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Chapter 18
- 21 Wishes -

Dedicated @iceqeeun
A double update, because I've been failing at consistently updating but I'll get better. Lol

*unedited*
-Clover -

I fell asleep waiting up until midnight with Denziel for my birthday to roll in.

However, the naive voice inside my head knew better.

You were waiting up for Demarco to come home.

I couldn't hang at all. I didn't stay up for either as I fell asleep around 11pm. I woke up in my bed the next day another year older.

The ceiling of my room was filled with pink balloons of all different shades. And each balloon had its own long white string hanging down, creating a mini forest.

What woke me up however was my phone buzzing from the 21 messages that were all from Nola.

I unlocked my phone to read each one but then an incoming FaceTime call popped up from TJ.

Without hesitation I picked it up and both TJ and Drew sang me happy birthday along with my niece and nephew who I haven't seen in almost a year.

Tears filled my eyes as I looked at my babies that were no longer babies. However, Drew and TJ quickly ruined the moment by not failing to notice the balloon forest scenery that was my room.

The had a million questions. Most of them geared towards who my 'mystery guy friend was'.

I made an excuse, and hung up before they could ask me anything else.

No longer sleepy, I jumped out of my bed and planned on stopping by the bathroom before going down to the kitchen and making breakfast for myself, but before I could reach the doorknob Denziel busted into my room. Oscar and Patrick we're behind him holding a stack of pancakes, surrounded by strawberries, whipped cream and topped with a single lit candle.

They were upset at the fact that they weren't the one to rudely wake me up on my special day but quickly got over it once they realized my brothers had the honor.

Surprisingly, the pancakes were good for Denziel making them. And even though I had the boys to keep me company this morning, I didn't fail to realize that Demarco was nowhere to be found.

As if he could read my mind Denziel randomly brought up the balloons. "It was Demarcos idea, he got home at 11:59pm last night and want to surprise you but you were already fast asleep. So he wanted the balloons to be the first thing you saw when you woke up this morning".

My stomach filled with butterflies at his thoughtfulness. I guess I should've know since the balloons were all pink and I've only told him that pink was my favorite color.

But apparently he went into work early today so that we could make it to my birthday dinner tonight that Mia and Heidi had planned last minute.

At the mention of the girls, I quickly ran to shower. It was already 8:40am and Mia said she'd pick me up at 9:00am.

We shopped for a dress and a pair for heels for me to wear to dinner tonight.

Mia, even went overboard and brought me a tiara and sash even when I object.

Heidi joined us around noon once she was done with work. She didn't come alone, she brought the one and only Blair with her.

She was beautiful. Jet black hair that touched her lower back, icy blue eyes and a curvaceous figure. And as if her appearance was too good to be true, she was also very kind and outgoing just like Mia and Heidi.

No wonder, why these three were were friends. Not only did they all have great personalities, but they could all be beauty queens if they wanted to.

Once we all met up, we all went over to the hair salon where so I received a wash-n-set, got my hair trimmed in layers and curled to perfection.

Next up was the nail salon, where my eyebrows were groomed and my nails and toes were painted a soft pink nude color.

It was close to 5:00pm by the time we were done I was tired and hungry. After all, the only thing that I eat all day we're the pancakes that Denziel made this morning with a side of strawberries.

"Let's get you home so we can all get ready" Blair suggested.

We all went over to the house and once we walked in, 5 out of the 6 boys were there waiting for us, dressed for a night around the town.

Jordan and Cleon both came over to hug and wishing me a happy birthday. Thanking the two boys, I looked to the both of them asking

"Where's Demarco?"

The room went silent.

Everyone was looking at one another, not knowing how to answer my question.

Jordan was the one to speak up. "He got held up at work, he said he'll meet us at the.."

Blair quickly placed her hand over his mouth before he could say anything else.

"The whole point of surprising her is not telling her where we are going" she told her husband.

Heidi and Mia assisted me upstairs with my bags. Helping me to quickly get dressed and than dressing theirselves.

As soon as Heidi finished getting dress she sat me down to do my makeup. She choose to do a very natural look which I was appreciative of. My eye makeup was a soft blended red and brown color that was insinuated by the lash lengthening mascara. Other then that, there was a tint of highlighter, near the crease of my eyes and on top of my cheekbones and on my lips was a lightly tinted lip gloss.

When I looked at my reflection in the mirror, stunned was not the word. The makeup completed the entire outfit, not overpowering my velvet blue long sleeved dress.

It was time to leave and I slid on the black heels that Mia had brought me, stumbling a little as I tried to find my balance.

It was 6:30pm by the time we left the house, I happily rode with Denziel and Oscar only because I didn't want to feel like a third wheel in any of the couples cars.

It took about a half hour to get there, and while we walked into the place that looked to be a high class lounge I panicked, not having my ID on me.

Denziel thought ahead, he went up to the bouncer at the door and exchanged some words before the blunder nodded and opened the door for our entire group without check any of our ID's.

We took an elevator, with Mia clicking the 'R' button that brought us 15 floors up to the roof.

Romantic and intimate.

The roof top wasn't large but it wasn't too small either. The center area had a outdoor lounge sofa set for seating and a table in the middle that has a double tiered cake that said Happy Birthday Clover.

Over to the left was a table with silverware and accents of pink set for eleven people under and tent.

The lighting was dimmed with soft white lights and candles all over the place, and soft R&B music playing in the back ground.

There were pink bouquets of balloons tied to both ends of the bar over in the far right corner.

It was beautiful, it was the most that I've ever done for my birthday and I will never forget it.

Before I could thank Mia and Heidi for organizing this for me, I was devoured in a huge from behind.

"Happy 21st Birthday bitch!"

"Nola?!"

I hugged my best friend as if I was seeing a ghost. "How are you here?"

"Demarco invited me" he said happily, not giving it much thought. "Wow, Hubby went all out?" She said taking in the scenery of the city and decor.

"He's my friend, and Mia and Heidi are responsible for this" I corrected her.

Nola nodded her head, not buying into the whole 'he's my friend' thing.

"It's your birthday, whatever you say birthday girl". She grabbed onto my hand pulling me over to the bar as I tried to not fall in my new heels. "Birthday shots!" She yelled.

Everyone gather around by the bar and took a shot of some type of strong alcohol that Heidi recommended. Well everyone except for pregnant Mia.

Not being involved in the drinking didn't worry her, she was waiting for the waiter to come out with the appetizers and small finger foods while everyone mingled.

Demarco was still no where to be found, but I had hope that he'd be here soon. For now I was going to enjoy the company of my friends.

Oscar and Cleon were in a heated conversation until they seen me approaching and their conversation suddenly stopped.

"Hey boys".

Oscar looked unease, tensed, and his eyes were darker than I remembered them to be but it could also be because of the dimmed lighting.

Cleon, gave me a smile turning towards me.

"Who's your friend?" He asked point towards Nola.

"That's Nola, we use to work together at the diner why?"

Oscar and Cleon shared a look with one another. Cleon smirking while, Oscar stared at her.

"She's cute" Oscar final answered after a moment of silence. He watched Nola intensely as she chatted it up with Mia.

Saying nothing more, he begun to sip on whatever alcoholic drink he had in a wine glass.

Shaking his head, Cleon spoke on his friends behalf.

"What Oscar means is can you introduce them to one another?"

Oh, now I see.

Oscar potentially had a thing for Nola.

They were complete opposites.

Oscar was quiet and shy while Nola..wasn't any of those things.

There was a sharp contrast in their personalities, but I could see one balancing the other. However, in order for Oscar to survive, he'd have to get past Nola's defense mechanism of putting up walls whenever a guy potentially got close to boyfriend status.

Oscar opened his mouth to object but Cleon and I were on the same wave length.

"Nola!" I called waving her over.

"Shit" Oscar mumbled, trying to quickly fix himself even thought he looked fine.

Nola motioned for me to wait a minute. I turned to Oscar making sure I set the ground rules before he could talk to my friend.

"Listen here buddy, Nola is like the sister I never had so don't fuck around. I will kill you if you hurt her". My warning caught him off guard as he straighten his tie and looked at me as if I were a crazy lady.

Cleon tried holding it back but couldn't. He erupted into a fit of laughter dreaming attention to us.

He tried calming himself down, but only ended up laughing hard. He dismissed himself, wishing his friend 'good luck' before disappearing to the bathroom.

"She's coming" Oscar said breathlessly, becoming more nervous by the second. It was cute, how nervous he was getting...he barely knew the girl but she had such an effect on him.

"What's up?" Nola said walking over to us, not failing to notice my shy friend Oscar hiding behind me.

This was going to be interesting.

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Omg! A double update for your Friday evening of reading!
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