Another birthday

"...

| 23rd July, 2015

That was my first ever birthday without my brother around. I had a box of doughnuts with me as I walked to the nearby park to meet a couple of my classmates.

In all honesty, I was doing it only because I had promised my brother I would. I had promised that I would never let go of my friends.

It was an extremely sunny day also, unfortunately, a Sunday. The streets weren't as empty as I'd hoped they'd be and I ended up running into a couple of people my family was familiar with.

The first person I ran into- Asher Seam, my annoying senior. And along with him, was Grant, my unfortunate crush.

"Hey Destiny! You know I saw you, right?" Asher Seam laughed.

"Asher Seam, I'll drown you in cream," I gritted out as a greeting.

Now that I think about it, I don't remember ever greeting Grant at all. But I know I'd have died of embarrassment if I'd done that in front of his cousin.

"Well, sweet as always I see," Asher starts, but his eyes widen to an unnatural size. "Are those doughnuts?"

"Yeah, that's why the box literally has a doughnut painted on the top," I smirked.

Grant coughed, interrupting us. "It's your birthday, isn't it?"

My heart softened at the thought of him actually remembering. But then I realised how he could've remembered.

Ari must've told him.

My somewhat genuine smile turned into an awkward grimace. "Yeah," I nodded.

"Welp, happy birthday! Now gimme the doughnuts," Asher butted in.

I moved the box away from his reach, laughing at his pathetic attempts to reach it. Grant chuckled softly as he held him back.

"Sometimes I wonder how you're Grant's older cousin," I teased him, seizing the opportunity.

But at this, he straightened and smiled an evil smile.

"One word from me and you're both exposed," he said.

I kept quiet because I didn't want him to bring up how we cheated at a couple more tests and somehow, Grant kept quiet too.

I never really realised what secret of Grant's was going to be revealed if he didn't shut up.

We walked, the two boys attempting to make conversation to kill the awkwardness that was starting to settle.

"Where are you going anyway?" Asher started, "with that pretty box of at least fifty... doughnuts?"

"The park," I responded curtly.

"Oh wow, that was so detailed even my huge brain couldn't understand," he said, trying to joke.

"I know," I said instead, turning the joke right back to him.

Grant smiled ever so slightly at me, "At least you stand up against Asher. Even the people in his own class don't talk back to him."

"They probably realised talking back to the broken radio won't make it shut up," I said, directing the last couple of words to Asher. He smiled slyly in return.

"You owe me for that," he muttered so only I could hear him. I gave him a confused look at that.

But then I realised he was trying to help me talk to Grant.

Perhaps, I should have been thankful and seized the chance while I had it, but in all honesty- I wasn't bold enough.

"Teasing me now, aren't you kids? We'll see who's laughing in the end," he said aloud instead, dramatically laughing.

I shook my head at him, trying to get him to stop 'helping' me- but honestly, when has anyone ever noticed my subtle signs?

By the time we were at the park, I was already dying out of embarrassment.

Stepping in through the huge metal gates, I could already feel my anxiety kicking.

'What if the doughnuts taste worse than when I tasted them? What if the icing's messed up,' I thought.

But the whole while, I know for a fact that I wore a smile through it all.

I waved, excitedly and Ari came rushing to me. Sylvia smiled teasingly as she caught a glimpse of Grant and of course, Aiden saw Asher and practically ran to him.

As much as I hated Aiden, I loved how sincere he was when it came to making friends with anyone that wasn't me.

But that's a story for another day.

"Happy birthday Des!" Ari beamed. Even if people like Sylvia told me she wasn't good for me, even if I believed that we were done with each other- that was far from the case.

After the incident, my weaker side had taken over and in less than a week I had apologised to Ari for 'telling' people her parents were divorced. She gave me a cold glare, but still muttered a muffled 'ok'.

It took us almost a whole two years to try to get back to where we were. I knew she still didn't trust me at all, but I was ok with it. For as long as we were friends.

Sylvia smile and wished me a happy birthday too. Of all the others that were present, I don't remember much.

But that was the day I first saw Brie. To be honest, as a kid I never really realised what I felt towards her.

She came up to me, pretty eyes and soft curls and all- she shook my hand and greeted me.

"I'm Brie Scott, and this is my little brother Adrian," she introduced herself and pulled an extremely reluctant boy in front of her.

The tall boy scowled at her before he turned to me. "Hey, I'm Adrian. Happy birthday, by the way," he smiled.

As I heard those words, I recognised the boy. I gasped softly, so that no one else would hear me. I checked around hoping to not see people that knew me at the time I knew Adrian.

Unsurprisingly, my task wasn't hard as I realised that a lot of people I'd known then went to the other middle school in our town. Tasha and Trish- the first friends I'd made in his class- had changed schools to study something that definitely didn't include theatre.

Even the mere thought of the few days I'd spent with them- avoiding Adrian- brought a smile to my face.

Adrian himself, wasn't a problem. He seemed to have no memory of the past. I sighed in relief.

"Right, have a doughnut," I offered to the siblings. I was surprised by my own actions.

Adrian helped himself to a pink doughnut, covered in sprinkles. And Brie merely smiled fondly, looking at her brother as he ate.

Some other guy I'd never seen came up towards us and told something to Brie. I could've heard what he'd said if I had paid attention, but I was busy staring at Brie.

She smiled at that guy too, and waved goodbye to me. I waved awkwardly as she dragged Adrian with her and followed the guy.

I do know she was telling me something till that guy came, but yeah, I wasn't exactly listening. Because honestly, she numbs my senses and makes me feel dumb as hell.

..."