Some things are better to think than they are to do. Sneaking into your friend’s house to surprise them awake on their birthday is definitely one of them.

We had been planning it for weeks, the six of us. We know that Simon often left his living room window unlatched when he went to bed, so it would just be a matter of one of us crawling in and letting the others in through the door. We’d bring cake and balloons and have a kind of first-thing-in-the-morning surprise party. We figured there was no better way to start your birthday than having cake in bed.

The in-through-the-window thing went just fine. The sneaking up the stairs thing went just fine. The standing around the foot of the bed with cake thing was shaping up nicely when Olivia decided to lean in to wake Simon up. That’s when things went awry.

Simon, apparently, sits straight up when startled from a solid sleep. That wouldn’t have been a problem if Olivia hadn’t been hovering over him at the time. The crunching sound of their collision is not something I ever want to hear again.

So, now we’re spending the first part of Simon’s birthday at the hospital. I think Olivia’s nose is broken.