Ageless Beauty

I turned seventeen years old on the thirtieth of September, during my junior year of high school. I had barely gone to school that day, I remember. My Mother had woken Sarah and I up at six thirty in the morning, for she had to work late and couldn't be home for my birthday dinner. It was a tradition we had had since my Father had died and my mother had to get two jobs. If she wasn't going to be home for dinner on one of our birthdays, we'd wake up extra early and eat the birthday girl's cake of choice together before she had to go to work. I had chosen ice cream cake this year, for I had always wanted to eat ice cream for breakfast when I was younger, but my Mother never let me.

And then when I got to school that morning, I couldn't find Christian at all in the hallways. I shrugged it off, seeing as he had the terrible habit of sleeping in on school days, and went to my first class. Half way through Mr. Symmons reading the sixth chapter of Lord of the Flies aloud to the class, the door burst open and everyone looked up from their books. Christian stood there with a single rose in his hand, and a pink gift bag in the other. The teacher said nothing as he crossed the classroom to my desk, and set the rose down on my desk. I stared at it for a moment, picking it up and pressing the bud of the rose to my nose. I smiled up at him, and he placed a pink tiara on my head.

"Come on, guys!"

Mike, Joe and Chase--Christian's hockey team friends waltzed in, carrying a cake with seventeen lit candles and sitting it down in front of me. I looked to the teacher, who I had expected to be ticked off or at least surprised by what they were doing, but he looked nothing but amused.

"What are you doing?" I hissed, looking around at all of the people around me as they watched in curiosity.

And then they sang me the Happy Birthday song, and the rest of the class joined in during the second verse. Even all of the girls who stared at me with sheer hatred in their eyes, sang along with the rest of the class. And for that moment, I actually felt accepted. By Christian's friends, who I had always thought only acted civil because I was Christian's girlfriend, and by the rest of my class, who never really acknowledged my existence. Just because they sang to me on my birthday.

They finished singing, and stared at me expectantly. I looked down at my cake, and inhaled deeply, filling my lungs with air. I held it for a moment, wondering whether or not to make a wish. And when i decided not to, I released all of the air from my lungs and blew out ever single candle but one. And then Christian grinned, and said, 'Looks like someones got a boyfriend.'

We both knew it was corny. Everything that he had done for me was so cliche, and so not... Us, but I was happy that he did. I was just happy that he cared, because no one other than my family or the friends I had back in the sixth grade cared about my birthday.

"I'm going to steal her, sir." Christian said, pulling my chair out from under my desk.

"No, I can't leave." I shook my head.

"It's fine, Devon." Mr. Symmons piped up. "Nobody even comes to class on their birthdays, anyways."

I glared at him, but let Christian drag me out of the classroom, yelling to his friends to grab the cake. I held the rose he had bought me in my hands, running my fingers up and down the smooth stem. I took note of the fact that Christian had cut away all of the thorns.

"What are we doing?" I had asked quietly as he handed me one of my sweaters. I didn't know where he had gotten it at the time, because I didn't bring a sweater to school that day. He didn't answer my question. Not then, or when I asked it seventeen times again later that day. He took me to lots of places. He took me out to lunch, to the boardwalk at the beach, back to school to pick Sarah up from school, back home for us to get changed into something nice, out to dinner, bowling with a few of his friends, and then at nine o'clock that night, he took me to a party.

This was when the night started to get a little blurry, because I could only remember the really, really special parts. But the second I walked inside, everybody yelled surprise! It came to such a shock to me, because I hadn't had a birthday party since the third grade. I had thought this was another one of the parties that Christian's friends threw whenever their parents were out of the house, or when they won another sports game. But this party was for me. They even bought me my own cake, and some people even bought me presents.

Christian's friend Sam bought me a pair of vintage earrings she had seen in town, saying that she thought of me the second she laid eyes on them. Christian's friends Adam and Andrew, the twins, had put their money together and bought me a light pink sweater, admitting shamefully that Christian had picked it out when they went shopping. Andy bought me a bottle of Jagger, the most disgusting 'beverage' ever created, and slipped a condom into the card he had given to me. When I looked up at me, he merely winked and jabbed Christian in the ribs with his thumb. That was the first time I had ever seen Christian's face turn red.

Mine was so much more red than his was, though.

I got a few more gifts from other people, a bracelet, a picture frame with a picture of Tim in it, and a box of Gobstoppers. I told them all they didn't have to get me anything just because it was my birthday, and they all laughed at me when I said that. I felt silly when they laughed at me, because I didn't know why they did that, but then they all told me it was okay. That they didn't feel like they had to because it was my birthday, but because they wanted to. And do you want to know why? Because I'm they're friend.

Not their friend's girlfriend. Their friend. They liked me, and accepted me, even though I was Christian's odd, quiet girlfriend. In fact, they liked the fact that I was odd, because they didn't like normal. None of them were really normal, once you got past the fact that they seemingly lived the average American teen lifestyle. They played sports and went out at night and had bonfires and got drunk when they weren't supposed to, just like every other teenager, but they did it differently. They were all kind of like a family, and they accepted me in it.

"Christian's been staring at you for the last fifteen minutes." Sarah whispered in my ear as we sat on the sofa, drinking whatever drinks the guys made us and talking to Andy.

I looked in the direction she was looking, to where Christian was standing across the room. He seemed to be included into a conversation with Tim and Allison, but wasn't really paying attention, for he actually was staring at me. We stared at each other for a long time, before he winked at me and snuck out of the room. I didn't know what that meant, but I felt the unbelievable urge to follow him, and I did. My exit went unnoticed as I snuck into the dark hallway, to the first closed door on the left. I pressed my ear to the wood, hearing shuffling on the other side. With a smile on my face, I knocked on the door.

"Come in."

Christian was sitting cross-legged on the bed, watching me as I stepped inside and shut the door quietly behind me.

"Hey you." I said quietly, crawling onto the bed and kneeling in front of him.

He merely smiled, taking both of my hands in his. He brought them up to his mouth, placing light kisses on my knuckles. "How was your birthday?"

The rest of the conversation was kind of fuzzy, because I had had a bit to drink at the time. I remembered receiving my present from him--A diamond necklace that he must have spent two month's worth of paychecks on. And then the last event of the night that I could remember fully was when he kissed me. I could taste the vodka and juice on his lips, and the spearmint gum that he used to try and rid the taste from his mouth. He lightly touched my neck, his cool fingers pressing against my warm skin. This kiss was different than any of our other ones. I could feel his love for me in the way his lips moved against mine, and the way his hand held mine tightly at our sides. I could feel his want for me in the way his tongue touched mine, and the way his freehand travelled around my body.

That was the night Christian and I made love for the first time.

I was so scared of what he thought of me when he saw me without my clothes, but then he told me I was beautiful, and I felt okay. Everything felt really good at first. The kisses and the touches. The feel of his hot skin against mine. But then it really hurt, and I think I started to cry. I'm kind of embarrassed about it when I think about it now, because I felt like such a baby. He didn't tease me about it, or even act strange when he saw the tears. Instead, he kissed them all away and told me that he was sorry for hurting me. He almost pulled away, but I held him close and told him to keep going. My Health teacher said it always hurt the first time, but it would go away after a few minutes. I could see that Christian felt good right then, and I wanted to feel good too.

I didn't feel the good the first time. I bled a bit, too. Christian said it was normal, though. I wasn't sure how he knew that it was a normal thing, but I didn't ask. Instead, I pulled on my panties and his t-shirt. We laid together, and fell asleep in eachother's arms, until Andy came bounding into the room later that night.

Apparently, I wasn't allowed to sleep on my birthday.

The rest of the night was a blur. I could remember little bits and pieces, like Sarah losing a game of beer pong to the twins, and Sam interrogating me about went on with Christian. I told her. I don't know why I did, because it wasn't like me to share those types of things with other people, but I did. And then she asked me if I'd regret it in the morning, and I wondered to myself if I would. Despite the fact that it hurt a lot, I was happy it happened right at that time. So I told her no. That in the morning, I'd be just as happy that it happened as I was right now.

And the next day, when I woke up with a massive hangover, in the arms of a sleeping Christian, I still didn't regret it.