I was stuck on the spot, wondering if she was going to take him back into the kitchen so I could get the front door open and get Luke out, or if she meant for me to get him out now while they were kissing.

They broke the kiss and Dad laughed. “What was that for, Riley Bear?” he asked, wrapping his arms around her.

“Just wanted to kiss you, that’s all,” Mom replied. She pointed her finger forcefully at the front door a couple of times behind my dad’s head, signalling for me to move. Luke squeezed my hand and we both crept forward towards the door, counting the steps.

“And you didn’t get enough of that this morning?” my dad teased, causing my mom giggle.

“Eww!” I hissed, cringing at the thought of what that meant. Luke’s hand clapped over my mouth, pushing me gently, making me walk faster to the door.

More sounds of kissing started from behind me again, and I shuddered. When I made the final step to the door, I opened it slowly, being as quiet as possible. Luke slipped through and I blew him a kiss as he squeezed my hand as a goodbye. He’d be back in a little while anyway to pick me up for school, but he had just really wanted to stay over so he could be the first person I saw when I woke up on my birthday. He’d always been adorable like that. I sighed dreamily and closed the door, forgetting to be as quiet as I should have been.

“Hey, what are you doing?”

I gulped at the sound of my dad’s voice. “Er, I was going to, um… get the paper for you?” I offered weakly.

He laughed and held the up newspaper in his hand. “I got it, sweetie, but thanks,” he chirped as he came bounding over and pulled me into a bone crushing hug. “Happy birthday! Oh man, my little girl a legal adult.” He shook his head, looking at me in awe.

I laughed and nodded. “Yep, so can I get a tattoo?” I asked, only half joking. If he said yes I was definitely getting one today.

He raised one eyebrow at me. “No,” was all he said, and I couldn’t help but smile. He grinned happily at me as he tugged me towards the kitchen and the smell of deliciousness that wafted through the house. “So, think you’ll get anything nice for your eighteenth?”

I grinned, thinking about the locket that was hanging around my neck. “I guess I’ll have to wait and see if the birthday fairy has been,” I joked, squeezing my arm around his waist. That was something he used to tell me and my twin brother, Alex, when we were younger and were too excited to go to sleep the night before our birthday, that if we didn’t go to sleep then the birthday fairy wouldn’t come. When we stepped into the kitchen I laughed as I took in the array of pink and blue balloons, the happy 18th banners, and the presents scattered over the dining table. “Well the birthday fairy’s been in here!”

My dad grinned, and I chewed on my lip excitedly. Today was going to be a great day, sure I was going to school, but I’d get to hang out with Luke at lunchtime. Tonight we were all going out for family dinner; both sets of my grandparents were coming too. I’d managed to convince my parents that Luke needed to come with us because he was part of my ‘extended family’. Then tomorrow was Friday, which meant that Luke was taking me to an all ages night at a club to celebrate my birthday. Saturday night would be even better though, because on Saturday Luke and I were going camping near the lake, just the two of us. I sighed contentedly. My life was just perfect, and eighteen was definitely going to be my year.

Chapter 2

I dressed in my usual casual attire of jeans and a plain fitted T-shirt, scraping my long brown hair back into a ponytail, the same as every other day. As usual, I didn’t bother with any make-up. I wasn’t exactly a girlie girl so things like that didn’t happen in my normal dressing routine. I skipped back down the stairs and stopped when I heard Luke’s voice in the kitchen. He was talking to my dad.

“Clay, it’s only camping, we’ve been before and you didn’t mind,” he stated.

I heard a heavy sigh. “Yeah, but Alex went then too, and other friends. All I’m saying is that you’d better take care of her. I don’t like the idea of you two being alone together all night, but I guess I need to accept that she’s an adult now.” Dad’s voice was a little gruff as he spoke.

“Honestly, you don’t have anything to worry about. I’ll always take care of her,” Luke answered. He sounded extremely exasperated so I wondered how long my dad had been grilling him for. I hadn’t heard him arrive so for all I knew he could have been subjected to the inquisition the whole time I was showering and dressing for school. Luke certainly put up with a lot from my dad, but other than the occasional threats and stuff they got on great.

“Look, it’s just that you two are moving on so fast, what with the whole applying for the same colleges thing… I just don’t want any mistakes to mess up your futures. You understand what I’m saying?”

“Yeah, of course. Maisie and I are always really responsible like that,” Luke replied easily, as if talking to my dad about our sex life wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. “I know we’re young but you knew you were in love at our age, you and Riley were already married by the time you were our age.”

“Riley and I are different, I’d known her my whole life,” my dad countered defensively.

“And I’ve known Maisie since we were thirteen.”

I decided it was time to put an end to this conversation before my dad started getting annoyed or anything. He honestly did like Luke, but he just hated the thought of his little girl growing up. He never seemed to mind Alex going to parties or hooking up with girls all the time, but a serious boyfriend for his little girl was something entirely different.

I cleared my throat as I walked around the corner, gaining their attention immediately. “I’m ready to go whenever you’re done with this little man-to-man chat,” I joked, waving my hand between the two of them.

Luke smirked at me and my dad grinned sheepishly, like he’d been caught in the act. “I was just telling Luke about the potential bear threat for Saturday night. Maybe you should just stay home to be on the safe side?” Dad suggested, laughing quietly.

I shrugged. “We’ll take anti bear spray,” I joked, playing along.

Luke laughed and stood up from the stool he was perched on, coming over and draping his arm across my shoulders. “Happy birthday,” he whispered, kissing the side of my head as he held up a bunch of daisies. That was his flower of choice for me. He always bought them because when we first started dating I’d joked and told him they were my favourite because they rhymed with my name. He’d since learned that they weren’t my favourites, but it kind of stuck, so daisies were his thing now.

I smiled gratefully and pressed against him, my stomach fluttering because of his presence. Gripping the front of his grey hoodie, I pulled him closer to me and pressed my lips against his. Almost instantly a loud, dramatic throat clearing came from my dad’s direction, so I pulled back and shot him a glare. Clearly it was alright for him to make out with my mom all the time, but I wasn’t even allowed to kiss my boyfriend hello on my birthday.

“Thanks, Luke.” I smiled down at the flowers as I slipped my hand into the back pocket of his jeans.

He smiled and brushed his knuckles across my cheek, his eyes soft and tender as he looked at me. “You ready to go before your dad starts hounding me again?” he joked, grinning slyly at my dad who rolled his eyes but smiled despite himself.

I nodded, chuckling. I stepped away from him and kissed my dad’s cheek. “Thanks so much for all my presents, you didn’t need to buy me all of that.” They’d gone above and beyond this year, buying me a wicked new laptop ready for when I went to college in a couple of months, and a beautiful new watch.

He waved his hand dismissively. “It was your eighteenth. Your mom and I thought you’d rather the laptop than a car of your own…” He trailed off looking at me hopefully, as if he suddenly doubted their decision. They’d bought my brother a car, just a starter car of his own, nothing new or special, but he’d loved it and ran out of the house wearing nothing but a pair of boxers just so he could test drive it. I wasn’t even sure he was back yet.

I smiled and nodded. “I love the laptop, it’s incredible, and it’s way better than a car.”

His shoulders loosened as he smiled. “Not sure your brother would agree.”

“Yeah but Alex just hates driving around in Mom’s cherry red Rover.” I held up my flowers to him. “Can you ask Mom to put them in a vase for me?”

“We’d better get going, Maisie,” Luke said from behind me, tugging on the end of my ponytail playfully. I smiled and took the hand he was offering, letting him pull me out of the kitchen. I couldn’t stop the excited grin that spread across my face. Today I was eighteen, a legal adult; I was the baby of my group of friends so this day had seemed to take forever to get here.

“Have a good day at school. Don’t forget we’re going for dinner tonight. Your grandparents will be here at six!” my dad called as we walked out of the door.

As we pulled into the parking lot, the car was immediately swamped with people, the same as it was every morning. Luke’s friends and teammates all converged around us, wanting his attention about some sport that was on last night that I just wasn’t interested in. I put on my polite fake smile and stepped out of the car. I couldn’t stand Luke’s friends, they were complete and utter jerks, and I genuinely had no idea why Luke hung around with them at all.

“Luuuuuuuuke!” Ricky jeered, playfully punching him in the ribs. I tried my hardest not to groan as I looked longingly at the front door of the school. I didn’t want to stand here today and listen to them drone on about football, parties, girls and more girls. I just wanted to get inside and talk to people who actually liked me, instead of people who tolerated me because I was dating the quarterback.

“What up, bud?” Luke greeted him, slinging his arm around my shoulder, stopping my escape. I sighed quietly and sat on the hood of his car, preparing myself to be bored stiff, when surprisingly Luke shook his head. “Can’t stop to talk, my lady has a birthday today so I’m guessing she wants to go see her friends?” Luke said, looking at me with a smile.

I kissed him quickly and nodded. “Yeah. You stay here and talk though, I’ll see you at lunchtime,” I suggested, jumping off of the hood of his car, ignoring how the girls sneered at me and looked me over in my choice of outfit. No one thought I was good enough for Luke, no one saw what he saw when he looked at me, but that was okay as far as I was concerned, as long as he saw it then that was all I needed. I couldn’t resist sending a smug smile to Sandy, the queen bee at our school whom every young and impressionable girl aspired to be. I knew she wanted Luke, but he’d never shown the slightest bit of interest in her. She gave me a fake smile in return and just turned away, bitching about me to her friends, it couldn’t have been more obvious if they whispered behind their hands whilst pointing at me.

Luke frowned and shook his head, pulling me closer to him. “No way. If I could, I would spend your whole birthday with you, but I guess that’s not possible, so I’ll settle for every spare second you have,” he cooed, kissing me softly. Immediately his friends started jeering and making cat calls about how we should get a room. I just ignored them the same as I did every other day.

He pulled away laughing and playfully punched the nearest guy to him, before nodding towards the front door, signalling for me to lead the way. I practically skipped up to the building, clinging to him. So far, this was easily the best birthday ever. Last year had been pretty special too though, because that was the night that Luke and I first slept together, but for some reason this one just seemed perfect from the very first second I woke up in his arms.

As we approached my locker, I saw my two best friends, Beth and Charlotte, there waiting for me. They were holding open a homemade banner that said happy birthday on it. I laughed because of how much effort they’d gone to, there was glitter and everything. Both of my friends were adorable, yet so different at the same time. Beth was extremely ditsy and was always off in her own little dream world. Charlotte, on the other hand, was a computer geek. What she could do with computers blew my mind; if something technical needed doing then she was the one to ask. She’d gotten herself into some trouble when she was only fourteen because she had accidentally hacked into the police department network. She hadn’t meant to, she was just fooling around trying to break their security for fun, and actually did. Thankfully they realised that she wasn’t actually trying to do any harm, but I think she was now on their hacker watch list – a feat she was secretly quite proud of.

“Happy birthday!” they both cheered as I got up to them.

I smiled and they both grabbed me into a bone crushing hug. “Thanks.”

“Here, we bought together,” Beth chirped, holding out a flat rectangular present that I already knew was a book because of the shape of it.

I smiled and tore off the paper. “You didn’t need to get me anything,” I gushed as I pulled it open. Inside was a photo album, they’d done a design on the front, both drawing on it and writing ‘Senior year’ on the front. “Aww, I love this. Thanks girls!”

“Open it,” Charlotte encouraged.

I frowned, confused, but opened the front cover to see three tickets for the midnight preview screening of the second Hunger Games movie that came out in a few weeks. I squealed excitedly as I threw my arms around them both. “These are great, I can’t wait!” I chirped as we all started doing a happy dance in the middle of the hallway. From the corner of my eye, I saw the A-list girls looking at us with disapproval, but I just didn’t care, I was happy being a nerd so they could disapprove all they wanted.