32 people have written on your timeline.

Lily got exactly the same birthday message from all of her Facebook friends. Jazz Raven, Eleanor Peakey, Richard Craig, Elizabeth Darkston, John Darkston, Sarah Gibson, Mark Spencer and so on.

She liked and thanked all of them, using the same generic message, occasionally adding an in-joke but not really caring. All she wanted was for her parents to be able to get through this one day without shouting at each other about the divorce.

For once she was actually disappointed that her birthday hadn't fallen on a school day. Every time it had, she had dreaded it, just in case REJ decided it was time to set her up for a surprise party in home room.

For once, Lily didn't want to have her birthday at home, in the 'calm and quiet' atmosphere that it was.

She was still in bed and feigning sleep under the covers, procrastinating about getting up and facing her family.

Soon though, her stomach felt like it was being eaten from the inside. Lily pulled herself up and out of bed, knowing that her family already knew that she was awake. She yawned, her face deforming as her mouth stretched as hard and as wide as it could.

Lily made her way slowly down the stairs and into the kitchen, where her parents were waiting with chocolate chip pancakes.

She devoured her favourite breakfast in less than a minute, she sat there, childhood memories washed over her.

"Nathan Darkston! Get out of bed and down the stairs! It's your sister's birthday!"

"One second!" Nate shouted down the stairs blearily, the fact that he'd only just got up evident in his voice.

As he stumbled down the stairs, only half dressed, Lily shrieked in excitement as she saw the pile of presents in the lounge area.

"Ow. Ow. Ow. Don't scream that loud, my ears are very sensitive, also the neighbours will think someone's being murdered somewhere." Nate grumbled as he grabbed a shirt off of the top of the laundry basket.

"Is this it? Is it?" Lily squealed and pointed to a large triangular shaped box.

"No, Lily, it's clearly the massive triangle we got you for your birthday!" Lily punched Nate in the arm, hard. "Ow! Mom! She hit me!"

"It's her birthday, Nate. She can punch you as much as she wants." Her mother said, her smirk clear through her tone.

"Thank you! Thank you thank you thank you thank you!"

"For the guitar or for the punching?" Lily's dad asked jokingly.

"Both."

Instead of running towards her new guitar Lily sat calmly on the sofa and waited for her parents. Her brother was being especially slow and Lily managed to get so frustrated she pulled him out of the kitchen while he still had half a pancake in his mouth. He protested but nobody in the house could understand a word.

---/|\---

At around ten o'clock in the morning, after Lily had already played her new guitar for two hours straight, there was a loud knocking on the door. Lily left it for one of her parents to get, but they were fussing over something in the kitchen.

"Lily? That's for you, I'm sure. Go and get it." Her mother yelled from the kitchen.

"Hey! Lily-Willy! Let us in!" Lily groaned as Jazz's two year old nickname suddenly made its way into her family.

"Lily-Willy... I'm totally calling you that." Nate chuckled as he walked down the stairs to let the group in. If Jazz was here, the rest would have followed. Lily set her guitar down in anticipation of the flood of hugs that her friends would want. She stood.

Nathan opened the door and Jazz almost knocked him over with a hug that was meant for Lily.

"Damn Lily! Why didn't you open the door?"

"Yeah Lily! Why didn't you open the door?" Nate repeated as he landed on the fourth step on the staircase. Lily giggled,

"Mainly 'cause I knew that that would happen."

"Lily. You. Infuriate. Me."

"That's my job." She smiled and poked his chest. "Hey guys!"

"Lily!" The four of them chorused and Lily noted that Jacob had subtly become part of their group. She tried her hardest to wrap her arms around all four at once but could only reach around Jazz and Jacob, who stood with Eleanor and Richard in between them.

"So... Where's the new guitar? Can I have a jammin' sesh?" Jazz asked.

"No."

"You play guitar?" Jacob, having not known Lily very well for very long, had a puzzled expression on his face.

"Yeah. Did you never see me at the 'Talent Shows'?"

"No. I kinda always signed myself up for it and then faked illness. On the day. Because my mom is awesome like that." Lily opened her mouth to reply but spun around as she heard Jazz twiddling a tune on her guitar.

"Jamie Meredith Raven! You put that guitar down right now Missy!"

She turned back around as soon as she was satisfied that Jazz had gotten the message from her death stare. Jacob had his hand on his face and Lily realised that must have whipped him with her hair as she turned. He pulled his hands away, blinking, but looking more or less alright.

"I think I'm ok..." He said, blinking some more, then he nodded, "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Oh, um, Dylan wanted your number, so I, uh, gave it to him. Is that alright?"

"Hm? Sure." She said, distracted by Jazz's hand inching further and further towards the guitar. "Jazz if you really want to play a guitar, go upstairs and get my acoustic. Ok?"

Jazz groaned and stretched her arm with her hand hanging limp at the end. "But Lily, I can't reach." Lily sighed,

"There are chips in the kitchen." After hearing this, Jazz jumped up and ran for the kitchen,

"Hey Lizzy! Johnny, my man! Where are the chips?" Again, Lily sighed, she wondered briefly if Jazz had always been so forward with her parents or if she just had a weird sense of naïveté that prevented her from being frowned upon.

"In the freezer. I think, why?" Johnathon said,

"Chips, not fries. Chips." Lily yelled to the other room.

"Oh." She heard her dad say, then he trailed off as he spoke to Jazz. Richard enveloped Lily into an almost bone-crushing hug and whispered in her ear,

"Lily? Eleanor's staring at your brother. And, uh... So am I."

"Well then stop it. You too El. Stop." She added, increasing her volume so that her friend could hear her. "How come you never threw me parties like this at school? El! Ellie?" It took Eleanor a while to realise she was being spoken to.

"Jazz wanted it to be special, just you and your close friends. AKA, her, Richard and I, and, now, Jacob. And if we were at school, a bunch of people you would barely know would just wander over in the prospects of free food."

"Hm... Totally not like what Jazz is doing right now." Eleanor and Richard chuckled at Lily's joke.

---/|\---

Another few hours later, after many more of Jazz's attempts to jam out on Lily's guitar had failed miserably, the four of them left. Lily slid into the sofa, breathing heavily after almost physically pushing Jazz out of the door.

"You look exhausted. You poor girl." Lily's mom walked in, a sympathetic expression on her face. She sat down next to her daughter and brushed the hair from her eyes, "If they're prepared to make this much of an effort, it just shows that they're good friends; ones you should keep, through college, and boyfriends, and husbands."

"Mom! I know that! I'm going to stay in contact with them. Why wouldn't I?"

"I don't know. People drift away in college. Anyway darling, your father's asking whether you want a cup of tea."

"Yeah, thanks."

"Alright, just relax." Her mother got up and left Lily lying on the sofa.

There was a sudden, heavy, continuous drop onto the roof. The weather had decided to ruin Lily's birthday, and started chucking it down.

"Why? Why-hy-hy?" Lily wailed at the ceiling.

She heard an odd pattern in the thundering of the rain, and, thinking it could possibly be someone at the door, got up and opened it.

"Are you insane?" She told Richard, who was huddled, soaked through, in his hoodie, as close to the door as he could get without flattening his cheek.

"So this is how it works! It's how you get the girl! Girl!" He sang.

"Dad! Put another cup on." She said, wildly gesturing Richard inside, "Nate! Towel!"

"Thanks. I mean I came to give you my present, the one I'd got from just me, 'cause I forgot to do it earlier, and it just started hurling it down. I'd just gotten out of my car-"

And Lily's face was obscured by a flying towel.

"Nathan Darkston! I swear to every God ever-!"

"Anyway," Richard continued as he plucked the towel from Lily's head, "I'd just gotten out of my car when it started raining, and I sprinted to your front door." He pulled a square, maroon box out of his hoodie pocket and handed it to Lily. "It's nothing much, it's just... You know when we were out of town, in that little village? Well, you know we were in that second-hand store? And you said you really liked that-"

"Ebony and ivory bird necklace. Yeah?"

"Well..." He nudged the box, "Did you really not see where I was going with that?"

"For some reason, no." She opened the box and gasped, "Thank you Richard! I'd forgotten how beautiful it was, you're the best."

"Don't let Jazz hear you say that." He chuckled as he was enveloped into a large, sopping wet hug.

"God, we need to get you some dry clothes, you're Nate's size, right?"

---/|\---

The next day was nowhere near as eventful as the last, Lily, Nate and their parents went out for lunch with Elizabeth's parents. Both Johnathon and Elizabeth pretended that their marriage was fine, considering that her parents loved John, but when Lily looked closely she could see the strain it was putting on both if them.

Lily received a few texts from classmates asking how her day had been, she ignored pretty much all of them, except for the few people to whom she was actually close.

Surprisingly, Lily had forgotten about what Jacob had said the previous day, and was thoroughly freaked out when she received a text from an unknown number,

Unknown - Hey Lily, Just wanted to say that I'm sorry I couldn't be there yesterday but Josh had a big thing on and I couldn't miss it, I'll see you soon though, right?

She'd thrown her iPhone across the room in surprise when that message came through and attempted to mentally scroll through all the people she'd given her number to. Then she tried to mentally scroll through all the people she knew called Josh and all their relatives.

Carefully retrieving her phone from the pile of clothes it had landed on, she sent a message back,

Who is this?

Within a few minutes, a reply had pinged back,

Unknown - Dylan. Did Jacob not tell you that he'd given me your number?

Lily tried to think back to yesterday, but all she could remember was Jazz reaching for her guitar every two minutes and Richard huddled outside in the rain.

I don't know. Maybe?

She felt like an idiot. How could she not remember? Suddenly realisation hit home and she dropped her phone. The Incident Guy had her number. The Incident Guy was texting her. She gasped and fumbled for the phone as the screen lit up.

Dylan - Haha. Yesterday a bit FUZZY then?

Oh hardy har. No, I was not drinking. And in answer to your next question yes, I am an alcohol virgin.

Dylan - That was so not going to be my next question.
... Or was it...

Maybe you should be a stand up comedian. I'd be the only one in the audience.
And I'd be heckling you.

Dylan - Ouch.

The truth hurts.

Dylan - Not all truths.

Huh?

Dylan - Want a coffee sometime?

Sure. But I promised Jacob coffee this week. And I just can't pass off an opportunity to torture him with chocolate goods and beverages.

Dylan - That'd be fun. Can I come along?

Great. My own comedian.

Dylan - I don't have to come.

Wait... Josh Evans?

Dylan - That's my brother, yeah.

He's got Calculus with me on Monday. And History... He's going for Cambridge, right?

Dylan - Oxford actually, but what difference does it make. Everyone there calls them Oxbridge, if you don't go, you can't tell the difference. Believe me.

A part of Lily was ecstatic that she was talking to her crush and not making a fool of herself, but another part was petrified that she would make a mistake and ruin it. Not that she thought there was anything to ruin. Not that she thought Dylan thought as much of this conversation as she did.

Dylan - Well, I'll talk to Jakey-boy and see if we can get this chocolate torment thing sorted.