Teenagers, Love and Pregnancy

Chapter 14

"Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Cameron, Happy Birthday to you!"

John and my Mom carried my cake to me and laid it down in front of me . I gasped as I saw it, a dark chocolate cake with a hard chocolate shell on top. Written in white icing on top of the chocolate were "Happy Eighteenth Birthday, Cameron". I laughed at how Kelly had cut a misshapen hole in the hard chocolate shell and shoved a single blue candle in it that was now lit and glowing.

"Now make a wish," Kel said from where she stood behind me leaning on the back of the chair I sat in.

I paused for a moment like I was thinking, but in reality, I already knew what I wanted more than anything else. I wanted my baby to have a happy, healthy, and long life. I closed my eyes and wished as passionately as possible in my head before blowing out the candle as hard as I could.

"Hallelujah!" Kelly cried from behind me as I blew out the candle, madly waving the cake cutter over her head. "Time for cake!"

After John, my mom, and Kelly all sat down together around my wooden kitchen table, I forgot about all the stuff that had been stressing me out lately. I laughed as Kelly devoured not one, but two, pieces of cake that were the size of our English IV books last semester.

After I opened my presents (some makeup from Mom, a giant box of old scary movies from Kel, and some classic books from John because they're my favorite. I loved anything old and vintage-y, like classic books or old movies.), Kelly and I went upstairs to my room.

"So," she said, flopping down on my bed. Even though my birthday was on a Wednesday, she could be here, because college for her didn't start for another week, on September 3rd. "Have you heard from Kendall today?"

"Not a word," I said with a sigh. Kendall had been in college for two weeks in Seattle now, and I missed him like crazy. He tried to send good morning and goodnight texts, but with the time zone difference, by the time I got to reply he was either in the middle of class or asleep.

As if on cue, my phone buzzed. I look down at my lap and saw a text from Kendall. I opened it and read it out loud to Kelly.

"Happy Birthday, Beautiful. I love and miss you more than words can tell. Have a great one. I miss you so much. Skype me in an hour so I can tell it to your gorgeous face?"

I felt my heart soar at the thought of getting to see my love face-to-face for the first time in two weeks.

"That would be the best birthday gift I could possibly get

"7:00. Skype Date." He replied almost instantly.

"You mean 10:00 here, silly (;" I teased.

"Tomato tomato. See you then. I can't wait. (:"

I relayed to information to Kelly, who squealed and clapped her hands.

"While we wait," she said, traipsing over to a birthday present on my floor, the bag of classic black and white horror movies she had given me. "Let's watch this." She whipped out "The Blob", an old movie from 1958 where an alien blob eats an entire town. It's possibly the cheesiest movie on Earth (with horrible acting to match) but that's why I loved it. She popped the movie in my TV and sat beside me, both of us cross-legged and eager.

*** I woke up to Kelly shaking me. The movie was over.

"Did I miss Kendall's call?" "The Blob" was an hour an a half long. I felt crushed as I realized I must have slept through our Skype date. "I miss it didn't I? Dang it! Now I feel bad. Poor Kendall. It's just I've been so tired lately, I'm sleeping for two now you know. I guess it's the pregnancy. Did I snore? I did didn't I. I just. . ." I trailed off. I had really gotten into the habit of rambling lately. I blamed it on the pregnancy, like I did everything else.

Kelly sighed, looking uncomfortable.

"You didn't miss Kendall. . ." she said slowly after a minute.

"Oh. So I didn't sleep as long as I thought."

Kelly looked down at the bed awkwardly and shook her head.

"He. . .he didn't call, Cam. I don't know why. I'm sorry."

It hit me like a rock. He didn't call? But he promised.

"He's probably just busy," Kel said, always trying to make me feel better. "I'm sure he'll call really soon."

I nodded and pretended I agreed.

"Yeah. Yeah you're right." If I told myself he wanted to call, it was true, right?

"You know what sounds awesome right now?" Kelly asked. "Cake! Let's get some while we wait for him to call."

Actually, Cheez-Its covered in chunky peanut butter sounded awesome, which was weird because I hated peanut butter. Go figure.

I followed Kel into my kitchen, and watched as she hungrily (which was pretty much her default mood) crammed down two more slices of my divine cake. With her around, we probably wouldn't have cake much longer.

After our midnight snack, we went back up to my room. Still no Skype. Just as we were settling into bed, I heard the sound of Skype ringing on my laptop. I jumped out of bed and grabbed my laptop, eagerly opening it and answering the call without even seeing who it was. I waited as the camera focused on the caller.

"Joey?"