Three Years, Five Months and Eleven Days

Chapter Twenty-Four

      The next day was Wednesday, and Michael and I did the drive back to St David’s. We now had his car, so we no longer needed Rob to drive us around.

     The days past quicker and quicker. It still pained me every time I thought about Beth, I still missed being with her and talking to her, but I was beginning to feel like I could keep on going with my life until she came back, and then when she did I would be there for her more than I had ever been before.

     Before I knew it, we had reached Monday the 15th of August: Michael’s eighteenth birthday. I woke up extra early in the morning, and went downstairs to make him a full English breakfast. The only problem was that I wasn’t exactly good at cooking, and burnt everything.

     I took the charred remnants of breakfast on a tray to the guest bedroom. Michael was fast asleep, so I crept in quietly and flicked the light. As I sat down on the bed, he rolled over, moaning.

     ‘It’s your birthday,’ I whispered in his ear. He smiled and opened his eyes.

     ‘I’m eighteen,’ he said cheerfully.

     ‘And I made you breakfast,’ I told him, placing the tray on his lap. ‘Except it went a bit wrong. And by wrong I mean burnt.’ He looked at the food and grimaced. ‘You don’t have to eat it.’

     ‘Um, I think I’ll take a rain check on this one,’ he said, lifting the tray up and putting it on the floor next to his bed. ‘But I really appreciate the thought.’

     ‘You won’t in a second,’ I told him, leaning my head on his shoulder.

     ‘Why?’

     ‘Cause I didn’t get you a present,’ I said, ashamed. ‘I wanted to, especially since you got me this necklace last week, but I didn’t know what to get you.’

     ‘That’s fine, I don’t need anything from you,’ he told me. ‘It’s enough just being with you.’ He placed a gentle kiss on my forehead.

     ‘What do you want to do today then?’ I asked. ‘It’s your day.’

     ‘I don’t mind,’ he said. ‘I mean I know eighteen is supposed to be a big deal and all, but it just doesn’t feel like that to me.’

     ‘You don’t even want to go to the pub to have your first legal drink?’ I asked.

     ‘I guess, that could be cool.’

     ‘We could go to dinner at The Farmer’s Arms with Rob tonight,’ I suggested.

     ‘Yeah,’ he agreed. ‘I’d like that.’

     We ventured out to the beach in the afternoon, as the weather was the nicest it had been in days, but it still wasn’t great, so we were back by three. We decided to make a cake, as a birthday isn’t really a birthday without cake.

     Just as we were about to put it into the oven, the phone rang. Robert was at a friend’s house, so I ran to pick it up.

     ‘Hello?’

     The voice that came down the phone was one I knew well, but timid, which was unusual. ‘Hey,’ Beth said.

     ‘Beth!’ I cried. ‘Um, how are you?’ It felt weird: we hadn’t talked since the day after she left, which was now eight days ago. This was possibly the longest time we’d ever gone without speaking.

    ‘I’m…okay,’ she muttered. ‘As good as you can be when waiting for your dad to die.’

     ‘I’m sorry,’ I told her.