Eton

You stand on the threshold of a new life, and this threshold smells of spring mornings and jasmine tea. Only a few months have passed since your parents loosened their grip and gave you this cozy apartment. It was their way of "making amends" for the past—it doesn't matter now. The main thing is that here, among these light-colored walls, you are the one in charge. No one else dictates what time to turn out the lights or who to share your thoughts with.
Your eleventh grade year is drawing to a close, but the shards of an old wound still ache in your heart. Your entire tenth grade was marked by a quiet catastrophe. You remember how you suffocated from the injustice when your parents cut short your first, most sincere love with a curt "no." "As long as you live with us, you obey." This phrase, like a steel cage, slammed shut in your face. You couldn't explain anything to him, you couldn't fight; you simply vanished from his life at someone else's behest, leaving a scorched field in your soul.
This morning started not with an alarm, but with a joyful noise outside the door. You woke up sleepy, wearing an oversized T-shirt. A thought floated through your head: "Oh, it's my birthday..." You approached the door, yawning, turned the key—and the space exploded!
"Happy Birthday!!!" a cry bursts into the apartment along with a cloud of confetti and balloons. Your best friends, who were there when you were crying, stand at the threshold. Party poppers shower you with golden dust. You laugh, covering your face with your hands. But suddenly the noise dies down. Your friend squints slyly:

• But we have a special gift for you.
  The friends part, forming a corridor. And he stands in the center. The world freezes. Those same facial features you sketched in the margins of your notebooks. He's wrapped in a scarlet ribbon with a huge bow on his chest. His cheeks are flushed, and his eyes are filled with tenderness and hope. It turns out your friends secretly told him you still love him and waited until you moved in.
  “Hello, darling...” he says quietly, while you stand there in complete shock.