"Girl, you look hot. I told you blue would look fabulous on you," Leia, her best friend squealed.

Maddy bit her lower lip and looked at the mirror. A girl with wavy brown hair, piled into a bun stared back at her. Maddy sighed and tugged her dress, not sure if she agreed with her best friend. Maddy wasn't ugly to look at, but she wasn't pretty either. She looked normal, too normal.

Today, was Leia's sixteenth birthday and Leia had insisted that Maddy should wear the short blue dress that they bought last week while shopping. However, Maddy felt that the dress was over the top with its frills and laces but wore it to please the birthday girl.

Even though the party hadn't begun yet, Maddy was already at Leia's house. It had been a custom that they followed since they first became friends. Whenever it was one of their birthdays, the other one should come to the birthday girl's house early in the morning. They would spend the entire day together and just before the party they would dress up together i.e. Leia would help Maddy dress up because Maddy had no dressing sense, whatsoever.

Leia's house or rather, mansion was a fancy one, like the kind that you find in Hollywood. It was in a somewhat deserted area, cut off from the rest of the world. There were a bunch of houses surrounding Leia's house, Maddy's being one of them. There was a school a little far off where almost all the kids staying near Maddy's house went to. Maddy wasn't particularly very close to any of the kids of her age other than Leia.

"You know, you should send a picture of yourself like this to Xander," Leia said, her voice having a sly undertone to it.

Maddy whirled around to find Leia holding Maddy's phone. She immediately regretted telling Leia her phone's password. Before she could even take a step forward, Leia snapped a picture of her.

Xander was a guy she had met online. No, not on a dating app but on Wattpad, an app that she used to publish her own stories. Xander had been one of her first readers and they had become fast friends. They have been talking continuously for over five months now, and Maddy would be lying if she said that she didn't like him romantically. If his personality was anything to go by, then he was an amazing person.

"Give my phone back. Don't you dare send that to Xander," Maddy yelled, then went ahead and leaped on top of Leia, trying to get her phone back. They both fell on the bed in a tangle of legs.

"Get off me. You'll ruin both of our dresses."

"Then give my phone back."

And then they were playing a tug of war with her phone, while laughing, giggling and squealing. The door of Leia's room opened and they both froze. Leia's dad, Tristan came in to see what all the noise was about. When he saw the two of them wrestling like that, he shook his head, smiling and went away. The two of them immediately resumed fighting for the phone. After a lot of struggling Maddy managed to get her phone back. She mentally made a note to change her phone's password.

Once Maddy got off her, Leia frantically checked both of their dresses to make sure they were perfect, then reprimanded Maddy for almost destroying their dresses, to which Maddy grinned cheekily. Leia did her own hair and makeup and then proceeded to do Maddy's.

"Come on, let's go," Leia said, grinning once they were good to go.

Maddy reached out and grabbed Leia's hand. "Wait. I wanted to give you your birthday gift."

Maddy took out a giftwrapped box and handed it to Leia. Last week while going through Amazon, Maddy found the perfect gift to give to Leia. It was a pair of Bond Touch watch, one for Leia and the other for Maddy. If Maddy touches the watch's bond, the vibration is mimicked in the other bracelet, so Leia would be able to feel it and when you send a touch the other bracelet will light up in the color of your choice. It wasn't much, but Maddy had always been the simple kind of girl. Give her a book to read, and Maddy could happily spend the rest of the day in her room. The gift was expensive but was perfect. Especially since Leia would be shifting permanently to California in another week. Maddy still couldn't accept the fact that Leia would be leaving her forever in another week.

The day Maddy had found out that Leia was going to shift to California, she had cried her lungs out. Now you must be thinking, that it was a silly reason to cry for. But imagine, you and your best friend doing everything together- going to school together, getting kicked out of class together (because Leia can't resist trouble and Maddy makes it a point to get kicked out too because she can't survive without Leia), getting embarrassed together. They did everything together. Leia was the yin to Maddy's yang. They were two halves of a whole idiot. There was no Maddy without Leia. All Leia had to do was ask, and Maddy would gladly jump off a cliff, much to her mom's horror. And now imagine that best friend just left one day. And multiply the pain by 100. That's how much it hurt. Like the ripping of a band aid. It hurt like HELL.

Maddy looked at Leia expectantly, waiting for her reaction on receiving her gift. When she received none, she felt slightly uneasy and said, "It's fine if you don't like the watches, I can return it and get you something else."

"NO. I am going to wear this till the day I die." Leia said and tore upon the box and took out the two watches. She wore one and gave Maddy the other one. Maddy too wore it and lightly tapped the band of the watch. Leia's watch immediately vibrated.

"This is the coolest thing ever... This is so beautiful. I-" Leia then started to fan her herself and look at the ceiling. "I have already finished my makeup. I can't cry. Goddammit."

Maddy smiled hesitantly. "So, you like it?"

"Duh!!!" Leia squealed and gave Maddy a huge hug.

They both made their way downstairs. There were already dozens of people waiting for the birthday girl. Leia's dad was rich with a capital R. Maddy didn't know where he worked exactly but he got bundles of money. So, it wasn't a surprise that he had gone all out to make Leia's sixteenth birthday perfect. The entire place was blue and black themed according to Maddy and Leia's dress. Leia usually stood out in the crowd, with her shoulder length black hair and porcelain skin but today, she had outdone herself. Leia wore a long and elegant black dress. It was backless and made her look like a regal and gorgeous.

There were many people already waiting for the birthday girl when Leia and Maddy walked in. Maddy spent some time talking with some of her classmates from school who she was somewhat familiar with while Leia talked to the hundreds of people who came to visit her. Maddy assumed that they worked for Leia's dad as they seemed kind of afraid of Leia and her Dad. Not the 'he might hurt me' scared but more like the 'he might fire me for doing something wrong so I should be on my best behavior' scared.

After some time, Maddy found Leia alone, so she went up to her. When she reached her, Maddy saw that Leia was on a call with some boy who she didn't recognize. Maddy hurried forward to see who the guy was. When Leia realized that Maddy had come, she immediately cut the call and turned to Maddy.

Maddy narrowed her eyes, "Was that a boy? And are your cheeks pink?"

Maddy couldn't believe it. Leia had never shown any romantic interest towards any boys. She friend zoned each and every boy who tried to ask her out, preferring to be 'bros' with them instead and that was a lot of boys, considering the fact that Leia was gorgeous to look at and had an amazing personality. Whenever Maddy asked if she found anyone she was interested in, Leia would reply saying that she was still waiting for 'the one'. It looked like Leia had finally found her 'the one'.

"That was no one. Oh, I heard that there is a chocolate fountain somewhere. Let's go there," Leia said.

Maddy gave Leia her best mom-stare. "That trick won't work. Now spill."

With a grumble, Leia told Maddy about the boy who she was talking to. Apparently, he was this guy she had met in a party and he had called to wish her happy birthday.

"I am offended that you didn't tell me about him," Maddy said crossing her arms across her chest.

"Come on, I didn't think it would be serious. You know what I mean."

With that Leia dragged her to the chocolate fountain that she had been talking about. Leia sure knew how to distract and cheer Maddy up. Chocolate could make anyone smile, even Severus Snape.

After feasting on the delicious food in the party till she could no longer walk, Leia, Maddy and five other girls from school went up to Leia's room to play a round of truth or dare. They had a lot of fun and by the end of the day, while returning back home, Maddy was drenching wet because 'someone' thought that pushing Maddy into the pool would be fun. That someone, being none other than the birthday girl.

A she was walking towards her house, Maddy stumbled because of her heels and cursed. Why on earth had she decided that walking with heels at the dead of night was a good idea? She took the turn towards her house, stumbling once again. Suddenly, she felt eyes piercing into her back as though someone was watching her. It was a five-minute walk to her house from Leia's, so, Maddy had decided to walk on her own at 2 in the morning. Clearly, not one of her brightest ideas. With a little shiver running through her back, Maddy wrapped her arms around herself and started walking faster.

Hey, guys! This is my first original story, so make sure to vote, comment and share this story. -Aroha