Because of a Song

It was a Sunday and it was my birthday. November 8th, the day I arrived on this crazy planet.

Stephen woke me up at 6:30 in the morning, how else, by jumping on my bed. How typical of a fifteen-year-old boy. Stephen almost jumped, well, where he shouldn’t have. That would have hurt.

“Lauren! Lauren! Mom made pancakes! Chocolate-chip pancakes! With syrup!”

I groaned. “Stephen, stop jumping on my bed. And tell mom that I’ll be down in ten minutes.” Stephen nodded, jumped off the bed, and raced down the stairs. A few seconds later I heard his muffled voice telling our mom, hopefully, what I told him to tell her.

I laughed to myself. That kid, however annoying, hyper, and crazy he could be, was hard not to love. He was my younger brother, and I his older sister. I needed to protect him, especially from people like Macy. Again, I groaned, the events of the night that past week flooding my mind. Thankfully Macy hadn’t bothered Stephen or I since, although I wouldn’t put it behind her to be planning some evil plot for revenge right now. I could just see her and her clones sitting in Macy’s uberly pink room, laughing at their probably not-so-amazing plan to get back at me.

Getting up, I walked over to my closet and found my robe. The silk slid gently over my fingers as I placed it over my pajama-clad body. Thank God for silk, I thought.

With my robe on, I retreated down the stairs and found my mom and Stephen eating pancakes in the kitchen. Chocolate-chip pancakes. With syrup.

“Hey honey!” my mom exclaimed. “Happy Birthday. I can’t believe that you were born twenty years ago today.”

I waved my mom off. “Me either.” I grabbed a plate and put some pancakes on it, before pouring myself a glass of orange juice. Forgoing the syrup (and causing Stephen to glance weirdly at me) turned out to be an issue. Instead of me putting the syrup on my pancakes, the syrup decided to put itself on me. All over my robe to be exact.

It all happened when Stephen went to go grab the syrup bottle. It was opened, and he was careless. It tipped over and, before me or anyone else could get it off, squirted out a big blob of syrup onto my purple silk robe.

“NOOO!” I screamed. “Mom! What do I do?!” My mom quickly grabbed a washcloth and sprayed it with water from the sink. “This is all your fault!” I said, glaring at Stephen while my mom lightly dabbed my robe with the washcloth.

“How is it my fault?” Stephen retaliated. “I didn’t mean to do it!”

“ENOUGH you guys!” My mom shouted. “I don’t want to hear another word. Not one.” She went back to cleaning my robe, while Stephen and I shot daggers at each other. After a few minutes, my mom sighed and looked up at me. “I’m sorry, honey, but I don’t think it’s going to come out.”

“But this was my favorite robe!”

“I know. But we’ll get you another one, okay?”

I sighed. “Yeah.”

---

Forty minutes later, Stephen came into my room, carrying a large box. He set it down on my desk and said to me, “Happy freaking Birthday.” Then he walked out.

My curiosity piqued, I climbed out of my bed, where I had been writing random lyrics in my lyric book, and sauntered over to my desk. There was a card laying on top of the box. I opened it. It read:

Lauren,
I know you still have a year to go before you’re legal to drink, so I bought you something to tide you over. Enjoy.

No one had signed it, but as soon as I opened it, I knew who it was from. The box was filled with Capri Suns, and there was only one person who knew about my secret Capri Sun love: Joe.

Why was he doing this? Was he actually trying to be nice? I couldn’t believe it. First the Tootsie Rolls, and now the Capri Suns.

Before I could get any further in my thinking, Stephen came back in and handed me an envelope. “Thanks,” I told him, and he left. I was about to open the envelope when I noticed that there was no postage stamp or return address on it. That’s odd, I thought. It must be from mom.

Laurie, it read. I gasped. That was what Stephen used to call me when we were little. I couldn’t find the words to tell you this in person, so I’m telling you here. You’ve truly been the most wonderful sister you could ever be to me, and I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate you. Yeah, we fight sometimes (okay, a lot), but no matter what, and no matter who, I’ll always love you. I hope you enjoy your big day; you deserve some happiness. Your loving brother, Stevie.

I felt a tear slip down my cheek and raced out of my room and into Stephen’s. When he saw me he stood up. I ran over and hugged him, tighter than I had in years. “I love you, Stevie. I love you so much.”

“I love you too, Laurie. I love you too.” He hugged me back, and I felt happy, so extremely happy, and I wished the moment would never end.