Well! You've always hated me.

Elizabeth's (Lizz) pov

And that's when I choose to do the most absurd thing in the world.

I scream, I yell, I curse. I struggle in my seat to get out of those bloody ropes so that I can strangle them. Yes, I want to strangle my so-called kidnappers.

Kidnappers. How odd that word sounds coming from me for them.

"What the fuck do you think you all are doing?" I sneer at them, narrowing my eyes giving them the best disgusting look I can.

"SURPRISE!" They exclaim together with the biggest grins adorning their faces.

Their grins, they did nothing but riling me up even more.

"You fucking bastard, you left me there. You knew they were going to do this and you went along with them." I yell at my so-called companion on this journey to Frankford.

"Lizz--" He starts but I cut him off with a glare.

"And you! Bitch! 'Happy birthday in advance, Lizz'." I mock what she told me at my place this morning.

"Lizz--"

"Shut up, Daisy Hanna Wilson!" I screech loudly, my throat hurting by the sudden efforts.

"And you a bloody potato, 'all we need is her kidneys, liver and heart'. Like really! I mean you're such a fucking asshole. I hate you." I glare daggers at him.

"Well, you've always hated me, Eliza. But yeah, I knew you were awake and sneaking on us and to add some dramatics and scare the shits out of you, I said that. Aren't I the best one?" He says giving me a smug smile, riling me up even more.

"Shut up! Just shut the fuck up, you asshole!" I shriek as loud as I can.

"Lizz, we need you to calm down. This was all to surprise you, to make you happy, to make you smile." Ronnie explains, carefully stepping closer to me.

"Like the hell, I can calm down. Do you even realize what you've put me through? I was crying, I was crying and praying, asking for a chance to just see you all, once. But this was all a bloody joke, a surprise." I exclaim trying to pull my hands off, hurting myself in the process.

"Lizz, my love, I knew you needed someone. I realized it that very day that this was an escape you've planned. An escape from something you didn't want to tell us. But we aren't that ignorant. We aren't Lizz." She stops speaking and takes in a deep breath as if she's calming herself more than she's making an effort to calm me.

" We love you and we need you to know that. We know you know that but still I felt like saying this again. That's the very reason, we all came here to surprise you. Just tagging along and celebrating the birthday at some restaurant would be just plane for us, our legacy. That's the reason we planned this." Hannah explains, her reason, her words calming down the raging emotions swirling in my veins.

"Exactly Eliza, we all know you needed us. I know, I trouble you, I make you mad and all but I love you as much as I love troubling you. We all love you, Lizz. Please, just calm down." Luke says with raw emotions on his face.

"Untie me, you idiots," I say through my happy tears.

"First promise that you're not going to hurt us." The only lame one of our group says.

"I won't but if you don't untie me in the next ten seconds, then I'm not responsible for my actions. Now. untie me." I say again, this time with more desperation in my voice.

As soon as he unties the ropes, I run and launch myself in Hannah's arms, squeezing the air out of her.

"Thank you thank you thank you. I really love you all a lot. Thank you. I'm sorry, I went crazy like that." I keep saying as the warm tears flow down my cheeks in a stream of the river.

"It's okay, Lizz. It's perfectly fine. We're all here. For you." She says, patting my back with utmost care and affection.

"Happy birthday, our favourite little Eelizzaaaaa." Luke grins like an idiot, his hands pointing at the wall behind me.

Getting out of Hannah's hold, I turn around only to let out a huge gasp with shock? Yeah, a pretty good one.

Hanging from the ceiling were lights, which suspended pictures of mine, with my family, my friends and other cousins of mine like a pendulum hanging from the clock.

On the wall, is a huge 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SOUL' written on it and there are balloons.

The place, I mean the room is perfectly decorated with flowers, lights, pictures and balloons, just like I've always wanted one.

Among the countless pictures, my eyes caught that one picture. Not one picture actually, one face, that particular one I could never forget. I can never even try to forget. Going over to that one, in which there's only us, I pluck it out of the lights and hug it.

This picture was taken when we all went to the summer house during the vacations after our high school graduation. We were all happy. She was happy.

Alice. My sister, my twin. A member of our group. And Luke's love interest, whom he loved dearly, more than anything he'd ever loved.

Just as the unshed tears flow out of my eyes, I feel two arms wrapping around my shoulders from behind. I lean back into his touch and let out the grief.

The grief of not seeing her. The grief of not having her with us. The grief of not being able to celebrate our birthday together. Because it's supposed to be her birthday too. She was just two minutes elder to me.

If she were here, we would be celebrating it together, today. With all of them. Our little group, a family in itself. Where we all love each other to no limits.

"We all miss her, Eliza. We all do. But you need to calm down now. More surprises are waiting for you." He tells softly with tenderness and heavy emotions lingering in his voice.

"Where's Jake?" I ask out of nowhere suddenly realizing his absence.

"Uh...we don't know about him, Eliza. He didn't come with us. We're sorry." He mumbles placing a kiss on my forehead instantly warming my heart.

But my insides twist with sadness and nothingness. He isn't here and this truth hurts me to no boundaries.