Crowns & Chaos

twenty-four

I yelped and staggered backwards as the room erupted with light. People were yelling, someone had thrown confetti on us, and bright lights flashed different colours. 

"Oh my god," I gasped, clutching my chest, "I just had a heart attack."

Lillian smiled and pulled me into the room. 

"Surpriseeeeee," she said, the smuggest of smug smiles on her face.

Peter moved out of the throngs of people and pulled me into a hug. 

"Happy birthday!"

I slapped his chest lightly. 

"You said you couldn't come!"

"Didn't want to ruin the surprise, now did I?"

I grinned at him as Alec came over and hugged me, spinning me around. He wiped a mock tear from his cheek. 

"They grow up so fast."

I rolled my eyes. 

"Shut up, Al."

I scanned the rest of the room, seeing one or two familiar faces, but not a lot. I saw Lisa, the girl that did my first interview. She waved, to which I waved back. Everyone else was dispersing, giving me birthday wishes and migrating to the rest of the club. 

"Who are some of these people?" I whispered.

"A noble birthday party was a pretty hot ticket, turns out. Most of them are just here for Instagram pictures but don't worry about it. We're here to have fun!"

"Speaking of, I think there's one person this party is missing," Peter said, smiling at me. 

I looked at him, confused. I didn't know a whole lot of people in London yet, mostly because I got hounded by paparazzi everywhere I went and got followed by a heavily armed security guard virtually everywhere except the bathroom. 

"What do you mean?"

"Aww, don't tell me you've forgotten about me already?" a very familiar voice chirped from behind me. 

I spun around to see Adriana standing with her hands on her hips, a shit-eating grin on her face.

"Aaaaagh!" I screeched, launching myself into her arms.  

She caught me in a huge hug, laughing all the while. 

I pulled back, scarcely believing she was actually in front of me. 

"I can't believe you're here! How- when?"

"Peter helped organize my plane tickets and everything so I could surprise you!" 

I hugged her tightly again, feeling pure joy at having my best friend back by my side. 

"I'm so freaking happy right now, holy shit."

"Love you too babe," she smirked. 

Alec came back with a tray of drinks, one of which I happily took, mind still reeling. I turned to Peter. 

"Thank you so much for this. Truly."

He nodded, a soft smile on his face and an indiscernible gleam in his eyes. 

"Let's party!" Lillian yelled, pulling Adriana and I towards the dance floor, where lots of other people were starting to dance to the loud music. 

"This is crazy!" I yelled to Adriana, struggling to be heard over the pounding bass. 

"What's crazy is that you're 23 bitch!"

I laughed as she swung me around, bopping along to the music.