she's mine.

12

Jonny woke me up at 10. That jerk. I hated sleeping in when I had stuff to do throughout the day. I always felt like the day was practically over if I woke up after 9. Ugh. I quickly showered and picked out an outfit. I didn't know what to wear to a girl day, I honestly had never had one.

Before everything happened I was too young to care about girly things, and after that I didn't have any friends. Jonny had tried once to take me to get my nails done for a dance, but ended up taking me to laser tag because the wait was over 15 minutes and he was not about that.

I decided my ripped skinny jeans, a tank top, and a flannel wrapped around my waist would be good. I didn't know if i'd come home before the party tonight so nothing too fancy, and I wanted the flannel incase it was chilly tonight. I quickly dried my hair and curled it into lose curls and finished with some light makeup. By the time I headed downstairs it was 10:45.

I passed Jonny eating a mountain of eggs, bacon and toast as I hurried through the kitchen. "I am going to kill you if I am late," I threatened.

He laughed and rolled his eyes. "You'll thank me later when you're not falling asleep at that party."

"Whatever," even though I was sour about him waking me up late, I knew he was right. That made it even more frustrating.

I grabbed my converse at the front door. Jonny stood in the doorway and laughed again. I stood to glare at him and he tossed me an apple. I caught it in the air and looked back to see him walking back to the kitchen. "Be safe tonight," he said. I knew there was more behind the casual phrase.

"I will," I said dropping the angry tone from before to make sure he knew i took him serious before running out the door. By the time I got to the address Jake had sent me it was five after eleven. Dang it Jonny. I am late, on her birthday. He'd hear about it later.

When I pulled up I was shocked. The house was beautiful, but that wasn't what shocked me. It was more than well kept. The grass was perfectly trimmed out side the tall, white house with a wrap around porch. There were vines growing around the porch and flowers hanging above the swing. Who did all the gardening? I couldn't see any of them coming home to diligently mow the lawn, nonetheless plant flowers in the pots in front of the house.

I wasn't sure if they expected me to come in, but I decided to play it safe and text Lea to let her know I was here. As soon as I hit send, I noticed the front door swing open and Jake come running out. I hopped out of my car and met him around the front.

He pulled me into a welcoming embrace. "You look beautiful!" he said.

"Thanks," I smiled and looked down. "I'm sorry i'm late."

"What? C'mon now, you're a girl. I know how it is. I was planning on you being late," he laughed. "Plus, Lea isn't ready either. She is upstairs throwing her clothes everywhere. Apparently, none of the 100's of outfits she has is good enough for a birthday," he rolled his eyes as he leaned against the hood of my car.

I laughed. "Hey! Give her a break, we are the ones who told her today was such a big deal."

"I know, I know. And it is! It's her sweet 16 Rai," I could tell how excited he was. "I just want it to be perfect." He looked off to nothing really. "I know mom would've made it perfect." He said quietly. I felt an ache in my chest as I thought about why Jake was trying so hard. This meant a lot to all of them. Lea was the youngest, and the only girl. They knew their parents would have made her sweet sixteen something special.

I put a comforting hand on his shoulder, but before I could say anything I heard a deep voice call over to us. "Hey, you guys may want to get in here." Eli was standing in the front door with a worried look on his face that spiked my attention. What happened?