In Joy and Sorrow

August:

'Are you with Drea?' Beth asked.

'Yes.' I said looking at Drea who was standing next to me. 'Why?'

'The two of you have to come to West Chester this weekend.'

'What? Why?' I asked. 'Beth, it's our birthdays.'

'You have to.' Beth said and then hung up.

'It'll be fun.' Drea shrugged when I told her.

So Friday we packed our bags and headed down to West Chester. We found out that Beth had planned a joint birthday for both of us.

Saturday night, I put on a purple bubble dress and some silver sandals and we made our way to Kildare's.

'The birthday girls are here!' Beth called when we stepped inside. Beth had rented out the back party room and had invited pretty much everyone we knew. I was surprised to see Ape, Phil, Jess, Kelly, Dunn, and Angie had all come.

I'll honestly say I was a bit saddened when Bam wasn't there.

Drea and I were opening our presents when the door of the room flew open and a half naked, laughing man enetered.

'Brandon!' April shrieked as the man came towards Drea and I.

Must be one of Bam's buddies. I thought rolling my eyes.

'Are you the birthday babe?' He asked.

I glanced back at Drea, who was laughing.

'Yeah?...' I answered slightly scared.

'This is from Bam.' He said handing me a badly wrapped box. Looking at the wrapping paper, I realized it was pictures from a skate magazine all tapped together. Before I could say anything the man threw his arms around my neck. 'I'm Novak.'

'Rian...' I mumbled into his shoulder.

'Happy Birthday Rian Lightman!' Bam screamed walking in followed by Raab and Dico. 'Get off her now Novak.' He pushed Novak to the ground and hugged me.

'Bam!' I said surprised he was here and hugging him back.

'Open your gift!' He said pointing to the box.

I slowly unwrapped the box realizing it was quite large. I took the top off glancing at Bam who was grinning from ear to ear. I looked in to the box and found a skateboard.

'I'm gonna teach you to skate.' He said proudly.

'Really?' I asked looking at him.

'Yeah. I ordered you a custom deck from Element.' He picked the board up and flipped it to reveal I (heartagram) BAM in black over a prurple background. I laughed and threw my arms around his neck.

'You like it?' He asked.

'Bam, I love it.' I said smiling. 'I'm so excited to learn.'

'Good.'

After finishing the presents, the party began to die down a bit. Beth brought out the cake and everyone sang, including Bam. I blew out my candels and wished for one thing, to have Bam back.

'We're going to Rex's.' Bam said coming over to me while I was eating my cake and talking to Kelly.

'What? Why?' I asked looking at him.

'I want to drink and play pool.' He said.

'Well, it's good to know my 22nd birthday doesn't interest you.'

'You can come with me.' He said smirking.

'Where's Jenn?' I asked.

'Pissed at me.' He smiled. 'She told me I couldn't come here, so I told her to get the fuck out of my house.'

'Bam...' I said shaking my head and smiling.

'Come on.' He said egging me.

I bit my lip and smiled. 'Sure. Let me say bye to Beth.'

I went and grabbed my purse and cardigan and said my goodbyes to Beth and a few other guests like Drea and my mother. Then I joined Bam. We walked out to the Hummer where Rabb, Dico, Novak, Dunn, and Angie were already.

'Let's play pool!' Bam declared after we had been seated at a booth and ordered drinks. Everyone agreed and got up heading to an empty table.

'Come on Thumper.' Bam said grabbing my hand and pulling me out of our booth.

'I don't know how to play.' I confessed.

'I'll teach you.' He said. 'Ri's on my team.' He told the others grabbing a stick.

'There's no teams in pool, Bam.' Dunn said racking up the balls.

'She doesn't know how to play. So, I'm gonna teach her.' He kicked the table leg so the balls broke out of their formation.

Dunn flipped him off making everyone laugh and then he racked them up again.

'Okay Bam.' Raab said a few minutes into the game. 'Your turn.'

'Ri, come here.' Bam said putting his cigarette in an ash tray. 'Stand in front of me.'

I did as he said. And he placed my hands on the pool stick and leaned behind me, showing me how to shoot it at the right angle.

'It went in!' I screamed throwing my arms around Bam a second later.

'See...' He said. 'You know how to play pool.'

The night out with Bam and the Crew was probably the best ending to my birthday. Bam insisted I spend the night at his house, considering three in the morning probably wasn't the best time to go stumbling into Beth and Billy's.

We went in through the garage and up the stairs in the kitchen.

'I'll give you something to change into.' He said as he flipped the light on and shut his door. He went to his dresser and pulled out a HIM tee shirt and a pair of black sweat pants.

'Thanks.' I said smiling at him. I burst out laughing when I noticed the latest edition to his posters.

'What?' He asked.

'Britney Spears?' I asked pointing at the poster.

'She's hot?' He questioned.

'Are you going to leave so I can change?' I asked.

'I've seen it all before.' He said showing me a cocky smile.

Rolling my eyes I slipped out of my sandels and then slipped my dress off, standing in front of him in my bra and thong.

'You look adorable over there birthday girl.' He said wiggiling his eye brows.

'Shut up.' I said slipping his shirt on and then his sweats.

He smiled at me taking off his own shirt and jeans and then slipping on a different pair of sweat pants.

'Let's go to the basement and watch movies.' He said.

'Sure.' I said.

We walked out of his room and started down the staris that lead to the kitchen.

'Bam.' I heard Ape's voice whisper.

'Yeah?' He asked both of us stopping.

'I didn't know if that was you. What are you doing?'

'Going down to watch a movie with Rian.' He said.

'Rian's here?' She asked.

'Yeah.' He said.

'Be quite.' She said shutting her door.

'Kay.' Bam said motioning for me to continue down the stairs. 'Let's get some snacks.'

He opened the fridge and grabbed us each a soda and then went to the pantry and grabbed a bag of chips.

'Good enough?' He asked.

I nodded and we made our way to the basement door and down the stairs.

'Come on.' He said leading me over to a couch. 'What do you want to watch?' He asked.

I sat on the couch. It felt like something was under the cushions.

'Uh, I don't know...' I said feeling around.

'The Lost Boys sound good?' He asked. He didn't wait for my answer, just popped the DVD in.

'Uh, Bam?' I asked.

'Yeah?' He said turning to face me.

I had found the offensive item in the couch that was keeping it from being smooshy. It was last months issue of Playboy magazine. I was horiffed to see a few stains on it.

'Ew!' Bam said coming over and taking it from me. He took it and opened the closet door where I knew they kept the pornos and threw it in. 'Sorry.'

I smiled at the awkwardness thinking to myself why he would have left that in the couch.

'That wasn't mine.' He said. 'That was Novak's.'

'Novak's?' I asked.

'Yeah he lives here.' Bam said shutting the lights out and coming towards me.

'He does?' I asked.

'Yeah. I've known him since I was twelve. He was going to be a pro skater. Then he got fucked up on herion. I'm trying to get him off it. But he's totally screwing me over.' Bam said sighing.

'Then why are you still wasting your time?' I asked.

'Because, he was one of my best friends. I don't want to know he died on a random street in Baltimore.'

'True.' I said. He sighed heavily and I knew Novak's stay was really stressing him out. 'Bam, just make sure he's ready for the help you want to give him.'

He nodded and then laid back on the couch. He smiled and grabbed my upper arm pulling me onto his chest. I snuggled inbetween the couch and his warm body. He began to run his fingers through my hair and I was out cold soon after that.

I woke up the next morning to the sunlight beaming in my eyes. I sat up a bit and say a shirtless Bam passed out next to me with his mouth open a bit. Giggling, I decided he'd had enough sleep and began to tickle his chest. All he did was stir a bit and mumble something incoherent.

I then placed my lips to his neck and began to kiss him.

'Ri...' He mumbled. I looked up to find him smiling. 'That was a damn good way to wake up.'

'Glad you liked it.' I said smiling and kissing him on the lips.

'We're downstairs?' He asked looking around the purple room.

'Uh huh' I said stretching a bit.

'I bet Ape made breakfast.' He said standing up and grabbing my hand. 'Com'on.'

He pulled me up the stairs and towards the smell of bacon.

'Morning.' He said shutting the door behind us.

'Morning.' April said glancing up from the food she was preparing.

'Need any help Ape?' I asked coming over.

'Sure, hon. You wanna make some toast?' I nodded and grabbed the bread and the toaster.

'Did you two sleep downstairs?' Phil asked glancing at Bam from his newspaper.

'Yeah. We fell asleep watching the Lost Boys.' Bam said grabbing a glass of juice from the fridge.

'Morning.' Jess said coming down the stairs followed by Kelly.

'Morning.' Everyone said at once.

'I'm helping you.' Bam said wrapping his arms around my waist and kissing my cheek.

'Get a knife and cut the toasted pieces in half.' I said.

'Kay!' He said grabbing a kinfe and doing what I asked.

'Rian, I'm going to need you to come over here more often if you can get Bam to do things that eaisily.' April said.

After breakfast at the Margera's, Bam dropped me off at Beth's and wished me a happy birthday one last time, promising that we'd have to break in my new board soon.