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Chapter 30 – Sixteen
“Happy birthday Sarah,” Mom hugged me and kissed me on the cheek. She eyed fondly at me; something I hadn’t seen her do for many years now, and it seemed like she was about to cry. “My little girl…”
“A young lady now.” It was Arthur who came next and tousled my hair.
Still thunderstruck, I did not complain and returned every smile back with gratefulness.
Becky danced her way through the commotion and embraced me tightly, half-shrieking half-laughing as she did.
“Happy birthday! Oh my gosh! You totally forgot! It’s the first of June, remember?”
“Whose idea was this?” I chuckled lightly.
“Well I sort of mentioned your birthday to Leonard, but it’s all him.” Her high-pitched voice surfaced from the laughter that filled the house.
“I haven’t got a clue. Thanks, Becky,” I replied when she finally let go of me.
“How could you forget? It’s your sweet sixteen!”
Sweet sixteen. How very exciting. Ugh. My lips twitched awkwardly into a wry smile. Now that she put it that way, I was really surprised (terrified).
Hanging from the ceiling of the living room was a huge banner with Happy 16th Birthday, Sarah! in Becky’s loopy cursive handwriting.
So that was why she disappeared after the fourth period. I grinned. The room was full of people. Matt, Larson, Drake, Chuck and Reed (the blond brothers as everyone calls them), Leigh and even Mike were there.
It was a first! Every year, it was always just Mom, Becky and I. Now I have my friends, my mom and especially Leon. How lucky could I get!
Everyone greeted me as Becky started to sing a birthday song, eventually joined by everyone which was absolutely corny. But honestly, I could not help but smile broadly. And I could only imagine how stupid I might have appeared with that permanent chipmunk grin on my face.
I loved my birthday. It was exactly like thanksgiving, only better. And with a two feet tall chocolate-macadamia cake and presents; which were more often than not ridiculous, but I loved them anyway. I was so relieved that there was no frilly pink stuff or gowns anywhere. And the best part of it? I got to spend it with friends.
“Oh, come on!” I moaned after all the cards were shown as we were sprawled all over the carpeted living room floor in a circle. So far I had managed a consistent losing streak after six rounds of a rowdy game of poker led by Larson.
“Just because it’s your birthday didn’t mean we’ll go easy on you,” Larson smirked.
Only now did I realize how evil and cruel he truly was. The chink-eyed devil! He made the winner draw on the loser’s face (but mostly my face) with either a lipstick or an eyebrow liner and of course, he won most of the time. Or if not, the loser would have to do a ridiculous dare.
So far, Leigh did a hula dance, Chuck ate cake from Becky’s shoulder, and Reed had to read a verse of Hamlet backwards while protruding his tongue, along with Matt and Drake’s tango session where Matt had to be the girl. Yes. It was hilarious and Matt looked like he would die of embarrassment. I passed on the dares of course, knowing how bad my coordination was.
In the end I was transformed into a hybrid between a rabbit and a clown. Everyone must have found it amusing that I totally sucked in poker. I couldn’t win even if it would save my hide. The only men standing without a loser mark were Leon and Larson. Even Matt had his second set of wide eyebrows above his original ones. And Becky had lipstick all over her mouth like she just chewed on someone’s neck. The blond brothers and Drake put marks on each other’s face whether they lose or not. How odd.
“It’s my turn,” Leon said reining in a smirk after astonishingly being able to produce two straight flashes and a full house consecutively. He picked the eyebrow liner and scribbled something on my left cheek, his crystal blue eyes gazing intently at me as he did.
Thud-thud-thud. My chest pounded frantically and I was thankful of the red lipstick smudges because it would at least camouflage the color of my face.
“What’s taking you so long?” I said reminding myself to breathe evenly.
“Okay, done,” he said grinning as he crawled back lithely to his spot between Drake and Reed.
Every available pair of eyes darted to me in an instant, then to Leon. Becky sighed clapping her hands together. Then they chorused an “Aww…” Well, except for Matt and Mike who appeared more intimidated than amused. I wondered what he wrote.
“Wait! Let me…” Becky grabbed a liner and crawled to my spot.
“Becky! You didn’t win. It’s unfair!” I started to scramble away from her but she caught my left foot and pinned me to the floor.
“Keep still, will you?” she said grinning impishly as she doodled on my face.
Becky could be scary at times. I had no idea how someone so tiny could be so obnoxious. I groaned but she shushed me with an ominous scowl and when she was done, rubbed her hands together and turned to the others.
“So? Who’s next?” she said with utter nonchalance.
The others exchanged meaningful smirks with eyebrow liners at hand and lined up enthusiastically to vandalize my face.
“No! En- Oh! No!!!” I screamed frantically but I could well be shrieking to a rock.
When it was Matt’s turn, I tried to smile at him which he returned almost hesitantly.
“Happy birthday, Nerdy,” he whispered as he wrote.
“Thanks, Hotshot,” I smiled punching him on the arm.
When everyone was done, Leigh got out the Polaroid she used in photography class.
“Can I?” she said focusing the lens on me.
“Ah, what the heck,” I whined but smiled anyway.
I must’ve looked like an absolute idiot but I was exceedingly overjoyed to be a wet blanket. Then the whole gang scrunched up as Leigh propped the camera and set it on timer. The pictures looked awesome. We looked like a bunch of crazy people but it was something I would cherish forever.
I looked at my face in the bathroom mirror when I managed to escape from the eyeliners and lipsticks and malevolent hands that manipulated them. To be honest, if not for the bunny-clown guise, I would have shed a tear of joy or something. I traced the writings on my face. It wasn’t hard to read though the letters were backwards in the mirror.
Coolest nerd ever! Feisty four-eyes! You rock my books! Those writings on my forehead were from the Drake, Chuck and Reed. Hilarious strange boys.
On my chin, was Larson’s Poker Queen and just above it was Leigh’s (and probably Mike’s) Smarter than me. On my right cheek was Becky’s Bestest BFF with a tiny heart and just below was Matt’s M. P. Sarah.
I frowned. What on earth did that even mean? M. P. I racked my brains but got nothing. On my right cheek was Leon’s narrow handwriting. Mine Forever. I could feel my cheeks turn red though it seemed invisible beneath the smears. The beating in my chest immediately amplified as I repeated the phrase inside my head. The corners of my mouth pulled up involuntarily, reflecting on the drastic changes in my life since he came. He’s my lucky charm.
I washed my face though I had half a mind to keep it. That must be the chemicals sinking in to my brain.
As Mom and Arthur were tidying up, I sat with them in the kitchen table and upon seeing me, the latter handed me two envelopes.
“It’s for you.” Arthur smiled as Mom eyed curiously at the manila enclosing. “One’s from Len and the other is from me.”
I opened the envelopes and found two plane tickets in one and two Leon Walden concert V.I.P. passes in the other. Letting out a gasp of excitement but mostly apprehension, my eyes shifted between Arthur and finally Emma, who snagged the tickets from my hand and read them herself.
“Happy birthday kid,” he grinned disheveling my hair.
So this was Leon’s plan. He knew Mom would find it hard to decline to a gift particularly if that gift came from Arthur. I had all but hopped out of my seat and hugged Arthur.
“Thanks Arthur! You’re the best!” I exclaimed.
He winked.
Mom kept silent seeming to comprehend everything in a sluggish rate.
“Mom! We’re going to L.A.!” I skipped to her and giving her a big hug, making sure to keep the level of enthusiasm in my voice astoundingly high. “Mom? Is there anything wrong?” Taking a few lungfuls, I anticipated the bad news.
“I’m not sure about this Sarah.” Touché.
All the optimism in my body seemed to have been drained in an instant. Sighing, I sagged near the counter.
“But Mom…” I whined sounding like Becky, only with slightly bigger voice. I gave Arthur a help-me look and he sat beside my mom, patting her on the shoulder.
“Friday…” she said nervously. “This is all so sudden and I don’t know if I could make arrangements for a leave in time.”
“Don’t worry, Emma. It’s just for one week and I’ll be there to look after the kids.” Arthur reassured her.
“One week…” Emma’s eyes appeared rather diffident but I could see that she started seeing reason when she heard Arthur’s encouragement. She cleared her throat then her blue eyes fixed on me. “Sarah, I know you are responsible enough and I guess, since you’re already sixteen, you may well know what you’re doing. But I have two conditions that you must agree to if you really want to go—“
“Yes! Thanks so much, Mom.” I hugged her shoulder so tightly. I realized that this was the first time in many years that I did such a thing and it felt good.
“Sarah, listen first. If my conditions aren’t met, I swear I’ll board the next flight to California and ship you right back here.” There was an infinitesimal smile on her lips when I finally let go of her.
Arthur smiled.
I smiled back.
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This was supposed to be a very long chapter but I decided to make another chapter that was closely related to this one instead. I'll be posting them soon and I hope you keep supporting this story. :)