Happy Birthday to Me Again (Birthday Trilogy, Book 2)

by Rowe, Brian

  “Mrs. Gordon. Hi.”

  My former high school librarian, and almost sex partner, stood before me, proud and confident, looking more womanly than I’d ever seen her before. Always dressed so conservative and unfriendly with make-up in my high school days, Mrs. Gordon now looked like a true member of the opposite sex, a person, while still scary in a beastly sort of way, who appeared to take care of herself. She wore light pink rouge on her cheeks, heavy red lip-stick on her thin, chapped lips, and a casual pink sweater with a pair of black jeans. The most different quality about the woman was her cropped hair.

  “I almost didn’t recognize you with your hair-cut,” I said. “It looks good—”

  “I heard you’re getting married,” she interrupted.

  I nodded. “That I am.”

  “To that girl you floated around with at graduation.”

  Again, I nodded. “That’s right. You remember.”

  “I sure do. You impressed a lot of the crowd that night, Mr. Martin. But you didn’t impress me. That was the oldest trick in the book. Invisible wires. Any fool could’ve accomplished that menial task, if you ask me.”

  “You’re exactly the same,” I muttered, almost inaudibly.

  “What?”

  “Nothing.”

  “It’s good to see you, I guess,” she said. “But I must tell you I’m a little disappointed.”

  I caught the EXIT sign in my eye-line. It’d be so easy. “Why is that?”

  “Why do you think?”

  I shrugged. “I’m not in school anymore, Mrs. Gordon. I don’t have to answer your questions if I don’t want to.”

  I probably shouldn’t have said that. Now she was out for blood. “I beg your pardon?”

  “Well… you know… you know what I mean.”

  “No. Enlighten me.”

  I couldn’t believe it. Out of school for nearly a year, and here I was, still being prosecuted on the witness stand by the feisty librarian.

  I really need to get out of this town.

  I turned to my left to see if the employee was on her way back. She wasn’t.

  “Anyway, what I was trying to tell you Mr. Martin, before you rudely interrupted…”

  That was it. I’d had enough.

  I brushed past her and started walking down one of the many crowded aisles of the department store. “I don’t have to take this from you anymore.”

  “Hey! Where do you think you’re going?”

  “Goodbye! Farewell!”

  But she didn’t let me go. She kept following me.

  “Cameron, stop. Stop this now.”

  I just shook my head, trying not to explode in her face.

  “Cameron… I’m sorry… I apologize for speaking to you the way I did… I guess I just liked resorting back to my old ways—”

  I turned around and jumped right in her face. “You tried to seduce me, Mrs. Gordon! You tried to have sex with me! Do you remember that? Does that little incident even cross your mind?”

  She frowned and put her hands on her hips. “I was disappointed you didn’t invite me to the wedding. That’s all.”

  I blinked, trying to comprehend what this old hag was trying to tell me. “WHY WOULD I INVITE YOU TO MY WEDDING?”

  She shrugged and pursed her lips. “You know… we had a bond, Cameron… don’t deny it.”

  I put my hands in my face. I wanted to cry.

  “Oh, sir, there you are.” The thirty-something employee started walking toward me from the left. “I couldn’t find you. You just disappeared on me.”

  “I waited for you for ten minutes,” I said to the woman.

  “Sorry for the delay. Here. Do you think your girlfriend would like a perfume?”

  It was small and dinky, so pathetic I wanted to slug this girl and Mrs. Gordon, not exactly in that order.

  “I don’t think so,” I said.

  “But it’s a really nice brand,” the woman said.

  Mrs. Gordon stood to the left of her, stamping her feet against the ground. “Cameron, I want to talk about this. I don’t see why I can’t go to your wedding. I just want to be there on your special day, that’s all.”

  Two grating female voices were speaking to me at once. I wanted out of there. I needed to get out of there.

  “Just… uhh… yeah,” was all I said as I turned around, ready to start charging out of the store for real.

  But before I could start running, yet another familiar female voice entered my eardrums.

  “Wesley? Is that you?”

  I almost didn’t turn around at first; she hadn’t said my real name, obviously. But I immediately recognized who it was.

  Hannah, looking more upscale than she did at Lake Almanor, took a few steps toward me, her black hair falling down beside her breasts, her nose ring shining under the overhead lights.

  “Hannah?” I said, surprised to see her again. “How are you?”

  “Cameron!” I heard Mrs. Gordon shout behind me. “How dare you turn your back on me! Turn around this instant!”

  “You wanna get out of here?” I whispered into Hannah’s ear.

  “Absolutely,” she said.

  I started running down one of the aisles, and Hannah followed me, all of the store employees seemingly flabbergasted as to why these two youngsters were chasing each other around the store. I didn’t look back to see Mrs. Gordon’s shocked expression to me abandoning her without a proper good-bye. But I had graduated from Caughlin Ranch High. I wasn’t her teenager to torment anymore.

  I ran down a stairwell and past a few other stores until I arrived at the food court, which was busier than ever. I stopped in my tracks, my heart racing, sweat dripping off my forehead. I couldn’t believe how a simple jog like that could take so much out of me, when two years ago I could’ve jogged five times that much and not have even broken a sweat.

  I turned around, not knowing if Hannah had decided to run after me the entire way. She did. She was sweating, too.

  “Whoa. What was that all about?”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “You know. The running. That old woman calling you ‘Cameron.’”

  I shrugged and turned my attention to the twenty different food joints. I realized in that moment just how hungry I had become.

  “You want something to eat?”

  “Starving,” she said. “You?”

  “Same.”

  “Just tell me something first,” she said, grasping my right arm unexpectedly. Even more unexpectedly, I didn’t push her away.

  “What’s that?”

  “Do I call you Cameron or Wesley?”

  I smiled and started making my way toward the Chinese Express line.

  “I don’t know what got into me,” I said, taking a juicy bite out of my lemon chicken. “Sometimes I make up a name to people I never think I’m going to see again as some kind of… I don’t know… defense mechanism? Plus, I’ve never really liked my name.”

  “What’s wrong with ‘Cameron’? It’s dignified and fun at the same time.”

  I took a sip of my Sprite before digging into some fried rice. “I just wish I had a name that was strictly for boys. I’ve met more Cameron girls in my life than Cameron boys.”

  “Well… would it help you if I said I met a boy named Hannah once?”

  “No you didn’t.”

  She shook her head and took a large bite out of her weird-looking veggie Chinese dish. “I didn’t. But you can’t blame me for trying.”

  We both laughed, and I surveyed the room, which was so crowded I couldn’t even see an empty table. “This place is crazy busy. I mean, seriously. The food’s mediocre, the prices are through the roof. Aren’t we in a recession?”

  “Why did you say you never thought you’d see me again?” Hannah asked, changing the subject.

  “What?”

  “Just now. You said you didn’t think you’d see me again. Why is that?”

  “I don’t know. We didn’t exchange numbers or anyt
hing. Reno’s bigger than people think.”

  “Should we have exchanged numbers?”

  I took a deep breath and crossed my arms. I knew I had to put an end to this madness. You’re getting married, dummy. Your bride-to-be has a birthday in a few days. End the conversation and get out of there.

  “No,” I said.

  “Should we now?”

  “No. Hannah…” I reached my hand out for hers. She seemed to be happy with the gesture. “I’m involved with someone… it’s serious…”

  She smiled. “Of course it is. Look at you. You’re the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.”

  I was used to girls swooning over me in high school, but never had I met a girl as beautiful as this, one a few years older than me, who let her attraction to me known in such a blatant way.

  “Thank you. That’s very kind of you. You’re very pretty, yourself.” Idiot.

  “You’re sweet.”

  I stood up, nearly knocking my tray to the ground. “Sorry… anyway… I should be going.”

  “So soon?”

  “Yeah. My girlfriend has a birthday coming up. I need to get her something nice.”

  She nodded. “I see. Well don’t let me stop you.” She smiled again, and she took my hand in hers, sensually stroking my palm with the tips of her fingers. “It was good seeing you again, Cameron, not Wesley.”

  “You too,” I said with a smile. “I’ll see you around.”

  I unhooked her hand from mine, grabbed my tray, and took a few steps forward, when I heard Hannah shout: “Oh, Cameron?”

  I turned around. “Yeah?”

  “One more thing.” She motioned with one of her fingers for me to come closer. If she tries to kiss you, run.

  “What is it?”

  I made my way back over to her, and she slipped a flyer in my hands. “I don’t know if you’re busy on Friday night, but some friends of mine are throwing a party over in Damonte Ranch. You and your girlfriend should come.”

  I analyzed the flyer for a moment before sticking it in my pocket. “Oh… sure… thanks.”

  “So you’ll come?”

  “Maybe… we’ll see.”

  I dumped my tray at the trashcans and meandered out of the food court. As I made my way into Nordstrom’s to find something special for Liesel, I brought the flyer out from my pocket and looked at it again. This was to be a college party, the kind I still hadn’t been to, obviously, since I had pushed off going to Yale for a year.

  We shall see, I thought.

  ---

  I ended up buying Liesel a simple but elegant necklace, and I held the birthday gift in my hands on Friday afternoon when I got the call that would inevitably change the rest of my day.

  “Hey sweetie!” Liesel yelled over the phone, laughter echoing all around her. It sounded like she was already celebrating her nineteenth birthday, even though there was still one more day to go.

  “Hey honey, how are you?”

  “Any plans tonight?”

  “Nothin. You?”

  “Well, I was wondering, since we’re going out for my birthday tomorrow night…”

  “What?” I asked, smiling and sitting up on my bed. “It’s your birthday tomorrow?”

  She just giggled on the other end. “Very funny, Cameron.”

  “Well, shit. I have to start thinking of a curse I can put on you!”

  “Yeah, go ahead. Let’s see if you can come up with something. I’ll bite my fingers in anticipation.” She paused for a moment, and I heard two girls’ voices in the background. “So, no, anyway, my girlfriends here wanted to take me out for my birthday tonight… we’re gonna go to dinner, see that new Natalie Portman movie, and then maybe try to sneak into a bar or something.”

  “Wow, Leese, that sounds like a lot of fun.”

  “Yeah, it should be interesting. Is that all right? I promise we’ll get to see a lot of each other tomorrow.”

  “That sounds perfect. You have fun.”

  “I will,” she said. “I love you.”

  “Love you too.”

  I hung up the phone and tossed it on the bed. I held out the necklace, trying to decipher the perfect way to present it to her at our special dinner tomorrow night. I brought it down to my nightstand, then diverted my attention to the right.

  The flyer sat next to the remote control on my dresser drawer, calling out to me, begging for me to take another look at it.

  I laid down on my bed, resting my head against three comfy pillows, and read the details on the flyer again. This party sounded like a blast.

  I can just stop in and say hello, I thought. Stay twenty minutes. Ten minutes. Just make an appearance. Can’t hurt.

  I walked down toward my bathroom, thinking how great it was for Liesel to have those friends at Uncle Tony’s. She needed them, people besides her fiancée to take her out for a night on the town and have some fun. And as much as I loved Liesel, it also gave me small chunks of time to myself.

  I opened the door to the bathroom, just as Kimber appeared at the end of the hallway, a sour look plastered on her usually radiant face. “Oh,” I said. “Hey.”

  It was nice to see Kimber on a daily basis, still living at the house. I knew moving to New Haven later this coming summer would hinder our relationship a little. Liesel and I were going to get an apartment near Yale and finally live together for the first time. I would attend school while she would find a new job in the area. Where she’ll have to make new friends, I thought.

  A whole hell of a lot was to change in a few months, and I wasn’t sure if I’d be ready for it. It’s the next chapter of your life, Cameron. Think positive.

  “Hey,” my sister said in a downbeat tone, brushing past me toward her bedroom.

  “Is everything all right?”

  “Fine,” she said, stepping into her room and slamming the door behind her.

  I wasn’t sure if the brotherly thing to do at that moment was to knock on her door and press the matter further, or just leave her alone. When I heard the pleasant, soothing sounds of her violin start echoing down the hall, I decided on the latter.

  I stepped into the bathroom and analyzed my face. I needed a shave.

  Tonight, I’m going out.

  ---

  The party was hopping way more than I thought it would be, so much so that I had to park two blocks down from where the giant mansion was located. It truly was a mob scene, with college students ranging from the ages of eighteen to twenty-two. Every ethnicity was accounted for, as was every clique.

  “ID!” a young man shouted at me as I entered the small doorway. I froze in my tracks and stared at him, not sure what to do. When I went to that strip club, they didn’t need an ID. Where’s an accelerated aging curse when you need one?

  “I’m sorry?”

  He grabbed me—no, more like tackled me—before laughing and handing me a beer. “Just joking with you man. Have fun!”

  I accepted the beer and stepped inside, seeing groups of people dancing in a neon-lit room on the left and playing beer pong in a small room on the right.

  I thought about ascending the long staircase before me, when I caught sight of a clearly inebriated Hannah down the hall. She was dressed in a skimpy white top that was nearly see-through, and black shorts that showcased most of her luscious, tanned legs.

  “Cameron! You made it!” She rushed up to me and kissed me on the cheek. She backed away, an embarrassed look on her face. “Oh, I’m sorry. Is your girlfriend here?”

  “Uhh… no, she’s not.”

  “Her loss!” she shouted, grabbing my hands and bringing me toward the spacious backyard.

  Everything in my being was telling me to get out of there, that nothing good could result from my actions tonight, but I didn’t listen to any of the warnings. I just followed Hannah outside, all the way up to a porch that looked out over a pool and a hot tub. Despite it being fairly cold outside, the pool was almost as crowded as the hot tub.

  “Did you find the place al
l right?” Hannah shouted, taking a swig of a beer.

  I drank some of mine, too. “Yeah, I did. I’ve never actually been over to this part of town before!”

  “Really? I think it’s kind of nice over here!”

  I could barely hear her. Loud alternative music was blasting through the nearby speakers. “What?”

  She leaned in closer to me. “I said it’s nice over here!”

  “Yeah, I’m enjoying my beer! Thanks!”

  She just shook her head and laughed, downing the rest of her drink and tossing it in the bushes below the porch.

  “You wanna find a more quiet spot?” Hannah shouted.

  That sentence I could hear. “Sure!”

  She pulled me back inside the house, leading me through the beer pong room, kitchen, and living room area. I soon found myself in a long hallway that led to a closed door. The voices behind me started fading, and I wondered where this girl was taking me.

  “Where are—”

  “Just trust me,” she interrupted.

  She opened the door to reveal a dark, spiral staircase, one that could lead to a basement, a torture chamber, or the hole in the center of the Earth, for all I knew. Again, Hannah took my hand and guided me down the surprisingly cramped stairwell, one barely big enough for the two of us to fit inside.

  As we descended the staircase, I shrugged off my fears, finally hearing voices coming from the room below. Stepping into the large basement room, with its own bar, three couches, and a large sixty inch screen television, I realized that I had found true paradise. Twenty, maybe twenty-five people were in the room, all talking at a thankfully medium decibel level. A rap music video was playing on the large HD screen, but only two or three people in the room were watching it. Some were drinking. Most were enjoying something slightly more mind altering.

  “Come on,” Hannah said.

  We sat down on the couch furthest away from the TV, where two girls who looked no older than fifteen were sitting together enjoying a joint. I about had a heart attack when the girl furthest the armrest turned to me. She looked exactly like Kimber.

  “Can we join in on that?” Hannah asked.

  The two girls looked so stoned that they probably would have happily passed their joint down to us if we were two homeless men who had stopped in from the street to blaze for a few minutes and eat all the cereal in the house.