Fragile | ✓

2.1 | Perfect

21 | Perfect

→ Sometimes you just need the people you love

→ Life is perfect for me

warning, be aware: this chapter is NOT edited and is to be rewritten

━━━

THE ROOM started blank, deprived of any people besides myself. A few seconds into the party, I watched the room fill up until there was barely any more open space. I sat in the corner of the room, my hands underneath my bottom, watching this transition happen. Everyone entered in different ways- some shyly and some socializing. No one had noticed me there yet. The little girl sitting in the corner.

I wasn't sitting sad. After all, it was just another one of daddy's colleagues' parties. His boss's daughter was turning seven- 'a big girl' daddy called her- and they had thrown an enormous party in a rented hall. I was merely observing. "Ah Jess, there you are." I felt a tug on my hand to see daddy had found me. "What are you doing here alone?" He asked gently, lifting me up and into his arms.

"Observing." I reply, my eyes traveling around the room. I had never had a party as big as this, yet I wasn't jealous. I loved my tiny birthday parties with just daddy and me sitting around a table with my stuffed animals. It just seized to amaze me the level of effort put into this party.

I doubted the birthday girl knew all these people. I barely knew a quarter of these people. "Observing, hm?" Daddy followed my gaze that danced around the room.

"Yeah, there are so many people doing so many things." A waiter holds out a platter to a woman on her phone, which she accepts with a nod. Another man in the corner bounces a baby on his lap while the baby wails. A boy around my age runs around the room with a balloon flying behind him.

"There are, aren't there? Do you want a birthday like this next year?" He asks, facing his entire attention towards me. Before I can respond, a tall, suited man walks up to us. Dad's boss. They exchange a few words before his boss turns to me.

"And you must be Jessica?" I nod in confirmation though I wonder why this strange man knows my name. "Your dad talks a lot about you." Without knowing how to reply, I bury my head in daddy's shirt.

He and his boss both chuckle above my head. "Okay, I best go give the birthday girl her present now. See you two later." Daddy waves to him before placing his hand back on my back.

"Now tell me, angel. Yes or no to a birthday like this next year?" I look back up and shake my head.

"No, daddy. I like my birthdays just the way they are with my favorite daddy."

"Your favorite daddy, hm? I thought I was your only daddy."

"Same thing daddy," I whine.

"Of course, princess. I love you."

━━━

"You better not be peaking," Alex scolds as I tug against the blindfolded cloth pressed against my eyelids.

"I'm not. Are we almost there? This cloth is way too itchy," I complain, not getting the point of this blindfold.

Alex had forced me into a dress, yet again, before dragging me to another highschool party. Except this time, she promised me that my brothers had given me permission but she hadn't given me any other information. I was more than reluctant at first, especially after my recent heart-to-heart with my brothers but Alex was insistent. I recognized today was the day of my birthday, one that I had never celebrated after dad passed away. I didn't expect anyone to remember nor know so it was predictable when everyone treated the day as a normal day. Albeit, a little disappointed. The blindfold was the first act that raised my suspicions but I expected nothing less with Alex- always on her toes coming up with the craziest of ideas. My initial reaction was shock when Alex had come prepared with a flowing blue dress- one of the princesses of my imagination. The gown was long on one side so it seemed to be floating and the perfect length on the other. It had glistening stones lining the waist and had dark indigo flowers near the bottom. With dad's necklace, my brothers' bracelet, and Ryan's ring on me, I felt like I was having the best birthday yet- even if no one remembered. The most important people to me in the universe were right by my side.