Obsession || h.s [completed]

32 | birthday

[*]

Mature content warning.
__________________________

My birthday is tomorrow.

And I'm sort of terrified because I think Mike and Hannah are throwing me a surprise party.

"Umm...girls is it okay if I go out for a bit?" Mike asks halfway through his shift. He turns to Hannah. "I have an errand to run for that thing we talked about?"

"Oh, right that thing." She says. "Yeah, go ahead."

"What thing?" I ask.

"Nothing." They both say.

"If you're planning something for tomorrow I will find revenge."

"What's tomorrow?" Mike asks, smirking.

Hannah takes a rag and starts wiping up an invisible spill.

"You're both horrible actors." I laugh.

"What are you talking about?" Hannah says, turning her back to me to throw the rag in the dirty bucket.

I just shake my head at the both of them, smiling because I know they're planning something. And although I hate celebrating my birthday, it warms my heart that they're going out of their way for me.

It just better not be a surprise party.

___________________________

"Hey, Mason." Layla says softly as I walk into the living room. I'm surprised to see a boy sitting next to her, the same one from the driveway maybe a week prior. "We were about to watch a movie."

"Oh," I eye the boy suspiciously, "I guess I'll just have to read my book upstairs, then."

"You could join us." Layla shrugs. "We're watching Return to Ice."

I hesitate. Because for some reason I start to think Layla maight be afraid to be alone with him. "Alright, I'll watch."

"So you're the famous Mason." The boy speaks up as I sit down on the other couch.

"Famous?" I ask.

"Yeah, Layla here," --he puts his arm on the back of the couch behind her-- "never shuts up about you."

"Not true, I just mention her sometimes because she's my sister." Layla rolls her eyes but smiles softly none the less.

"Well, it's nice to meet you..."

"Alex." He says.

I nod once, "Alex."

When the menu pops up for the movie, Layla presses play and we all fall into silence as we watch an old beat up truck drive down a dirt road with the opening credits.

I glance out the window to see the sun slowly setting and turning the world a deep orange. Despite my dislike of my birthday, I smile to myself as I think that when the sun rises again, I'll be nineteen.

I close my eyes for a moment, and despite not being extremely religious, I say a silent prayer for my mother because tomorrow is not only my birthday but the anniversary of the day she died.

The anniversary of the day I found her in red stained bedsheets with a revolver dangling from her limp fingertips.

I shake my head to rid myself of the memory that haunts me every year, focusing back on the film about a girl and her problems far different from my own.

___________________________

"Mason..." Harry's voice wakes me, "Baby, wake up..."

"No."