The big three-zero

Written for the Prompt me Musically contest
Prompt: A Very Merry Unbirthday (Alice In Wonderland 1951)
Word count: 594

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“So, when are you going to tell me who this is for? It's still six weeks until my birthday, you know.”
“Of course I know and I'll throw you something really nice when the day arrives, but this is for Heleen.”
“Heleen? Wasn't it her birthday three months ago?”
“Correct! And she didn't even bother to invite us to celebrate, pfft!”
“She wouldn't invite me whatever the occasion.. Besides, you know Heleen doesn't like birthday parties, let alone suprise parties.”
“That's the beauty of it, Darla!”

Darla lowered the balloon from her mouth, her lips sore and tasting of latex. Her cheeks were rosy from exertion. She had been filling balloons for nearly half an hour now without properly knowing what the occasion was. Now that Samantha had finally given away the mysterious motive, she hardly felt as motivated as she did five seconds ago. It didn't matter that it was a lazy Saturday afternoon with no further or more important matters at hand, Darla would choose her lovey-dovey series on Netflix ten times over throwing Heleen a surprise party. This was ridiculous.

“Excuse me?”
“Think about it, Darla. She'll never see this one coming and I know she did want to celebrate her birthday, but was afraid it wouldn't be as great as last year's – and holy gosh how drunk off our asses we were, ha!”
“Spare me the details. Why bother, really? Heleen was pretty clear when she told you to stay home the weekend of her birthday. She'll kill you.”
“Us. Kill us. And they are all just facades, my dear. A party girl like Heleen would never back down from an opportunity to get drunk and – “
“I'm not taking the blame for something you neglected to inform me of until just now and you think this has nothing to do with the fact she turned thirty this year?”

Samantha finally lowered her gaze from the ceiling where she had been knotting a green ribbon with a collection of six colourful balloons to one of the chandelier's arms. Looking down upon the frowning face of her companion, Samantha steps down from the chair and picks up another filled balloon with a combination of a sigh and a chuckle.

“No one wants to turn the big three-zero. No one wants to celebrate that from that point onward everything will hang a little lower and wrinkels get that more prominent. Fortunately you and I are still spared from that predicament for another three years or so.”
“Two years, seven months and sixteen days for me.”
“See? Turning thirty sucks. Of course Heleen didn't want to celebrate, but I won't let this withhold her from her passion to dance and drink and party. That's whyyyyyyyyy--”

Samantha threw the balloon in the air and skipped along the thin layer of its filled companions on the ground to a carbon sign she managed to finish this morning before Darla arrived. With a grin from ear to ear, she turned and proudly presented her piece of art, earning only a mocking and terribly confused eyebrow raise from her friend. Samantha wiggled the sign left and right in a last attempt to enthuse Darla. A hint of a smile finally appeared on her lips, a sign of surrender, Samantha knew and cheered inwardly for her success.

“Merry unbirthday?”
“Very merry unbirthday.”
“Yes, so I see, but what does that even mean, Sam?”
“It means we get to drink and party and she won't have any reason to kill us!”
"You're unbelievable."
"Noooo, we're getting unbelievably drunk!"