XIII

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February

I woke up to the sound of my phone busily ringing, I lazily felt around for it next to my bed until I finally found it, picking it up off of the receiver.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY," I heard Winona shriek into the phone causing me to wince.

"Jeez Winona, you know what'd be a real nice gift for my birthday? Becoming deaf," I said apathetically.

"Still cranky on your birthday," she said with a small laugh.

"Cranky when a girl called Winona wakes me up at 6am," I retorted.

"Well, I wanted to be the first to say happy birthday. I'll see you at school!" She said cheerfully and hung up the phone.

I got up out of bed and got ready for school. Birthdays are overrated especially when yours is on a Monday.

*

After an undeniably boring day of school, I got home to find an envelope for me left in the mailbox, it was a rare occurrence for me to get mail but I guess it was my birthday after all.

I took it out of the mailbox and took it inside, sitting myself down on the couch. I tore open the envelope and inside was a tape with a small note attached to it.

Kayla's Mix was what was written on the tape, I furrowed my brows a little, not really sure who it was. Wil was coming over later to give me my gift then and have dinner with us and Winona gave me a sweater and a Buddy Holly record earlier. I took the note off of the tape and opened it up.

I know you're pissed at me right now but I at least wanted to give you something for your birthday.
Hope you have a great day,
Love, Rio

I went over to the stereo and put the tape in and Sunshine of Your Love began to play.
"What's that?" I heard my mom ask and I swivelled around.

"Just a gift," I replied.

"Ooh, from who?" She asked, sitting down on the arm of the couch.

"Uh, River," I replied, taking the tape out and putting it in my jacket cardigan.

"River, huh? You haven't spoken about him in a while," she said.

"Well, we aren't really that close, we don't hang out or anything," I said to her.

"Obviously close enough to buy you a gift for your birthday," my mom said, trying to conceal a grin.

I rolled my eyes apathetically and stood up from the floor, "he's just a nice guy."

"Put something nice on!" My mom called up to me as I walked up the stairs, "your grandparents will be here in twenty five minutes.

I put the tape down on top of my collection and sighed, it was hard to stay pissed at River and in the last two months I'd really missed hanging out with him every week. Maybe I'm overreacting, why am I so pissed about him walking away after kissing me anyway? It's not like I'm into him.

After getting changed, I went downstairs and sat on the back porch, kicking my boots in the snow on the grass. I felt dull, I just had little feeling at all. I was trying to enjoy today but whenever I did, my mind just fell upon something else.

"Hey," I heard Wil say softly and I turned my head back to where he was standing, leant up against the now closed back door.

"Hey," I replied.

"Why'd you look so glum?" He asked, sitting down next to me on the step, "it's your birthday."

"I don't know," I answered, rubbing my forehead with my right hand, "just a lot on my mind."

Wil simply exhaled and looked out ahead of him, he knew in times like this, with me, it was best just not to ask, all I needed was simply company.

I rested my head on his shoulder, "I'll be sad when it's spring and all the snow's gone."

"Yeah," Wil sighed, "winter's gone by fast."

"Say," he began again, after a long pause, "whatever happened with you and River? You two actually kind of became friends and now you guys just don't hang out?"

"I'm not sure really," I lied, "guess after the tutoring we didn't really have a reason to see each other."

"He talked about you a lot," he said. He then chuckled lightly, "was surprised to find a girl actually interested in all the music and shit he was."

I smiled softly, lifting my head up from his shoulder, "what kind of stuff does he like?" I asked. "I mean I know he loves music, both listening to and playing it but, other than that, I know virtually nothing about his interests."

"He loves the planet," Wil said, nodding a little at his statement, "music and this Earth, that's what he loves. Doesn't like tv an awful lot and he's very select about the type of movies he likes. Normally the ones with deeper meanings but, there's a few exceptions. He's what I guess you'd call, a beautiful soul. Just full of light."

He looked over at me, "not quite sure why you both hated each other to begin with."

I chuckled, "Wil, you've said that before."

"Guess it's just something I think about a lot."

We both sat there in a comfortable silence as I watched my breath appear as a mist out in front of me.
"You know what we should do," Wil said, getting up abruptly from the step, "we should go up to my families place in Vermont during spring break. A whole group of us."

"Wil, spring break is just under a month away, don't you think your parents would want a little more notice?" I said, cocking a brow.

"It's not like we gotta get plane tickets or anything, we can just drive up there, my folks will be fine with it, especially if it's a group of us," Wil said, trying to convince me.

"Hm, I'll have to ask my parents," I said.

"Sure they'll be fine with it, you're seventeen now, so is Christian and Winona, plus they trust you," Wil replied.

"Surprisingly," I chuckled, thinking about all the times I had lied to them, "come on, we better head back inside or my parents'll think we've ran away."

Wil and I both then headed inside, nothing but the road trip we were planning on our minds.

Sorry this is short, I didn't really know what do with it as there's going to be another time jump the next chapter.

PLUS OMD THANKS FOR 2K LIKE WTF I LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH!!!

I also have published a Ponyboy Curtis ff which is up on my profile @k-martxriver and I'd really love it if you'd check it out!

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