Charmed

Middle Finger to the Birthday Girl

***

Life is funny sometimes. Not in a 'throw your head back and give your abs a workout from laughing' kind of way. More like in a 'your life was completely normal and you were just cruisin, then BAM, curveballs out of the wazoo until you're left bruised and broken' kind of way.

Life just cracked me up.

It had all started on a good day.

The type of day that consisted of cake, presents, and an annoying song that brought unwanted attention. My eighteenth birthday.

"Cate, I swear, if you don't stop..." I trailed off, leaving the punishment I was just waiting to dole out on her the second she crashed to her imagination. My threat didn't seem to have any affect on her though as she just sighed back at me and adjusted her thickly framed glasses. We both knew how lacking I was in the muscle department and I'm sure that added to her not taking my warning to heart. I frowned, looking down at my wimpy arms.

"Calm yourself. I've driven you like a billion times and you aren't dead, are you?" She flashed her big pearly-whites at me as I clutched the overhead handle for dear life. Cate had just peeled out of our high school's parking lot in a careless and very, very deadly fashion, with me in the passenger seat having mini heart attacks. Her baby blue Volkswagen Beetle convertible squealed in protest along with me as if it was realizing that one turn too sharp and it was done for. And more importantly, we were done for.

She trailed a perfectly manicured hand through her chestnut mess of hair, turning her attention back to the road that was cluttered with dozens of other students ready to end their day. With her driving, she might as well be ending their lives too.

"Remind me, how many accidents have you had in the past two years? What was it? Two? Three?"

"Anna, I swear...three okay? It was three", she grumbled, "One of those doesn't count though!"

"Of course not, that completely unmoving car you backed into was totally at fault." My lips quirked up in amusement. My fingers had begun to turn white from the tightening grip I had on the handle.

It was the day of my eighteenth birthday and I had awoken that morning in the grumpiest of moods. My birthdays were always pretty dull but my mood had been immediately lifted the second I walked downstairs and into the kitchen. There my dad sat, waiting for me with a huge smile and a giant stack of pancakes that had eighteen tiny candles sticking out of them. Of course, he had to get eighteen candles instead of the actual number candles because 'eighteen years deserves eighteen candles, not just two shitty ones!'.

My dad had always made a point to make any event in my life more grand than it should be. My mother died in a mugging when I was five, leaving only me and my dad. I had few memories of her, but I never let myself forget them. Several pictures of her sat scattered in my room, reminding me of how identical our features were. I took mainly after my mom, with my wavy, light auburn hair and green eyes. I was always proud that I looked so similar to her.

"I'm gonna ignore your sarcasm so I can focus on my awesome driving." Cate huffed dramatically, bringing my thoughts back into focus, and turned sharply onto another street. I ended up smushed against the window and was practically making out with it. Well hello, window, you sly dog...

"God, Cate..." I muttered, peeling myself away from my window-with-benefits. A smudge of drool was left as a reminder of what we once had.

"Hey, if you don't like my driving get your own damn car."