Never Letting Go

Pancakes, Rings and Flour

I wake up lying in my bed, still wearing my purple dress from the night before reminding me everything that happened was real. “I’m officially sixteen now” I whisper to myself. I get up and change into a pair of skinny jeans and my old batman t-shirt and walk towards the lounge when I’m hit with the smell of fresh pancakes and bacon.

I push open the door of the kitchen and I’m greeted by five smiling faces and a lot of colourful streamers. The table was full of wonderful breakfast dishes and a pancake stack with a red and white sixteen candle sticking out of the top of it.

 “Happy official birthday!” they all yell, Blake and Lachie let off some party poppers, putting mini streamers all over the floor.

We all sit down for breakfast and just like every meal the table is an explosion of noise. Matthew comes over with a lighter and lights the candle on top of the stack of pancakes and everyone begins to sing (technically yell) happy birthday, Tess stands on the other side of the table pointing the camera at me as I blow out the candle.

My hands are covered in maple syrup since Blake decided I didn’t need cutlery to eat with. I sit at the table licking my hands when I notice the flash from the camera go off. “Tess, did you really need to take a photo right then?” she smiles, “Yes because you look so pretty.”

Kyle stands behind me and puts his hands on my shoulders, “No Mum, she looks beautiful.” Kyle says, Once again the flash of the camera goes off.

“Presents!” Lachie yells, “But I got so many yesterday! I don’t need more.” I groan, not liking all this money being used on me. Everyone ignores my complaint and I’m dragged into the lounge. I sit in between Kyle and Matthew and Lachie is sitting on the floor by Matthew. “Where’s Blake?” I ask and suddenly he appears dressed as Santa, with the sack full of presents and the beard. “Oh my goodness” I shake my head in disbelief, “You know it’s only August right?”

“Ho ho ho, now is Miss Darci here? I believe I have some presents for her” Blake says in a weird voice, trying to sound like Santa or what we imagine he would look like. I decide to play along “Santa! I’m here!” I yell throwing my hand up in the air, Kyle sits there, cracking up laughing at my immaturity.

Blake sits down on the empty couch, so being an idiot I go sit on his lap. “What presents did you bring me?” I bounce up and down on his knee like an excited six year old. Blake frowns, “Here” he hands me the brown sack with the presents and pulls off his fake beard, “This isn’t fun, she was meant to get embarrassed.” He sits down in my spot between Kyle and Matthew so I sit on Kyle’s lap.

“Naw, someone’s got a frowny face” I say, directing it at Blake. “Stop it you two, your acting like 5 year olds” Tess says sternly. Matthew hands around the presents to the boys, when he hands two to Kyle I frown, “You gave me one last night.” He smiles sweetly “And you’re getting another two, so toughen up”

Tess gives me the first present; I rip apart the delicate green paper to see the cover the Relient K’s album, Forget And Not Slow Down in my hands, “Thank you so much, I now have all of their albums!”

More presents are handed to me, all of the paper being ripped to shreds. I now have a small collection of presents at my side. A Relient K album, two t-shirts, the keys to Lachie’s old motorbike, a collection of art equipment (Paint, pencils, paintbrushes, notepads, canvas’s…), a green and white  tie dyed blanket and a photo album from the day Kyle met me to last night with plenty of space to add more photos.

Tess hands me a dark blue box about the size of my hand, I lift the lid and find a simple silver key hanging from a thin chain. The key was no bigger than an average house key, it looked like one that opened an old fashioned door but with the decorations of the diamonds, it made it look to delicate to put in any door. “That’s the key to your heart, be careful with and don’t go giving it to any silly little boy.” It seems like she was directing it at Kyle. I hand him the box, “Can you put it on me?” he lifts it out of the box and puts the chain around my neck, my silver key and cross hanging side by side.