Birthday Twist

    It was October 5th, the day of my birthday. I was so excited I felt like I was going to explode. I was a bit tired of course because the night before my friends had told me they had a surprise for me and told me to pack my suitcase. They didn’t exactly tell me where we were going at first. Luckily they were really bad at keeping secrets so I eventually found out we were going camping. I was so excited. I've never been camping before. 

I was so excited to spend my birthday weekend with my best friends. We've known each other since kindergarten. Sarah is the mom of the group and she was really reliable . Liam and Jessica were the life of the party. Any party that was thrown you can count on them to be there. They’ve never missed a party. Josh is the smart one, he watches a ton of survival videos in case we get stranded. I told him that would never happen. Tom is an athlete, he's a d1 soccer player one of the best in the school district. He used to be a troubled kid but we promised to help him through it.  Then there's me. I’m a little too outgoing at times and always have good plans . I do play sports but not as good as Tom. 

I had heard a car pull into the driveway and I quickly but casually ran to the window to see who it was. As expected Sarah was the first one to get to my house. Sarah was blond about 5”7, pretty tall if I do say so myself.  I rushed to the door to open it. I ran outside to the front of the garage and hugged her, where she was. 

“Happy Birthday Olivia, ” she whispered in my ear. 

While giving me a tight hug that I could barely breathe, but it was comforting. I felt safe. She had always been there with me through my worst times and my best.

Liam had arrived with Tom a couple of minutes after Sarah did. I was surprised that Jessica is the one that arrives with Liam.  

“Happy Birthday” they screamed as they got out of the car.    

I ran to them and hugged them and thanked them. These guys were like my brothers, I could always count on them for advice on guys. I asked Liam where Jessica was.

 “I have no clue, she texted me saying that she needed to go somewhere before she came here,” he replied looking puzzled. 

I was also wondering where Josh was, he was missing too.

“Could they possibly have something between them,” I said following with a smirk.

“No way that's possible they are way too different, I mean Jessica and Josh for god's sake there is no way,” Liam yelled, trying to make it seem like he didn’t care. 

He seemed a bit jealous. I wouldn’t be surprised if he did have a thing for Jessica. They had always been so close. And Liam looks at her with a sweet look. While I was wondering where they could possibly be, Josh’s car pulled up and no surprise Jessica was in the passenger seat. At the moment it seemed like they were pulling in slow motion.

Josh got birthday balloons and a cake from the trunk. Then Jessica got off.   

“Sorry we’re late. You know how traffic is,” she said with a smile. She hugged me afterwards.

“I need to tell you and Sarah something really important” she whispered. I almost knew what she was going to tell us. 

 “Can you guys head to the store to buy the rest of the stuff we need before we leave at 10 to our campsite?” Jessica told the guys 

“Yeah, just send us a text to the group chat with what we need to buy,” Josh replied.

 The three guys got in Liam's car and headed to Target. Once they had made the turn to the next street we ran to my room

“ What’s going on?” Sarah said with a confused look on her face.

“Jessica has something to tell us,” I said squirming around . We sat in front of Jessica. She looked really nervous to tell us but she seemed excited, she couldn't stop moving her hand.

“ Will the thing is that… Josh told me he liked me, I didn't see it coming since we were so different,“ Jessica said nervously. 

I wasn’t too surprised you could tell he liked her. 

“He told me to meet him at his house because he needed to talk to me about something. So I went. We got coffee,then on the way back out of nowhere, he said he liked me. I was shocked because I had the same feelings, so I told him I felt the same way about him.  

 “ O-M-G,” Sarah screamed while she jumped up from the bed.

“I knew it, omg I called it,” I shouted. 

Sarah and I were so excited about Jessica and Josh's relationship.  

The guys had finally arrived from the store. We had to calm down from the excitement. I took my suitcase down because it was already time to leave. The campsite was 6 hours away meaning we would probably get there around 2. We had rented an RV so we could all go in the same vehicle. We got in the RV and went on our way. I took a nap since it would take forever to get there.  

 “Wake up,” Tom said, trying to wake me up.  

“Did we get there yet?” I asked half asleep. 

“Yeah,” he said chuckling.

Tom helped me up. I got my backpack with my stuff . We had bought one big tent, big enough to fit all of the inside. We also set a campfire. We planned a lot of fun activities. We were going to tell stories in the dark, make s’more,  and play truth and dare I was so happy to spend this weekend with them. We had locked the RV and hid the key that way we all had to stay outside and not chicken out. There were trees for miles the highway was at least 2 hours away. 

By the time we figured out how to set up the tent it was night. So we just put our sleeping bags and went to bed. We were going for a hike in the morning.

“I think I'm going to tell the rest of the group about me and Josh tomorrow,” she said nervously picking her nails. 

“You sure?” I asked 

“100% I want to celebrate, “ she answered 

I nodded and smiled. All I could think about was how heart broken Liam was going to be.  

We woke up at 10 in the morning ready to hike. We went through a trail that was at least 2 hours long. We talked all those hours and we had great laughs. We made it back to the campsite around 4:30. 

“I need to tell you guys something,” Jessica said as we sat down near the lake.

“What is it? '' Liam asked, looking concerned.   

“Josh and I are dating, ” she said happily.

The whole group was so happy for them, well except for Liam.  

“For how long?” Liam asked as forcing a smile.

 “We just started going out yesterday,” Josh answered. 

  “ That’s great,” he said, nodding, forcing a smile. 

“ Actually you know what, it isn't, “Liam said standing up.

“Liam, I had no idea you felt this way, ” Jessica said she was shocked she could barely even speak.

“Dude I'm so sorry I never knew you felt this way about her. If I would’ve known I would've never seen her that way” Josh said.      

“ I think I made it pretty obvious didn’t I?,” Liam screamed. 

“ We all need to calm down and talk about this as young adults. This is nobody's fault.” Tom said, trying to calm everyone down.    

“We're the keys,” Liam asked, trying to contain himself from exploding like a volcano.

“ I don't know, I thought you had them,” Tom answered.

We had lost the keys without them and we didn't know where to go. All of our phones were in the RV we had no way of contacting anyone. We looked all over the place, even under rocks. While we looked for the keys I was talking to Liam.

“Are you okay,” I asked.

“I don’t know honestly ,” Liam replied looking down

“I know how you felt about her,” I told him holding his hand.

“It’s just har, you know,” Liam said, holding back tears.

“ I know it is but think about it she found someone who makes her happy,” I told him. 

“ Yeah I guess she did, should I just let her go,” 

“ I think it’s for the best there has to be someone else out there for you. I promise, I told him. We talked for about an hour.

“You’re right, thank you,” he said while hugging me.

We went to sleep, we would look for the keys in the morning. Then I heard Jessica. 

“I'm sorry, what can I do for you to forgive me,” Jessica whispered to Liam. 

“It's fine I overreacted, you deserve happiness and so do I,” Liam answered. 

“Liam, I do love you but as a friend and a brother always remember that. I wish you all the happiness in the world. I'm so sure whatever girl you end up with she’ll be so lucky to have you,” Jessica said, sounding so assuring.  

“Thank you, now let's get some sleep, goodnight Jessica,” Liam said. 

“Goodnight,” Jessica said while closing her eyes.  

It was kind of nosey for me to listen to their conversation but I needed to know they were going to be okay.

The next morning they all got up ready for the search of the keys. I told them to wait. I unzipped my backpack and dangled the keys in front of them.

“You have to be kidding me,” Liam said half asleep. 

“Nope,” I respond with a smirk on my face.

“Why would you hide them? I ruined my good shoes looking for them,” Sarah said. 

“ We needed to solve our problems before we went back,'' I said while laughing.

“ That was pretty smart,” Liam said followed with a smile.    

“We can finally leave this place. I've never had more mosquito bites in my life,” Tom said heading out the tent. 

We packed up everything into the RV. It was finally time to get back. This is one of those memories that you can never forget. It made us stronger. We weren’t just friends, we were a family.