The Impeccable Infinity

Chapter 28

The second surprise came later in the night, and it was one I wasn't expecting one bit.

"Haley, come on. You need to blow out the candles!" Riley yelled from the dining room. I got up from the couch were I've been watching a marathon of comedies with Mute, laughing at every cliché senecio and every horrible joke. He left the room about a half hour ago, leaving me to laugh by myself.

"Coming!" I yelled, turning off the television.

I walked into the dimly lit dinning room and watched the flickering of flames on the candles placed in the cake, which was set out in front of me. It was frosted perfectly and 'Happy Birthday Haley!' Was scribbled in cursive across the front. Behind the cake stood he whole family, singing happy birthday at all different beats which just made the performance even more enjoyable.

"Thank you!" I said, laughing at how grateful I felt.

"Blow out the candles," Ruth said.

I inhaled sharply and closed my eyes tight to think of what I wanted to wish for. I've lost so much but gained a lot in return, leaving me with no idea of what I wanted next in my life.

Suddenly, the perfect wish crossed my mind and I smiled as I blew out the candles and caused them to release a faint cloud of smoke. Everyone clapped while Colby turned the lights back on and Ruth began cutting the cake into pieces.

We all ate at the table and smeared frosting across our faces, laughing like children at each of the designs. Ruth played along though, and even joined in herself.

I smeared a small glob of pink, sugary frosting across Mute's cheek. He stopped eating and put his fork down calmly before grabbing a chunk of white frosting, and placing it dead center of my face while wiping it around, until the sugar coated my whole face.

I widened my eyes and opened my mouth at him as I wiped away the frosting from my eyes. He just looked at me with a smirk and raised an eyebrow, as if challenging me.

"You're going to pay for that," I whispered with a devilish grin across my face.

"Later. Not at the table," Ruth pointed out with a look of seriousness. We apologized and continued to eat our cake, but not without me kicking Mute's shin under the table and causing him to wince.

"What did you wish for?" He asked, biting into a piece of the soft and fluffy cake.

"I can't tell you. It's a secret."

"Is this part of your dumb secret rule?" He said, referring to the time he gave me a quarter to throw into the fountain while we were in town and I refused to tell him what I wished for.

"Yup. Don't worry, you'll know one day."

When we finished eating we cleaned up everything and said goodnight to each other. Everyone went to their rooms while I finished putting away the last of the clean dishes and started walking towards the stairs to go upstairs to bed, but I tumbled backward as something pulled at my wrist.

I tried to cry out but a hand covered my mouth as it firmly pressed my back to its chest.

"Shhh," a voice whispered next to my ear.

"Mute?" I asked, now able to turn around and see his face.

He smiled and kept his grip on my wrist as we walked back towards the dining room. When we passed the staircase, we stopped when we saw Riley standing at the top and looking down at us. She gave us a thumbs up and put her fingers across her lips, as if zippering them closed, before she continued walking down the hall.