"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!"

My family and friends loudly say to me as they shoot confetti and turn the music on.

I am now standing behind the main table where I will be sitting with my family, holding a glass of champagne. This one includes alcohol as I am finally old enough to drink, I take a good sip of it, it tastes slightly different to the non-alcoholic one. I can feel the alcohol, it's not as tasty as I thought it would be, I feel a bit disappointed, but I drink it all in the second gulp. My throat feels like it burns a lot for a moment because of the alcohol and tingles with the gas, I suddenly cough a lot to it, that wasn't fun, but surely, everyone who stared at me laughed, though I got help from mom and Eva a few seconds later, noticing it, Eva was the one who didn't laugh. She was pretty worried, but should not, I am a hard fella to kill. Not even a deadly virus could take me down. Hopefully.

Eva helped me out by giving me a tissue, but I was fine. I didn’t truly need her help but I am grateful she cared for me.

The party continues, they have already sung the birthday song and it's time to dance. Traditionally, in my family, the party is made up of three parts: the welcome party, the dinner party and the dance party. The welcome party happens the first hour as everyone is gathering up and my mother is finishing up the dinner, sometimes depending on the amount of people the dinner takes longer or shorter, this time she had help from my grandmother and my aunt. Once all food is done and served as a buffet, the dinner begins, not before the birthday song and as the birthday man, I have the priority to serve food for myself first in the line. Then the rest of the guests can serve themselves. Now everyone with the plates and eating all sorts of conversations arises, mostly updates on everyone’s lives and some gossip here and there.

Today I notice there are lots of my family members such as cousins, aunts and uncles, even my grandparents are here. Some of them live in another city which makes me surprised, even more seeing my uncle and cousins that live in another country. So I am pretty grateful they are here today, even though it’s a bit unbearable hearing the same lines of “It’s been so long!” “You’ve grown so much.” “I whipped your butt when you were a baby.” And so on. But, they’ve come here to see me again after so long and so far, so I am happy and grateful for their time.

Being 18 in my family as a man is pretty important, that is the main reason they are here and I know it. It’s proof of not only growth but maturity. As I’ve become 18 I have become a man and it’s time to think as one. So I have to think independently, straight, cool and serious when deciding what I will do. Though maybe for some this will be thought as something maybe obvious, sometimes, it is important to recall what one is now and what one will become. And today, I’ll become a man. No more playing around, today I’ll confess my feelings to Eva. I’ll grow some balls.

But before that, after a long time of waiting and eating, it’s time for the last part of the party, the dance party. Which means we move the tables to make some space for a dancefloor. My family, who nearly all come from South America, are people who love to party. A day to celebrate is always a good day, and a good day can always be a day to celebrate. Music, dance, cake are included. Normally the playlist we have, made by my mother, includes songs such as 90s, 00s and 10s pop, reggae and latin genre music. It's really catchy these types of songs and it's really hard not wanting to dance. So, using this I invite Eva to dance with me. Something not that uncommon as we have done this for a few years now, it took me a lot of courage but I did invite her to her 15th birthday. That day, I was motivated.

And today I am motivated too. I invited her to dance with me, but I invited her during more couple-dancing songs. Don’t believe she would have accepted it if it was reggae. But besides that and I have to say it, she looks gorgeous. It has been hard till now not to stare at her, her current appearance is just too attractive to the eyes. I can also notice that she has light make up on, that's rare. But I bet she wanted to look cute today, I have to thank God for this one. Giving me such a rare chance to see Eva in such a gentle and simple cute dress. She is even wearing stud earrings. How can such a small detail give her such a mature aura? Seems like she put in a lot of effort today. As a man who appreciates her effort, I have to do what I have to do. Compliment her.

"You look amazing today!"

"Thanks, I wanted to look my best today, you also look great."

"Thanks!"

Though now I feel at fault that I barely put effort into my looks, I should have at least put a bit more time on fixing my hair. It's not that messy, but it's the daily hair so it's not amazing. Same with my clothes, I should have at least put on a suit for this case or something more formal. Why did they keep it secret that it was my birthday today? Well, obviously because it's a surprise, still a hint or two would have helped me. Dad ain't always so helpful in this type of case neither to tell me to look good. He probably just didn’t think I really may have needed it but I didn’t win the beauty lottery in my family. I got my own self-esteem issues at times too you know.

And the situation here doesn’t help now either, suddenly I feel more gazes of everyone at us. I hear those sitting clapping and cheering, some also sing the song as they see us in the dancefloor dancing. But I think they are watching me and Eva more.

We are not professionals at dancing, but after inviting her to dance in her 15th birthday party we got used to dancing usually together during other parties we were invited to. Which has given us the capacity of understanding the move we want to do, as if it was part of a choreography trained and marked in our muscles. So we look like a good amateur couple.

"So this is why you three were busy today?" I ask Eva as we continue dancing.

"Yes! We wanted to surprise you with a good party, did you like it?" She asks as she makes a spin.

"To be honest, I loved it!" I happily responded.

"I am happy to hear that. So far what is your favorite part of the party?" She asks playfully as if she knew my answer.

“To be very honest now. I think it’s this moment right now.” I give her my answer, which surprises her as we end our dance with a strange stop as I hug her from behind slightly. I couldn’t notice it really well but I believe I did see her blushing.

After that dance we decided to take a pause and we sat together for a bit before my other friends joined and we had a long chat. They told me this party was all my mother’s plan, they were mostly helpers but mom was the mastermind behind everything here. It shows just how mom is very dedicated. I’ve known that since birth, she just loves to do things for others. But I am more surprised by the amount of help. My aunt helped fix the food ingredients and party items. Eva’s mother helped cook together with my mom and aunt. My uncles came here with the beer. And Eva, David and Luis made sure to keep me away. Though not that they truly did much besides not saying anything. Which I guess is good enough.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Suddenly a song I really like to dance with Eva plays and I invite her a second time to dance. This time it’s only the two of us and we truly let our bodies do the talk. We danced synchronizing greatly, as if we were reading our minds. Our bodies just danced perfectly together without messing a single step and we finished the song with a good final step as I made her spin one last time, stopping her with my arm and moving her to my other side, ending with our bodies touching and our faces really close. Everyone claps to the end and we take a step behind blushing slightly. This time I had a great picture of her face blushing and will dearly save it into my memory.

"Thanks for the dance." I say after sitting again with her.

“Thank you too, we did it great. Didn’t think I would dance like that.” She fixes her hair slightly, confirming not much as messed up during the dance.

“Haha, same! We are an amazing pair.”

We then leave the dancefloor and the rest of my family begins to take it over again. Eva and I then move to another place with Luis and David as we stand instead this time on the entrance to take a bit of chilly air.

"Yo! You two danced amazingly this time!" David comes hugging us both from the sides with his arms over our shoulders.

"Heh! Ain’t we amazing?" I say confident.

"You two sure are. I can’t even take a few steps without looking like a clown haha." David continues.

"By the way, when is the time you open the gifts?" Luis asks.

"I don’t know, I believe soon since we’ve danced for a good while." I respond.

"Can't you just open them now without the public? You are too old now to be showing off your presents now. Ain’t cha?" David says.

"True, true. You know what? I'll do that. I'll open the gifts right now."

"Just don't drop anything." Luis comments.

"I will do my best."

David is right, I should be able to open my gifts now, so I’ll do it. I run to take a few of the presents, I take their presents first and bring them with me. I’ll open the presents from my family later.

I decided to open my guys presents first, they both had something similar and it was a videogame. These are the prequels of a game I really love. I never had the chance to play this when my father bought that game. I am so happy for these two, I can finally get to have the full experience of this saga. I am also waiting for a sequel of the third game, though it’s been ten years since the third release, I lost no hope for a fourth one soon. Can’t wait to see GOTY and hopefully the news of a sequel appears there. I hug these two as thanks and promise to give them a nice game next year.

Now I open the third gift, this one is from Eva. Her gift seems to be a small one. I take off the wrapping and a small black box appears. It has golden roman numbers on the top side. “XVI”. That 's so sick! I decided to appreciate the looks of it for a few seconds then open the box, inside of it was a necklace made of what seems silver. The necklace has a six-pointer star hanging. It looks like a Star of David, no. Watching it more carefully, it is a Seal of Solomon. People may not know the difference and it’s hard to spot it but it’s just as simple as watching how the star is drawn, in this case how it is made. The long parts of the interlaced star go clockwise while David’s star goes counter clockwise. It may not make sense but that is how I could describe that difference. Also this has a variation, so the star has interlaced lines in the center connecting all the parts to hold it, giving it a really cool appearance. This is probably one of the coolest necklaces I’ve ever seen yet it’s so simple looking.

"Thanks Eva!" I happily say to her as I hug her. She accepts my hug.

“You are welcome! Hope you like it.”

“Like it? I love it! This is the coolest necklace I've ever received. It even beats the necklace with the dragon hand holding a sword.”

"Haha, what are you saying?" She laughs a bit at my response as we take a step back.

"The truth! Thanks for this gift."

"Hey hey, now we feel out of place here, as if our present was cheap." David says with a humorous tone.

"We got it on sale though." Luis adds to the conversation.

"True."

“Truth your ass!... But I still like the present too. I will be playing this game for a good while.”

"You are very welcome for those hours!” David says, adding a strong tone to the welcome.

“Oh right! Hehe, thank you two, I will enjoy this game like no other.” I had forgotten to thank them but now that is covered.

"By the way Axel... are you free later?" Eva asks me.

I turn to her, noticing she is slightly nervous staring at a side, when she does that, specifically to her left. It's because she is planning something she is nervous to show.

“I should be! I mean, it will be midnight. The party here will continue until morning or at least until 3 am knowing my family. But if you prefer now can it be a good time?” I answered her.

"Yes, let's do that!" Now she stares at me.

She suddenly holds my hand and guides me out of the building. Not before taking my jacket but forgetting hers. I try to turn back but she doesn't stop and drags me all the way. I know she is more used to the cold than me but I believe a jacket on a night in November is truly recommended.

Eva takes me to the park beside the building. So we are relatively close, if she freezes we can run back to take her jacket. Though she right now is using me to cover herself. So I am the one freezing a bit. But thanks to the clothes I'm wearing, thick enough, I can hold from freezing for a bit.

Our hands separate as she moves and sits on one of the swings of the park. Refreshing my mind, this was the park where we met. She was being bullied by other kids. My mother and I were walking beside this park to our home and there I saw it, my body ran to her trying to stop the bullies. Have to say, I got my ass beaten but my mother didn't let those kids escape and made sure to be reprimanded by their own mothers. And since then we became childhood friends. This place later became just our place to meet up and if we searched for each other’s support we always went to the swings. If we needed help we sat on the one to the left, if we were in a good mood it was the right. Then we wait for the other to come. Then once we got phones this stopped happening as we wrote everything through texts.

While I was refreshing my memories of this place I noticed this time she is sitting in the swing to the right, meaning she is happy. I still noticed her nervous face. I believe she is planning something…

Yeah. I should stop fooling around.

She brought me here alone for a reason. It's obvious. We both are feeling the same and are preparing ourselves to say the words, take the step to the front. She has been waiting for me for a long time I guess. And because I lack balls I've made her wait this much, even forcing herself to bring me here. It's time to grow some balls. Otherwise, my father would surely laugh at me. My brothers too. And myself too.

I will tell her my feelings now.

"Eva!" I loudly say her name.

"Y-Yes!?"

She was surprised by my loud call to her. I let my nervousness catch me there for a bit. But I take a fast deep breath. It 's now or never.

I move and stand in front of her. She stares at me, still sitting at the swing. I find it a bit uncomfortable and extend my hand to her. She sees it timidly and holds it. Her hands are cold. My, what an idiot I am. Making her go through this…

"E-Eva."

I stare deeply into her eyes, as I help her stand up in front of me and hold both her hands, not only to show my feelings but also to keep those fingers of hers warm. Though she can feel my hands are getting slightly sweating and are trembling. Probably by the cold weather, probably by the situation making me nervous. Or both.

She is waiting for my words. Staring at me with eyes that reflect me.

I can't hold it now. I'll just tell her.

"Eva, I love you. Please go out with me!"