The Perfect Life

"Mom! Make sure Lilly isn't eating the cake!'' Chris shouted as his mom was leaving the room.

"Will do" she chuckled.

Chris couldn't let his 13-year-old sister eat the cake before he and his friends did. Last year on his 15th birthday, Lilly had gotten through a whole three slices without him noticing.

"Hey, guys! It's 5:32!" called Mike. "You're 16, man!"

"For real!?" Chris had lost track of the time.

"Yeah! Tell me how it feels, I wouldn't know" said Mike

"You're right, you don't turn 16 until next month!" Chris laughed. "I dunno guys.. It feels the same."

"What? You didn't have some sort of spiritual awakening?" said Kayla.

"Yes, Kayla, because everyone suddenly becomes enlightened when they're 16" joked Charlie, who was already 17, older than him and his other friends.

"Haha." Kayla mumbled sarcastically.

Chris had met Kayla halfway through freshman year, and what can you say... It was love at first sight. They started dating only a few months after they had met. High School was great for Chris; he had an amazing, beautiful girlfriend and was quite popular in school, but he chose to only invite his closest friends to his party. Charlie and Mike were the best friends Chris could ask for. He had met Charlie on his school swim team and met Mike at the beginning of freshman year when they were scared and didn't know anyone. Charlie, who was already a sophomore when they were freshmen, helped them find their way.

Chris got up from his couch and stretched. "Hey guys, I'll be right back. I'm gonna go to the bathroom real quick."

"Alright! Have fun!" Joked Charlie.

Chris gave Charlie a strange look and walked to his bathroom. He could hear the rest of them laughing at Charlie in the living room.

Chris shut the door behind him and looked in the mirror. He was definitely in better shape since the group home; ever since he had gotten into swimming, he had become tan and muscular, but his hair that was once black had been bleached by the sun and was now a dark brown. He had blue eyes, but most people just thought of them as brown because they were so dark. They only looked blue in the light.

Chris hadn't really needed to use the bathroom, but he wanted to get away from his friends for a bit. Of course, he loved them, but sometimes things could get a bit overwhelming. He felt as though he had to "reset" and come back. He washed his hands for no reason and headed back downstairs to his friends.

"Miss me?" He said.

"What took you so long, man? I thought you must've died in there or somethin' said Mike.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. You guys up for cake?" Chris replied.

"Heck yeah!" Said Kayla. "Lemme at it!"

Chris laughed and led his friends into the kitchen, where he cut them all slices of his favorite chocolate cake.

"Hey, is this from that Bundt cake place?" Asked Charlie. "Their stuff slaps!"

"You know it." Said Chris, and took a bite. He only got this stuff on his birthday, and it was heaven. Seriously, how did someone make something this good?

"Whoa whoa whoa, Chris, we haven't sung happy birthday yet!" Kayla chided.

" for real? You guys still wanna sing that?" He replied

"Of course dude! It's a tradition." Said Charlie.

"Well, get on with it then" laughed Chris.

Charlie, Mike, and Kayla all burst out into a cacophony of noise. This had to be the worst happy birthday performance there was.

"My ears! What is that!?"

His friends sang the last verse.

"Happy birthday to you~" they finished

"What are you talking about?! That was a great show." Kayla laughed

" Yeah, we should be on The Voice" agreed Mike.

"I'm sure the judges would love that" Chris mused.

He and his friends dug into the cake, and even though there were only four of them, the cake was gone by the end of the night, along with the sodas and carton of Neapolitan ice cream his parents had bought for them. It was nice to have a calm, small party for a change. Most of the parties he went to were filled with drugs and alcohol, and of course, a ton of people.

Chris waved goodbye to his friends as they left. It was midnight, and they had just finished a horror movie about a virus that kills you in your sleep. Not a pleasant thought to have right before bed, so he decided to watch some kids shows from Disney Channel before he went to bed, but they weren't that good. Perhaps there was a reason he stopped watching Disney at age twelve.

Chris trudged into the kitchen where he was surprised to find his sister, Lilly, pouring herself a glass of water.

"What are you doing here?"

"Um, well let me see... oh yeah. I live here." She replied

" haha, very funny. You know what I mean, why are you awake?"

"I could ask you the same thing."

" Lilly, c'mon. You know it was my party... I'm allowed to be awake."

"It's the weekend. I felt like staying up."

"Hm. So that's how it is, huh?"

"It is"

Lilly gulped down the last of her water and stalked out of the room. Chris didn't really know what the problem was, but he guessed that it was just something to do with school. He threw away the remains of his party and walked upstairs to his room. It was fairly big for a bedroom and had one large window that looked over their yard, but Chris quickly shut this due to his recent trauma from the horror movie. He picked up his phone and saw that it was full of happy birthday messages from his friends, and people from school he had never spoken to before. He smiled and climbed into bed, but he couldn't sleep. Tomorrow, Chris was going to have a sort of family birthday party, which basically consisted of his grandparents and his family bringing food and giving him presents, and as lovely as that sounded, Chris could tell that his grandfather didn't like him. He hadn't approved of Chris being fostered in the first place, and the day his family had adopted him he had walked out of the courtroom. Of course, he had since apologized and claimed that he welcomed Chris and that he now understood, but whenever Chris was with him, he felt as though the tension could be cut with a knife. On the other hand, his grandmother liked him very much. She was a classic grandmother figure: kind, generous, and big overbearing. She always insisted that Chris's parents weren't feeding him and his sister Lilly enough and that they were, in her words, "skin and bones."

Chris chuckled at this and rolled over for what seemed like the billionth time. Maybe it was because his body couldn't fight sleep anymore, or the thought of his grandmother, but Chris finally fell asleep.

The next morning, he was awoken by an unpleasant cold feeling in his mouth. The first thing he thought of was a rock, but why would a rock be in his mouth?

"What the-" mumbled Chris, and spit out an apple slice. He looked up and there was his sister laughing hysterically.

"Lilly! You could have choked me!"

"I wish I did" She laughed

"What! Hey, that's not funny-" but before Chris could finish, she ran out of his room. He sighed and went to go get ready for the day.

Chris walked downstairs in his new button up top that his mom had bought him, expecting to find his grandparents, but instead he found nothing.

"Hello?" He called out. "Is anyone he-"

"SURPRISE!"

Chris jumped and turned around. His whole extended family was there, aunts, uncles, cousins, and of course, his grandparents. Chris laughed and went over to greet all of them. His parents had gotten him a pair of shoes that he had been wanting the whole year, his personal favorite present, and his grandmother had made him a delicious peach cobbler. His mother kept trying to get him to go hang out with his cousins, but not only were they three years younger than him, but they were, well... just weird. Like, the other day, he had seen his cousin Bruce torturing a snail with salt. Yeah, psychopath much? So Chris made it a point to steer clear of them. Instead, he and Lilly spent most of the time with their "cool uncle," Uncle Rick. He was always saying he was the cool brother of Chris's dad's side, and well... he wasn't wrong. He basically lived in a tent, because he was always going rock climbing is these remote places. Sometimes, much to Chris's grandmother's dismay, he would do it without any harnesses. Today, he has taken Chris and Lilly out to see his new Jeep Wrangler.

"Just got it yesterday, got a pretty good deal on it too." He told them. The Jeep was a nice orange and uncle rick had told them he could take the doors off if he wanted.

"It's so cool!" Lilly squealed. "I love the color!"

"Yeah, uncle Rick, you really outdid yourself, this is sick!" Chris said.

" well, I'm glad you like it Chris because guess what?"

Chris looked around and realized everyone had come outside to watch them. Then it hit him, and Chris knew what was going to happen next.

"Wait- you don't mean-"

"It's yours!"

Chris looked at his dad, and he nodded. Chris hugged his uncle and thanked him profusely.

"Don't forget to thank your parents, this was their doing too" he told Chris.

Chris ran to his parents and hugged them. Forget the shoes man, this was his favorite present now.

"Hey! Once Chris gets his license, he can drive me to school, right?" Asked Lilly.

"We'll think about it" his father responded

"What? But there's really no reason that he shouldn't be able-"

"We'll think about it, Lilly" there was a warning in his tone that told Lilly to be quiet. She scowled but didn't make another attempt to bring the subject up again for the rest of the day.

As Chris waved goodbye to his family members, he knew that tonight he would have no trouble sleeping. Today was perfect, he had gotten a car, and not just any car. His parents knew he had been wanting a Jeep Wrangler ever since he was first adopted. That was one of the first questions that they had asked him. "What do you want most in life, Chris?" His mother had asked him. Now that he looked back on it, a Jeep Wrangler was a silly answer, but, turns out, it paid off.

Once everyone had left, Chris opened the door to the garage and stepped inside. There it was. His dream car, right in front of him. He ran his hand over the leather interior and found that it was just as smooth as he had imagined, maybe even better. It had the new car smell, which Chris loved. His mother had gone on and on about ways to get rid of this smell, but Chris didn't want to. To him, it was a nice reminder that he had gotten something new and fresh, and it made him feel excited and happy. Chris thought about how on Monday, once the break was over, he could pick up his friends in his new car. Laughing, he pictured the looks on their faces; they would all be surprised because Chris had told them he probably wouldn't be getting anything nice, but honestly, that's what he had believed.

He took a step forward and pushed down on the handle, heard a click, and the door swung open. Chris climbed into the Jeep and looked out of the windshield. Today had been a perfect day.