Chapter 23

The anniversary party was five months ago. During this time I've spend as much time as possible with Dimitri. I was still surprised how well everyone took in the news about our relationship, considering I wasn't even 18 yet.

My friends got over their first shock and over learning about what I've done to myself. Dimitri even joined me in one of my therapy sessions and yesterday was my last session. Of course I would start again as soon as I started feeling down again.

Today was my birthday. The 21st of march. As soon as I woke up, my parents started with our typical birthday breakfast. To celebrate a birthday at our house we got special treats from Scotland and Turkey. Since it was my birthday today, chocolate donuts were added to the table.

"Good morning Kizim. I wish you all the best for your 18th birthday. I couldn't be prouder." My father greeted me with a bearhug. "Thank you Baba." As soon as I got out of my father's embrace my mother took me into anther bone crushing hug. "My little baby is finally grown up." She almost cried into my hair. "Thanks Mom. But I didn't just grew up over night. It took me quite some years, so this isn't such a surprise." She scuffed at my words and Lissa was next to hug and congratulate me.

Sitting down I couldn't decide what to eat first. We ate for over an hour and my parents shared their favorite stories about when I was a baby. We knew all of them already, we knew them by heart, but it was a tradition we were keen on keeping.

Pavel and his girlfriend Keira joined us for breakfast. She became a closer kind of friend to Lissa and me, especially after the anniversary party. She always had a story about one thing or another she experienced throughout her career all over the world.

After breakfast I went and took a long shower, got ready and then my parents drove me to Dimitri's. Lissa would follow later with Christian and my other friends would come in the evening.

Today I would party with all my friends and the next day my parents and the rest of my family would come to Dimitri's to celebrate some more. Even Dimitri's family would come. Vika already had plans for tonight, otherwise she would've joined us. I loved the Belikovs as much as I loved my own family. By now Yeva seemed to have tested me enough and talked to me in English. For me this was quiet the achievement.

When I thought about who to invite, I decided to just stick to my best friends. I didn't need a huge party, just because I got 18. All my life these six people had always been there for me. Now I only added Christian, he was Lissa's boyfriend after all. I would never admit that out loud, but I liked him. He was like a brother, we teased each other a lot, but it was always good naturedly.

"I want you to be on your best behavior at Dimitri's." My father told me with a look in the rear view mirror.

"Baba, first of all, I'm spending the night at my boyfriend's cabin, so it's obvious I'll be on my best behavior, and second of all, we're all good. Have you ever had trouble after one of our parties?" I asked him raising both my eyebrows since I was still unable to raise just one.

Even he couldn't say something against it. Throughout the years we never damaged something other than an occasional glass.

"On the contrary, I remember a rather drunk version of you who 'accidentally' blew up a statue in the garden and blasted a hole into the fence."

Grumbling something about having an ungrateful, never-forgetting, know-it-all daughter he parked in front of Dimitri's house. My mother simply laughed at this and patted his hand on the steering wheel.

Getting everything unloaded, we carried the things into the cabin. Dimitri was nowhere to be seen, but I knew where he kept the spare keys.

Finished with the decoration, Dimitri still wasn't to be found so my parents said goodbye until tomorrow.

I spent twenty minutes getting the rest ready for when the guests arrived when I heard movements behind me. Suddenly two hands snaked around my waist and lips covered my neck. A delicious scent filled the air around me and I couldn't help but sigh in content.

"Happy Birthday, Milaya!" He sang softly into my ear. "Thank you, Comrade." It wasn't more than a whisper. "Do you want to get your present now, or later?" he asked huskily.

"Depending on what this present is." I turned my head to look at him. "If my present has something to do with your body close to mine, rather now than later, because it's rude to do such naughty things when there are others sleeping in the next room." Laughing at this he gave me a lingering kiss on my cheek.

"That is part of my present." He continued kissing down my neck which weakened my knees. "Then I want it now." Turning around I pressed my kiss to his lips and we walked towards the bed.

After my amazing, satisfying present, we re-did the bed and got dressed properly. "Thank you. That was my best gift so far." I smiled at him.

"So far? Do you think someone can top this gift?" he asked, raising one eyebrow.

"You should never say never." Grinning mischievously I turned around and walked into the main room.

An hour later the first of my friends arrived. Lissa and Christian got inside. "Happy birthday, Rose." Lissa squealed again. "Thank you. But how many times do you want to wish me a happy birthday?" I asked Lissa. "As many times as I feel like." she answered smiling brightly.

Christian rolled his eyes at his girlfriends antics.

"Happy birthday, Rosie." He hugged me as well. "Oh thank you Sparky." I answered.

"Can the two of you not tease each other for once?" Dimitri asked, knowing full well we couldn't do such thing.

"No. Don't think so." We said at the same time. "Jinx!" I exclaimed first.

"Those two, worse than children." Lissa shook her head, but smiled fondly at her boyfriend.

All my friends greeted me enthusiastically and Adrian and Sydney were the last ones to arrive.

"Happy birthday, little Mary." He cheered as he attacked me, catching me in a hug.

Turning towards Dimitri he nodded before opening his mouth.

"I guess now I can't call you a cradle robber anymore." Adrian snickered but shut up at the disapproving looks he got from all of us. "Difficult audience."

"How about we start by opening presents and then we'll eat something?" Jill suggested.

"Guys, I told you not to spent money on me." I chastised them.

"We spent next to nothing." Eddie reassured me. "Actually it's one bigger present from all of us and then smaller additions from each of us." I eyed them but accepted the huge and heavy gift they gave me. It weight a lot, but felt very soft. Freeing my present from the wrapping paper my mouth opened involuntarily. Inside was a beautiful blanket. But not just any blanket. This one was made out of old t-shirts from our childhood.

In kindergarten we started to create logos and pictures that were printed on shirts. Our friend group continued this and gifted a shirt to each other every year or whenever something important happened. These were all the ones I've received from my friends. Usually they were stuffed into a bag inside my closet, but Lissa apparently took them and they somehow managed to put them together into an amazing cover.

I stared at the blanked for what felt like hours until Christian had to interrupt it. "I guess we broke Rose." This broke me out of my gaze and I looked at my friends in awe.

"How did you guys managed this?" I said, my voice wavering with joy and tears. "Dimitri helped us." Sydney admitted.

Looking at him he smiled his beautiful smile for me. "More accurately, my mother helped with it. Eddie came up with the idea and they created the pattern and Mama sewed everything together."

Letting my tears fall I hugged all of them and started with Eddie. "This is perfect. Thank you. How did you came up with this idea?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "You mentioned before that you're in need of a new bedspread and then I remembered what my mom did ears ago with old baby clothes for my cousin."

"Thank you." I hugged him again.

"Now let's eat." Mason demanded good naturedly to lighten the mood.

"Comrade. This present is amazing. I'll have to thank your Mama. She is really talented." He gave me a kiss and shook his head. "She did this with pleasure. Believe me, she'll play down all the gratefulness you'll try to show her. It's nothing to her. I told you she loves you." Giving him another kiss I couldn't help but tease him. "I think this actually rivals your earlier gift."

Smacking my butt he followed me into the kitchen were the rest of my friends were already eating.

After we finished waiting they gave me the remaining small things. Each of them had printed out a picture of us, wrote a card about the most loved memory that happened to us.

"Why does it feel like you're saying goodbye to me?" I asked them after I read the last card and sniffled.

"Because we are." Lissa simply said, which made tears well up again. But this time Sydney, Jill and Lissa joined in. "This is the last birthday party were celebrating before heading off to college or whatever we want to do after graduation." Eddie explained while the girls and I were busy bawling our eyes out.

"Now that are enough tears." Adrian demanded.

"He is right." To my surprise Dimitri was agreeing. "You'll have plenty of time to cry while we're watching whatever movie you guys pick out and at the graduation party you'll cry as well." He said, earning him more or less angry looks from every girl in the room. The guys laughed at this.

"Come on. I installed the play station so you guys can sing some songs. Who's in?" Dimitri asked, which made the previous anger disappear.

The rest of the night turned out to be as fun as the beginning. We all sucked at singing but enjoyed it even more so. After some time, even the boys stepped in and sang something. Laughing, singing and dancing until the wee hours we enjoyed my birthday party.

In this moment I couldn't be more grateful for how my life turned out to be.

When even the most energized one of us had heavy eyelids we turned off the lights and laid down on the improvised beds. Tonight all of us would stay here and sleep on the makeshift beds on the floor in the main room. One after the other we went to the bedroom to get into the adjoining bathroom. Once we were all finished we laid down and started a movie none of us would see the end of.

The girls and I picked 'Killers' with Kathrine Heigl and Ashton Kutcher. Just as I assumed, everyone was asleep before we hit the first half of the movie. I curled up next to Dimitri and fell asleep as well.

This was the way I could fall asleep for the rest of my life. If I would have it my way, this would be how I'd spend the rest of my life. But we would sleep in a normal bed, not on the quite uncomfortable floor. However I smiled as I imagined our happy future together. Dimitri was already asleep and made small sweet snoring noises. Not loud enough to keep anyone from sleeping, but loud enough so I could hear it and listen to his breathing while drifting off into my own land of dreams.