Tear Tracks Forever

Today was my seventeenth birthday. July 28th. The day started out good, with Mrs. Markin getting up extra early to make these really good chocolate chip pancakes for me. I had taken the day off work, and we had a small party. The Markin family, Solstice, Pepper, and one of Carmella’s friends. I ate cake and opened my presents—I had mostly gotten a lot of gift cards and money and clothes and jewelry.

Mrs. Markin and Mr. Markin—$30

Carmella—metallic purple nail polish and a Virginia Beach Surf Shop glow-in-the-dark neon shirt.

Alex—a necklace with a pendant of a surfboard on it.

Solstice and Pepper—a beautiful, sequined shirt that she got from Colombia and a bunch of random jewelry. (That I knew Solstice picked out)

And, of course, my dad. He mailed me a $40 Hollister gift card and a new pair of Converse in a box. The Converse were awesome—they were the new sky blue rainbow edition.
The day after that was mostly low-key, and evening was starting to set in. “Um, Rhee?” Alex asked, standing above me and twisting his hands nervously.

“Yeah?” I asked.

"Umm, I have a surprise for you, so I want to take you somewhere,” he said, and then paused for a moment. “Come on.”
He grabbed my hand, pulling me off the floor where I sat, eating Doritos. I quickly slipped on my flip-flops and dashed out the door, Alex pulling me along.
He took me to the beach and was carrying a HUGE bag, which I didn’t know what it contained. We sat down a same distance from the waves, but still on the shore. The evening was starting to set and streaks of pink, orange, purple, and blue shot across the sky. Much like the day we’d first met.

Alex unpacked a lot of food from the bag, setting it on a beach towel. ‘We’re going to have a picnic,” he announced.
I began to laugh. “Wow, you did all this for me? I’m touched.” I placed a hand on my chest and fake-cried.

He laughed, shoving me. “You could at least say thank you.”
“I was going to!” I protested.
“Suuuure,” he laughed sarcastically.
“I was!” I cried.
A light breeze blew through the air, and at that moment, Alex began to tickle me. “What? Stop!” I objected between gasps of laughter.

I rolled over, pinning him down, and I was in top of him when he suddenly pulled me closer and kissed me.
Alex kissing me was nothing like Ryan kissing me. I had felt nothing when Ryan had kissed me many times before, but when Alex kissed me, there was definitely a spark. A connection somewhere…
I had felt myself getting lost in his lips and clear blue eyes when suddenly my phone rang. Startled, I pulled away.

Alex rubbed the back of his neck, embarrassed. “You better get that…” he murmured.
I groaned and picked up the phone, hating and cursing whoever decided to ruin this moment. “Hello?”

“Hey, honey…its Mr. Robbie.”

Mr. Robbie was my dad’s best friend. I couldn’t imagine why he was calling me…except to wish me a happy birthday! That must be it.

“Hey!” I said excitedly.

There was a long pause, and I said again, “Mr. Robbie, you here?”

“Yeah, hon,” Something was off about his voice, it sounded as if he’d been…crying.

“Is anything wrong? You sound like you’ve been crying,” I said cautiously.

Another long pause. “Rhee, sweetie, I don’t know how to tell you this, but…,” his voice railed off.
“Yes?” I prompted. My heart was doing jumping jacks and cartwheels in my chest.
“Rhee, your father’s dead.”
I swear, my heart skipped two beats.
“What? How?”
“He…was murdered. Poisoned. Rhee, I’m really sorry…”

But that was all I heard before I felt myself falling into Alex’s waiting arms and the world blacked out. I would remember this day forever. On my seventeenth birthday, my father was murdered. Poisoned.