Birthdays. A day of cosmic proportions. The day your life began. After all, you only get one day to be born. Why not celebrate?
"Happy birthday Tristan!" Everyone in the room cried out as the cake floated out on a cloud of hands. Amidst the fireworks of sparklers, two gold candles stood erect: '1-8'.
I closed my eyes, taking myself to this event as much as I could. Faintly, I could smell the charred smoke as the short and stylish man that went by the name of Tristan blew out the flames. Everyone clapped, and he carefully dabbed at the corner of his right eye.
You wished for another beer? The thought bubbled up from the back of my mind. It was from Derek.
Shut up! Tristan shot back.
He had to have made a better wish. Please tell me my baking all day wasn't spent on a wasted wish. Jack's mild annoyance bled through with the thought. He had retreated back into the kitchen to pour himself another glass of sparkling champagne.
I did. Did you really think I would have made a wish without blocking everyone out?
I watched them as Tristan found Jack in the kitchen and playfully bumped him out of the way, Jack laughing as he stumbled sideways. I smiled, turning up my music on my Ipod as I sat on my bed. I glanced back on what the other half of my connections were doing. Blake was still swaying with that one girl. He whispered something I could only imagine as being inappropriate in her ear as she laughed and started to turn crimson. Finn was sitting on the couch, talking to someone. He noticed my connection and smiled, winking. I laughed, my face growing hot. I had too much to drink tonight, considering I had been bouncing back and forth from both parties. I tried to get into connection with the one person I had been wondering about all night, but he was still unavailable. He was the only one that mattered, and he had been avoiding me all night.
Well, he kind of mattered. Sort of...
You're probably confused right now. Sorry, I have a habit of getting ahead of myself. No, it's okay if you don't follow what I'm talking about yet. Sure, I can rewind. Let's go back to another birthday. One that had a little less cake and had left us permanently asking questions as to what this all means. Back to a time when I was a lot more naive, and a little less numb.
16 Months Earlier
Will
I heard my brothers alarm go off on the first ring. Agily, I rolled to my left and flicked the alarm clock off before it could make anymore noise. I laid in a ball, the goose down coverlet pulled around my head. I would have been completely covered, save for the small peephole I left for my eyes and nose. From across the room I watched the rise and fall of my brothers chest, his mouth opened in a silent snore. I closed my eyes, drifting back...
Blake's phone started vibrating somewhere in the bed next to him. I ignored it, huddling back further into my blanket cocoon. Then his standing alarm went off from across the room. You know the ones I'm talking about. Little brass alarms that your grandfather probably had gifted to him back when he served in WWII. It rang out shrilly, demanding for someone to wake up and turn it off. Blake sighed and threw a pillow towards the alarm as I got up. Damn that alarm, I hated it. I would've thrown it away by now or 'lost' it in a drawer back in Dublin, if it weren't for Blake tearing the room apart whenever he noticed it was missing. The pillow hit the wall and landed to the floor with a slight thud. I shut off the alarm before turning back around and pouncing back onto my bed, crawling underneath the blankets as fast as possible.
"Thanks." Blake yawned, stretching his arms out towards the ceiling. I didn't respond back; I knew better than to talk to him before his shower. His phone started to vibrate again and he cut it off midway through a vibration. I sat up again, rubbing my face and checking the time. 6:47. I walked over to the single serve coffee pot, picking out a mild roast for myself. Coffee. One of the greatest legal drugs in the world. That and cigarettes. I felt alongside my coat that had been slung over the chair, patting out my box of cigarettes. I lit one and sat down at the edge of my bed, exhaling as I waited for the coffee.
