Food poisoning. Of course, that was the brilliant excuse my brain had come up with when trying to come up with an excuse about why I couldn't see Mia on her birthday. It was easily the most unsexist excuse I could possibly have come up with, and I regretted it immensely.

She was probably imagining me either sitting on a toilet shitting up a storm, or projectile vomiting everywhere. It was fucking humiliating– that's what it was.

I should have told her I'd hurt my shoulder quad-biking with Lucas or some shit. At least that would sound hot.

I frowned and continued driving. I was interrupted by an obnoxious snort of laughter from the back seat. "So let me get this straight, you told Mia you were too busy shitting yourself, to come see her?" Lucas called out with a cackle from the back seat.

I stiffened in embarrassment as Chloe let out a snort of laughter from the seat beside me, which she poorly tried to hold back with a hand against her lips. May was also not much help, and started lightly shaking, and looked like she was pissing herself laughing from the backseat.

I glared at Lucas from the rear-view mirror. "I didn't say it in those exact words," I snapped.

We were on our way to Mia's to surprise her for her birthday so we'd all made up dumb excuses for why we couldn't see her today.

"And at least, I didn't tell her I'm taking my cat to the beauty parlour all day," I said as I shot Lucas a pointed look. "She probably thinks you're a prick now."

"Well, I am a prick," Lucas answered back with a simple smile.

I decided not to comment, glad the boy at least knew what he was.

As Lucas rattled on about more nonsense, I soon pulled up beside Mia's house and parked up by the curb in my usual place.

We all climbed out of the car and made our way over to the door. Before I could ring the bell, Chloe eagerly started handing out party poppers, wanting to add 'to the surprise effect' was how she put it.

Once I'd rung the bell, a handful of seconds passed by before soon enough the door slowly opened. Mia's face appeared in the hole in the doorway, looking all wide-eyed and confused. I smiled immediately. Then like that, a stream of confetti, came flying towards her cute face as Lucas let out a cheer in celebration.

She jumped back in shock, and I couldn't help but laugh at the expression on her face.

"What the fuck?" she finally said in shock as she stared between all four of us cackling at her.

"It's your birthday, Mia. Did you really think we ditched you?" May commented with a snort.

Mia's face immediately brightened red, and she looked away in embarrassment, clearly realizing she'd fallen for the most basic of all birthday tricks in the world. Let's face it, if anyone was going to fall for it, it was going to be Mia.

Her eyes caught with my amused ones, and she crossed her arms, and I had to fight my eyes straying to her chest that looked a little too fucking good in her top right now. Did I ever mention how fucking hot she was?

Her eyes narrowed in on me, causing a natural heat to ignite in my stomach.

"Food positioning?" she said sassily.

"Hey, it wasn't my idea," I laughed. "Lucas thought it would be funny if you thought everyone had ditched," I explained quickly, not hesitating for a second in throwing Lucas to the wolves.

Mia turned to glare at Lucas. "You guys are mean," she complained, but I could clearly see she was struggling to hold back a smile from appearing on her face.

"But you love us anyway," Chloe sang in excitement.

Mia let out a heavy sigh while still failing to hold back her smile as she stepped out of the way to let us into the house.

I resisted all temptation, to pin her playfully up against the wall as I entered cursing the fact that our friends were present. Fucking cockblockers.

She led us into the living room and flopped down on her spot on the sofa. I noticed her eyes light up as she spotted the present in my hands as well as the other brightly wrapped gifts our friends were holding.

"Yay, presents, gimmie!" she said with a smile, suddenly looking more perky.

I let out a snort before crashing down close beside her on the sofa. I put an arm around her with a chuckle. "Are you sure you're actually eighteen and not seven or something?" I teased.

She turned to arch a brow at me, the look she was giving me, fogging my mind. As was that damn sexy smile resting on her lips.

"Well, you better hope, I'm eighteen otherwise that makes you a pedo, babe," she retorted bluntly.

I rolled my eyes at her, knowing she was absolutely fucking right with the things I thought about her.

Lucas who was sitting down on the sofa across from us with May, threw Mia's present across the room, and onto her lap.

"Open mine first, It's the best one," Lucas snapped bossily with a cocky smile stretched out on his face.

Mia instantly eyed the gift with suspicion as did I. It deeply scared me what kinds of things could be in there, given Lucas's history of gifts. The boy looked a little too happy with himself for my liking...

Mia soon enough started ripping open the paper. The moment it was all removed, she paused, trying to work out what it was. Then her eyes suddenly widened, as though horrified.

Oh for fucks sake, what had he done.

Mia held the gift up and I saw the absolute moron had gotten her a pack of glow in the fucking dark condoms.

It was official, the man was positively insane.

May let out a long and frustrated groan. "That's not what I told you to get, you dumbass," she snapped before she whacked him upside the head.

Lucas rolled his eyes. "Well excuse me for thinking earrings sounded boring," he frowned. "I just wanted to give her something that she'd actually use," he shrugged.

My face immediately burned in shame, officially convinced I needed to strangle him later.

Mia's face had turned the sharpest of reds, and she scowled at him. "Lucas, what the fuck? My dad could walk downstairs at any moment. He'd have a heart attack if he saw this in my hand," she hissed lowly.

I more than agreed with her. As buddy, buddy as I'd gotten with Mia's dad recently, I don't think he'd warmed up to me quite to that level.

Lucas wasn't even fazed at Mia's panic. "And? Doesn't he want you guys to be safe? From the number of times, I've walked in on you guys with each other's tongues rammed down each other's throat, I'm sure it'll be used up rather quickly," he said flatly while giving a particularly pointed look towards me specifically.

My eyes narrowed.

"You've only walked in on us one time, stop exaggerating," I said with an exasperated sigh. "And also, why the fuck do you always get people condoms as presents? I literally still have the stupid pack you bought me a couple years ago. I was literally a virgin Lucas, so what the fuck?" I said in between an incredulous laugh.

"Well, I bought them on the off chance that 10th-grade Mia might want to hate fuck you or something," Lucas shrugged as though this was a completely reasonable thing to say.

His statement caused Mia to immediately break out into a loud and furious coughing fit, clearly terrified of how early Lucas had been planning our sex life.

Okay, now, I was going to kill him...

I looked nervously over to Mia, hoping she didn't think I had anything to do with that idea. I mean, did I dislike the hate-fucking idea? I mean, not entirely. I won't lie, I obviously would have joyfully gone along with it, if she offered but that was beside the point...

Lucas then let out a laugh. "And also are you shitting me about only walking in on you once? I've walked in on you plenty of times. Just last week, I came over to your house, and your hand was wiggling around down Mia's -"

"I think that's enough storytime," Chloe thankfully interrupted with a nervous laugh.

Mia immediately sent Chloe a thankful smile, clearly grateful she'd stopped Lucas from sharing the intimate details of our relationship to fucking everyone.

"Open mine, next," Chloe said as she stretched over, to hand Mia her present.

Mia took Chloe's present with a smile and ripped away the wrapping paper. She soon pulled out a beautiful-looking sundress and some sparkly nail polish.

"Aww, thank you, Chlo, I love it," she said as she held it to her chest proudly, making my heart warm.

"You didn't say you loved my present," Lucas whined from across the room.

"Yes, that was because it sucked," Mia, spat bluntly. Lucas being Lucas just stuck his tongue out at her childishly.

Mia opened May's present next and pulled out a large photo album. A massive grin stretched out onto Mia's face as she eagerly started to flip through the pages.

I looked over her shoulder, unable to help myself, and saw the book was filled with the most adorable pictures of her, Chloe, and May from when they were little all the way up to the present day.

A reminiscent smile tugged up my lips as I spotted a picture of her, from when she was about twelve years old.

I'd almost forgotten she'd ever looked like that. I remembered all too well thinking she was the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen. She still was.

That's when my eyes landed on an amusing picture of her at twelve, that particularly caught my eye. She turned the page quickly before I had too long to look at it.

"Woah, what's that one," I laughed as I flipped back a page, and pulled the book into my lap to point at a picture.

"Why are you holding a notebook up to the camera, and smirking your head off?" I asked with a laugh.

Mia's eyes instantly widened as she spotted the picture, and she immediately tried to snatch back hold of the book. "That's nothing, give it back," she stuttered, her voice audibly panicked.

More intrigued now than ever, I started to smile. What on earth had she been writing?

"Hell no," I snorted before twisting around so her arms were out of reach. I ignored my girlfriend's attempts to tackle me and tried to read.

"Wait....what does that say on the cover?" I said as I narrowed my eyes to see. The wording was hard to read. Finally, I read it and I let out a gasp.

"Holy shit, why does it say, 'ways to get away with murdering 'Ethan Blythe?" I laughed as I turned back to face her with an arched brow.

I was definitely intrigued now.

Mia immediately froze, and her face went immediately pale as she just looked at me. Her mouth opened as though she was about to say something, then swiftly closed again.

Mia's reaction confirmed undeniably that while I'd been hopelessly pining over her like a lovesick fool, she'd been plotting my death.

I guess it made sense why she always used to scribble furiously in a notebook after every interaction I had with her....

My brow cocked up to a further degree of amusement, feeling a little smug that I'd managed to convert her from that level of irritation to how she felt about me now.

Suddenly, Mia snapped her head towards May and scowled. "Why the hell did you put that picture in there?"

May sat back looking entirely unbothered just shrugged with a smile. "Thought it would be funny."

"I thought it would be funny," Mia mimicked childishly. "Newsflash, May, it's not."

Mia then turned slowly back towards me with a nervous laugh and a cute little smile. "Yeah....about that...I might have held an unusual amount of resentment towards you in middle school, that some might deem, 'unhealthy,' or 'psychopathic," she said as she scratched the back of her neck awkwardly.

I shook my head at her slowly, my eyes dancing over hers amusedly. "Some might deem?" I chuckled I think all might deem. But don't worry, I'm fine with dating a psychopath," I said with a wink.

Mia reached and slapped my shoulder. "I'm not a psychopath."

Laughing, I plucked my phone from my pocket and immediately started typing up the definition of a psychopath. Once, I'd find a site that conveniently suited my definition, I cleared my throat. "Psychopath – an unstable and aggressive person," I read aloud, putting a heavy amount of emphasis on the word aggressive as I shot her a particularly pointed look.

Mia immediately snapped her mouth shut, looking like she wanted to fight me. I hoped she would, knowing I'd enjoy a little tussle with her for all the wrong reasons.

"Oh shut, up," she finally grumbled before snatching the album back from my lap so she could continue looking through the pages.

Once she was done, she looked up at May with a grateful smile.

"Thanks, May, that was super sweet," she said softly.

"Yeah, it's our last year of high school together, so I thought I should make it to close a chapter and all that," May said.

I watched the smile slowly fade from Mia's face, clearly remembering it was the last year at school with her friends.

I thanked every fucking lucky star there was that she would be going with me to college. It was bad enough that I wouldn't have Lucas whose traitorous ass was going to Berkeley. They were only an hour apart but still.

"It's going to be so irritating not being at the same college as you guys...," Mia sighed.

"Well, at least you've still got, Ethan. You're going to Stanford with him, right?" May asked.

A strange look passed between Mia's eyes, and she paused. Why was she pausing? She got in. She'd told me last week.

"Actually, I got rejected. Guess we're going to have to do long-distance, Ethan," Mia remarked with a shrug of her shoulders as she looked at me.

"What!" I yelled, nearly jumping out of my seat. My heart instantly started elevating in panic. Shit, was she going to be across the country from me? "No, no, but you said you got in. Did you lie? Why would you do this to me? You didn't give me time to process this. Mia, why –"

The sound of her laughter cut off my next words, and I observed the teasing sparkle in her eyes as she looked me over in amusement. What the hell? Did she think this was funny?

"I'm only winding you up, Ethan. I got in," she admitted with a chuckle.

My shoulders immediately sagged with relief, the tension leaving my body. I then threw her a playful glare. "Is your favorite hobby to bully me, or something?" I snapped. Then picking up a cushion from behind me, I started whacking her side with it, as punishment for panicking me.

She let out a laugh. "Is that aggression I see? Looks like I'm not the only psychopath in the room," she choked out cutely between chuckles of laughter as I continued to softly hit her with the pillow.

I finally stopped and watched as she brushed her now messy hair away from her face with a far too pleased-looking smile.

"You're present better be good after attacking the birthday girl," Mia said as she eyed my gift on the table in intrigue.

Rolling my eyes, I stretched forward and grabbed the present before placing it gently onto her lap.

Just as she was about to rip it open, I put my hand gently over hers. "Wait, a second. Before you open it, I just want you to promise me that you'll go through the content inside safely, and sensibly," I explained slowly.

Mia scoffed. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. I promise," she said dismissively.

As soon as I let go of her hand, she started furiously ripping away at the paper until it scattered all around her in tiny shreds. I watched with vague amusement.

That was my girl, neat as they came...

She stopped once she found herself looking down at a beige woven picnic basket. She looked over to me, her face close as she arched a brow at me. "You...er...got me a picnic basket?" She laughed.

I rolled my eyes. "You have to open it," I sighed.

"Oh," she said simply.

She lifted the lid of the basket, and a gasp escaped her lips as she saw what lay inside. Tears of pure happiness started to pool in her eyes.

Okay, this girl was dramatic...

I couldn't help the smile that tugged up my lips as I watched, selfishly enjoying her happiness.

I'd filled the picnic basket to the brim with far too much sugar of all Mia's favorites from brownies, and muffins to Ben and Jerry's ice cream. I'd even decorate the cupcakes I'd baked with the number eighteen as well as little cartoon drawings of her that I'd spent embarrassingly fucking long on.

"Holy shit," Mia breathed, unable to tear her eyes away from the sight in front of her.

She slowly looked up at me, her mouth half hanging open. "Did you...did you bake this yourself?"

I nodded my head, my face heating a little, hoping she didn't think it was sad how long I'd spent on it.

"So, I take it you like it?" I asked as I looked her up and down in amusement.

"Like it?" she scoffed. "I love it. I could marry you on the spot for this," she laughed as she pecked me on the lips causing a tug at my stomach.

Once she pulled back, I looked over her with a mischievous glint in my eyes. "Careful, I might hold you to your word," I said with a wink. 

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