Tales of Another Broken Home

[17]- Something's missing

So today's my birthday, and it may seem kind of weird, but I forgot about it. Ever since Tyler died, moving into a new house and getting beat up at school, I wasn't really thinking about it at all. I looked at the time. 8:34 am. I don't even think Billie or anyone knows about my birthday, so there's no point in telling them because they will just be bumed that they forgot. School wasn't on today, it was a day off for God knows what reason.

"Happppppppyyyyy Birrrtttthhhhhdaaaaaayyyyyy tooooooo yoooooouuuuuuuu!" I heard Billie singing at the bottom of the stairs "Wakkkkkkeeeeee uppppppppp". I guess he didn't forget. I walked downstairs to see that Joey, Jakob, Billie and Adrienne were all sitting down on the couch.

"Happy Birthday Dakota!" Joey said

"Happy birthday DK" Jakob smiled

"Happy birthday honey, I hope you like presents" Adrienne smiled as she walked away to get them. Billie walked up to me and put his arm around me. "First birthday in the Armstrong household" he smiled "How's it feel?".

"Good. Something's missing though" I said, I was talking about Tyler without even realising it. Billie sat me down on the chair and sat down next to me. Adrienne came over with a pile of presents in her hands and Joey sat up to help her.

"Wow" I began "Are they all for me? I've never gotten presents for my birthday before"

"You didn't get birthday presents?" Adrienne asked

"Tyler and I would buy stuff for eachother, which usually meant playing guitar at the subway for the money, but I never got any from mum. Thanks guys"

"You're welcome" Billie said as he passed me a present "This one's from me" he smiled. I opened the present to find a new skateboard. The deck had a picture of him on the cover of iUNO!. I laughed "Thanks Billie, I mean, Dad" It was the first time I called him Dad and he seemed really happy about it "No problem".

Joey and Jakob handed me a couple of boxes. I opened up the first one to find the baseball teams uniform. It had Dakota Armstrong 99 written on it. "Thanks guys" I smiled as I went to open the next two presents they had given me. I opened up the other one which was a metal bat which had the words Armstrong since 99 engraved on it. I smiled and opened the next present, which was a helmet. It was an A's helmet, which was good because they happened to be my favourite team.

"Thanks guys, this is awesome" I told them. "Thats fine, happy birthday" Joey and Jakob said. Adrienne handed me a card. "I hope you like it" she said with a smile on her face. I opened it the envelope and opened the card.

Dear Dakota,

Happy 15th Birthday!

We all hope that you have a really good birthday and enjoy being an Armstrong. Welcome to the family. We have another present for you. When you go on tour for Green Day, you will be flying over to New York. We have booked time for you to see Tyler while you are there, because we know thats what you would like.

Love from your family, Billie Joe, Adrienne, Jakob and Joey.

I looked up at them. I couldn't believe that I could go and se Tyler for the first time in ages. Sure, it would be in a graveyard, but I still would love to be there. "Thankyou you so much, I really, really, really appreciate this" I smiled I hugged Billie and Adrienne and fist bumped Joey and Jakob. "You're welcome Dakota, it's your birthday, go do something you want now".

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For a couple of hours, Joey, Jakob and I went down to the skatepark so we could try out my new skateboard. Billie called Joey to tell him that we needed to head home because we had people coming to visit, so we left and made our way back to the house.