Apparition

Chapter 16: Birthday Disaster
“Why are we going to walk home?” I asked Lawren as the buses slowly drove off campus.
As Lawren and I walked down the hall people stared at us wide-eyed and some giggled. To be honest it was really annoying. Why was it that every time I was with someone new people would just automatically assume we were together? With everyone’s eyes on us it felt like there was a spotlight above our head’s and moved wherever we went. First with Lawren a year ago. Then with… him. And now with Lawren. Again.
Lawren and I made sure that no one knew we were dating because if that went out it would devastate Maddie who was utterly in love with Lawren. But I had to tell her sometime. I just hoped she would forgive me.
He shrugged his shoulder. “No big reason,” Lawren mumbled as he was texting.
I snatched the phone from his hands. “Who are you texting?” I asked.
“No! Natalia, give me that back,” Lawren said seriously and reached for the phone.
I twisted around and bent over to try to read who he was texting. He grabbed the phone from my hands and stuffed it in his pocket.
I stared at him as we walked. “Why are you texting my mom?” I asked.
“I wasn’t texting your mom,” he scoffed.
“Well, the recipient was ‘Mrs. Wellington’.”
“Okay! Fine! I was texting your mom. What’s wrong with that?”
“You’re weird,” I said and laughed at him.
“So how are you today?” He suddenly asked.
“I’m good,” I laughed. “How about you?” I asked awkwardly.
“I’m excited!” He said with over-enthusiasm.
“Why?”
“You’ll see,” he sang. “Do you feel any different today?”
“What’s with these random questions?” I asked as we crossed the street.
“I’m just a bit curious today.”
“Okay then. Nope. I don’t feel any different,” I said without thinking about it.
As we walked, every minute Lawren would look over at me and laugh as if there was something amusing on my face. I just pretended to ignore him then roll my eyes.
Once we entered the cul-de-sac, Lawren roared with laughter. I swung open the front door and he was still laughing.
“Happy birthday, Natalia!” Everyone cheered.
I jumped and clutched my chest.
Lawren started laughing even harder, pointing at my facial expression.
My face turned bright red and I smiled at everyone, embarrassed.
My visitors came over to hug me and greet my happy birthday. Only my close friends and family were here. My family from Italy and Australia weren’t here like they were last year. I guess my parents finally realized that I was now too old to have childish birthday parties like the one on my seventeenth birthday.
“I’m eighteen,” I laughed, trying to process the thought. Everyone was back to doing their own thing, talking and eating so it was only me and my mom.
“I know!” My mom cried and gave me a tight hug. “My baby is all grown up!”
“This is so weird,” I mumbled.
“Oh! I’m sorry, honey,” she said letting me go and drying her eyes. “It’s just that I’m thinking about the very first time I saw you. You were all small…. And crying…. And bloody.”
“Oh my goodness, mom!” I cried, covering my ears. “But I’m not talking about you hugging me that was weird. I’m talking about….” I leaned into her ear. “Well… I’m rich now,” I whispered.
My moms eyes widened and her jaw dropped.
“Mom, not here,” I whispered. I pushed her out the door and shut it behind us.
When my mom was far enough away from the house she screamed at the top of her lungs. She ran around the cul-de-sac screaming like a physco lady.
“Mom, calm down,” I laughed.
“You are going to sure, aren’t you?” She asked, panting.
“Of course! To be honest, I’m not sure if I want any part of this money. You can have it all if you want. After all, we do need a new house.”
She started to scream and run around again. When she was finished she came back to me.
“I’m going to feel bad if I take something from you on your birthday so give it to me tomorrow so I won’t feel guilty.”
I laughed. “Whatever suits you. The money is just another reminder of….” I looked down at the ground and bit my lip.
It didn’t take her long to understand what I was talking about, after all, it happened all the time. She took me in her arms and whispered that everything was fine. That today was a moment of happiness. I tried to believe that.
We walked back into the house and the first thing I spotted was a pile of presents next to the coffee table in the living room.
“What’re these?” I asked everyone.
“Before you go ballistic,” my dad said. “A lot of those presents are from grandma and grandpa.”
“From both sides of the family, right?” I asked.
“If that’s what you want to believe, then yes,” he said and laughed.
My visitors included my parents, brothers and sister, Harlie, Chloe, Blaine, Alex, Lawren, Keith, and Sarah. So I was basically with people who loved me just as much as I loved them. But there was just one person missing. The person that I loved more than my family, friends, and the world combined. The person that I would sacrifice myself for. The person who I thought would be here with me today. But like my mom said, today was a day of happiness and I had to pretend I was happy until the next day.
“I’m so happy you two came!”
“Well, we couldn’t miss our sister’s birthday,” Keith said and smiled at me.
“Well, I thought you’d come, but Sarah?”
“I hate to admit it, but I’ve changed,” she said and laughed. I was in shock. She actually laughed; better than that, she actually changed! The person with the coldest heart that I knew of actually had a warm heart. “But don’t push it,” she quickly added. Well, room temperature heart anyways.
I haven’t seen Keith and Sarah in a long time. After the incident they’d come to check on me everyday but slowly, their visits turned less frequent. I understood why. They had their own lives to tend to now that we were done with ghosts. We all knew that someday the Vanburens would come for me but Keith contacted Robert and asked him to keep a close eye on my future. So far, everything was great but we didn’t know for sure. Roberts visions were sometimes never clear.
After I blew out my candles of my small cake and ate some, everyone forced me to open presents.
“I don’t like presents,” I grumbled as I picked up the first box.
“That’s from Chloe and I,” Alex said. “And I assure you your present has nothing to do with a car like last year.”
I laughed. “Thank you,” I said to the both of them.
I was glad to see that most of the present didn’t have children wrapping paper on them. Probably because I was finally being taken as an adult.
“How cute!” I laughed as I pulled out the pink airplane pillow.
“It even has built in headphones,” Chloe pointed out.
“Clever,” I said.
“Since you were taking a trip to Australia to see your grandparents this summer Alex and I thought it’d be cool to get you something that you’d actually use.”
“I love it,” I said. “And I did use your car mats. Well… Harlie and Jayant are using them now. It came with the car.”
“It’s alright,” Alex said. “It was a joke to get you annoyed anyway.”
I rolled my eyes at them and continued to the next present which was from my mom, dad, Jonathon, and Nicolette. I liked how each of them didn’t buy me an individual present.
I took the small box-one of which was wrapped in purple wrapping paper-and opened it. “A key?” I took it out of the box and examined it. “A car key?!” I exclaimed.
My parents laughed.
“You’re going off to college soon. You’re going to need your own car.”
After we all rushed outside to the driveway and I melted over my used Honda we went back inside to proceed with the opening of my gifts.
“Do you like it?” Blaine asked. “I bought it for you. It was pretty expensive, you know.”
“Don’t be stupid, Blaine. I made that summer outfit myself. Look at the tag.”
I looked at the tag and gasped. The tag said ‘Lawren by Lavonne’ “Your own clothing line?! Your mom actually have your own line?”
“Well, it’s still under the Lavonne name which I don’t mind. I don’t really want to remove myself of Lavonne.”
“Either way I love it!”
After I opened the rest of the presents: an expensive-looking guitar with Australia printed on the neck from my grandparents from Australia with a note that said my grandfather Norman found it at a garage sale to calm my nerve, a picture frame with a picture of my family from Italy from the Italian side of my family, a cute little flower vase with beautiful design from Jayant and Harlie, and from Keith and Sarah was a beautiful Emerald necklace.
“Can you put it on?” I asked Keith, stunned by the beauty. I turned around and took my hair out of the way.
“I thought you didn’t like expensive things,” Jayant said with a disapproving look.
“It’s my birthstone! It’s only natural,” I said and laughed.
“There you go,” Keith said.
I put down my hair and walked over to the mirror next to the front door. I touched the Emerald that was hanging by a silver chain and a gold band around the gem to hold it in place.
“It’s beautiful,” I whispered. “Thank you so much!” I went over to hug Sarah and Keith.
“It compliments your eyes very well,” Keith said.
I smiled at him.
“Well, that’s enough for presents!” I said, wiping a teardrop from the corner of my eye.
“You didn’t open your card!” Blaine said, picking up an envelope from the floor.
I took it from him and examined it. “Who’s this from?” I asked, flipping it around to find a name.
Nobody claimed it.
“It just says ‘To: Natalia’,” I said, furrowing my eyebrows.
“Open it,” Lawren said and got up to sit next to me.
I ripped open the envelope and pulled out a piece of neatly folded paper.
I started reading the note to myself, Lawren reading over my shoulder.
Happy Birthday, my love!
You are now eighteen which means your fortune is released to you. I’m absolutely hurt that I’m not able to spend this day with you and I hate saying that I’m never going to get to celebrate a birthday with you.
You’re probably doing well off without me and I’m happy for you. Incase you’re wondering, I’m doing great here in Boston. I’m leaning a lot from my parents. I never realized that my true passion was business after all.
Well, I hope you had a great day.

Love, Nathan.
I looked up from the note and laughed unsteadily. “What is this? Is this some kind of joke?”
“What’re you talking about, honey?” My mom said, walking over to me. She tried taking the note from me but I refused to give it to her.
“If any of you think this is funny, think again,” I hissed through my teeth.
“Natalia, we don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jayant complained.
“Calm down, Natalia,” Keith said gently.
“Don’t tell me to calm down,” I snapped. “Who ever wrote this… go to hell,” I cried. I ran out of the room and up the stairs, skipping two at a time as I started to vibrate and the color drained from my body.
When I got into my room, I slammed the door shut. I threw the crumpled letter onto the floor and jumped out the window.
I just ran. I didn’t know where I was going; I didn’t even care. I just wanted to get away. I wanted to run until I drained myself of all energy. I wanted to run until I couldn’t run anymore; until I fainted and my eyes turned pure white. Until I fell over and never resurfaced.