Flirting with Danger Bk 1

“Kota? Are you okay?” Louis asked, putting a hand on my shoulder.
I looked over at him, and shook my head a little. “Yeah.” I said, smiling at him as he slid onto the couch beside me. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
“Good, because I want you to open my present next.” he said. He picked up a small bag and put it in my lap. I smiled at him and he nodded for me to open it.
I pulled out a black shirt that had “Nickelback” across the front of it, the name of their latest album underneath that, and then a choker with a signed yellow guitar pick on it. “What is that?” Sue asked and I looked over at Louis, who was suddenly holding six tickets. This completely erased my thoughts about the bloodstones.
“How much do you love me?” he asked, smiling broadly at my shocked face.
“Tons,” I said, pulling him into a big hug. “Thank you so much.” I said in his ear.
“I love making you happy.” he said and squeezed me tightly before letting go.
“When is the concert?” asked mom, who was smiling pleasantly.
“Tomorrow night at nine.” said Louis, smiling, obviously proud of himself.
“I can’t believe I’ll be at a Nickelback concert tomorrow night!” I said excitedly.
“And backstage.” said Jack, and I turned to see him and Jason holding three backstage passes each.
“Backstage!” I said, jumping up and hugging them.
“This is the best birthday ever!” I said, both of them smiling at me as I jumped up and down in happiness.
“And it gets better.” said Dale, who smiled. He reached behind the couch and pulled out a snowboard that was blue and spattered with orange, which was the color of the bottom.
“Wow.” I said, going over to the couch and touching the board. “Dale, this is awesome!” I hugged him too.
“And here’s everything you’ll need for it.” said Chase, tipping over the last of my bags to reveal goggles, gloves, an orange beanie, a blue outfit, including a coat, and some socks.
I laughed a little, picking up the socks and looking at him. “Man, you went all out.” I said, holding up the socks and smiling at him.
“We had to guess your size on those.” said Dale, chuckling a little too.
“Thanks guys, for everything.” I said, all of us having a group hug.
“Awe,” said mom, making me blush when I turned around. “Let’s take a group picture. Everyone together now, Kota, you in the middle. Perfect.” Click. Then we took pictures of me and my parents; me, my parents, and Kati; and then me and Kati.
Then right after the last picture Louis and Dale ran for the kitchen, Louis calling, “Time for cake and ice cream!” All the guys thundered into the kitchen and everyone followed them.
I saw Louis and Dale slide to a stop at the fridge and take something out, but everyone stepped in the way. I pushed my way up to the table, wondering and kind of dreading what was coming. I just hoped that whatever they’d hid from me earlier wasn’t something that was going to get us in trouble, but when I got to the counter I was pleasantly surprised.
It was a Nickelback cake. It was black, with the words Nickelback and their latest album in blue letters with blue icing on the edges of the cake. I looked across the table at Louis, who smiled innocently. “And you thought we were doing something bad earlier.” he said, sticking in the seventeen candles while Dale lit them.
“It’s not my fault you made it seem obvious.” I said, sitting down and watching him.
“How? Did I look mischievous?” he asked, trying and failing to look innocent.
“You always look mischievous.” I said, smiling and shaking my head at him.
“Well, I’m sure it was just your imagination.” he said, putting the rest of the candles up.
“Right.” I said sarcastically. He smiled and shrugged, shaking his head like he didn’t know what I was talking about.
“On three.” My dad said. And on three, they sang “Happy Birthday” to me.
“Which piece do you want Kota?” Dad asked, smiling down at me.
“The corner.” I said and he gave me the plate with my cake and two scoops of cookies ‘n cream ice cream. I smiled and returned to the living room, moving all my presents into a few bags and putting the snowboard back behind the couch before sitting down in the middle of the couch.
“So birthday girl, what do you want to do after this?” asked Louis, coming and sitting beside me.
“I don’t know.” I said, eating some cake. “Hey, did you make this?” I looked at him and pointed to the cake with my fork.
“Me and Dale, yeah. You like it?” he asked, taking a bite himself as Dale sat on my other side, the others gathering around.
“Yeah, it’s great, but it doesn’t taste like cake.” I said and he nodded, laughing a little.
“Yeah, your mom told me how much you like brownies so I made that instead of cake. Dale did the icing.” he said and I laughed.
“Well you two did really good. I didn’t even realize they were brownies until now.” I said and we all laughed.
“These are really great.” Sue said when we’d all calmed our laughing.
“Yeah it is. I’m gonna go get some more ice cream.” I said, standing up.
“Are you sure you wanna do that? It’s a lot of sugar.” said Dale, looking at me and then glancing at Louis.
I looked over at Louis, who quickly stopped shaking his head and said, “Hey, I’ve got an idea. How about we go to the slopes? That’ll work off some sugar.”
I looked between him and Dale and then said, “Sure.” Then I went to get some more ice cream.
We stayed there for a little while more, letting our cake and ice cream digest before hitting the slopes. And I’ve got to say that this was the best birthday I’d ever had. Chase’s stuff fit perfectly and the board was perfect. Way better than those old renters. We went on slope after slope until my sugar rush finally ran out around dinnertime.
We stopped at Hardy’s and got a bite to eat, getting a big booth. I was in between Jack and Louis, with Dale and Sue on Louis’s other side and Jason and Chase on Jack’s side.
“So, what next?” Sue asked, looking around the table.
“I don’t know. It’s getting dark.” I said.
“Well, we’ve planned our own little party.” said Louis, looking at me with a sly smile.
“What kind of party?” I asked, smiling back even though I was kind of scared what he’d planned for me.
“I’m not gonna spoil the surprise, but I will ask you one thing. Do you like dancing?” he asked, looking at me sideways with a smile.
***
We arrived at the club thirty minutes later, Louis’ hands covering my eyes as they all led me inside. I saw the disco lights through Louis’ fingers as we weaved one way and then the other, or at least that’s what it felt like to me, and finally came to a stop.
Louis removed his hands and said happily, “Surprise!”
We were in the club, and I could see tons of people dancing in front of us, but then I saw what I thought he’d meant. On the other side of the dancing crowd was the bar, on which there was a woman with blonde hair lying on her side wearing a black bathing suit. I was so confused.
“What do you think?” he asked, smiling proudly.
“You got me a girl?” I asked, looking at him in confusion.
“No!” he said, laughing loudly. “That’s you!” I looked at him blankly.
“Come look.” he said and we made our way across the dance floor.
When we got to the other side of the crowd I could clearly see that this wasn’t a real woman, or a woman at all for that matter. Louis was right, because it was me, but in a way I couldn’t believe. “We worked on it all day yesterday.” he said, leaning on the bar beside me, or “it”, whatever you want to call it.