The Double Surprise

August 7, 2017
11:55 pm

Five minutes to midnight. No whispers or murmurs outside the door. My roommate is staring at her laptop screen, disregarding my presence. So they weren't gonna burst into my room with a cake? I scroll through whatsapp idly, trying to act cool although my mind is racing through all the possibilities of what may or may not happen.



Three minutes to go. My roomie is still busy with her screen. Interesting. Maybe I should stop waiting foolishly and go back to reading my book. But my book is far off on my table. I feel lazy to get up. Oh well, whatsapp again then.

Two minutes. My phone rings. It's a conference call from my school friends. I'm delighted and all-grins already. How sweet of them. My roommate finally looks up at me as if distracted by my call. She checks the time. One minute, is it? Then she hugs me even as I'm on the call, and grins, "Well, happy birthday." I continue to grin, trying to make sense of the chaos in the conference call.

The door bursts open.
"Happpyyy Birthdayyyyy!!" A bunch of girls come screaming, and before I know it my phone is confiscated, my eyes are covered, and I'm pushed out of my room into the dark corridor. There, before me, is a humble cake lit with nineteen candles, and surrounding it, smiling faces.

...

August 8, 2017
4:00 pm

It is my good day. I'm in a cafe with my favourite people. Excepting my roommate, though. The grin plastered on my face hasn't yet peeled off. I am holding a tiny gift-wrapped box.
"Open it!" insists my best friend. I tear open the cover, all eyes from the table drilling into the box. The lid is opened and I gasp. Inside it lay a glorious golden ball fixed to a small chain. On its either side complementing the ball are silver wings sparkling in the dim cafe lights, ready to flap into life any moment now.

It was the golden snitch.

...

Two hours thence, I am sitting in my bed waiting for her get back from class. She finally does and I almost leap from my seat.

"Look what I got!"

My roommate rushes over to me with equal excitement. Such a dear she is! I pull out the magnificent golden beauty from the box for her to see. There I kneeled in the bed, proudly exhibiting the gift before her. Strangely enough, she looks crestfallen. Why on earth would she be upset? She wasn't even a potterhead (yet) to be jealous. To my utter surprise, she screams, "Noooo! I hate him!" referring to my best friend, of course.

I wait for an explanation in bewilderment. She pulls out a packet from her own bag and shoves it towards me. I dig into it, for a second wondering if it was possible...

"Don't tell me.." I say to her, pulling out another tiny box from the packet. And indeed, inside it was another magnificent golden glory. I fall back in my bed bursting with laughter, drowning my roommate's sighs and furious mutterings of regretting not to get it to me earlier.

But at that moment, I was the happiest soul in the whole world. What with being the owner of not one, but two beautiful golden snitches, gifted by two beautiful people.

And that is the story behind this picture, my favourite one to date.



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Linking with FTSF on the prompt 'Share a photo and the story behind it.' @ Sporadically Yours