The Story of Why

Keda - Birthday

I was awakened on the second day of Christmas break by a short, dettached ding from my phone. I looked at my screen, squinting since I was still groggy from just waking. I didn't recognize the number, but the text read "Happy birthday, beautiful!" There was no way in knowing for sure if this was Drew, since the last I'd heard was that he didn't have a cellphone anymore, but I was sure it was him.

Then a second ding. "Any plans?" I read. Not that I know of. My mom will probably bake a cake and she and Olliver will sing happy birthday, but that'll be in the evening. Plus, there's no one I'd rather spend my birthday with. Heh. That must've sounded corny. Oh well.

I texted him back saying that I wasn't busy, and before long, we decided we'd meet up at timmies for coffee. It was cold, but it wasn't snowing, so I decided I'd just walk. I put on a jacket over my navy sweater and wrapped a warm scarf around my neck. I didn't look too special, but I don't really think of birthdays as special, like most people do.

I opened the heavy door and quickly got inside. My fingers were starting to get numb out there in the cold, but I could start to feel them defrosting as soon as I got in. I unzipped my coat and took a look around. No one. I sighed and sat down at an empty booth. I saw a group of people from my school passing by, so I quickly got out my phone and pretended to be engrossed in it. I could feel their eyes on me for a moment, but then they went and left. I hate it when I see people I know.

Possibly two minutes passed by when I saw an unexpected figure. It was Eric. He was walking towards me with a blueberry muffin in his hand and a small birthday candle in the other. He grinned at me and sat down across the table.

"Happy birthday!" he exclaimed, poking the candle into the top of the muffin. "Sorry I was late," he began as he took out a lighter from his pocket -I didn't even know he owned one of those- and lit the candle. I looked at him in confusion and maybe a little disappointment. I was so sure the text I had gotten was from Drew. But the gesture made me smile. Eric was the greatest. "Are you waiting for me to sing?" he mocked.

I laughed a little and closed my eyes. I made a silent wish in my mind and blew out the candle. "Thanks, Eric." I know we haven't known each other long, but Eric and I have gotten kind of close lately.

"Where's Drew?" he asked, taking the wrapper off and splitting the muffin into two pieces. Needless to say, he made a mess in the process and the table was now covered in crumbs.

"I don't know," I said. "I thought the text you sent me was from him," I admitted.

"Oh," he said guiltily, "sorry about that." He took his half of the muffin and shoved it in his mouth.

I shrugged. "We could just go get him and hang out," I suggested. I kind of felt bad for telling Eric I was expecting Drew, but I was mostly just trying to see whether Eric had talked to Drew at all since yesterday. I guess not.

Eric nearly choked on his muffin. "You want us to go back? Drew's gonna call us from a payphone or something. Don't worry."

I huffed angrily and ate some of my muffin. "What if he doesn't?" I know sound impatient, but I didn't want Drew to be cutting us out of his life again.

"Well," Eric said, "then we go and look for him. But for now, let's go do something fun."

I sighed and decided I wasn't going to win this arguement. Eric got up from his chair and walked over to me. He held out his hand and I took it. "Where are we going?" I asked him as we interlocked our fingers and he started walking out towards the exit.

"I told you," he said, "we're going to do something fun." I smiled and wondered whether he wanted it to be a surprise or simply wasn't sure what to do.

We got into his car and he started to drive. After a while, he stopped in a parking lot in front of an elementary school. I give him a confused look. What could we possibly do here?

He gave me a quick smile then turned, opened his car door, and got out of the car and headed towards the back of the school. I had no choice but to follow, so I hurried to catch up with his long strides. Once I finally caught up and started walking side by side with him, I asked, "What are we doing here?"

That was when we got to the back of the school, where there was a huge field and in the centre, a large patch of ice that resembled an ice rink. "We're going skating, duh." I smirked at his reply. "Race you there!" He yelled as he bolted towards the ice. I laughed and ran after him.

He got to the edge of the rink and jumped onto the ice, sliding across it professionally. "You do this a lot, don't you?" I asked, out of breath, once I got to the ice. He turned towards me and slid towards me.

"Yeah," he said, "I used to go to this school. Every winter break my friends and I would come here and play hockey." I looked down at the ice, nervous.

He comes closer, takes both of my hands and pulls me towards the ice. I step on it with one foot, then as I place my other foot on the ice I slip and Eric catches me at the last second. I feel a bit shocked, but mostly embarrassed as I steady myself. "Thanks," I told him, blushing slightly. His hands were still around my waist, but there was no indication that he was trying to be romantic.

"You good now, princess?" He teased. I stuck my tongue out at him and pushed his hands off. He smirked at me and I couldn't help but laugh. I pushed myself forward and slid across the ice. I held my arms out so I could steady myself better. Then, I had a brilliant idea. I hopped off the ice and ran a couple steps away from it.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Eric yelled. I sped towards the ice and when I was about 2 inches from it I jumped on and zoomed across the ice. I was going faster and faster and didn't know how to stop.

"JESUS!" I screamed as I got near Eric. I grabbed his arm and held it close so I could stop, but I accidentally pulled too hard and sent us both toppling over. I fell hard on my butt and so did he right next to me. He looked at me and laughed.

"No need to use the lord's name in vain, Keda," he mock-scolded. "Also, you hurt my ass."

I gave him a look, smiled, and shook my head.

****

After our dumb adventure on the ice, we were both pretty tired and decided that we were not going to be doing any more physical activity for a long, long time. We got back into the car and, after a lot of arguing, I convinced Eric to drive us to Drew's house.

As Eric pulled up to the front of Drew's uncle's house, we heard a loud bang. My heart pounded as Eric looked at me wide-eyed. We both reached for the door handles and hopped out of the car. A loud yell of pain made us stop in our tracks.