Living in a Broken Dream

“Happy Birthday to you!” the table sings to Evelyn. She smiles wide and blows out her candles. Liz and Ben had come home early to help with Evelyn’s birthday. A few kids came to play musical statues, pass the parcel and musical chairs ect. Em had come round straight away after school to help set up. After each child had their party bag and were picked up by parents did we start cleaning up. The doorbell rang and Evelyn ran to open in her new party dress.
“Happy Birthday Evelyn!” came a chorus of voices. She squealed in delight and went to hug the nearest person, Jack.
“Thank You” she says smiling.
“Hello boys” says Liz as she walks past the door.
“Hey” they say as they wave to her
“Want some birthday cake?” she asks
“Yes please” says Zack for the rest of the group. They follow my aunt into the kitchen and eat their cake. Evelyn opens her gifts and sends out a lot of thank you’s to Em who had gotten her a pretty little dress and the guys who had all pitched in to get her little bits and bobs. Eventually, the guys left one by one, but not before saying thanks for the cake and happy birthday once again. We were sat in the living room when I see that Tammie is asleep and that Luke is dropping off. Eva’s just sat talking to Alex, and I can tell that this was not our family time. This time needed to be spent with parent’s and I think my family knew. I pick Tammie up and say
“Well, we’re gonna take them to bed. Good night” I say as I pull Alex up. We walk upstairs quietly and I whisper to Alex
“Take Luke to my room” he nods and walks down the corridor
“Night girls” I say quietly as I place Tammie in her bed.
“Night Anna” whispers Eva from the dark and I walk out to my room. I open the door and Luke gives me a sleepy smile
“Good night Anna” he says kissing my cheek
“Night Alex” he says giving him a fist pound. He jumps off my bed and walks to his room.
“Night Luke” we say at the same time. I flop next to Alex on my bed and he asks me a question
“How come you left your cousins birthday?” he asks confused. I prop myself up on my left arm to look at him
“It just felt wrong you know. It felt strange being there, like birthdays are meant to be spent with your Mom, Dad, Brothers and Sisters. Not cousins. It was the first thing my family has done for each other since our Mom died” I say rolling onto my back looking at the ceiling
“Tell me about her” he says pulling me close to him
“She was great. I really admired her. I remember that she always had this, this big smile on her face when we all got home from school one day, and it was because she won some money at a raffle she entered. She said that she was gonna treat us all with a huge ice-cream. She bought us all these nice things, I got a guitar. She would make me sit down at night after her shift and play to her, she’d sit in this old rocking chair of my Dads and close her eyes and listen to me play. It was one of the few moments we spent alone with each other. “I smile
“She sounds amazing” Alex says in my ear.
“She was” I laugh
“Can I ask you about your dad?”
“Sure” I sigh
“I always thought that we were a pretty close family. Until one day we came home and Sid, Mom and I heard these noises. Mom told me to put Tammie and Luke in the play area cos they were still babies and look after them while her and Sid went upstairs. I remember a lot of shouting and I think something smash, then Sid shouted something and a busty pale looking blonde ran down the stairs. I recognised her because she worked for my Dad’s job. She said sorry and ran out the door. A few minutes later my Dad ran down the stairs with a suitcase. Sid pushed him out the door and told him never to come back, I had never seen Sid that mad before. The only way we can remember what he was like is from what Mom told us or what Sid tells us, and the twins look like him, the fact they both have blonde hair. I know that if I ever met him today, I would without a doubt, break his nose” Alex gives out a chuckle and looks at me
“I wouldn’t stop you” before giving me a Kiss.

It was no secret that Alex and I had a thing going on. I mean he hadn’t asked me to be his girlfriend but we would kiss openly in public. There was only one lesson that had none of my friends in it, and that was history. I really liked it because I was good at remembering dates and facts, so it came easy to me, meaning that I was in a higher class. I sat at the front next to the window, and a girl called Daniella, she was nice and I guess I considered her as one of my friends. There was gang of people in the class that were more annoying than Alex ever was. They were three of the school’s football players. I had gotten to class early today and was sat in the class, the three boys at the back of the class took no notice of me, and then Daniella came stumbling through the door. They shouted something at her about her weight and they all howled in laughter. I mean she doesn’t look that bad. True, she isn’t thin, but she isn’t fat either. I thought she looked great cos she had some great curves on her and stuff.
“Just ignore them” I said turning to look at her
“I try” she said quietly getting her books out her bag.
“They’re dickheads” I said to her, not thinking about how loud I was talking
“What did you say?” one of them bellowed out
I jumped in my seat and looked up to see that they were stood in front of our desk. The one with sandy hair looked angry, and the other two just looked pissed.
“Damn it Anna!” I thought angrily to myself.
“Well?” the one with the sandy hair shouted at me again, banging his fist on the desk
I swallowed, looked him in the eyes and said “I said that you are all dickheads”
“Do you know who we are?” the sandy one screeched
“You’re on the football team” I shrugged
“Meaning that we are way out of your league, we are superior over you, better in every way.”
One of the other boys who had bright blue eyes looked at his sandy haired friend and rolled his eyes
“ So, you have a lot of nerve bitching about us, when we’re in the same room!”
“Someone had to do it” I said shrugging and sorting out my books. The class laughed and agreed with me.
I swear if this was a cartoon, there would have been smoke coming out of his ears.
“You just wait” and with that, him and this posse walked off, just of the teacher came in the room.