Chapter 37：Rere

Matthew stopped the speedy driving and parked the car outside a library. "Keep your eyes shut, I'll get you out of the seat." She obeyed and continued to close her eyes. Matthew grabbed her hand and led her out of the car. He locked his car and dragged Renae into the library. "Where are we going?" Renae asked, feeling a bit scared as she had no idea what Matt was planning to do with her.

"You'll see, OK now open your eyes," Matthew instructed. Renae listened and opened her eyes. Cathy and Kaiden both shouted out, "SURPRISE! HAPPY BIRTHDAY RENAE!"

"Oh my god! Thank you so much guys! I thought you all forgot my birthday!" Renae said with a grin on her face, showing her cute dimples.

"Matthew planned all this for you. And he also rented this entire library just to celebrate your birthday! You better thank him," Cathy stated.

"Oh my, I thought, you hated me, so you did and said all those stuff earlier. I didn't know... Thank you so much," she said as she ran towards Matthew and hugged him. Matthew blushed slightly when she did so.

Renae broke the hug and walked around the library. The library was decorated with fairy lights, of all colours, it was purple, her favourite. It was not only decorated with fairy lights, but also dog pictures, meme photographs pasted on shelves of the library. She took pictures of the library, feeling elated and happy. After having walked around the entire place, she went back to where her friends were. She noticed that there were food on the table.

She went closer to the table to see what food her friends had prepared to eat. Renae looked at the trio and said, "Who ordered this?" Matthew looked back at her and replied, "What do you mean who ordered this? I made this with my own hands!"

"Aww thank you!!! It's carbonara! My favourite! I love you guys!!"

"You're welcome! We love you too!"

"Before we start digging into the pasta, open up the gifts we got you first!" Kaiden excitedly said.

Kaiden and Cathy passed Renae the gifts they got her. However, Matthew didn't. Either ways, Renae was happy that he had planned out all this for Matthew so she didn't realize that he hadn't given her anything.

Renae opened the gifts and found that Cathy had bought her Taylor Swift merch! She bought her 2 cropped hoodies and one of the cat pajamas. She gaped at the merch in front of her. She had no words, she was so cheery. Kaiden on the other hand, got her some romance fiction books for her to read. She thanked the two of them again.

After opening the presents, they returned to the food and started eating. It was only the four of them, but that's what made it feel cosy and family-like. They conversed as if it was as easy as breathing and they didn't have any difficulties being weird around one another.

They finished up a lot of the food and sat down at a comfortable reading area in the library to play games. "Hmm... what shall we play?" Cathy thought aloud. After a moment of silent thinking, Kaiden pipped up and suggested, "How about the king game? You guys all know how to play right?" Cathy shook her head. "Okay, so the king game is where we have a sticks, according to the number of people playing so we have four, and each person will draw a stick. Each stick will have a number written on it except for one stick which will say 'king'. The king gets to call out a certain number to do something or for a number and another number to do something. Do you get it?" Kaiden explained. "Ah... I see. But, how is this game fun?" Cathy asked. "Well, if the king is cheeky then the game will be fun!" Matthew said.

With that, they found a few ice cream sticks and wrote the numbers in numerical order on each of them. Therefore, the number went from 1 to 3. "Okay, let's each take a stick, everyone close your eyes!" Renae placed the cup with the sticks in the middle and they each took one. "Don't let anyone see your number either," Kaiden reminded.

"So... who's the king?" Renae asked. Everyone looked about with their shifty eyes. "Me," Kaiden said as he put up his hand. "So... we got a cheeky king, huh," Matthew said jokingly. Cathy smiled and replied, "Yep, this'll be fun then!"

They spent a long time playing the game. After all, Kaiden was the king!

"We should head home now. We can clean this up tomorrow anyways, it's getting pretty late," Cathy said, getting up and stretching. "No need, I'll get people to clean this place up. You guys have worked hard enough preparing it," Matthew said. "Mmh... You guys... I still can't thank you guys enough. I thought that this was the worst day ever since I thought you all had forgotten and Matthew was acting like a b*stard after school. And seriously, Matthew your acti- Wait... where did he go?" They turned around for a second and Matthew had disappeared!

"Aish, who cares? He'll return eventually. If he doesn't, we'll call the cops. I don't think he's in trouble though, so it's fine. Let's head home after Matthew returns," Cathy said. Renae nodded.

After a few minutes, Matthew returned with a big box in his arms. It was wrapped in different shades of purple and it had an easy to take off top. "Here, my gift to you," he said as he carefully placed it on the ground. Renae curiously bent down and took of the top of the box.

"Woof!" The puppy sitting in the box had a little bow clip on its fur. It looked so adorable! Renae immediately knew the breed of the dog. It was an Australian shepherd mixed with a golden retriever and it's fur was white, brown and black. "MATT.....!" Renae screamed. She was so excited.... how was she supposed to contain it? "OH MY.... OH MY OH MY....!!" She continued. In the spur of the moment, Renae leapt into Matthew's arms and hugged him so tight he almost couldn't breathe.

Matthew laughed... "I've never... found it so hard to... to laugh before," he added. "Renae I can't breathe," he finally said. Renae let go, but after Matthew saw her smile, his breath was stolen again. "So long as you're happy..." he mumbled.

Renae carefully picked up the puppy. It's innocent eyes stared right at Renae. "Oh... what should I name it? Since Matt gave it to me... and you could call a mat a carpet... ret? Erm, no... Re... Rere?" Renae asked. "That's a nice name but I feel offended... did you compare me with a carpet? After I gave you a dog?" Matthew whined, pretending to sniff. "OH hush it... How can I thank you for this though? It's a gift that... I never imagined I'd ever get. Matt, thank you, really," Renae said as she smiled towards Matthew.

Just a smile drew Matthew in so dearly. He smiled and shyly looked towards the ground as he replied, "I'd settle with a kiss." He meant it as a joke, but the next thing he knew, Renae went on tip toes, tilted his head up using her fingers and gave him a cute peck on the lips. After which, they made eye contact for a while before Renae became flustered and turned the other way. She starting petting Rere as she tried to calm her fluttering heart down.

"Ah... anyways, I'll fetch you home, let's go," Matthew said, his face was also obviously blushing. Cathy and Kaiden were at the side giggling amongst themselves as they watched the entire thing happen. "Mmh... Bye to you guys then! See you tomorrow at school," Renae said, waving to Cathy and Kaiden. They returned the wave and just like that, they split ways.