Sun Upon Dark Clouds

19: Nice Laughter

“Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday, happy birthday, happy birthday to Margo!”

A smile appeared on the hazel-eyed woman’s face as she lightly shook her head at the high energy of the four people who were with her to celebrate her 24th birthday. Even though Margo did not like that Coley and Ghrae, who she literally just met for less than an hour earlier, joined them in celebrating her birthday, she eventually became okay with it. Margo was antisocial to everyone except Noah and Nora, who were her only friends, though she realized that it was not that bad to have more company—especially on her birthday. She had always spent her birthdays with the two of them, after all.

“You’re so ridiculous for forcing me to bring this,” Margo said as she put the purple box, which was Noah’s present, on the table. “I could have just opened it at home, you know.”

“It wouldn’t be fun,” Noah defended as he eagerly watched the birthday girl untie the ribbon on the box.

The four of them watched Margo in anticipation as she opened the box. It was a stone shaped as a guitar pick on the cushion inside the box. A chuckle left the purple-haired woman’s lips as she looked up to the brunet who was grinning at her. Coley was wondering whether she was mad for having a stone as a present or she was actually grateful to have a stone as a gift. Her question was answered as Margo reached to lightly slap the head of the man across her.

“Thanks, i***t. I love it,” Margo sincerely said as she closed the box and put it in the pocket of her hooded jacket.

“Right, I didn’t get you a present,” Nora said as she suddenly grinned excitedly. “Because I am the present!”

“I expected that,” The sides of Margo’s lips lifted to a broader smile. “Still the best present.”

“What is this I’m seeing?” Coley glanced in surprise at the two women who were looking at each other lovingly. “Are you two dating?”

“We’re not, dumbass,” Margo dropped the smile on her face as she turned to continue eating her slice of pizza cake.

The surprise that Noah made for Margo was the peperoni pizza cake that he personally asked the owner of the pizzeria to make. Apparently, there was no pizza cake in the menu, so Noah had to ask for a favor. Fortunately, he was friends with the owner of Daddy’s Pizzeria. Everyone in the restaurant was basically envious at them for having a tall cheesy pizza cake.

“Are you sure you and Coley haven’t slept together yet?” The red-haired woman turned to the raven who was sipping on her coke.

“This is the third time you’re asking me that, Nora,” Ghrae softly chuckled. “We’re not like that.”

“It’s because it’s so odd. Coley sleeps with every pretty woman she meets,” Nora said with her eyebrows furrowed deeply as if it was the most mysterious and unexplainable thing that she had ever known.

“Shut up. I don’t sleep with every pretty woman I meet!” Coley glared at her friend.

“If you don’t sleep with them, you date them,” Nora said. “Though they’re pretty much the same ‘cause you end up sleeping with them anyway.”

“You’re just ruining my reputation by making up stuff right now,” Coley shook her head as she took another slice.

“It’s not really a bad thing. What sucks is not being in any type of relationship since birth,” Nora’s eyes landed on her older brother who had been silently eating his pizza.

“Don’t even try to say that you’re waiting for the right person,” Margo pointed at him with her fork. “Your admirers are literally the ones keeping your coffee shop financially stable until now.”

“Yeah, I noticed,” Ghrae joined as another dagger was stabbed to the Noah.

The chestnut-eyed man forced a smile on his face as he shrugged off all the daggers that the three women attacked him with and looked up from his food. He could not even think of any excuse to defend himself at that moment because everything they said was the truth. Up until now, the only reason why Noah had never been in a relationship was because he was completely devoted to his shop and his sister that he did not want to bother adding another person to his priorities. Noah worked hard just to have his own coffee shop and now that he had his shop, he barely had any customers, which was already tough for him. Not wanting to go on with the conversation that they were having, Noah brought out the wasabi paste tube that he brought earlier and a box of his strawberry tarts.

“Who wants strawberry tarts and wasabi?” Noah flashed a bright smile on his face.

“Nobody wants that, Noah,” Margo answered in behalf of everyone.

“True.”

“Ghrae?” Noah turned to the raven with hope that someone would take his side.

“No, thanks,” Ghrae briefly put on a fake smile before taking a bite on her pizza slice.

With a smile through the pain on his face, Noah ate his strawberry tarts with wasabi alone as the women went to their own world by talking about girl talk. Sometimes Noah wished that they had other male friends too so he would not always be in the awkward situation. Though despite being the only male in the group, he was still happy to be friends with them that he would forget about it all eventually like how he was no longer sulky when they began to talk about the delicious pizza cake that they were having.

The night went on with everyone being on good terms. Margo got to be less cold toward her new friends, though that did not mean that she referred to them as friends. Being seen as the sarcastic delinquent owner of a record shop by the people of Peace Town made Margo used to in handling different kinds of people. Most people’s opinions about her were that she was a bad person because of her ears completely filled with piercings and her body covered in tattoos, which was why she never imagined having other friends aside from Noah and Nora. Margo was already thankful that the Farley siblings were always there to take her side no matter what.

“Happy birthday, purple head!” Coley grinned as they began to separate after the birthday dinner.

“Thanks, dumbass,” Margo smirked.

It was already late at night, which was why they decided to go home already. The Farley siblings were still arguing over the little prank that Noah did to her, which was to secretly put wasabi in her strawberry ice cream earlier. The other three had already moved on from the hilariousness yet the siblings had not, of course. They were waving their goodbyes as Coley and Ghrae separated with the three.

“Happy birthday,” Ghrae mouthed to Margo with a small smile on her face.

“Thank you,” Margo smiled back as she turned her back and began to leave with the siblings.

Coley and Ghrae turned to walk toward the direction of Yellow Nest, which was not that far anyway. They had a few beers though neither of them was tipsy since they both had a high tolerance for alcohol; they just had many similarities without them noticing. The walk was silent since they did not even know what topic to bring up. Not like usual, Ghrae decided to start a conversation first.

“I think that Margo is in love with someone,” Ghrae spoke.

“Really? Who?” Coley asked in curiosity and threw a glance at her.

“I don’t know who. It’s just an assumption since I saw a small box in the record shop labeled ‘go faves’ and aside from Frank Sinatra’s songs, most of the records there were love songs sung by lesbian singers.”

“Hmm, this is so interesting,” Coley squinted as she tapped on her chin with her index finger.

They both continued to walk by the sidewalk that barely had people passing by. While on their way back to the apartment, they walked past a bar where there were some older people entering and exiting the place. Coley could sense the intoxication in the bodies of the strangers as she protectively put her hand around the waist of Ghrae and gently pulled her to her other side that was away from the bar. Without taking her hand off the shorter woman, the brunette did her best to avoid the drunk people that were around them as she walked faster when a man with a big tummy who was obviously completely drunk stopped in front of them.

“Hey!” Coley furrowed her eyebrows when the stranger suddenly yelled at them while holding a bottle of beer. “It’s already late at night yet you kids are still outside?! Think about your parents worriedly waiting for your asses to be home at this hour!”

The raven raised an eyebrow at the sudden lecture that they were receiving from a drunk stranger. The two of them turned to look at each other before looking back at the man who began to walk away from them and get back inside the bar. They could hear him muttering that his kids must be waiting for him at home. The both of them scoffed at the irony.

“I have a plan,” Coley suddenly spoke while staring at an old looking car parked right in front of the bar.

Ghrae turned to look at what she was looking at and saw the ID of the drunk man from earlier stuck on the windshield. They did not have to search thoroughly about the owner of the car as it was already displayed on the front. The brunette smirked as she gave the raven a knowing look.

***

“There!” Coley said in a proud tone as she stood with her hands on her hips while staring at the masterpiece that she and Ghrae just made.

The car that belonged to the drunk stranger who just lectured them as if they were teenagers, was covered in bright pink sticky notes. While everyone was inside the bar with nobody outside, Coley took it as a chance to do her prank on the drunk man. There was a convenience store across the bar that happened to sell sticky notes, so they did not hesitate to buy plenty of them to go on with their plan. A small smile appeared on Ghrae’s face as well as she stared at the pink car that she worked hard in sticking.

“Let’s hide before we get caught,” Coley nodded and grabbed the wrist of the shorter woman as they both ran to hide behind a wall where they could see the car.

An excited smile appeared on the brunette’s face when she saw a few people coming out from the bar, one of them was the owner of the car. Ghrae noticed that she was about to laugh out loud as she immediately put her hand on the taller woman’s mouth, making Coley laugh silently with tears forming around her eyes.

“Who the f**k did this?! Come out and I will f*****g kill you!” the drunk man shouted in anger while roaming his eyes around the street though he could not spot the two women who were hiding behind a wall.

Because of the brunette’s uncontrollable laughter, the raven could not help but chuckle as they both watched the drunk man accuse and curse every person that he saw. It was a cool way to end the night.