The Boy Next Door

What kind of person forgets their own birthday? Me. I had finished all my homework for the weekend and then my mom calls me downstairs. When I get to the living room, she wants to know what I want to do for my birthday tomorrow. I was confused at first, but then I realized that tomorrow was February 10, 2009. The day I turn sixteen.

I went up stairs and got ready for bed, but then I couldn't sleep. At 11:50 there was a knock on my balcony door. I opened the door and Matt stepped into my room.

"Get dressed." He ordered. His hair was blown from the wind and his face was filled with excitement. He looked adorable.

"I don't get a hello?" I crossed my arms over my chest.

"We don't have time for this, Sydney." He walked towards my closet and pulled out a hoodie and some skinnies. "Now, put these on." He threw the clothes at me.

"I have school tomorrow. I can't just go out at all hours of the night." I protested.

"Do you want your surprise or not?" He asked.

My face brightened up. "Surprise?" He nodded. I put the hoodie over my tank top and took off my sleep shorts and pulled on the jeans. Matt gave me a funny look. "What?" I asked.

"You didn't even ask me to leave. You just took off your pants like no one was around." He sounded amazed.

"You said we have to hurry and I want my surprise. Besides, I did it in like two seconds. It wasn't like I was stripping for you." I said.

"Now that I wouldn't mind seeing." He smirked.

"My surprise." I reminded him.

"Oh, right." He grabbed my hand and pulled me outside.

Leaning on my balcony, was a ladder. I just stared at it. "Is that how you get up here?" I questioned.

"Uh, yeah. How else would I get up here? Fly?" He teased.

"I guess I never really though about it. Where'd you get it, anyway?" Matt pulled me over the railing and we climbed down the ladder.

"Your dad keeps it behind the bushes." He pointed to all the foliage on the side of my house. "Not the best spot, but convenient." He shrugged.

"Man, I was sort of hoping you were secretly Superman or something." I joked.

Matt just ignored me.

"Radioactive spider?" I continued.

He gave me one of those 'not now' looks. "I need you to put this on." He handed me a blindfold.

I gave him a quizzical look. "Um, may I ask why?"

"I don't want you to know where we're going." He said in Lexi's 'duh' tone. "Hurry we may not make it." He glanced at his watch.

I did what I was told, trusting Matt not to rape me or something. He held my hand the whole way and made sure I didn't run into anything. It was kind of weird, considering the last time we were together, we had almost kissed. I wondered if hadn't been able to stop thinking about that either. We were walking for about two minutes, when we stopped. Matt sat me down on, judging from the way it moved, a swing.

Matt took off my blindfold and said, "Ta-da!"

I looked around and saw that we were at the park. There was a swirly slide, a bumpy slide, and a really steep slide. There were two sets of monkey bars. One for the younger kids and one for the older kids. You could smell the fresh mulch on the ground. I smiled and started to swing.

"Push me, Matt!" I yelled. He laughed and did what he was told. There was no place I loved more than the park. It made me feel like a kid again. There were no worries or fears. Only happiness and pure innocence.

"Okay, in five, four, three, two... Happy Birthday!" Matt came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist.

I giggled. "Is that why you were in such a hurry?" I asked.

"Yep. I wanted to be the first person to tell you happy birthday and give you a gift." He smiled my favorite smile. My heart melted. "Now get up." He ordered.

"What?" I looked at him confused.

"Just do it." I got up and Matt sat down on my swing. I glared at him. He sighed and patted his lap, gesturing for me to sit on him. I sighed and did so. We slowly started to sway back and forth.

"So what's my surprise?" Our faces were so close. I could feel his warm breath on my cheek. Our body heat made the cold weather go away.

Matt pulled out a little black box from his pocket. My heart stopped. Me being me, my first thought was, Oh Crap, he wants to marry me! But then I started to think rationally. "This is." He whispered.

I opened the box and gasped. Inside was a diamond necklace and bracelet. The necklace had a heart with diamonds in it. The bracelet didn't exactly match, but was equally beautiful. "Matt, you didn't have to get me anything."

"But I wanted to." We were both whispering.

"But this had to have been expensive. I can't take this." I tried giving him the box back.

He pushed it back to me. "Yes you can. It's not everyday you turn sixteen."

I looked back down at the jewelry and smiled. Did he pick this out himself or did his mom help? "Can you help me put it on?" I asked.

I lifted my hair and Matt linked the chain. Then I held out my wrist and Matt hooked the bracelet together. He looked me in the eyes and started to smile. "Perfect." He said, but I wasn't sure if he meant the jewelry or me. I was hoping for the second.

"Thanks, Matt. I love it." I hugged him extremely tight. I could smell his cologne and it was amazing.

"I'll race you to the slide." He said. Before I could respond, he took off running. It was just like the last time we were together. Only this time I wasn't going to let him get away.