"So, January 2nd, huh?" I asked her. "Must be nice not to have your birthday on the craziness of New Year's.""Yeah," she replied with a smile as she, too, looked around at the others. "My parents always joke that I'm an 'almost-New Year's baby.' It starts getting eye-rolling after a while.""Is that why they're not here?""They decided to be super-cool and thought I was responsible enough to handle my own party. And, of course, I totally am.""It's nice, though," I remarked. "You have a lot of friends. That doesn't surprise me, though.""Why's that?"I then let my mind take a backseat as I replied, "Because you're beautiful."She was stunned by the sudden compliment. "Anthony ...," she muttered in surprise."A beautiful person, I meant," I added, trying to make up for that stumble. I don't even know why I said that. Although I did mean it, I didn't mean for it to just slip out so suddenly. "Sorry, didn't mean to make things weird."She smiled warmly. "It's fine. You're really sweet.
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