Fragile, Delicate, Golden

Another year had passed, another birthday had come and gone. Well, technically, it wasn’t finished just quite yet.

Jenny glanced at the digital clock above the TV; its glowing red numbers flashed 10:22. I’ve still got an hour and a half left, she thought to herself, but the glimmer of hope that she’d had that morning was slowly beginning to dwindle away.

She couldn’t help but think to herself that really, she should be grateful. She had her health, a bright future ahead of her, and when it came down to it, this birthday hadn’t been a complete failure. The elaborate cake from the bakery was delicious and she’d had an amazing time dancing the night away with her girlfriends, but the more she thought about it, the more she became unable to shake the nagging feeling that something was missing or more specifically, someone.

As much as she’d tried to distract herself, Jenny couldn’t keep her thoughts from wandering back to James. James, with those tousled chestnut brown locks and those hazel eyes that she swore could see straight through her. While the two of them had celebrated her birthday just the day before (he’d had to catch the red eye flight back to Los Angeles for shooting), it didn’t feel right celebrating with him not there. He’d always known how to put a big goofy grin on her face, but without him, the loneliness made it difficult for her to smile at all.

Jenny loved him, more than anything in the world, and she knew in her heart that he shared those same feelings for her. It was just difficult, these confusing and conflicting emotions that constantly ran rampant in her mind. Whenever she was with him, she felt like she was on top of the world, invincible somehow, as if the only thing that mattered was this indescribable bond they had. Jenny constantly found herself spiraling between two ends of the spectrum: this all-consuming love she felt for James and the incurable loneliness she felt when he was away. Needless to say, it was emotionally exhausting, but in a way, it was worth it. She’d go through the hurt and the pain a thousand times over if it meant she’d be able to feel the way James’s arms wove around her, hear the way he murmured her name like a lullaby in her ear.

Tucking a strand of caramel colored hair behind her ear, her aquamarine eyes shifting automatically towards the TV, even though she knew it wasn’t turned on. Trying to tune her thoughts in to something, anything other than James, she smoothed out the skirt of her red chiffon party dress. James would’ve loved to have seen her in it, he’d always told her she looked so pretty in the vibrant shade. The thought brought a wistful smile to her lips.

A knock on the front door shook her from the pleasant memory, and without hesitation, she answered it.

It was like a scene stolen straight from an some old romantic movie. Jenny had been so wrapped up in her own thoughts that she hadn’t heard the pitter-patter of rain falling onto the roof, but here he was, on her doorstep, water droplets clinging to his skin and rolling off of his leather jacket. The fluorescent glow from the streetlight leeched out any trace of color, shadows every shade of gray falling across his features. Without a word, she stepped aside, and he kept his hands in his pocket as he walked across the threshold into her living room.

“What about your flight?” Jenny asked as she followed him across the room to the sofa. As soon as she heard the words, it sounded like such a stupid question. He was here, that’s what really mattered, not all the why’s and the how’s.

“I missed it,” he admitted, his golden eyes focused on the carpet beneath his feet. “I forgot to give you your birthday present, and I just couldn’t leave unless I knew you had it.”

Jenny wasn’t sure of what to say, how to feel, even. Should she be happy that he showed up at her door or devastated because it meant having to say goodbye to him all over again?

“Jamie, you really shouldn’t have…” her voice trailed off as she watched him fumble for something in the pocket of his jacket.

“Don’t worry about it, Jen,” he replied, and a faint smile graced his lips. “It was something I needed to do.”

He held out a blue velvet jewelry box in his hand, and inside was a dainty gold locket. It wasn’t anything particularly fancy, but it was one of those heart-shaped lockets that every girl gets sometime during the course of her childhood, with an indentation along the inner wall of each half of the heart for the tiniest of photographs. James ran his thumb along the catch, prying the heart open to reveal two photos, so small that she could barely make them out in the dim lighting. One was a smaller version of a snapshot they’d had taken in a photobooth back when the two of them had first started dating. Their cheeks were pressed together, smiles so wide and genuine that their eyes had begun to squint up, and Jenny could still remember just how deliriously happy she’d been on that day. The other photo was of James alone, his hazel eyes striking even on such a small scale. A warm smile softened his features, and a chocolate-colored lock fell in his eyes, a sign that the picture had been taken back when his hair was shaggy and long, when he’d spent every free moment in the ocean trying to catch waves and Jenny had spent the summer on the beach watching him.

Jenny pulled her hair over to one shoulder so he could clasp the chain around her neck. “I thought that, this way, you’ll always have a little piece of me with you, even when I’m not here.”

“Thanks, sweetie.” She smiled up at him as her fingers brushed the locket at her throat. “It’s perfect.”

Their lips met in the dark, bridging the distance between them, and Jenny found herself lost in the sensation, disoriented when he pulled away.

“Happy birthday,” he murmured as his gaze drifted over her frame. “For what it’s worth, you look beautiful tonight.”

It was the best birthday present she’d ever received.