party favor | b.e

birthday \\ one

December 18, 2018

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY BITCH!!" I heard, jolting awake.

Not again. She does this every year and somehow I forget every time.

"Taylor...." I groaned, all while she laughed at me.

"Get up you lazy ass, it's already 9:00," she said.

"In what world is 9:00 late?" I asked her rhetorically.

Everyone knows Taylor's a morning person. I've been best friends with her for eleven years, and she hasn't changed at all. Never sleeping past ten, always going to bed before eleven.

"Alex, I thought you wanted to go to the rink with me today," she tells me.

Tay and I met at a small group ice skating session when we were 7 and have been close ever since. We have never stopped skating, and both of us even transferred to homeschool so we could focus on skating when we were 13.

I graduated from homeschool almost a year ago, when I was 16. Well, I guess I was literally 16 yesterday, but that's besides the point.

Taylor always had more passion for skating than me as a kid. I just started it because my parents wanted me to do an extracurricular activity. But, I was always more naturally skilled at it than Taylor.

I only used to like it because I was good at it, but a few years ago I slowly started getting more passionate about it. I've improved so much in the past two years that I have a chance of placing at the World Championships, which is absolutely insane to me.

I was never used to being super good at anything until I started getting more serious about skating.

Lately, skating has been a good escape from reality, even if I skate 36 hours a week (6 hours a day, 6 days a week). It helps clear my mind, which is exactly why I want to go to the rink today.

Getting sucked out of my thoughts, I responded "I still wanna go to the rink Tay, I just want to sleep a little more. Dude, you know how I get when I don't sleep in. Pretty please,"

"Nope! Absolutely not. I have a good feeling about today and we're going to act on it," she basically screamed at me while I muffled the volume with my pillow over my face.

I don't think I'll ever be a morning person. Ever.

Taylor eventually grabbed my hands and dragged me out of bed and led me downstairs, where my parents and my brother, James, were waiting.

"Happy birthday Alexandra!" My parents told me.

I'm not too close to my parents, but we've always had a relatively stable relationship, which I'm grateful for. They've always supported my career as a skater, and lately we've bonded over me qualifying for Worlds.

My brother and I aren't very close either, which I've accepted. We're both super busy, him with his modeling, and me with skating.

"Happy birthday Alex," James yelled at me, looking up from his phone.

"Thanks Jamie-poo" I responded, walking up to him and ruffling his hair like I always did. I only ruffle his hair because it pisses him off when I mess it up. He rolled his eyes at me, and glared at me afterwards.

Younger siblings, man. He's so dramatic.

After eating breakfast and talking with my family and Taylor for a while, I headed upstairs to change for the rink.

All I wanted to do was skate around, take over the music in the rink (the owner is a family friend, so she lets me connect my phone to the music), and celebrate my birthday with Taylor and a couple of my best friends in peace.