Spare Heart

{47}

      I decided to put a little more effort into my appearance today. And by effort I mean wearing my jeans. Luckily Mom let me off the hook today. As soon as I got through the school doors I was tackled by Seth. I nearly fell from the impact but his arms were wrapped tightly against my back, preventing me from plummeting to the ground. 

      "Happy birthday," he exclaimed.

      "Thanks but can I at least get to my locker before you attack me," I wheezed, patting his back. I had prepared myself for the hugs so I wasn't as awkward. He let go of me, slapping me on the back harshly as I gasped, trying to fill my lungs with air.

      "Control your strength hulk," I scolded, straightening my back as I walked to my locker that Tyler and Austin were crowded around. The second Austin saw me he ran towards me jumping on me. Since he was much lighter than Seth I didn't almost fall and was able to pick him up.

      "Happy birthday bitch," he howled excitedly.

       "Thank you," I chuckled, carrying him like a baby as I walked over to Tyler, and Seth who had joined Tyler next to my locker. I always wanted to say, 'you too' when someone said happy birthday to me. It was that awkward thing cause you could only say thank you. 

      Austin hopped out of my arms letting Tyler hug me. Being the only sane human out of the three he wrapped his arms around me without knocking the wind out of me. "Happy eighteenth Jade. You're finally legal!" He cheered just as Dean walked past us. Tyler caught the look Dean gave him and scratched his head. 

      "I didn't mean it like that. I just meant like she's legal know ha-ha. Like a joke. Like funny. I wasn't trying to point out the fact that she's legal because I'm already eighteen. I'm not trying to you know have like sex with her or anything," he stumbled over his words, cringing as he did so.

       Dean crossed his arms as he listened to Tyler's jumble of words, being thoroughly amused. He thought Dean was filling the overprotective brother role because he's Justin's best friend, when in fact he was just being a curious boyfriend. 

      "Stop talking, you're embarrassing yourself man," Dean smirked, making the rest of us laugh.

      "Shut up," Tyler grumbled quietly so no bystanders heard him talking to his teacher like that. Dean pretended to scratch his face when he was actually showing Tyler his middle finger and I laughed even harder as Dean walked away, leaving the boys gobsmacked. 

      "So what do you wanna do tonight? Unless you're planning shit with your family and we can go tomorrow. We could go clubbing, paint balling, play laser tag, do go-karting or anything else you think of," Austin said, shaking my shoulders in excitement. 

      "I don't know. I didn't really think about it. Do you guys wanna go to an amusement park?" I suggested, thinking that would be fun. Tyler was the biggest adrenaline junkie I'd ever met so I know he'd be down for it. Although I'm sure it wouldn't be that much of a big rush to him in comparison to other things he's done. Once he went off roading with his other friends and they gave him a tattoo. Another time him, Seth and Austin played bumper cars with real cars. None of them came out unscathed but Tyler was just laughing his head off, asking for a round five. 

      "Definitely," Tyler said, as expected, and the others nodded in agreement. 

      "Safe. We'll do that tomorrow. Knowing my mom she probably already has something planned." I closed my locker after putting everything inside, except for a pen. I'd just steal a piece of paper off someone if I really needed to because carrying my books around was way too much effort.