The List

Chapter Nine

After the events at the party on Friday, everyone decides to come back to my dorm to hang out all day Saturday. We sit around eating pizza, watching almost all of the Harry Potter series, and just goofing off. I've never had anything like this before; friends that I can just hangout with and be myself. It's something I don't ever want to lose. Next week will be four weeks I've been in college and I've already made two friends with Liam and Nathan. One, being a girl I can finally talk to about girly things I need help with. My mom and I not being close has made it difficult, but Grace being there has made it all the more easier. The other being Rhett, who has already brought out a side of me that I never knew I had; the side that needs adventure and has a need to get out and do the things I've been told I shouldn't do.

By one o'clock in the morning, Grace starts to fall asleep on Liam's shoulder, so they and Nathan leave. Rhett stays behind and lays on the floor, telling me his favorite places in California. I'm jealous that's where he used to live. The furthest I've been from home is here in Lubbock.

"When's your birthday?" Rhett asks, suddenly.

"Actually in a couple weeks." I answer. "It's September thirtieth."

He looks up at me from the floor. "What do you have planned?"

I shrug my shoulders. "Not much, well really anything at all. I don't celebrate my birthday anymore."

Rhett sits up and stares at me. "Why not?"

I shrug my shoulders again. "I tried last year, but my mom refused to take me to a club, even though I turned eighteen. Before that, I just stopped caring."

"What happened?" He asks, raising an eyebrow at me.

I sigh. "On my fourteenth birthday, my dad announced he and my mom were getting a divorce."

Rhett's eyes widen, and I tell him about that day. I was walking down the stairs, expecting breakfast, like we usually get our birthday mornings. My parents were yelling at each other in the kitchen. I could hear my dad saying it wasn't right; today wasn't the day. My mom rolled her eyes and said she'd been faking it for sixteen years and couldn't last another day.

"Why can't we both tell them?" He asks. "As a family?"

Mom rolls her eyes again. "She listens to you."

"It's Carrigan's birthday." My dad sighs. "We need to wait a few days."

"No." Mom says. "And I want you out tonight."

My dad sighs, again. "I've tried to make this work, since Liam was born; I have."

"We've both been pretending." Mom says. "This is what's best for all of us."

The door closes and I round the corner into the kitchen.

"Hey Princess." Dad sighs. "Ready for your birthday breakfast?"

I nod my head and sit at the table. Liam rounds the corner shorty after, placing a kiss to my forehead.

"Happy birthday, Care." He says, placing a small box in front of me.

"Go ahead." Dad says. "Open it."

I rip off the wrapping paper, and open the box to see a chain with a sterling silver cross and my September birthstone in the middle.

"It's beautiful." I gasp. "Liam, I love it. Thank you."

He smiles and takes a seat beside me. Dad finishes breakfast, in silence. Once the table is set and the three of us are seated, dad sighs heavily.

"I hate doing this today." He says. "But I need to talk to the two of you about something."

"What's up?" Liam asks, digging into his pancakes.