I was spraying perfume in front of the full length mirror in my bedroom when Theo opens the door and peeks inside. I have given up on scolding him for his habit of not knocking before entering. He has grown on me now.

"Are you going somewhere?" Theo asks, and enters the room fully.

"Yeah. Remember about my friend's birthday that I told you about?" I say as I apply my lip gloss.

"That's today?"

He covers the distance between us and stands directly behind me. Looking at our shared reflection on the mirror in front of us, Theo wraps his hands around my middle.

"Mm-hmm." I try to ignore the butterflies swarming in my belly as Theo looks at me with nothing but pure adoration in his eyes.

"You look good in red," Theo murmurs and kisses the top of my head. He rests his chin on top of my head gently and his hands slide lower to grab my hips. "When is your birthday?"

"It's gone already."

"Then why didn't you tell me?" He sounds somewhat offended. "I would've gotten you something," Theo says. "...and baked you a cake myself," he adds.

"My birthday was four months ago, Theo." I laugh. "We didn't even know each other back then."

Although, the idea of Theo baking a cake for me sure sounds tempting. Why did he have to put this idea in my head? Now, all I'll be thinking about is Theo adding icing to a cake while his eyebrows are furrowed in concentration because he doesn't want to mess it up. I'm pretty sure his baking skills would be just as good as he cooks.

Theo goes silent for a while. Then he speaks up again. "Is Adrien taking you there?"

"No, I'll drive myself," I tell him. "Sarah's place is not that far." I turn around in his hold and look up at him. "I have been there numerous times before. You don't have to worry." I give him a small smile.

Theo tucks my hair behind my ear and his hand lingers on my face. "What if some creep tries hitting on you?"

I laugh again, thinking he is joking. But then his lips pull down into a small frown which gives me a pause. Who knew Theo could also look so adorable?

"No one would try that. I'll be fine." I assure him again.

When the look of worry is still painted across his face, I lean up on my tip toes and place a kiss on his cheek, hoping it would make him feel better

******

I park the car and look at myself one last time in the rearview mirror. I take a few deep breaths and pick up Sarah's gift that was lying on the passenger seat.

'It's fine. I can do this,' I say to myself. I have been to social gatherings plenty of times before. I should be used to it by now. But I still get nervous at the mere thought of conversing with others.

And it's also partly because I know Noah would be here. Just my luck that he skipped school on the very day I thought I'd speak with him. And now I'd have to face him at Sarah's birthday. But I know this wouldn't be the best setting to talk to him. So I'll just avoid him as much as I can. It's only a matter of few hours until I return home.

'Yeah, should be easy enough. Right...?'

I glance down at the wrapped gift in my hands. It's a pair of new shoes that Sarah's been wanting for a while. I hope she'd like my gift. I won't stay for long, though. Every year she has a grand celebration, inviting the whole of school. This year is no different. I don't know why, but I have a gnawing anxiety building up in my stomach.

Is it because of facing Noah? Because ever since what Sarah told me in the school's cafeteria, I have been feeling uneasy. But Noah has been nothing but nice to me so far. He has never made me feel uncomfortable. No, it's Sarah that I'm worried about. She keeps making things awkward between Noah and I.

I inhale a deep breath for the umpteenth time and unlock the door and get out of the car. I walk inside the house I have been to so many times before, that I have lost count at this point. Entering the place, I am met with faces that I don't know the names of. I try not to pay them any mind as I make a bee-line for Sarah.

I find my best friend in the living room, surrounded by people. All of them either wishing her a happy birthday or complimenting her on her new dress. She notices me before I could call out for her, and I mentally thank God when she makes her way towards me.

"Oh, Amy!" She engulfs me in a bone crushing hug. "You're finally here," she says when she lets go from the hug but her hands linger on my arms. "You look so good."

"Not as good as you." I return her smile. "Here." I hand her the wrapped box and say, "Happy birthday, Sarah." I give her a genuine smile this time.

"Thank you, thank you," she repeats with a grin and hugs me once again. "I am finally eighteen. Can you believe that?" She gasps. "I am an adult now. Wow." She rocks on her heels. "And you're no longer older than me," she says, waving a finger in front of me.

"I'm still older than you by four months," I reply with a smirk.

"What? No." She protests. "Months don't count. We're both of the same age now." Sarah giggles.

Someone calls out her name and she looks at me with a worn out expression. "I'm sorry, find Noah or Alex, okay? I'll get back to you soon."

"Yeah, of course."

When she leaves, my eyes land on Alex's. He waves at me and I smile in return. I was about to walk up to him, where he was sitting on the couch, when a hand wraps around my waist. I immediately tense up. And before I could turn around, Noah reveals himself with a huge grin on his face.

"You're here," Noah says with a smile.

"I am, yeah," I say and remove his hand from my waist.

Noah's smile falters for a second before it reappears on his face. "Did you have anything to drink?"

"No, but I'm good." I give him a tight lipped smile.

"You look really good tonight," Noah says as his eyes take me in in the cherry red dress that I'm wearing. I try not to shudder as a shill runs down my spine.

"Uh, thanks," I mutter. "Y-you look good, too."

Noah is wearing a black t-shirt and equally black jeans. He chuckles and rubs the back of his neck. I avoid looking into his eyes and think of a way to go find Sarah.

"Do you want to have any snacks at least?" He takes a hold of my right hand in his left and tugs on it gently.

'Why is he being so touchy tonight?' Now that I have finally admitted my feelings for Theo to myself, I don't like anyone who isn't Theo touching me.

"Alright, I guess." I shrug and let Noah lead me towards the kitchen.

Once there, I slip my hand from his hold to examine the various delicacies plated on the counter. I settle on a cupcake with strawberry icing, while Noah helps himself to the drinks. I don't know if those are alcoholic but I would rather not take any chances.

As I take a bite out of my cupcake, my phone vibrates and the screen lights up with a text notification. A smile soon forms on my lips when I see Theo's name on the screen. Unlocking the device, I open the messaging app.

Theo: hey princess
Theo: everything ok there?

I smile at his gesture. Theo wanted to drop me off himself tonight but I refused. But he made me share the location with him in case it gets too late. I look up from my phone and my eyes land on Noah's who looks away immediately with a frown on his face. Pursing my lips together, I reply to Theo's text.

Me: yeah :)

In an instant, Theo responds back.

Theo: are you missing me yet?

Me: no, why would I?

Theo: we both know you're lying
Theo: just admit it

My thumb stops moving over the keyboard when Sarah calls out to me upon entering the kitchen.

"There you are," Sarah breathes out looking at me. "Oh, and Noah is here, too," she says when she notices him.

"Come on, you two. I have a cake to cut."

******

An hour goes by and I find myself silently vibing to the music that is coming out of the speakers. After Sarah cut her cake, she hosted a few party games. The most recent being a round of truth and dare. I dodged her every attempt at getting me to play with them. Because I'm not going to do the crazy shit that these people are making others do by calling it a 'dare'. Nor am I going to be answering their vile questions.

No, I am doing much better on my own by replying to Theo's messages that never stopped coming after I told him what was going on here. Everyone suddenly bursts into laughter when Alex gets dared to give a lap dance to the birthday girl.

I watch with round eyes as he gets up and walks up to his girlfriend, who is sitting on a chair in the centre of the room. He sits on Sarah's lap and does some weird twerking. A few are almost dying of laughter while some are whistling. Sarah looks extremely proud of her boyfriend's efforts but I'm just hoping that Alex isn't feeling uncomfortable doing it in front of others.

Once the show is over, everyone goes back to spinning the bottle to continue their game. The space next to me on the couch dips and I find Noah sitting down beside me.

"Hey, why are you not playing?" He asks me.

"I could ask you the same thing," I quip.

"That's because you aren't playing."

Okay, that was forward.

"Did I tell you that you look really good?" Noah asks, leaning close to me.

"You already did, yes." I furrow my brows and study his face when he sends me a lazy smile. "Did you have a lot to drink?"

"Maybe." He smirks at me and I resist the urge to roll my eyes.

"You smell really good, too," Noah says quietly and suddenly leans closer to my neck. The hair on my arms stand on ends and my breath hitches. I feel more than one pair of eyes land on us and I quickly stand up from the couch.

I walk out of the living room and climb up the stairs of Sarah's house. I want to get away from Noah as soon as I can after what he did just now. What would people think if they saw him being so close to me? It would definitely give others a wrong idea.

I could hear a crash, followed by the sound of glass shattering coming from the living room. But I didn't look back to see if anyone got hurt as I continued to ascend the stairs, too focused on getting away from all those people.

Once upstairs, I get inside Sarah's bedroom and into her bathroom. I look at my reflection on the mirror and grimace to myself. Noah is acting strange tonight. Is he upset over something? Throughout the evening, I could feel the constant presence of his gaze on me.

No matter how much I tried avoiding him, he always ended up finding me, trying to strike up a conversation. I was hoping he'd be caught up with his friends and forget about me. But what he did back in the living room...

Shaking my head, I check the time on my phone which read 9:37pm. Alright, a few more minutes and I'll be out of here for good. It's been over two hours since I arrived here. It'll be okay to leave now without it looking rude. I take a few deep breaths and exit the bathroom.

I was about to near the bedroom's door when Noah appears in front of it. My body tenses and I freeze on the spot as he slowly walks into the bedroom and towards me.