Zinnia And Me

Day 8

The Christmas lights display even arrived in no time. Zinnia, her brother Aster and I were dropped off at the entrance.
"Thanks Danny!" I say as he pulls off. Him and Liam were going to do some business across town, and Mom would come and pick us up and take us out to get snow cones.

"It looks lovely," Zinnia says, gazing up at the sky painted with green, white, gold, red and silver.
"Before I was born, Dad used to take Liam here every year," I explained. "Danny tried taking him before, but he wouldn't budge, and it really hurt him."
Zinnia sighs.
"Poor Danny," Zinnia says, her hand touching her heart.

Aster tugs on Zinnia's coat sleeve.
"I wanna see the lights now," The little 8 year old says, crossing his arms.
"Not until Sonya arrives," Zinnia says. My original plan was to have me and Zinnia go by ourselves, but with her brother along, it wouldn't hurt to bring Sonya along.

Sonya appears a couple of seconds later, waving goodbye to her step-mother, and she drives away.
"Hello everyone!" Sonya greets us in a cheery voice. "Everyone excited?"
"Heck yeah!" Aster shouted, double fist-pumping the air. "I've been waiting since yesterday for this event."
Zinnia rolls her eyes. "Alright," she says, smiling. "Let's go look at some awesome lights!"

The event was breath taking.
Snowman waved as plastic Santa's danced singing Christmas carol's. Lights and streamers were wrapped around the trees and light poles, and some suburban houses behind the display were decorated, too.
Little children ran around, catching snowflakes on their tongues as the sky started to sprinkle snow.

"Look over there!" Sonya exclaims, pointing to a sign that said Happy Holidays! decorated with golden and silver lights.
I snapped a picture of the sign and a few glow in the dark snowflakes. I even took some pictures of the suburban homes.

"Looks lovely!" Zinnia comments.
Aster then gets distracted and then runs up to the dancing Santa and dance along with him.
"Have a holly jolly Christmas; it's the best time of the year!" Aster sang. For an 8 year old, he can actually sing. When I was his age, I couldn't even carry a tune.

We continued to do this until you know who, none other than Gary, showed up. He looked pretty disturbed at what we were doing.
"You guys are so immature," he muttered, face-plaming himself.
Sonya rolls her eyes.
"You're stuck up, aren't you?" She asked, but Gary ignored her and had his eyes focusing on Zinnia.

"Hi Gary!" Zinnia says, running down the hill and giving Gary a hug. She acted like she had never seen him in months.
"Pathetic much?" Sonya whispered. Sonya didn't approve much of Zinnia, but she respected my friendship towards her. She just always had a thing for Gary which drove us both nuts.
"Let's continue on with the display, please?" An impatient Aster asked, jumping up and down.

We continued to walk along the lights, and this time we saw families with their children riding on carriages carried by horses wearing elf and Santa hats. A huge Christmas tree was set in the middle of the display, with lights hanging off the branches and wrapped around nearby lamp post. A huge star was put on tope, but this Christmas tree wasn't like the one in Royal Blue village.

We ran into friends from school, who were having a lot of fun and snapping pictures to never forget this moment.
A man stood next to the Christmas tree with a stand. He was selling neon lights, glow in the dark toys, bracelets, and necklaces. A boy our age just revived glow in the dark drum sticks that were the color of green and red.

"Thanks!" The boy says, running off down the hill.
"I want some!" Aster says, pointing to the stand. Aster was a drummer too, only just to bang on the drums and gets complaints from his mother and sister, but his father doesn't seem to mind at all.

We all run down to the man, and he smiles in delight.
"Hello there, my name is Mr. Glow," the man says in a Scottish accent.
We all waved hello.
"Don't worry about the money. This season, everything is free," Mr. Glow explains.

I choose a bag of glow in the dark stars and a neon green bracelet. Zinnia gets a glow in the dark smiley rubber band and she ties it into her hair and gets a neon pink her band. Gary just gets a glow bracelet the color of blue because he thinks he's to old for this, Aster, as wish came true, was given the last glow in the dark drumsticks. But these were the color of gold and silver, and Sonya gets the same thing as Zinnia, but her's came in neon green and glow in the dark purple.
"Thanks Mr. Glow!" Aster exclaims. "Look, Zinnia! See my new drumsticks?"
"They look lovely," Zinnia says, backing the sticks away from her face.

"Onward we go!" I say, pointing to the front of us. Aster starts marching like he's in a marching band. Me and Sonya follow him, but Gary quickly scoots up to Zinnia and the both of them don't bother to do it. They then start going into full conversation.
"I don't like Gary being with Zinnia," I say to Sonya. "I don't think I trust him. Zinnia seems to get sucked up into everything he says. She straight up ignored me when we went ice skating the other day."

"Never mind him," Sonya hisses. "Just have fun while the Christmas lights display is still around."
I nod and keep looking forward. Next thing we saw were actual dancers dressed in neon colored ballet clothes, some girls dancing with tambourines, and the whole band wasn't missing a beat. As we walk along, Aster starts dancing. Aster was just an energetic child who just couldn't sit still.

Soon we made it to the end of the lights display.
"That was fun!" Sonya exclaims.
"I wanna do it again!" Aster says.
"Maybe next year," Zinnia says, stroking Aster's hair.
Mom was out doing something at the store, so she'd be a little late. None of us minded, as it wasn't that cold out. Some of the parents were starting to leave, with sleepy children huddled over their backs.

"I had fun tonight," I overheard Zinnia say. I whipped around to see she wasn't actually talking to me, but she was talking to Gary. Then something she says makes my heart skip a beat.
"Thanks for inviting me out tonight."
I was the one that invited her out, and she's thanking Gary? What gives?

"Zinnia, wait-" my voice trailed off, as it happened again. They kissed. Right in front of me.
"I wanted to ask you something," Gary says.
"What?"
"Would you like to go to the Christmas Eve dance with me?"
Zinnia squeals.
"Yes! Oh yes, Gary! I'd love to!"

"No," I say, my voice sounding hoarse.
"Oh no," Sonya says, her purple gloves covering her mouth.
Aster doesn't say anything, he's to busy admiring the couple. They smile and stare at each other and it makes me sick.
"Can't wait to see you there," Gary says.
"Same to you too," Zinnia says.

All of a sudden, I start crying.
"I want to go home!" I exclaim, digging my face into my hands.
Sonya hugs me. "I'm so sorry, Zach."
"Just take me home!"
Now thanks to Zinnia, my heart was ripped in half. Why didn't she understand that Gary treated me like I wasn't worthy of anything? Why did she even like him? She just ruined our birthday. And worst of all, it looks like she choose him over me.