10 months earlier... 15th of September, last year...

You woke up naturally, without some alarm clock cutting off your sleep nor getting disturbed awake by anyone. It was technically still summer but the heat wasn't as intense by now as autumn wasn't too far off. The sun wasn't shining all in your face thanks to the window curtains, allowing your eyesight to adjust and refocus without the feeling of getting blinded, which for someone with relatively mild photophobia was specially nice.

"It's the black eyes" You remember your grandma Regina's explanation when you asked her about it many years ago. It looked like both you and your mom had this sort of Achilles heel with sunlight though in exchange, you could see remarkably well on very low light, being able to navigate your home in the dark with only the faintest bits of moonlight for lighting.

"Their beauty captured my son's heart and I can see why your mom's convinced they'll do you good when you grow up" She would chuckle and pat you in the head.

"But, you know... the problem is that black as a color absorbs all light and that's what happens to you both, your eyes take in sunlight in its full strength and that's why you struggle. Wearing shades does for you what the color in one's irises normally does, it cuts down the intensity of light so not all of it makes it to your eyes"

The bit explaining why intense lights or being out in the sun weren't the most pleasant experience for you made perfect sense but you weren't all that convinced that having black eyes was all that special, you thought it was more of a boring trait seeing that girls typically flocked to guys like your friend Jim, blond and blue eyed. You used to think that you were below average for a guy in terms of looks at your very best but then why did a bunch of girls confess to have feelings for you?

And it wasn't just one not two not even three but freaking four! Bailey, the incredibly sweet sister of Toxic Lily, who you might consider your nemesis though an argument could be made that she was more of an enemy of Lillian's and Jen's. Brooke, an old friend from your core group who came back and she's the daughter of Mayor Patricia, the woman in charge of the entire municipality and one of the wealthiest/most powerful people in the city.

Maggie, a flirty and playful girl you had a hard time keeping up with, many times she was a chill presence in your life but when she told you that she was open to taking your relationship to the next level you were beyond surprised. And the most recent one, Veronica, who confessed her feelings for you last year along with some fundamental misunderstandings of your personality but you didn't get much of a chance to respond as she ran off and has largely avoided you ever since.

Faced with these facts, maybe what you'd been told had some truth to it. Your mom, your sister, your grandmas, hell, even your friends including Jim himself had tried to convince you that you should act more confident, that you did have it in you to be more than you thought yourself to be and this included the dating aspect. By Jim's account you'd been underestimating your potential the entire time...

'Hmm, I guess it's fitting to have these deep thoughts today of all days' You thought, being very aware of the day it was: September 15th, the day in which you'd been born 18 years ago at around sunset, also shared with your parents' homeland in a way, as it was also when Mexico's Independence day was celebrated, as opposed to what most people around believed, mistaking it for the 5th of May.

Feeling that you were awake enough, you yawned, stretched your arms and then headed to your bathroom for a nice, cold shower. That being how you started your day pretty much every day. Knowing your parents, they probably would have some kind of party ready but that'd happen until sunset, as that was the more exact timing to when you were born but it was anybody's guess whether or not there'd be anything else planned for the day.

You didn't feel like asking too much about it because in some capacity, you thought it'd come across as being too arrogant or narcissistic, instead you were just happy rolling along with whatever else anyone else planned, if at all. Then again it was practically impossible for someone like Lillian to forget your birthday so there was that...

And thinking about her, you still had many unanswered questions, many unresolved feelings. Even with her quirky antics you couldn't deny that you felt quite a lot of attraction towards her, enough to make you hesitate about your crush on Jen a few times. The same reason why you couldn't give a definitive answer to the other girls either, you had yet to sort out your feelings to make an honest choice.

'Maybe I should just go see the guys and play games until sunset' You thought, not so sure if you wanted to deal with either Jen or Lillian on this day but it wasn't like you entirely didn't like the idea of spending time with either, the prospect remained tempting. But you had other friends too like Cindy or Zuemy who didn't have those issues attached and there was Yamile as well, you knew you hadn't spent as much time with her as you should, feeling bad at times for getting called her friend yet letting her down but her family kinda intimidated you, mostly her mom and in a different way her big sister Chahna.

'But spending my birthday alone cooped up in my room sounds lame too. Maybe that's what I deserve though?' You thought, scratching your chin and wondering if your inability to make a decision without feeling 100% sure of it was a sign of weakness. Just then, a knocking noise on your door snapped you out of those thoughts, startling you a little.

_{[Lore note: I may have mentioned this offhandedly in another chapter but for the record I'll mention this again: Blaise's conversations at home, with his family or close family friends like Sheila and Dolores happen in Spanish but to save character space I render them all in English instead]}

"Blaise... Baby, you awake?" Your mom spoke.

"Yeah, mom. Good morning" You replied.

"It's not just a good morning, honey. It's the best morning!" She said as she hugged you pretty tightly and then kissing you on the cheek several times. Before you realized it she had pushed you down enough for your head to rest against her slight tummy.

"My little bun, your time in the oven was almost over but I loved every single day of it. But I also wanted you to be born already, to finally meet you!" She said, sweetly caressing your hair as she fondly reminisced of that day, 18 years ago.

Being showered with this much love always made you flustered but you accepted it, you knew that in several ways you were the culmination of your mom's dreams and wishes, sometimes getting worried that you weren't living up to the hype she placed on you.

"It's still several hours before you were born but I knew that today would be the day, I could feel it. More or less at this time your dad and I were heading to the hospital and Sheila offered us a ride" She added, it was like a lowkey tradition that your parents would recount how things went on the day you were born and while you sometimes felt embarrassed about it, you loved hearing it, probably because of how happy they were whenever they told the story.

"Wait-" Your eyes widened "Mom, it's past 9 AM, aren't you going to work?"

"Work?" Your mom raised an eyebrow "I've never worked on this day" She chuckled.

"Patricia does respect Mexican holidays and well, you know... you do share your birthday with our country itself! I didn't know I was that much of a patriot" She giggled. Funnily enough, she was born on a patriotic holiday herself, the 24th of February, day of the Mexican Flag so maybe there is a pattern.

"Even if that weren't the case, you really think Patricia would make me work on the day you, the most important thing in my life, was born?"

"Fair enough" You said somewhat timidly. Your mom then pulled you closer to tighten her hug and given the position you were in, you got your face sandwiched by her large chest.

"So, uh... I suppose you and dad will be busy preparing the party or something?" You then asked.

"You know it" She said. Her personal belief was that she didn't need to and would never lie to her children so, as nice as surprise parties could be she'd rather be honest about it to stay true to her principles and being honest, knowing there would be a celebration didn't really take away from the fun and joy of it. That thing about being worried everyone forgot one's birthday was merely a trope you saw on media and nothing more.

"But if you want to spend some extra time with me or anyone else for that matter I'm not opposed to it, just be back home before sunset, that's around 5:30 PM. I'll go make you something nice for breakfast!" She said, kissing you on the cheek again before leaving the room and you to ponder on what to do next...