This party was amazing.

Amazing, amazing, amazing. I seriously don't know how else to describe it.

And I cannot believe that Troy Bolton, my official boyfriend of two weeks, put this all together. His idea, his vision, his guest list which down to a T was made up of everyone I wanted. Honestly. Everything about this party is ugh, just so unbelievable and I can't believe he wanted to do all of this for me.

"Hey, is everything okay?" Troy asks as he sneaks up behind me.

"Yes," I breathed out turning to face him, "everything is perfect." It was perfect. And more.

"I'm glad."

He gave me a kiss on the forehead and then a small smile. He had to consult with my family, my friends, obviously, to get this guest list, but he did a pretty damn good job. My grandma, my cousins, my aunts and uncles, all my friends from school and my friends not from school. I know I keep going on about how perfect it is, but I'm serious. He did such a good job. And I'm so amazed he was able to pull it off. Well, sort of.

My grandma told me, but if she didn't need to, or if my friends didn't eventually have to step in, he would have succeeded. Not a single soul told me.

I looked out at everyone and couldn't help, but smile until my eyes landed on someone.

"You invited Ryan?" I turned around to face Troy.

"I know regardless of everything, you two are friends," he shrugs, "is that okay?"

Yes, regardless of everything, we are friends. But I know for a fact Ryan didn't have an invitation to my party a week ago because I ran into his mother like five days ago and she asked if she could take me out to dinner for my birthday, which she wouldn't have if she knew about this party because she's a terrible liar. So he had to have invited him no less than four days ago. Right? I mean. How great of a guy is he.

Inviting my ex boyfriend after he knows everything about him. After I spent almost an hour one night telling him how our relationship worked.

And he's here tonight because of him.

It shows that he trusts me and that makes me so incredibly happy.

I grabbed the of his head, pulled it towards me and gave him the most passionate kiss I could. He was absolutely perfect. And nice. And sweet. And I don't know how I won him over, but I did and he makes me feel like a million bucks. Seriously. I'm so happy. I can't say it enough.

"What?"

"I really like you," I tell him, "thank you for everything."

"Let's go party," he gives me one more kiss before pulling me away from this spot away from everyone.

Yes, let's. I'm so ready.

We headed over to everyone and as we were making out way through the crowd, Stacy stepped in and stole me away from Troy. He told me he was gonna go grab a drink so I let him and turned back to Stacy, who was smiling at me and holding a present.

She pushed some of her dirty blonde hair out of her face and continued to smile at me, "Happy birthday, girl! You look so fabulous."

"Thanks, Stace," I give her a hug and look down at the present, "you didn't have to get me anything."

"Nonsense," she shakes her head, "it's your birthday. The big 1-8, of course I did. Plus, you're still with Troy and not back with Ryan so I have to thank you for that as well, because you know, Troy's a good guy and I'm happy he's happy and..."

"I really like him," I assured her before she could say anything else on the matter, "there's nothing to worry about. Ryan and I are completely done and I'm moving on with Troy. He... he gets me."

She smiled at me and nodded, "If I'm being honest, even knowing your whole history with Ryan, if he were to tell me to set me up with someone when he first got here, you'd be the first girl I'd think of because you're similar and have things in common and you're an "it" girl, but you're so much more than that"

I've always liked Stacy and I sometimes wondered why we're not closer because she is a really nice girl.

Like right now. She's being so supportive. And I know how she can be with her brother's girlfriends. So this is nice.

I think I passed the test? "That means a lot. I know he's not from this world, I get it, so it also means a lot that he didn't just ride me off as some Manhattan Elite girl, you know?"

"Troy's much more of a gentleman that that," she chuckles, "but yeah, I'm happy you both are happy and I hope it all works out."

"Me, too," I nod as I look over at him laughing with Savannah, "me too."

And right now, I can't see why it won't.

Cassie walked over to me with a drink in her hand laughing at something someone just told her.

And when she got to me, she hugged me, out of nowhere, and told me how much she loved me. "Seriously, happy birthday. I love you so much."

I knew she was pretty drunk, but it was still nice. I know she means it. And that's the thing I love most abut my friends. Drunk or not, we tell each other everything. If she was drunk right now and I did something to piss her off the other day and it would have come out right now, I would have already known about it because she would have told me the second it happened. There's no bullshit between us. We're honest all of the time.

She doesn't like the way I talked to her? She'll tell me. And vice versa. It's like that with all of our friends and I'm so, so, so thankful for that.

I'm not sure why I'm thinking about this right now, but I am.

Well, maybe because I saw these two girls yell at each other and they're best friends and I don't know, it got me thinking a bit. How my friends and I can fight but it'll go back to how it was within ten minutes because we compromise or get over it because it's better to have each other than not have each other.

And I'm also just thinking about how incredibly lucky I am to have the people I have in my life right now.

My parents, who are here mingling with family friends.

My brother, who's dancing up a storm with his girlfriend being all lovey dovey.

My family, my grandparents and aunts and cousins and uncles and everyone else in between that I couldn't live without.

My friends, who get me through my days, have seen me at my best and worst, and accept all of me. Who support me, love me, and inspire me.

And Troy.

Troy Bolton, who's only been my boyfriend for two weeks, but my God. I hit the jackpot. I know I did. And I'm never taking him for granted.

"Hey, what're you thinking about?"

I turn around and see my grandma there holding a glass of wine, because she's still got it going on. "Oh, um, no, nothing. I was just thinking about how this party is amazing. I can't believe he pulled it off. Like, I seriously had no idea what was going on. And even with you telling me, I'm still so surprised about it."

She smiled and grabbed my hair and tossed it behind my shoulder, "he did an amazing job, you're so lucky to have him, you know."

"I know," I smiled at her, tears almost forming in my eyes.

"It's like he was the last missing puzzle piece," she tells me, "and I know it's soon, and I know you're young, but I met your grandpa my senior year of high school, too. And look at us now. 46 years together. I just know I have a good feeling about this one."

Gah, I don't want to jinx it.

For all I know, in a month, I could wake up and not be into him or vice versa.

But I do know, I can't possibly see that being true any time soon. And it scares me so much. Like, how is it possible for me to like a guy this much so soon?

My grandma and I chatted a little bit longer and when she excused herself to go to the bathroom, I grabbed my water from the table and turned around to head back to everyone. I've been in this corner way too long. People are gonna start asking questions, trying to figure out if something is wrong or not.

On my way to where all my friends are, I bumped into Ryan.

Literally bumped into him. Ahh.

"Hey," he smiles at me, holding out my present, "um, happy birthday."

This was weird. I've spent my past two birthdays with him, just us, doing something intimate. And now. Well, now, my boyfriend's throwing my this party and he's here and I don't know. I just feel really weird about the whole thing. But at the same time, I feel good. Ryan and I are friends.

I mean, our parents are friends. We can't avoid each other for ever. And we shouldn't avoid each other.

"Thank you," I go in for a hug because why not? I'm mature. He's mature... sort of. We can be friendly. "thanks for coming."

"Yeah, yeah," he pushes his hair back even though it's short, "well, thank Troy for inviting me. And um, I know this is kind of weird, but we were friends first and so, I hope we always can be... respectfully, of course."

I'm happy he added that last part in. We were friends before, but friends who hung out all the time and that's why it led to us dating. We can't be those kind of friends anymore. We have to be friends that say hi to each other at parties, talk here and there, hang out in groups. It wouldn't be fair to Troy. And quite honestly, I don't really want that. I'm content in my life. And although, I can't imagine life without Ryan in it, right now, it's best if we're just... cordial.

It's nice that he's here, though, because a lot of his friends are so he shouldn't miss out on a fabulous party. "No, yeah, yeah, of course. Me too."

I thank him once again for the present and then make my way over to Troy, who's talking to my grandpa about something, which is the cutest thing in the whole world. Honestly. Your boyfriend getting along with your family? SWOON.

"Hey," I sneak up behind him.

He turns around and immediately gives me a smile, "where were you?'

I smile at my grandpa and then look back at Troy and shrug, "I was just mingling. What are you guys doing?"

"We're just talking," my grandpa chimes in as he grabs his beer from the bar, "about how in the world he managed to pull this off when your friends can't keep anything from you and vice versa. And we can't believe your grandma had to give it away, but I guess you were still surprised so that's good."

As soon as my grandpa said that, he excused himself... which made me laugh. He was such a weirdo, I loved it. One minute he's talking, the next he's gone.

I turn back to Troy, grab his hands into mine and look lovingly into his eyes like a lame girlfriend. "Thank you so much for all of this."

"When your friends told me they've never thrown you a surprise party, I figured maybe I should," he shrugged it off as it was nothing. So modest. "I'm just glad you like it. I've never thrown one before."

"I love it," I looked around the place, which was decked out in Gatsby themed things, "honestly, this is one of the best birthdays I've ever had."

"Good," he leans down and kisses me, "I'm happy you're happy."

Oh, I'm SO happy.