eighteen and became an official adult.

"I hope you have a pleasant day at school. Don't forget that dinner is planned for tonight with the group. As we were leaving, my father called out to us, "Your grandparents will be here at six!" as we left the house.

As soon as we pulled into the parking lot, the car was immediately crammed full of people, just as it was each morning when we arrived. It seemed like all of Luke's friends and teammates had gathered here to talk to him about a sport that had been on television the night before, but I wasn't the least bit interested in it. I smiled politely but not authentically as I got out of the car and continued on my way. I couldn't stand any of Luke's friends because they were such complete and utter jerks, and I had no idea why Luke spent any time with them at all. I couldn't stand Luke's friends.

“Luuuuuuuuke!” Ricky poked fun at him while jokingly punching him in the ribs. As I looked longingly at the front door of the school, I did my best to suppress a groaning sound in my throat. I didn't want to have to stand around and listen to them harp on about football, parties, girls, and even more girls today. I just wanted to get inside and talk to people who actually liked me, rather than people who tolerated me because I was dating the quarterback. I just wanted to get inside and talk to people who actually liked me.

"What's going on, buddy?" Luke greeted him by wrapping his arm around my shoulder and putting an end to my attempt to flee. I let out a small sigh and sat down on the hood of his car, mentally preparing myself to be completely uninterested in whatever Luke had to say. Luke surprised me by shaking his head. "I'm sorry, but I can't stop to talk; my lady's birthday is today, and I'm assuming that she wants to celebrate with her friends." Luke said while he was grinning at me and looking at me.

I gave him a quick kiss and then nodded in agreement. “Yeah. I jumped off of the hood of his car and suggested to him, "You stay here and talk though, and I'll see you at lunchtime," completely oblivious to the fact that the girls were making fun of me and scrutinizing my outfit choice. No one thought I was good enough for Luke, and no one saw what he saw in me when he looked at me. However, I didn't care what other people thought because as long as Luke saw something special in me, that was all that mattered to me. I just couldn't help but send that queen bee at our school, Sandy, a smug smile because she was the one that every young and impressionable girl wanted to be when she grew up. I was aware that she had feelings for Luke, but he never made it clear that he was interested in her in any way. It was as clear as day that she was complaining to her friends about me, even though she gave me a phony smile in return and then turned her back on me. If they had pointed at me while whispering behind their hands, it wouldn't have been any clearer.

Luke made a frowning face and shook his head before drawing me in closer to him. "No way. "If I could, I would spend your entire birthday with you, but I guess that's not possible, so I'll settle for every spare second you have," he cooed as he gently kissed me. "But I guess that's not possible, so I'll settle for every spare second you have," he said. Instantaneously, his friends began laughing at us and making snide comments about how we ought to find a room. I simply continued to ignore them as I had done on every other occasion.

He walked away while laughing and then playfully punched the guy who was closest to him. After that, he nodded in the direction of the entrance and signaled for me to take the lead. I was clinging to him as I almost skipped up to the building, and I did so. This has been, by far, the most enjoyable birthday I've ever had. Although the previous year had been pretty special as well, because it was on that night that Luke and I had our very first sleep together, for some reason this one just seemed perfect from the very first second that I woke up in his arms.

As we got closer to my locker, I looked over and saw Beth and Charlotte, two of my closest friends, waiting for me there. They were displaying a homemade banner that read "happy birthday" in front of them at the time. I couldn't help but laugh because of the amount of effort that had clearly been put in, as there was glitter and everything. My two best friends are adorable, and yet they couldn't have been more different from one another. Beth was extremely absent-minded and lived in her own private little fantasy world all the time. On the other hand, Charlotte was a total nerd when it came to computers. It blew my mind what she could do with computers, and if there was anything technical that needed to be done, she was the one to ask. When she was only fourteen years old, she made a mistake and hacked into the network of the local police department, which led to her getting into some trouble for herself. She had not intended to do so; rather, she was merely playing around with the idea of breaching their security for the sake of amusement when she actually succeeded. I believe she was now on their hacker watch list, despite the fact that they had thankfully realized that she wasn't actually trying to cause any harm. This accomplishment was something that she was secretly quite proud of.

As I approached them, both of them shouted, "Happy birthday!" in unison.

When I smiled, they both pounced on me and gave me a hug that nearly broke my ribs. “Thanks.”

"Here, we bought together," Beth chirped, holding out a flat rectangular present that I immediately recognized as a book due to the shape of the present. "We bought this together."

I gave a friendly smile before ripping the paper. As I began to pull it open, I gushed to her, "You didn't need to get me anything." They had created a design for the cover of the photo album by drawing on it and also writing the words "Senior year" on the front of the album. Inside was a photo album. "Oh, this makes me happy. Many thanks to you both!"

Charlotte urged people to "Open it up."

When I opened the front cover, I saw three tickets for a midnight preview screening of the second Hunger Games movie, which was set to be released in a few weeks. I frowned, confused, but opened the front cover anyway. I let out an excited squeal as I threw my arms around them both and squealed with joy. "These are wonderful, and I simply cannot wait!" As we all began to perform a happy dance in the middle of the corridor, I chirped excitedly. I caught a glimpse of the popular girls glaring at us with disapproval, but I didn't give a damn because I was perfectly content with my status as a nerd, and it didn't bother me one bit that they thought less of me for it.