Chapter Five: Birthday

 

     “So, what time should I be there Vi?” I was on the phone with Violet. It was Alezander’s birthday, and I had the box on the table in front of me. All that was in it was the measly $10 I put in. After the conversation I had had with Alex in the park a few weeks ago, you’d think I would’ve pitched in more. For some reason though, I didn’t. Maybe it was because his own sister was putting in $20. Did I really need to match her?

     “Uhm, come at about…7?” She mused. “I think we’re going out for dinner, and then we need to put the money in and wrap it up, right?”

     I nodded, and then realized she couldn’t see me nod, as we were in the phone, so I added, “Yup.”

     “Okay, Sam just came by yesterday, by the way.”

     “How much did he put in? How much do we have all together?” I asked.

     “Sam gave me ten bucks. Anth gave ten and so did Joey.”

     “Did you ask anyone else?” I inquired, wondering if she had asked Laura.

     “No.” She replied bluntly.

     The truth was neither of us really liked Laura. I mean, I did when I thought she was my friend, but now she was so jealous of me, and hated me. The worst part was she pretended to be my friend when I was around, and then talked s**t behind my back. I really disliked people like that. I lost respect for them.

     “Okay, and I put in ten as well. And you twenty, right?”

     “Yes.”

     “Well, you’re the math whiz.” I joked, “How much is there in total?”

     “Sixty.” She replied without hesitation.

     I laughed. “Good.” Pause. “So, I’ll be at your place at seven. Make sure you answer the door and not your brother.”

     “Oh I know.” Violet giggled, “See you.”

     Before I could reply to that, Violet added in one more thing, “Oh, I almost forgot.”

     “Hm?”

     “Is your dad taking us to dance tonight? Or mine?”

     Violet and I took salsa, latin, and ball room dance classes together every summer. During the school year there just wasn’t enough time. So three times a week we’d go to Dance Champions, from eight at night until ten-thirty or so, and dance out butts off. Tonight happened to be the night we had salsa.

     “Oh, my dad will.” I answered. “It’s better if your family stays with your brother for his birthday.”

     Violet laughed. “Alright, see you tonight then.”

     “For sure.”

     “Later.”

     “Later.”

     I hung up. Let’s see what happens tonight. I thought as I gingerly picked up the box and went to get my dance stuff ready for the night.

~

     Ding Dong.

     It was so hot outside. My heart was racing. Why am I so nervous?

     “Nicole, should I come in?” My dad’s voice came from the left of me.

     “Sure why not. I mean, you have to drive us to dance afterwards anyway.” I shrugged my shoulders.

     The door opened and Julie’s head popped out. Violet was behind her.

     Julie was Violet’s mom. She was super skinny with long blonde hair. She usually wore glasses. If it wasn’t for her wrinkles, anyone could mistake her for a high school teenager.

     “You got it?” She whispered.

     “Yea.”

     Julie giggled and stepped aside for me and my dad to come in. “Come into the kitchen.” She mouthed at me. I looked at Violet, we both tried to stifle our laughter. Julie just got way too into things.

     My dad stood awkwardly in the doorway. “Jim is in the garage.” Julie pointed to her right, where the laundry room door was. My dad smiled, nodded, and went into the garage to talk with Violet’s dad.

     Julie snuck us into the kitchen and handed us wrapping paper, scissors, and tape. “But where’s Alex? What if he sees?” I looked at Violet.

     Julie answered my question. “Go upstairs, he’s in the basement right now.”

     Violet and I nodded, and crept up the stairs into Violet’s room. We placed all of the money in the box and began wrapping. “Why is this so exciting?” Violet giggled.

     “I don’t know, because it’s a surprise?” I laughed back.

     We finished wrapping, and then started writing a card on a scrap piece of wrapping paper. Violet wrote first and then handed it to me. “Here.” She held it out with a pen.

     I didn’t know if I should take it. I didn’t know what to write. Since the park conversation Alex and I had been cool, but we had spoken sparingly. Just on MSN. To be honest, I was still a bit afraid that I might say something wrong. Even though he made it quite clear that we had had that conversation for the opposite result.

     Nevertheless, I reached out and hesitantly took the card and pen from Vi. I read what she wrote first.

     Hey Alex. Happy TWENTIETH Birthday J (Sorry, I had to rub it in.) Hope you like our surprise and hope today and everyday is special, fun, happy, and exciting. Love your sister, Violet Aguanno.

     She hadn’t written much, but it was short and sweet. I bit my lower lip and thought. What should I say? I decided I’d just write whatever came to mind first. I picked up the pen and pointed it on the page.

     Hey Alex. Happy Birthday. Hope you like our surprise, it took a lot of time and effort, but you deserve it because you’re special. Love your friend, Nicole.

     I read it over once. I was pretty sure I meant what I had said, so I handed it back to Violet. Then we heard something shuffling.

     “Oh s**t, did he come upstairs?” She whispered.

     “I don’t know, but it doesn’t matter, we’re done wrapping.” I held up the box. She nodded.

     She took a piece of tape, looped it, and attached the card to the box with it. We both smiled. “Let’s go downstairs.” I said, standing up.

     “Yea.” She agreed, grabbing the box and following suit.

     We walked down the stairs and into the kitchen. Violet placed the gift on the table and asked, “Where’s Alezander?”

     Julie was busy getting a cake out of the fridge and gave a delayed response, “Living room.”

     So Violet and I started to make our way into the living room, so we could wish him a happy birthday and tell him to come into the kitchen. Then we could give him his cake, gift, and go to dance.

     We placed one foot in the living room, wondering why it was so dark and why there were no lights on, when we heard Julie half-shout “Wait, you might want to wait in here because-”

     Too late. Barely visible on the couch were two bodies. One was a small, skinny thing with long hair. The other was somewhat the same, but more muscular. The smaller one was on top of the other one. Female on top of male. Maybe we couldn’t see everything, but it was quite clear what was going on. Violet and I both stopped dead in our tracks, turned on our heels and said, as we walked back into the kitchen, “Yea, I think we should stay in the kitchen.”

     “You never told me Laura was here.” I whispered through gritted teeth, as I sat down at the table.

     “She came to dinner with us.” Violet said, sounding quite upset, and sitting next to me.  

     I almost snarled, but I refrained enough to only emit a low growl. “We so don’t get along with her.” I almost spat.

     “I know.” She hissed.

     I couldn’t understand why I was so repulsed by what I just saw. Well…sort of saw. I did not want to see that again. I did not want to see that to begin with. My stomach lurched again. What the hell is wrong with me?

     Just then, Jim and my dad came back in from the garage. They had to walk past the living room in order to get to the kitchen. My dad has cat eyes, I’m sure he saw everything in the living room, even though it was dark. For whatever reason, he stepped into the living room and said, in his loud voice, “Happy Birthday Alex.” I heard a small gasp. I assumed it was Laura, being shocked that someone interrupted, or perhaps surprised that she was caught making out with Alex, by an adult. And not just any adult, the father of the girl she despised. “Uhh, thanks.” Came Alex’s voice.

     I couldn’t help but stifle a giggle. I felt a bit bad that my dad had probably made Alex feel awkward, but I loved the mental image in my head of Laura’s confused, shocked, and somewhat upset face. Why does that make me smile? I thought to myself, somewhat repulsed.

     “So, how old are you now?” My dad continued the conversation.

     “Twenty.” Alex responded. I heard him get up from the couch.

     “Awesome.” My dad said. Then he, Jim, Alex, and Laura came into the kitchen. Violet and I were already sitting at the table, next to each other. Everyone else gathered around. My dad sat on the end of the table, next to me, Alex sat across from me and his girlfriend on his left side, across from Violet. Jim sat on the other end of the table, and Julie pulled up a chair for herself next to Violet.

     Then Julie handed Vi the camera, dimmed the lights, and brought out the cake.

     “Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Alezander, Happy Birthday to you.” We all sang, and Alex blew out his candles.

     “Yay,” everyone clapped.

     Then we took pictures as Julie went and got a second cake. A cheese cake. “Cheese cake too?” Alex’s eyes lit up.

     “Yup.” His mom smiled.

     A huge smile plastered itself to Alex’s face and would not leave. Cheese cake was his favourite. “I could like, eat this whole thing by myself.” He stated.

     “Well it’s for everyone.” Julie raised her eyebrow.

     “I know,” Alex laughed, “I was just saying…”

     “We got you something.” Violet jumped in, picking up the present and handing it to him.

     “We?” He raised an eyebrow.

     “Yea, my and Nicole.” His eyes flitted to me for a second, then back to the box.

     “Ooo, what is it?” Laura asked in a too sweet, honey-coated voice, leaning over Alex to look. Like she even needed to lean over him to see…

     I forced a smile. “I guess you’ll see when he opens it.”

     “Open it.” She looked at Alex.

     “Okay.” He picked up the card first. Read it to himself, and then put it down. Then he started tearing at the paper.

     Our red, gold and black wooden, homemade piggy bank emerged. “Open it.” Violet urged.

     I could have sworn I saw Alex’s blue eyes flit up to me for just a second. But the movement was so quick, I couldn’t be sure. He unlatched the front of the box and opened it to reveal the money. “Joey, Sam, Anth, Nicole and I pitched in.” Violet smiled. I could tell she was glad she didn’t have to say Laura’s name. It was a half-evil smile.

     “Thanks!” He said, reading the letters I had painted on the top “Mustang/Motorcycle Fund.”

     “Well you know, you’re always talking about wanting a motorcycle or mustang, and not having enough money. And well, we started a small fund for you now, and you can put some of your money from work in there and stuff, to save up, you know?” Violet blithered on.

     “Yea, thanks.” Alex smiled. He was still eyeing the decorations around the box. His mom began to hand everyone a piece of cake.

     We all started eating and then Alex said, “Hey, these are the pictures from the links I sent you, right?” He was looking at me.

     I swallowed the piece of cake I was chewing on, almost choking, and replied, “Yea.”

     “That’s so cool!” He smiled. I smiled back.

     There was some small talk going around for a while, and Laura was sort of whispering to Alex. Which annoyed me, for some reason. And then Alex looked up, realized that I had finished my cake but had not had any cheese cake and asked, “Want some cheese cake?” Picking up a knife, ready to cut a piece. Laura looked somewhat hurt that he had stopped talking with her to ask me a question. Or maybe I just imagined that…

     “No thanks.” I replied.

     “Are you sure?” He insisted.

     “Yea, I don’t really like it. Besides, more for you that way.” I smiled.

     “haha, You’re right.” He smiled back, and cut himself another large slice.

     Then my dad and Alex started talking about cars. Laura was trying to engage me and Violet in conversation. Neither of us really wanted to speak with her. I kept looking up at the clock. As soon as the clock read 7:40 I cut Laura off, “Hey Violet look, it’s seven forty, we really should start getting to dance. I mean it takes at least fifteen minutes to get there, right?”

     “Ya,” she said, agreeing with me immediately. We both got up.

     “I’ll take them Jim.” My dad rose with us.

     “Bye Julie.” I hugged Violet’s mom. Then her dad. “Bye, Nicole.” They both said.

     I went around the table to say bye to Laura and Alex, even though I really wanted to avoid Laura. “Bye, Nicole!” Laura wrapped her arms around me. I was startled. Why the hell is she hugging me? Ugh, get off. My mind emanated thoughts of confusion and repulsion. But I one-arm hugged her in return.

     “Happy Birthday.” I said one last time, nodding to Alex, who was still sitting. He got up then, though, and pushed past Laura to me. He hugged me. “Thanks.” He said. His breath was warm on my neck. I was shocked yet again, but hugged him back, with both arms. “Anytime.” I breathed back.

     I don’t know why but I felt so great just standing there with him hugging me. But I was too shocked to pay attention to it all that much.

     Then we released each other, I turned to leave, but Violet was right behind me. I almost walked into her. I side stepped so she could get by.

     “Happy Birthday Alezander.” She hugged him. It was the cutest thing I’d ever seen. It wasn’t like when I’d seen Laura and Alex embrace. This melted my heart. Alex’s head gently rested on Vi’s shoulder and his arms were wrapped around her, his hands on the back of her head. Her arms were wrapped around his torso, her hands caressing his back. It was so adorable, even though it only lasted a few seconds. I knew from that one embrace, that this brother and sister really cared for each other.

     Then Vi turned, without embracing Laura, just waving at her, and followed me out the door.

Author's Note

still to be continued...lol
this is getting longer than i thought it would be originally