AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Great. Looks like I took a little bit too long in that treehouse after all.
Claire and Tyler sat on the side of the picnic table that allowed them to watch me approach, and they each wore a smile. Claire’s highlighted brown hair had been cut to her shoulders in a cute bob, her amber eyes done up in perfectly blended shadow that sparkled when the sun hit it. She wore a loose white blouse with frills around the neck and a golden necklace whose pendant hung past her collarbone—a present she’d gotten from Tyler last Christmas, I think.
“Well, well,” my sister spoke. “If it ain’t the birthday girl. Where’d you go? The treehouse? God, I’m shocked it’s still standing.”
Tyler was holding Claire’s hand beneath the table. His black hair was a little longer, and it hung over his green eyes until he ran his free hand through it. He grinned at me and said, “Happy birthday.”
Claire seemed to remember she didn’t actually say it, so she quickly added, “Yeah, happy birthday. Where’s Ian? We figured he’d be here already.” In front of them, their present to me sat, a thin-looking box from what I had to guess, wrapped up in metallic paper.
As I told them thanks, Dad came over with a glass of some dark pop and huffed, “What was that about you being shocked the treehouse is still there? Claire, I told you both when you were kids I wanted to—”
“Make it last” both Claire and I said in unison, and then we both giggled.
Mom came out of the house shortly after that, carrying her own glass of ice tea. When she spotted me, she said, “Oh, thank goodness you’re back. I was starting to worry we’d have to send the boys out into the woods to get you.”
The boys, meaning Dad and Tyler, two people I wouldn’t call boys. It must be a mom thing.
Mom sat beside me, while Dad picked the left of Tyler—his favorite guy in the world, now that Zak was dead. He and Claire must’ve just arrived, because both Mom and Dad asked them how they were doing, if anything was new, blah, blah, blah. As if Claire didn’t call Mom every week to do just that.
She did. She’d been calling Mom every Sunday since before she moved out.
Would I call my parents once I was out? I didn’t know. I almost feel like I wouldn’t.
My phone buzzed while they were talking, and I bent my head as I pulled out my phone from my pocket to see Brett’s message:Be there soon.
Damn. My parents were never going to let him live this down. Showing up late to a birthday party? They’d be on his case even worse now—something Brett knew, so I didn’t harp on it. I only said,Okay.
It was like my dad had superpowers, because he took a slow sip from his glass, and then when he set it down, he pushed the present Claire and Tyler had brought me to my side of the table. “Why won’t we open up one of your presents while we’re waiting for Ian to show up?”
“Dad,” I started, and for once, Claire was on my side, saying, “Don’t you think that’s kind of rude?”
“Nonsense! What’s rude is showing up late to your girlfriend’s birthday.” Dad lowered his voice and asked, “Are we sure he doesn’t have a secret family or something?” His suggestion made Mom widen her eyes in surprise and Claire to reach around Tyler to smack him.
“He doesn’t have a secret family,” I said, calmer than Claire, who actually had my back—surprising, given how much she hadn’t liked him in the beginning. As time went on, I think she recognized how happy he made me, and she accepted it, which was more than I could say for our dad.
Dad waved a hand through the air, as if I hadn’t spoken a word. Nothing I could say would get him to be on Brett’s side. And to think, up until today, he and my mom had slowly started to come around to the idea of Brett being so much older.
“Whatever,” Dad huffed. “We’ll just open one present. Just one. Maybe it’ll teach him not to be late next time.” He pushed the present toward me even more. “Open it. Go on, open it.”
Mom was busy rolling her eyes at his antics, while Claire looked at me and said, “If you want to wait, we can wait. There’s no rush.” Beside her, Tyler nodded along in agreement.
Though everyone at the table had different reactions to my dad and what he was trying to push on me, I knew that if I didn’t open this present, he wouldn’t drop it. He’d keep pushing at it until everyone was annoyed, and that’s how we’d spend the rest of the day. So, to avoid that ending, I decided to just open the darn thing.
“Fine,” I relented, taking the present and moving it directly before me.
“I bet you’ll never guess what’s in there,” Claire spoke with a wink.
“Whatever you do,” Tyler nodded along as he advised, “don’t shake it.”
I ran my hand over the top of the box before picking it up, expecting to hear something fragile clinking around inside, but there was nothing. In fact, it was lighter than I thought it’d be. I glanced between Claire and Tyler, my eyebrows coming together as I wondered what in the heck could be inside.
It wasn’t a big box. Maybe a foot wide and a foot tall. An inch and a half deep. Not many things could fit inside a box this size, and I really had no idea what it could be. Since I’d told my sister to get me an Amazon gift card—could never have too many of those—I honestly had no clue what it was.
I went to the corner nearest me to slip in my finger where it was neatly creased to fold. It was like a master gift wrapper had wrapped it up. The box itself looked professionally wrapped.
“Oh, come on,” Tyler teased. “We aren’t asking for the paper back. Rip that baby open. Tear it. Go on, tear it up.” Beside him, Claire rolled her eyes, but I could tell by the smirk on her lips that she found him amusing.
At Tyler’s insistence, I tore into the paper, and as the paper tore, it made a satisfying sound. All eyes were on me as I yanked it aside, revealing a plain white box. Well, no wonder it looked like a box, because itwasa box.
