My Best Friend s Father

"I don't think I want to celebrate this year, you guys," I said to Katie and Nyla, my best friends. I sat on my bed, looking at an old picture of younger me, it was a birthday picture from my third birthday. It was a picture of my parents and I, and my little birthday cake, lit with candles.

Katie stood up from my dressing chair that was facing my bed and came to sit beside me, while Nyla was still at my closet, checking out my new clothes.

"Emily, its your eighteenth birthday today, what are you saying.? Katie said.

"Don't worry guys, I'm cool this time, we already celebrated."

Very early this morning, my parents threw a little surprise party for me, I wasn't even surprised at all. I came down stairs early this morning to have breakfast, like a normal day, because I even forgot my own birthday. Then, they came out of nowhere with a cake, shouting happy birthday in my face. My best friends, Katie and Nyla , were there, they were the only friends I had. I also saw Kyren, my close but very distant boyfriend, I didn't care anyways, I just wanted this day to be over already. After the party, everyone went back to their usual pretence, except my best friends that stayed back because they knew I wasn't okay.

"Oh, please, Em." Nyla said, leaving my closet to come sit beside me too. "You don't always have to be this boring. Look, I know something fun we could do tonight, your parents don't have to know..."

"Nyla, she doesn't need any of that right now," Katie interrupted, knowing what Nyla was about to say.

"It's just a little fun here and there, guys, don't be so boring," Nyla said in a chuckle.

"We're not going to a club Nyla," Katie shut her off. But, I didn't really think that was a bad idea. I had never tried out any of those stuff, so it wouldn't hurt if I tried it out on my eighteenth birthday, I'm now an adult after all. After more talks and thoughts, we all decided to go to the club party later that night, it was a masked party after all, no one would see my face.

Katie and Nyla both stayed at my house that day till it was time to go to the club. I told my parents I was going for a sleep over at Nyla's place because her parents were out of town and she was all alone. They agreed, but they didn't know we took along with us the clothes that we would wear to the club that night. Immediately we got to Nyla's place, we changed into the club wears.

"Isn't this a bit too short?" I asked Nyla.

"Come on, Emily, today is your special day, let's have fun tonight." Katie gave her a very hard stare because she didn't like this idea at all, she just wanted me to be happy. In our little friend group, Nyla had always been the wayward one, always trying out new things, whether it was harmful or not.