The Letter [Elvis]

Chapter 12 - An 18th Birthday to Remember

So, there's going to be one more chapter to the story than I anticipated. Surprise! (Ha, ha, "surprise" since this story is about a surprise birthday party). Anyway...

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Knocking on my door woke me up. My door opened as I heard my parents cheering, clapping, and one of them blew into a kazoo. "Happy 18th birthday, Annie!" they both shouted, and I sat up, groggily, but smiled at the same time.

"Oh my goodness, you guys..." I said, rubbing my face. They came over, sat on my bed and both gave me a hug at the same time. "Thanks."

"I can't believe our baby is eighteen now!" Mom gushed. "Can you believe it?"

"I know," Dad said, and they both squeezed me. "Our little girl is all grown up."

"Okay, I'm touched and all, but I have to breathe."

They released me, and I looked over at the clock. It was after ten. I gasped. "Oh my, you two should've waken me up earlier!"

"It's your birthday," Mom said. "You get to sleep in on your birthday. Unless it was a school day, then you would have to go to school. But not today! At noon, we're takin' you out to lunch, and then we're takin ya to a movie after. Your choice."

It was touching that my parents wanted to do things with me on my birthday, but I had a few friends now that I wanted to spend the day with. "That's really nice of you, but I'm sure Sally's gonna call any moment and ask to do somethin' with me."

"Oh, she called earlier this mornin', and we told 'er of the plans," Dad said. "She said she'll come over with that new boyfriend of hers 'round four. You're ours until then."

I smiled. "Okay, okay. Well, I should get ready, then, huh?"

They left, and as I was getting out of bed, my telephone rang. My siblings called me one right after the other, and I was finally able to get ready at eleven. It took me that hour to get ready. As we were leaving, I noticed that neither of my parents locked the front door.

"You have to lock the door," I said.

"The house will be fine," said Dad. "Don't worry about it."

"But..."

"C'mon, honey, let's go," said Mom, and she hooked her arm with mine. "My, don't you look pretty today, huh? You plannin' on seein' Elvis?"

My heart sunk a little. "Psht. He probably forgot that today's my birthday. Well, Joey might've told 'im since Sally knows, but... I doubt I'll see 'im. He's still mad at me."

"I doubt it, Annie," Mom said as we came to the car and got in, them in the front, me in the back. "That boy's crazy about you. How many times has he kissed you already?"

"Do we have to discuss this?" asked Dad in that "dad" voice as he pulled out of the driveway.

"Our daughter is eighteen now, Greg. We can talk about this. Plus, you and I both know how crazy he is about 'er. He told ya himself."

"Doesn't mean I wanna hear about a guy kissin' my baby girl. The boy's gonna get the talk the next time I see 'im."

"There's no need, Dad," I said as we headed down the street. "Yes, he's kissed me, but it doesn't mean that we'll be a couple. He doesn't wanna be with a girl who lies. I lied to 'im so I'm no good for 'im."