Faded Memories

Chapter 33

My house was filled with life. From the group, to Liam and his friends, to Michael and his colleagues stationed inside in case anything happened... more people were here currently than had ever been in this house. I felt uncomfortable, not just because of this, but the Facebook account was still playing on my mind, too.

There was loud music booming out of a speaker somebody must have brought, drinks lined up on the table and even a selection of snacks available. Georgia had gone all out for this, loving the idea of a spontaneous birthday party.

I couldn't catch on though, not when Jamie was still missing. I felt as though everybody around me didn't care or didn't understand because they had never seen my old life or met my brother, but he was still my brother. It was as though because they hadn't met him, they couldn't imagine the pain that I was going through right now missing him.

God, was I missing him. I felt like my heart had been shattered into a million pieces and then forced back inside of me in the wrong order, as though I was just surviving rather than living.

"Happy birthday, Amelia!" Noah announced, arriving later than everybody else for who knows what reason.

I hadn't even noticed that he wasn't here yet, making me feel like a bad friend immediately. He gave me a side hug as he told me a birthday joke, trying to lift my spirits but failing miserably. I smiled nonetheless, not wanting to make him feel worse. Eventually he left my side, wandering to the kitchen for a drink.

I leant against the back of the sofa, staring at the business of the kitchen and at everybody talking away happily. I couldn't imagine this life being my normal life, a life where you could just throw together a spontaneous birthday party and it actually worked out, a life of happiness.

"You know, you're actually meant to smile at your birthday party." Liam scolded, leaning against the sofa next to me. I glared at him from the side, his light hearted comment not working on me today.

"Have you ever seen me smile at my birthday parties?" I retorted, rolling my eyes.

"You don't normally have birthday parties, do you? I swear-"

"Exactly. I hate my birthday. I hate birthday parties. I hate attention... I'm pretty sure if I wanted attention I could just call psycho Ryan up for a large dosage of it." I announced sarcastically, wondering where he was right now and if he was treating Jamie okay.

"I'm sure Jamie is okay, Amelia. Last time Ryan just let him play video games the entire time! He's probably just in a random bedroom somewhere having the time of his life out of school, Ryan's just doing this to mess with you. Don't let him win." Liam patted my arm then, before heading back into the kitchen towards Matt and Noah.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket again, scrolling through my profile to see whether there was anything that I missed earlier. There must be something here that I'm not seeing. Ryan never does anything without a meaning behind it. Come on, Amelia. Think.

"Amelia! Amelia! Come over here!" Georgia announced from the kitchen, waving me over.

I grunted as she pulled out a birthday cake, eager to sing me the song that I dreaded most on this day in front of people that I didn't want to be here right now. Everybody began singing around me, staring at me with eagle eyes waiting on me to blow out the candles and make a wish.

I made a wish as I blew out the candles, struggling to think of anything as life was so perfect right now. I laughed as my dad pretended to burn himself on the candlestick, pulling it out of the cake before serving each of us a slice at breakfast. It was tradition, that if it was somebody's birthday that we had cake for breakfast - this rule didn't apply just to our household either, we have cake for breakfast most days at the minute.