Daughter of Fire | I ✓ [ SAMPLE ]

chapter 2

I looked between him and the cake, cringing uncomfortably. "...Hard pass." I shook my head.

"Aw come on, I slaved on it for like, forever," he reasoned, pouting. I gave him a look. "What, are you not even going to try it?"

I clicked my tongue but swiped a finger across the cake, ruining the message. I smiled at him triumphantly, before sucking on my finger. His face fell a mile, but I was too busy concentrating on cake.

"Mm...buttercream," I hummed, before patting his shoulder.

Aaron shook his head, disappointment written all over his face as he put the cake down on my bedside table. "What is wrong with you, Green?"

"You're my boyfriend. Aren't you supposed to know that?" I quipped, standing up on my tiptoes to plant a kiss on his cheek.

He frowned. "I would have thought you would loosen up for your sixteenth at least, but you proved me wrong, as usual. Why can't you just be a normal teenage girl for once and enjoy your eighteenth birthday?"

I paused, grabbing my backpack and slinging it over my shoulder. I did not answer him straight away. His question made me think.

It made me break.

I had never disclosed the true reasons why I never celebrated my birthday with anyone besides Luca —not even Aaron knew. I felt that no one else deserved to know. And I certainly was not ready to share the information I had found in Phoebe's room with anyone else but Luca, either.

"None of my birthdays are enjoyable anymore," I whispered, turning my back on him and wiping my face hurriedly.

"Hey," his voice grew gentle, "I saw that."

"You want a prize, then?" I whipped around and clipped. I abruptly clenched my fists and growled, before turning back around. Then I gasped, feeling the tears stream down my cheeks in a fulminating burst.

I was crying...properly. Ardently. I stood there at a loss, my chest compressing and my lungs burning.

I had not cried like this in twelve years; since my father left.

"Savannah —" Aaron tried.

"No. Leave me alone," I sobbed, beginning to wipe the tears away as soon as they escaped with the back of my maroon top's sleeve. "I don't need to tell you anything."

He backed off immediately at that, and slowly lowered himself down to sit on my bed as I sobbed by my bedroom door. This was one of the reasons why birthdays were not celebrated. There was simply nothing to celebrate.

At least my father had not left on my birthday. That would have banished the word from my vocabulary entirely.

"...Hey, you should take what you get as it comes," Aaron sighed eventually, dropping one of my snow globes with which he had been playing onto the carpet suddenly, "Being alive is something to look forward to more than when you won't be, or choose not to."

I frowned and looked up, not believing him. I then gestured being sick by shoving a finger in my mouth. "Yolo," I deadpanned.

"That's the spirit," he encouraged sarcastically, jumping up and setting the snow globe by my bedside.

I lidded my eyes and wiped my face dry one last time. "You're not very good at comforting people, are you, Carter?" I snorted, folding my arms.

"The only person I need to comfort is you, Green," he smirked, circling my waist. I reached up and took the party hat off of his head, before putting it on mine and sticking out my tongue.