Dear Future Husband,
Aw yeahhh it's my birthday!
I'm sixteen today! And I got my learner's permit!
Technically in the state of Washington you can get a permit at fifteen, but you have to be enrolled in driver's ed, and we always said we were going to do it, but never did. Plus I can't get my license until sixteen anyway, so my mom promised me that on my sixteenth birthday she would enroll me in driver's ed and take me to get my permit.
This morning I woke up to the smell of bacon and pancakes and had a very nice birthday breakfast with my family. I looked around for presents but didn't see any and was wondering if maybe sixteen was the year I stopped getting presents. It didn't bother me though, I was just grateful for my family.
I was pleasantly surprised that I was wrong.
Once I finished breakfast, my dad threw me a set of keys and asked me to start up the car. I didn't think anything of it at first, he always asked me to warm up his car for him, but when I got outside I realized that he had a Chevy, and he had thrown me Volkswagen keys. When I looked up I found a shiny new car with ribbons on the mirrors sitting in the driveway.
I never thought they would actually buy me a car. I always assumed Clarissa and I would share, so needless to say I was speechless. I don't think I stopped jumping up and down for a full minute.
I thanked my family again with a shower of hugs and kisses before Grant pulled in to take me to school, so I had to part with my beautiful car to be with my beautiful boyfriend.
"I got a car!" I exclaimed to him as I got into the passenger seat.
"I know!" He laughed, giving me a nice long birthday kiss. "Happy sixteenth."
I beamed at him and went in for one last kiss. "It's off to a good start, if I say so myself."
He sighed as he reached into the backseat. "I really wish they had waited until after I gave you your gift, it doesn't get much better than a car." He pulled out a small gift bag and handed it to me.
"You're right, this is terrible you should've gotten me a tropical vacation to beat the car." I said sarcastically, smiling.
He laughed, shaking his head. "If I had only known."
I smiled at him and opened the card first, a short, but sweet birthday note, exactly Grant's type. Not a paragraph expressing his love, just a nice happy birthday note and a heart. It was perfect.
I moved onto the contents of the bag to find a small blue felt pouch that was unmistakably from Tiffany. "God, Grant, you know I was kidding when I asked for the vacation." I said as I untied the bag.
"What do you mean? It's nowhere close to a vacation."
I opened the bag and pulled out a necklace with two tiny hearts at the end, one with the letter A, and the other a T. My jaw dropped as I held it up to the light, the sun winking off the perfectly smooth hearts.
"I was going to engrave an A on one and a G on the other, but we have only been together about three weeks and I figured you still have time to get sick of me."
"Oh my god, I love it, but you spent too much." I gasped as I twirled it around in the air, examining it from every angle.
"It's not real silver or anything, I mean it's actually Tiffany but it wasn't really that expensive. I mean, it wasn't like it was cheap, it definitely wasn't cheap, but the price doesn't matter. I know it's a little early for expensive gifts and everything, but it's your sixteenth birthday and I wanted to get you something special. I mean, I didn't really know what to get you but I figured 'Girls like jewelry', but if you don't like it I can probably take it back and exchange it for something-"
"No, I love it." I beamed at him and he smiled back, leaning over and kissing me.
"I'm glad." He said quietly, his hand still holding my cheek. "You wanna put it on?"
I handed it to him and turned my back to him, pulling my hair away from my neck so he could put it on me.
"It's not a car but..." He sighed as I turned back around to show him.
"You're right," I said as I played with it. "It's not a car. Cars break down and get sold and forgotten, I'm keeping this forever."
He laughed, putting the car into reverse to pull out of the driveway. "Sure you will. The minute we breakup it's getting thrown into the Puget Sound."
"What makes you so certain we are going to breakup?" I asked, raising my eyebrows at him.
"I don't know," He said quietly. "Nothing lasts forever, especially high school relationships."
"Geez, that's depressing," I said, not sure how things had suddenly gotten so dark. "My parents were highschool sweethearts, they lasted."
"For now," He said, the smile gone from his face. "You don't know what's going to happen to them, they could start hating each other and before you know it, they hate each other enough to take their children away from each other."
Something wasn't right. He wasn't like this. "Where is this coming from?" I asked.
"Nothing," He muttered as he stopped at a light.
"Grant," I reached across the console to hold his hand but he pulled it away and ran it through his hair, closing his eyes for a moment. "What's going on?"
"I'm sorry," He said quietly as the light turned green. "I shouldn't have said that and it's your birthday and I'm ruining it-"
"You're not ruining it," I laughed, trying to lighten the mood. "If there is something wrong you can talk to me, you know. I've been told I'm a good listener."
He shook his head, looking over at me for a moment to smile before turning his attention back to the road. "I don't want to talk. Talking is hard." He took his hand from the steering wheel and took mine on the console.
"Ok," I said, looking down at our intertwined fingers. "We don't have to talk." In truth, I was kind of worried about him. That came out of nowhere, and something was obviously on his mind that he wanted to get out. I wasn't sure if he genuinely didn't want to talk, or if he didn't want to talk to me.
Was this about me? Was he saying all of that stuff about breaking up because he already had doubts? At dinner did he realize that he actually didn't like me? But what did that kid thing mean? Does he seem something wrong in my parents' relationship that I don't? If this wasn't about us, why didn't he want to tell me? Did he not trust me?
Now I was starting to get nervous, and really wanted to push him to tell me what was going on, but at the same time I didn't want to make him more mad, besides, it's not like I owned him or anything. He had a right to his feelings.
By the time we pulled into school he had gone back to normal and we walked into school together as usual, saying a quick goodbye before going our separate ways.
I got lots of birthday wishes throughout the day ,and my study hall class even sang me happy birthday (after much protest from myself). I met Grant during our usual in between class talk and he acted normal, even giving me a quick kiss on the head before I left, something he hates doing in public. I guess it was special for my birthday.
Everyone had pretty much heard about us, not everyone was happy about it, but at this point there weren't too many people that came up to me anymore telling me Grant and I would be a cute couple, or telling me to back off because he was "out of my league." What league was that exactly?
After school my mom brought me to get my permit and I aced my test! I was super nervous through the whole thing and was sure I failed, but I didn't miss a single question. She offered to let me drive home but I refused. I hadn't done any illegal driving before and barely knew how to operate the vehicle, I would wait for drivers ed to teach me that.
I got home and was asked to pick a restaurant for dinner. I picked an Italian restaurant downtown as usual, earning groans from my family. I picked that place every year for my birthday. I couldn't help it, I loved it.
I was upstairs tying up some loose ends with homework when a text came up on my phone.
Grant<3 : I'm in the driveway
Me: What?
Grant<3: I want to see uuuu
Grant<3: ur in big trouble
I couldn't help but smile a little.
Me: I have to be back by five
Grant<3: done
I packed up my school stuff and checked myself in the mirror to make sure I was presentable before going downstairs. "I'm going to take a quick walk!" I yelled to my parents before opening the door and leaving.
I hopped out to his car and got into the passenger seat, giving him a quick kiss as I did.
"I missed you after school and wanted to ask if you wanted to go to Chipotle or something for a birthday burrito." He said as he backed out of the driveway.
"Maybe just chips. I'm going out to dinner tonight."
"Sounds good to me." He switched the transmission into drive and started down the street, completely rolling through a stop sign.
"Um, stop much?" I asked.
"What?"
"You completely missed that stop sign."
"I do that literally every time I drive, was there a car or something?"
I scoffed, smiling. "How did you even pass your driving test?" Now that I had my permit, I felt like suddenly I could be a traffic cop.
He pulled over and put the car in park. "Your permit test!" He exclaimed. "Did you pass?"
"Yup." I grinned.
He unbuckled and got out of his seat, leaving the door open as he came around to my side and opened my door. "Why aren't you driving right now?" He asked, smiling.
"Goodness, Grant, get back in the car." I laughed.
"Don't you want to drive?" He asked, leaning against the frame of the open car door.
"Not really." I muttered, unaware that my hands had suddenly clammed up.
He crossed his arms. "You're going to need all of the practice you can get. Come on, I'm a great teacher, I promise. I won't tell you all of the stuff that I do like running stop signs. I will make sure you always come to a full and complete stop."
I swallowed hard then unbuckled, walking around to the car to the drivers seat.
I got in and immediately buckled my seatbelt, feeling strange on the other side of the car with all of this... stuff in front of me.
"Adjust your seat." Grant instructed as he moved his back.
I found the pad on the side of the door and slowly moved my seat up, my foot grazing a pedal. I immediately stopped and backed up.
Grant laughed. "You know, your foot is supposed to be on the pedal to, I don't know, drive."
"Grant, stop, this is really nerve wracking."
"You haven't even started driving yet," He laughed again. "Alina, have you ever driven before?"
I swallowed hard. "No, of course not. I just got my permit."
He shook his head. "I started driving when I was thirteen, and I on the highway when I was fourteen."
"Grant, that's illegal!"
He grinned. "Not if you don't get caught."
I unbuckled my seatbelt. "I can't do this."
He locked the car. "Yes, you can, now buckle up, you're going to need it when we crash."
I looked over at him with wide eyes. "That's not funny."
"Ok, I'll stop," He was still smiling and I would've yelled at him if he didn't look so cute doing it. "Ok, the big pedal on the left is the brake, the skinny one on the right is the gas. Put your right foot on the brake right now-"
I put my foot on a pedal and the car roared as I screamed, taking my foot off. "W-What was that?!" I asked.
He didn't look in the least bit worried. "That was the gas pedal. We didn't shoot down the street because the car is still in park, but don't worry, we won't be changing the transmission for a while. Try again, foot on the brake, you can look if you need to, it's the one in the left."
I moved my foot to the left and found the break, putting my foot on it. "I did it!"
He laughed. "Yes you did. Ok, now put your hands on the wheel."
"Nine and three." I said, putting my hands in the corresponding positions.
"Good. We're pulled over, so signal that you're going to be driving. Your blinker stick is behind your wheel on the left, push it down for a left turn and up for a right turn."
I pushed it down and it started clicking at me.
"Awesome. Now keep your foot on the break and move into drive."
My hand shook as I switched the transmission.
"You can take your foot off the break now. The car is going to roll-"
The car started to slowly inch forward and I slammed my foot into the brake, the car jerking back violently. "W-What did I do why did it move?!"
"It's supposed to move," He laughed. "The car is going to roll when you take your foot off the break."
I took my foot off the break again and just let the car move.
"Tap the gas now. Tap it. Get a feel for the acceleration."
I did as he said and was surprised to find that the car didn't shoot forward like I expected it to.
"You're doing great, babe. Keep following this road then take a right."
I drove (very slowly) through the neighborhood, pulling over whenever I saw a car, but other than that I did pretty good for never sitting behind the wheel before. Driving was kind of fun.
The clock approached five and I started home, pulling into the driveway and only hitting one curb.
"Park. Good." Grant said. "Alina, that was great."
"Really?" I smiled. "You think I did good?"
He nodded. "Better than my sister when she started."
"Better than you?" I asked.
He scoffed. "Don't get ahead of yourself."
I leaned over the console and kissed him, filled with such excitement and eagerness I had to let it out somehow.
He pulled away, still holding my face as he smiled. "We have to do this again soon so you can drive to Chipotle and we can actually get chips."
I smiled. "I guess we will."
"Happy birthday, Alina."
"It was more than happy."
So yeah, sixteen has treated me well.
Xoxo, Alina