Chapter 55

“So…”

Talia trailed off, grinning at her in her usual way.

“…Buttons?” Aleda finished for her. It was something she’d heard her mother say, sometimes.

“Your birthday is on Tuesday,” Talia told her.

“Yes, I noticed that,” Aleda said, frowning in confusion. After a moment she groaned. “You’re not throwing me a surprise party or something, are you?”

“If it were any kind of surprise, I wouldn’t tell you, silly girl!” Talia laughed. “… And yes,” she added. She tugged at the leather straps of Aleda’s training claws. “I never could get the hang of these. You like strawberry, right?”

“Um… yeah.”

“Oh thank goodness! Okay, so I’m not telling you this or anything, but I’ve got West, Zak, that new Organizer and his boyfriend, and of course the usual relatives all coming on Tuesday. Party’s going to start at noon.” She paused her struggle with the training claws to look significantly up at Aleda. “…Or should I tell people to get here an hour before dawn?”

“Better make it two hours—we’re going down to RehobothBeach.”

Talia flinched. “What the hell? Why so far? That’s, like, an hour and a half drive! Each way!” She paused and processed what the other girl had just said. “…Wait. The beach? …You’re going to the beach at dawn on your birthday? Oh my goodness Aleda!” She gave up on the claws completely and tackled the seventeen-year-old in a bear hug that left her breathless.

“Tal– Talia,” she wheezed. “Air. Please.”

“Oops, sorry.” Talia relented her death grip, stepping back so the poor girl could breathe. “But yay! What made you decide? When did you decide? What are you going to do? And why the hell are your crazy-a*s parents driving you all the freaking way down to bloody RehobothBeach at dawn on Tuesday?”

“It’s the closest that the water clears the horizon, and it’s completely deserted at that time of day,” Aleda explained.

Talia snorted. “Every bloody place is deserted at the crack of dawn!”

“Well, yes,” Aleda conceded. “But Rehoboth doesn’t have a line of hotels as far as the eye can see stretched all along the coast.”

“…Okay, fair enough. It’s your calling, do what you gotta do. But I still say it’s sadistic to make you get up that bloody early.”

“Yeah… I’ll be going to bed at, like, five o’clock Monday night.”

“Sure s**t you will! Hey… does my brother know?”

Aleda shrugged, the loosened training claws dangling awkwardly from her fingers.  “I don’t know,” she said. “I haven’t told him… but… I think he knows anyway.”

Talia nodded thoughtfully. “Yeah, I know what you mean. He’s like that.”

“Hey, Talia?”

“At your service.”

“Could you, um, get these things off me, please?”

Talia finally noticed the training claws she had left half-unfastened. “Shoot! Yeah, sorry about that,” she said, and fussed with them until they came off. “I must be brain-dead or something. My brother’s way better with these complicated things. I don’t think they like me much.”

“Where did you say he was, again?”

Talia turned away from her, theoretically to wrap the claws back up and take them upstairs. “Errands,” she said vaguely. “He had some… errands to take care of. Don’t worry, he’ll be back by this afternoon.”

“Talia…”

“Okay, okay!” she caved. “He’s getting your birthday present, and he had to go to Annapolis! But I didn’t tell you a damned thing, all right? He’d kill me if he knew I told you.”

Aleda’s eyes widened. “He had to go to Annapolis? That’s hours away! What’s in Annapolis?”

“O-oh no,” Talia said, backing away. “No! Not telling.” She disappeared upstairs too quickly for Aleda to stop her.

Damn.

Well, at least she’d be finding out in a couple of days.

And apparently training was over for the day. With a start, Aleda realized it had been the last Saturday. The very last Saturday, and Ryan had been halfway across the next state. That birthday present better be good.

Meanwhile, she still had to get everything ready for the party that evening.

Since she couldn’t very well have her friends from school showing up to a calling ceremony—or accidentally hitting on her grandfather, for that matter—she had invited everybody to her house on the Saturday before her actual birthday. Hopefully none of them would be too hung over from Prom the night before. She had, of course, invited Talia to that one as well, knowing how much she liked parties. Plus, well, she really wanted to see what happened when she got their two brands of crazy together. But of course the girl had to work that night. Friday night—everybody who wasn’t out at the movies would be out shopping. So of course the Old Navy would be busy. Ryan, though, had been informed quite definitively that he would be coming on Saturday evening. She had already missed one chance to show him off to all of her friends, and she wasn’t about to let him mess up another opportunity.

If nothing else, she wanted to do something about those silly rumors that he was a figment of her imagination.

It was a bit of a shame that her house wasn’t a bit bigger. It was Council-owned, of course, but it wasn’t as if it were one of those huge estates they owned for records and whatnot. It was just a random bit of property they had for exactly their sort of situation, and it wasn’t terribly impressive at all. At least there would still be a little warmth left over from the day, so they could probably use the back yard if they needed room. Aleda still didn’t know how many people would even be showing up—after she had told Val about her plans to have the party, the other girl had told her to let her handle getting the people to show up and just worry about the food. And if anybody was good at putting together a party, it was Val. Yet another reason Aleda wished Talia could meet her.

She ate lunch, watched some television, poked at the un-hung decorations, and then took a shower while she waited, washing away the sweat and dirt from three hours in a concrete basement. The food was bought; just the decorations needed to be put up and then whoever happened to show up, would. She squeezed some extra shampoo into her hair. It was getting really bloody long these days; ever since Ryan had made a comment about girls with long hair she’d stopped having her mom trim it for her.

The unmistakable sound of a door opening and shutting downstairs made her frown. Mom had gone out for groceries, and Papá had been called into the office for some non-emergency, so it couldn’t be either of them. She rinsed quickly and shut off the water, wrapping a towel around herself and piling her soaked hair on top of her head. There were footsteps on the stairs. Who on earth could that…

…Ahh.

She grinned to herself and let her hair back down, shaking out a bit of the water before opening the bathroom door. Ryan had just reached the top of the stairs.

He did a double-take. Then he stared like a slack-jawed idiot for a little while.

For kicks and giggles, Aleda shifted her weight and let the towel slip just a hair’s breadth.

…Oh, damn.

She’d broken him.

Oh, well. She walked past him and into her bedroom. She’d probably better put on some clothes, if she wanted him coherent for the party. She called back to him while she rummaged through her closet for something to wear.

“Aren’t you here a bit early?” she asked.

Out in the hallway, Ryan cleared his throat and tried valiantly not to notice that she’d forgotten to shut her bedroom door. “Yeah, er, sorry about that. My… um…” He broke off. After securing a skirt, she had apparently given up finding a shirt in her closet and crossed the room to her dresser. Without the towel. He turned resolutely towards the wall. “My errands went pretty quick,” he finished lamely.

“And you’re just letting yourself into the house now?”

“You were the only one home,” he pointed out. “…Didn’t know you’d be, er…”

“…Naked?” she finished for him.

He coughed. “Yeah.”

She finally emerged from her bedroom a few minutes later with all of her clothes on and her damp hair tied back in a ponytail. “Well,” she said, “There’s still a couple of hours before people are supposed to get here. Feel like helping with decorations?”

Ryan ran a hand through his once-more shaggy dark hair and thought about this for a moment. “…Do I have a choice?” he asked.

“Of course!” she answered, too brightly. “Of course, the other option is to–”

“I’ll help with the decorations,” he said quickly. He followed her awkwardly down the stairs and into the living room. “So… what needs to be done?”

Aleda pointed to the table, one side of which was strewn with brightly-colored supplies. “Balloons need to be blown up, streamers need to be taped wherever, and Val insists that I should put this silly sign up somewhere.”

Ryan picked up the yellow poster, that had been done up like a traffic sign, and raised an eyebrow. “’Llama crossing’?” he asked dubiously.

“I think it’s a movie reference or something.”

“…It’s got a silhouette of a llama on it,” he said, frowning.

“Yeah, well, that’s Val for you. Trust me,” she said, patting him on the arm. “You’ll understand when you meet her.”

He set the sign back on the table and inspected the bag of balloons. “I still don’t know why this is necessary,” he said. “It’s just another lot of kids I don’t know and won’t ever see again.”

“Is it so bad to want you to meet my friends?” Aleda asked. She snatched a roll of green streamers from the table. “Besides, half of them think I’m making you up.”

“Exactly! They’ll all be prodding me about what I do and how we met and a thousand other mindless little questions, half of which I can’t tell them the truth on, anyways!”

“Oh, come on. Like you’ve never lied about your age before!” She turned away from him to tack some of the streamers along the sliding doors to the backyard. “You went to your sister’s birthday party,” she added. “And I didn’t hear any complaints about that.”

“Aye, well, ye weren’t listening to any o’ my complaints at the time, as I recall!” he shot back. “And besides, she’s my sister! I can’t very well skip her birthday, now can I?”

The sudden look of shock and anger that flashed across Aleda’s face told him he had said exactly the wrong thing. He winced, kicking himself mentally, but she had turned to face the window, her hands resting on the sill in complete disregard of their task.

“Aleda,” he said softly. “Lass. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have… It’s just that, even you won’t be seein’ these kids much anymore. Not after–”

“Don’t… Please, don’t,” she said to the window.

“…Aleda…”

She abruptly turned, brandishing her roll of streamers like a machete. Instead of walking towards him, though, she went through the archway to the foyer and hallway and began attacking the stair railing with a vengeance. He went after her.

When she saw him come around the corner she just looked at him—not coldly, but there was very little warmth in her eyes, either. “Don’t you have some balloons to blow up?” she asked, her voice strained.

He opened his mouth to say something but decided against it. Instead, he went back to the living room and started on the next balloon, thankful for good lungs but wishing for a helium tank all the same. He should have known better than to bring that up with her. She had barely decided as it was, and while it would be awkward with most of her relatives already invited and on their way, he didn’t want to do anything that could jeopardize her decision. He blew up the rest of the balloons in silence, broken only by the occasional whining hiss of escaped air and the sound of ripping tape. Aria came home at some point and lent her own set of lungs to the endeavor after she had finished putting away her groceries. After a while, though, she left again, saying that she was going to be surprising Alejandro with dinner out. Ryan figured it was a way to get away from the crazy teenaged party. He wished he could do the same. It got quiet again.

An hour and a half later, they were both saved from the silence. A loud knocking at the door turned out to be the girl Val, who Aleda had mentioned. She breezed in with a bag of chips and two bottles of soda under her arms.

“Happy birthday, Chiquita!” she exclaimed when Aleda opened the door. “Big ol’ eighteen! How’s it feel?”

Aleda pulled the food from her and took it to the dining table, adding it to the rest of the junk food piled there. “I’m not eighteen yet,” she pointed out. “Not until Tuesday.”

“Oh, sure, sure. Saturday’s a better day for a party anyway. Soon, though, huh?”

Aleda offered the pink-haired girl a weary grin. “Yeah. Soon.”

“And oh my god is this him!?” Val asked, dumping her purse, keys, and package on the table and going over to inspect him. 

Aleda laughed. “Yeah, this is Ryan. Ryan, Val. Don’t mind her, she’s kind of crazy.”

“No freaking way, man!” Val continued. “We all had a bet going on if you were really real!”

Ryan shot an amused glance at the brunette by his side. She whispered, “I told you so,” under her breath, though she knew he could hear her.

“Actually, hey, would you mind getting the keg?” Val asked. “You could probably get it all by yourself. Freaking giant.”

He gave Aleda a look. “There’s more?”

Val answered with a thumb jerked towards her car. He glared at her, but figured he had probably better do something to get the “a*****e” tattoo removed from his forehead.

As soon as he was out the door, Val turned to Aleda and squealed. “Oh my god!” she exclaimed. “Where did you find him!? Details, details, I need details!”

Aleda wavered, not wanting to trap herself and Ryan into a corner. Despite what the other girl might think, though, Ryan could undoubtedly hear every word they were saying.

“Oh, you know,” she said vaguely. “Brother of a friend, that sort of thing.”

“Whose brother? Are there more?”

Aleda had to laugh. “No, no more brothers. Sorry.”

Val waved a hand. “Ah well, no worries. I’m still working on Chad anyway.”

“What, the guy from “Oklahoma”?

“Hey,” Val said defensively. “He’s a major hottie, alright?”

“So ask him out already!”

“We’re talking about you, dang it! I already knew about the brother thing. Details, man! What was it like? What did you say? What were you wearing?”

Aleda put her hands up in surrender. “I don’t remember all that stuff! Give me a break!”

“Yeah, but… but you just met him, like, a couple months ago, right? Right after you broke up with Nate?”

“A little longer than that, actually,” Ryan interjected. He walked through the door bearing a bag of plastic cups in his left hand, several more two-liter bottles under his left arm, and a keg under his right that he held like a sack of feathers. Aleda shot him a warning glance; he dropped the keg in the foyer with a feigned grunt. Val, facing the other way, didn’t see him until she heard the thud of the heavy metal hitting the floor and turned around.

“Holy crap, did you get that thing in here all by yourself!?” she demanded. She hurried into the foyer and grabbed the sodas and plastic cups where he had dropped them on the floor. Val got the drinks sorted out and turned again to frown at both of them. “’A little longer than that’?” she asked. “How long?”

He gave her his trademark smirk. “Try October,” he revealed.

“Wha-at? No way!” Val exclaimed. “No freaking way! And you’re just now going out?”

“Yeah, well, it took him a while to stop making an a*s out of himself,” Aleda said. “Come to think of it,” she added confidentially, “He still has some issues with that.”

Val laughed; Ryan scowled.

It was a little while longer before everybody else got to the house. In the meantime, the three of them finished with the food and decorations, eventually transforming the first floor into a miniature version of Val’s house nearly every time Aleda had been there. The only point on which she put her foot down was extra lights or anything breakable, like a disco ball; she just felt better not having anything fragile—or flammable—around while Mara was over.

No sooner had Aleda thought this than another familiar face came through the door, this time without even knocking.

“Okay, the party can start now!” Mara called. She had a present tucked under her arm, and Val put it next to hers on the coffee table. “Happy birthday, Leda-girl! How’s it feel to be legal?”

“Not yet,” Ryan answered. “Not until Tuesday.”

“Shyeah,” Val snorted. “I bet you’re just counting down the days!”

Mara hooted with laughter while both Ryan and Aleda managed to turn the same shade of red, then she turned to really inspect Ryan, head to toe. Her eyes went wide. “Sweet s**t, you’re freaking tall,” she decided. “How the hell old are you, anyway? Don’t even try to tell me you’re in high school!”

“I told you, he’s in college,” Aleda said.

“Ye-eah, Leda, getting’ yourself a college guy,” Val interjected, nudging her in the ribs.

“I’m fifty-five,” Ryan said dryly. Aleda kicked him discreetly in the leg.

Mara made a face. “Weirdo. Seriously, how old are you? Like, twenty-three?”

“Sure, why not?”

She rolled her eyes and turned to Aleda. “Well, if you’re trying to make Nate jealous, you certainly picked a good one. Hey, by the way—where the hell were you last night? You totally missed Prom!”

Ryan smirked. “We were… held up,” he told Mara with a wink. Aleda kicked him a little harder.

“Long story,” she said quickly. “Very boring. Not even worth telling.”

“Yeah, alright,” Mara said, only slightly mollified. “Well, if you care, Nate didn’t show up either. I heard he was going to come with that idiot Lizzy only they were in, like, an accident or something. Really nasty.”

Val nodded vigorously, not wanting to be left out of the gossip. “Yeah! I heard Rachael Mason say that Lizzy called her last night from the hospital, and Nate was in, like, major emergency surgery for hours and hours! Broke every bone in his body!”

“That boy better stay home for a while,” Ryan muttered under his breath.

Aleda glared covertly at him and said, “Geez, I hope he’s all right,” a little too loudly.

“Yeah,” Val agreed. “I dunno. I bet he doesn’t come to graduation on Wednesday!”

Somebody else walked through the door: one of Val’s friends, that Aleda usually ate lunch with. “Hey guys!” the girl said. “Am I early?”

“Hey Jess!” Vall said. “Right on time! Get your butt in here! Check it out—this is Aleda’s new boy.”

Jess looked him over and nodded. “Hey. I’m Jess. Ryan, right? Hey, Val, looks like you owe me five bucks!”

Ryan tilted his head towards Aleda. “Now I know why you wanted Talia to meet these people,” he murmured. Aleda stifled a laugh.

Soon other people came, too. They were all suitably impressed with Ryan, and his cover story. A few of them tried to bribe him to buy them more beer for the party, but he wasn’t going anywhere and leaving Aleda behind. Not today. Not when he was still working on getting out the last foot he had lodged in his mouth.

All in all, it wasn’t actually all that bad. No worse than any of the parties he had been forced to attend with his sister, and this one even had edible food. Not only that, but having Aleda at this particular party made things infinitely more enjoyable, even if her friends did shanghai her on more than one occasion. They ate, they drank, they opened presents, and they had cake. Aleda had him distract one girl, Mara, while they did the latter—apparently the girl had a bit of a history with fire, and wasn’t to be allowed anywhere near the candles, for any reason. Opening the presents was fun, if only because these people knew Aleda. They got her things she would actually enjoy.

One of them noticed, unfortunately, that he himself had not presented the birthday girl with any packages. He informed the lot of them that he’d be giving her his present on Tuesday. This was met with a fresh round of catcalls.

It took a while, but they finally managed to get rid of them all. The two of them sorted out the presents and stuffed all of the discarded wrapping paper into the garbage, but Aleda resisted when he brought up the possibility of putting away the decorations. He did insist, though, on cleaning up the remnants of the food. Val had thankfully taken away the emptied keg, back to wherever she had gotten it from, so all they had to deal with was an army’s worth of junk food and some paper plates and cups. The food was put into the pantry, and the rest into the trash.

“What is my present, anyway?” Aleda asked as they were finishing up.

Ryan shook his head. “You’ll just have to wait until it’s your birthday,” he informed her.

“Aw, even though today was my party?”

“You’ll be having another party, if I know my sister,” Ryan said.  “You can wait that long.”

Aleda pouted, but it was to no avail. He finally left, too—he hadn’t gotten any more than a few hours’ sleep that morning, and he still had to go to work later that night. Aleda was left looking at her over-decorated living room and wondering what Tuesday would bring.