The Certainty (Book Four in The Illusion of Certainty Series)

My Time Has Come

Two months later…

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!”

“Holy freaking god!” I yelled.

My family and friends were gathered in my living room. They all beamed at me and I smiled back hesitantly. They’d managed to scare the crap out of me. I thought we were forgoing the birthday party that year. Michael ushered me inside and closed the door. Sophie rushed forward and hugged me.

“Happy birthday!” she said.

“Thank you.”

She pulled back and smiled at me. She was so excited and it wasn’t even her birthday. It didn’t occur to me until later that no one expected me to last until my eighteenth birthday. That was a little insulting. I laughed and everyone else rushed forward, all willing to approach me since I appeared happy about the situation. I kept a hold of Michael’s hand, not wanting him to leave me alone with all these crazy people.

They love you. Be nice.

“Where you surprised?” Mark asked.

“Um…my comment just now didn’t give away my surprise?” I asked.

He smiled at me. “Good. It’s nice that you get the heart attack this time.”

“Oh that’s nice,” Sophie said smacking him on the arm.

My brother came running into the circle and picked me up in a hug. He squeezed me so tight I heard several things pop.

“Oh god I think you punctured a lung,” I said.

He laughed and set me down on my feet. Bone bruising hugs were always his thing. That would never change. I could count on it. My father was next.

“Daddy,” I said.

He hugged me much more gently than my brother. “Happy birthday, kitten.”

“Thanks.”

Our relationship was still a bit strained, as was the one with my mother. I was angry at them for holding so much back from me. And they knew it. So they gave me space. They’d given me so much of it that sometimes I thought they were acting nothing like the parents I used to know. More like the kind that were letting go.

“Presents or cake?” my mother asked.

“Cake. That way everyone will have something to do while I open presents.”

“Wonderful logic darling.”

My mother went to the kitchen and lit the candles. There were nineteen. One for each year I was old and one to grow on.

I blew them all out and smiled at everyone.

“Sit down, sit down.” Sophie steered me towards the chair my father usually sat in.

I had to let go of Michael’s hand for this part but he didn’t go too far away. Here lately it was hard for anyone to separate us. Rumor around campus was that we were dating. To me it was so much more then that. He kept me stable, sane, grounded. I owed him so much more than the title of boyfriend. He’d told me that I could call him whatever I wanted as long as he was with me and I was with him.

“No holiday themed gifts right?” I asked.

“Nope. Just the paper and the cake,” my mother said.

My birthday was on March seventeenth. Go me. It was hard having a birthday on the holiday best known for drinking. Through out the years I had tons of St. Patrick’s Day gifts and had put out the creed a while back that if anyone bought me anything else with shamrocks or leprechauns I was going to go on a killing spree. They’d taken me seriously obviously.