I Found You, Something Told Me To Stay - (Jason Berry/Zacky Vengeance)

Chapter Twenty-One.

I just nodded and sent him another smile, then getting back to the cooking. He continued to stay sat at the kitchen island, typing away at his phone. The silence was somewhat comfortable.

“Your dad and I were talking about your birthday last night.” He suddenly announced. “It’s soon.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me.” I groaned, throwing my head back.

“You’re not looking forward to it?” He then chuckled.

Honestly, I wasn’t. My birthday was just a reminder that I was year older and still hadn’t accomplished anything in my life.

“I’ve never really had any good birthdays in my life to be honest.” I sighed. “They’re all...unwanted memories.”

“How come?”

I began to get started on another pancake as I thought back to the memories I had of my birthdays growing up. Some of them were pretty horrific.

“My mum would always throw these parties when I was little.” I proceeded to explain. “They were just another excuse for her to get drunk, but it’d be in front of everyone I went to school with—bear in mind I was pretty young, like, six or seven years old—and they’d get quite intimidated by my mum and want to leave. After they all left, she’d just pass out on the sofa.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah.” I nodded. “On my tenth birthday, I put my foot down and told her that I didn’t want a party. I spent that birthday in my bedroom.”

“Well what about when you became a teenager? Didn’t you celebrate your birthday then?” Zacky asked. “Not even with your friends?”

I paused for a moment. I knew Zacky was just genuinely curious, but these were things I tended not to think about. They were best kept out of my mind.

“I uh...I didn’t really have any friends in high school.” I murmured.

He became visibly surprised at that, his eyebrows immediately shot up as he looked at me in disbelief.

“How does someone like you not have any friends?” He questioned. “Besides Jimmy, you’re probably one of the most full of life people I’ve ever met.”

“Well, we lived in a pretty small town,” I began, “and there were only two high schools, so most people that went to my primary school, attended the same high school that I did. Everyone practically knew each other...and my mum. So, I guess because of my mum, they were completely hesitant to involve themselves with me.”

“Oh...” He murmured. “Well...I guess by leaving here, she did more damage to you than I thought. No one knows her here though, so...”

“Yeah, things should be better here.” I plastered a smile on, trying to maintain a positive attitude. “Things will be better here.”

“Exactly.” He nodded. “And so will your birthday. We’ll make it great, don’t you worry, Midgey.”

Immediately, memories of my past birthday parties began to flash in my mind. I knew my mother wouldn’t be here, but my birthday didn’t really seem all that important nowadays.

“Oh, there’s no need...” I said. “I probably won’t do anything, just—‘’

“Leave it to us.” He interrupted.

“But—“

“Good morning.” My dad suddenly walked into the kitchen, stretching his arms as he did so. He gave some sort of friendly slap to Zacky’s back and then came over to me, squeezing me tightly to his side. “Something smells good.”

“I’m making breakfast.” I grinned.

“And planning your birthday.” Zacky pitched in.

“Oh yeah?” My dad smiled in interest.

“No.” I shook my head. “We weren’t planning. We were just taking about it. No planning needs to be done.”

“There’s no point in fighting against it, Midge.” My dad then chuckled. “The Avenged family will take any opportunity to throw a party, and it’s your first birthday with us. It’s gonna be amazing.”

He walked past me and grabbed one of the cooked pancakes, shovelling it onto a plate, and then reached into the cupboard.

I just stared past him and narrowed my eyes at Zacky, not hesitant to let him know that I wasn’t very pleased with him.

Zacky, however, seemed pretty darn amused.

And all did he did was sit there and send an extremely attractive smirk my way.