Episode 10

EPISODE TEN

At Arden’s apartment

It’s late at night and a bit cold, so Arden invited me in for some hot chocolate, of course I said yes and went in, she made the hot chocolate, opened the TV and gave me a mug, she was oddly quiet

“Arden” I said “did something happen at the party?”

She took a sip before answering “nothing happened Nicky”

“Then why did you cry?”

It took her a while to answer “I don’t know…I just” she sighed then became silent

I looked at her closely, she’s more confused about what happened than I am

“Let’s just drop this ok?” I said then finished my cup before standing “I have to go” then I turned to her “but before I do, can you smile for me?”

She looks at me but she’s not smiling

“C’mon, I don’t have all night, scratch that, half a night so smile for me babeh!” I exclaimed arms wide open

She finally cracks, she laughed and finally showed her charming smile

“thanks” she said

I smiled and made my way to the door “see you tomorrow” then finally left

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It’s been a days since that party happened and after that it’s just been school, school and school so when we finally had a day off of school, Ryan and Jamie insisted that we go spend the day by going to the mall and hang out and by hang out, I mean, spend a lot of money into food and tokens in the arcade and since we feel so worked up in school, we thought that that is a great idea

So here we are now, Me, Arden, Jamie, Kevin, Ryan and Cindy at the entrance of the arcade

“Well, I’ll meet you guys back here when I’m out of money” Kevin joked and went inside

We laughed and watch him go inside and buy tokens

We looked at each other and giggled “Same goes for me” Jamie said and followed Kevin

“Us too” Ryan said and him and Cindy went in

I turned to Arden and smirked “same goes for us?”

“Hell yeah, I’m not leaving here ‘til I get a stuffed penguin from that claw machine” she answered

I laughed “well then, let’ go get that penguin!”

She giggled and smile and then we went in and bought a bunch of tokens

Kevin is all over the place, playing any game he thinks he can beat, Jamie’s doing the same thing meanwhile Ryan and Cindy are busy racing cars, motorcycles basically every game that they can be competitive with and I think Cindy is winning and as for Arden and me, we shot some hoops and played guitar hero but like Arden said, she’s not leaving without a penguin, so now we’re at the claw machine, spending every token we have left to get at least one blue penguin and then we ran out of tokens

“Aww, I’m all out tokens” Arden said, a bit sad

“Yeah, me too” I spoke, kinda sad as well, Kevin and the other were also out of tokens so they were waiting for us at the entrance and since we don’t have tokens either we decided to go to them

“So what do we do now?” Ryan asked

I looked at them and spoke “Eat”

They looked at each other then they turned to me “Agreed”

We giggled and went to the mall’s food court, we still couldn’t decide what to eat so we went and got a table first

“So, who won the most games between you two?” Jamie asked Ryan and Cindy while the 3 of us waited for their answer

Ryan and Cindy looked at each other then Ryan pointed at Cindy while Cindy raised her hand

We laughed at Ryan’s defeated expression

“Next time” Ryan said “I’ll win, I promise”

"Yeah, when pigs fly" Cindy Interjected and we all laughed

“And what about you two? What did you guys do?” Kevin asked turning to Arden and I

“Basketball and guitar hero” Arden answered

“And mostly claw machine” I continued “Arden really wants a penguin”

“It was blue and a penguin! Two of my favorite things!” she reacted “can’t blame me for wanting it”

These are the times her adorableness really makes me love her even more

“You know” Jamie spoke pointing at Arden and I and then at Ryan and Cindy “seeing you guys makes me feel like a fifth wheel on a double date”

Kevin reacted “same here bro”

“But Arden and Nicky are not yet dating” Cindy interjected

“The atmosphere between them sure feels like they’re on a date” Kevin teased

“Oh really?” I said with a smirked and a raised brow “well, since you two feel that way, why don’t you two pair up so you guys won’t feel that way”

“Yeah” Ryan interjected “you’ll be each other’s date”

Jamie and Kevin looked at each other in a gross out expression while we laughed our heads off at their reaction then something started ringing

“Who’s cell phone is that?” Ryan asked

Everyone checked their phone then Arden spoke “it’s mine”

Then she answered it “hello“

We were all quiet while Arden talked on the phone

“Oh Thank you!(….)I’m great, everyone’s been really nice to me and don’t worry I’m studying really hard(….)soon, I’ll be coming home soon(….)I miss you too and blow the candles for me! ok, I love you too bye grandma” then she hung-up her phone

“Your grandma?” Jamie asked

Arden nodded “she just called to wish me a happy birthday”

I turned to her “today’s your birthday?”

“In Korea, yes. In the USA, no” she answered “here, my birthday is tomorrow”

“Well then, since we have classes tomorrow, let’s go celebrate your birthday now!” Jamie exclaimed “let’s buy a cake, sodas and wine and crash into Ryan’s place!”

We cheered then turned to Ryan, waiting for his approval, he smiled and spoke “let’s go!”

So we combined our money and bought a chocolate flavored cake, a bottle of wine, 6 cans of soda and a box of pizza square (which is literally a large square pizza), yeah we’re rich like that and we’re hungry, so don’t judge us

And also I need to get Arden an awesome birthday gift for tomorrow

So we went to Ryan’s house and since we all know that we’ll be messy, we decided to eat all this nutritious food on the terrace in the backyard. Kevin, with the help of Ryan, took a table and a few chairs outside while Arden and Cindy put all the food on the table, Jamie and I were getting the cake out of the box and putting candles on it, all the while, I’m thinking of what to get for Arden, maybe I should plan a dinner for her, but I can’t buy food from a restaurant, maybe I should try cooking for her, I shook my head at the thought of cooking, if I cook I’ll probably end up giving her stomach pains so cooking’s out of the question

Then out of the blue, Jamie lightly slapped my cheek which of course got my full attention

“I know that face” Jamie said “it’s either you’re hungry and you want to eat that cake whole or you can’t make up your mind on what to get Arden for tomorrow”

I looked at her with my palm on my cheek “door no. 2”

“I knew it, you’re face says it all” she smirked “so what are planning on getting her?”

“I don’t know” I answered “I want to give her something really special, like full on effort gift but I don’t know what to get her”

“Then don’t get her anything, just do something that will make her go “OMG!! You’re so sweet!” and maybe a kiss here and there” she joked

I scoffed and smirked ”I’ll think about this really hard but for the mean time let’s get this cake to Arden and eat ‘coz I’m starving”

Jamie laughed then she light up the candle while I hold the cake, we then went outside

While we were walking, I started singing “Happy Birthday“ to Arden and the others sang along

After the song, we all cheered and wished Arden a happy birthday

I went to her and told to her to make a wish and blow the candles, she closed her eyes, made her wish and blew the candles

“Alright! Let’s start this party!!” Jamie shouted then pushed the cake into my face

I heard them laugh out loud, I gently removed what was left of the cake then I turned to Arden and saw her laughing and almost out of breath

“I’m sorry…I can’t” she spoke and continued laughing

I smirked then wipe off a lot of icing on my face and smeared it on to her face which basically started our food fight

What was left with the cake was smeared on, well, everyone and the cans of sodas were shaken and sprayed on everyone again and all of these continued until we’re all out of sodas and icing was all over our face and arms and basically everywhere really

We all laughed as we sat down on the terrace, catching our breaths, Kevin then opened the wine and poured us all a glass

Then he raised his glass and spoke “Happy birthday Arden, hope this day is a memorable one”

Arden giggled “oh I’ll definitely remember this day!” then she raised her glass “cheers!”

We all spoke “Cheers!!”

After finishing the box of pizza and the bottle of wine, along with laughs, stories and jokes, we cleaned ourselves and of course help Ryan clean his house and after a fun day, we all went home with a smile on our faces

When I got home, I took a quick bath, got dressed and sat on the sofa, Arden’s gonna go back to Korea soon so I need to think of a super special gift for her

I sat quietly for a bit then finally made a decision, I have to do this

I got my phone and called Jamie

“Hey Jamie, it’s Nicky” I said “Can you give me cooking lessons? Like right now? (….) I’ll come over now, thanks a lot!!”

I quickly hang the phone, grabbed a set of extra clothes and quickly went to Jamie’s house