I Can't Be Without You

The end of October was coming up fast, and my 16th birthday was too. I was a Halloween baby, born October 31st. Apparantly when I was born, the doctors had given me little cat ears, and my sister monkey ears.

My brother had taken over my birthday planning. He wanted it to be a 'wild party, but no booze'. My mom told my brother, 'If things get broken, I'll break you'. Airin re-thought the idea of a 'wild party'.

"Why don't you ask your sister what SHE wants to do." My mom said impatiently from behind her work computer.

"Nah." Airin said, not looking up from his notebook.

"Airin McClane Jaulby..." My mom sounded infuriated with Airin. Airin looked up from his notebook, then at mom, then at me.

"Josline...what do you want to do for your birthday?" Airin asked me, not making eye contact with our mom. I chuckled slightly and then thought about what I wanted to do.

"Well...it's Jazz's birthday that day too...Why don't we have a big family dinner. Us, Jazz, Marque, Chris, Matt and Josh?" I smiled brightly at my mom. She took her hands of her keyboard and looked contemplative.

"That sounds like a good idea Josline. We could go to that vegan restuarant you like so much!" Mom said. I liked that idea.

"Sounds good! Oh! I gotta tell Jazz!" I leaped up from the table and ran up to my room to retrieve my cell phone. I searched for Jazz's home number and called her. There were two rings and then Marque answered.

"Hello?" He sounded tired.

"Hi Marque, where's your sister?" I asked, walking back downstairs.

"Uhh...hold on." I heard Marque yell for Jazz. He obviously had no clue where she was. About 10 seconds later, her voice was speaking through the phone.

"Hello?" She answered in a formal tone.

"Hi Jazz! What are you doing on your birthday?" I asked without giving her a chance to say hello to me.

"Umm...I was probably just going to make dinner for us..."

"You make your own birthday dinner...No, nevermind. You're coming with me now." I said.

"Where?" She asked.

"To dinner. With my family. And Matt...and Josh."

"Oh, I don't want to be a hass..."

"Jasmine Baxter! Let me do something for you for once!" I said, pressing my hand against the forehead. There was silence for a few seconds.

"Okay." I was shocked myself that Jazz agreed to it. "So what exactly are you asking?" I explained to her the details and she said that it would be great. I said goodbye to her and immediatly called Matt.

"Hello, Matt's house of L-O-V-E. Our specials are..."

"Matt, shut up.Free food." I said.

"Free food? Where, when? I'll be there." He sounded like a little child.

"My birthday dinner, Halloween, vegan restuarant, Jazz will be there."

"Sweet. I'll be there." And with that we both hung up. One thing I loved about Matt, I didn't have to go into much detail about something for him to understand. Then, I called Josh.

"Hello?" He answered.

"Hi Josh, it's Jaws." I replied.

"Oh, hello Josline! How are you on this fine morning?" He asked in a rather proper way.

"Umm...fine. How are you?"

"Quite splendid dear. I was just about to make myself a crumpet and tea." He said through a fake British accent. "Maybe draw myself a warm bath and read Charles Dickens in the candle light."

"Josh...you've been reading The Irby Brothers haven't you?" I asked. The Irby Brothers was a trilogy of novels written by Travis Starr. Travis Starr was actually my dad.

"How did you...right. Never mind!" He said when he realized that my dad wrote the books. "Which one is it?" He challenged.

"Hendricks Valley of Forgotten Souls." I said simply.

"Smarty pants." Josh muttered, "What do you want?"

"I was wondering what you were doing on Halloween."

"Scaring the living shit out of the neighborhood kids." He laughed.

"How about you come to dinner with my family, and Jazz's famiy...and Matt." I said, lising them off on my fingers.

"Why Halloween?" Josh asked, confusion laced through his voice.

"That's my birthday." There was a long silence on Josh's end of the line.

"Shit. Now I gotta buy you something." And he sounded serious. I couldn't help but laugh. "No, I don't have anything for you. I didn't even know your birthday was Halloween! Fuck..." I explained to Josh what was going to be happening on that day, he was still constantly muttering something about a present the entire phone conversation. Once I actually said goodbye to Josh, I told my mom all the details. My mom wrote them all down, called the vegan restaurant in advance for a reservation and Airin immediatly went into what I would be wearing that night.

"Clothes Airin. I don't plan on being naked." I said, sitting back down in the chair I abandoned.

"Well, obviously, but you need something...NICE!" He said, exmaning me.

"I have nice clothes..." I muttered, looking at my torn sweatpants.

"Yes...yes you do." Airin rolled his eyes.

"Atleast I don't wear paint-on skinny jeans that show off my less-than-normal-package!" I shot back at my brother.

"Ooh, you went there." Airin glowered at me. "Yeah, well, I'll have you know that Mar..."

"Don't you even finish that sentence mister." My mom's eyes locked on Airin. Airin looked at mom, and then, in an over-dramatic way, fell over off his chair.

"Ah! She's killed me!" Airin exclaimed. Both me and mom looked at Airin strangely.

"How did I produce such strange offspring?" Mom sighed and shook her head.

"You pro-created with dad. That's how." Airin said from the floor. Mom laughed and shook her head again, turning back to her computer.