Prompt: Maybe Silas's first birthday with Ray? With Ray buying a cake (let's face it Ray's not gon bake a cake) and asking Silas what he wants to do/getting him presents?
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Silas rubbed his eyes as he got out of his bed. He sniffed the air and furrowed his brow. It smelled...sweet? Not the usual cinnamon scent of Ray burning a candle after a workout.
Silas went downstairs and into the kitchen, where Ray was cleaning dishes at the sink. He looked over his shoulder at Silas.
"Morning," he greeted.
"What's that smell?" Silas asked.
"Tried to bake a cake. Haven't made one in years, and I burned that sucker. My bad. We'll just buy you one," he said.
"A cake?" Silas's confusion grew.
Ray nodded. "Sure. Your birthday is tomorrow."
When Ray realized Silas was still frowning, he stopped washing the dishes and turned to face him. Silas kept a safe distance from Ray, that confusion turning to distrust.
"Your parents never got you a birthday cake?" Ray asked.
Silas shook his head. "Why would they? Sometimes they gave me $15 to go buy clothes. Ain't need nothing else."
Ray stared at his nephew. Even in Ray's childhood, his mother always baked him and his sister, Eliza, a cake for their birthdays. Eliza liked vanilla cake with frosting and crushed heath bars on the top, and that's what his mother made every year just to see Eliza's eyes light up at the sight. How could Eliza not take the time to give her own son the same small joy?
"Well, I'm giving you a birthday cake," Ray said. "If you want a homemade one, I'll give it another try. If you want an ice cream cake, I'll call the ice cream shop right now. You want a bakery one? I'll pull up their number. You just tell me what you want."
"Nothin'," Silas said. This was a trick. It had to be. Why would Ray buy him a cake? It was just the two of them; it'd be a waste of money. They'd just throw most of it out.
"Okay, what about a present? Have your eye on anything specific?" Ray said. "I bought you clothes. Besides, you're turning 13. Clothes are probably a boring gift for you."
Another trick. Why would Ray waste money on Silas after all the things he'd already bought for him?
"Nothin'," Silas repeated.
Ray leaned against the counter. "Look, kid, you're still new to town and I know you haven't made any good friends yet. You don't want a party, you already said that. I respect that. But it's your birthday, you're turning into a teenager, and I want to get you a cake and some presents. Your grandma keeps nagging me to know what you want too. And your grandpa called this morning to know if it was best to just get you a gift card."
Silas knew his grandparents were coming up tomorrow for his birthday, but he didn't want them to. He didn't trust his grandpa. Not after everything his mom told him. Sure, his grandpa hadn't hit him yet, but Silas didn't trust any of it.
"I don't want nothin'," Silas repeated, glaring at Ray.
"I made reservations at that steak house for dinner tomorrow. But if you want to go somewhere during the day, I'll take you," Ray said.
Silas paused. "That place is expensive."
"And?" Ray said. "What do I look like, some cheap old man? I know you wanted to go there. So I made reservations. Now, what do you want to do in the day?"
Silas felt frustrated. Why was Ray doing all this for him? It was just his birthday. It wasn't anything special.
"Will you just fuck off?" Silas snapped. "Already said I don't want to do nothing."
Ray kept the patient expression on his face. He'd already learned that Silas defaulted to swearing and picking a fight when he got overwhelmed with his new circumstances.
"How about a hike?" Ray said. "We'll go for a hike on that trail I took you on last month, and then come home to shower before going out to dinner."
Silas paused, because he had really liked that hike. He'd never been hiking before, but Ray showed him the trail, and let them sit at the top of it and eat lunch. Silas had never seen such a view before. He wanted to go again. But if he said yes, Ray would surely smack him and laugh at him for being dumb enough to believe he could go for his birthday.
Ray gave Silas a moment to think it over before speaking again. "Does a hike sound good to you, Silas? It's your birthday. I don't want to make you do anything you're going to find boring."
"If you wanna, you can fucking go for it," Silas grumbled, because he really wanted to, but he was afraid to admit that.
"Then we'll go," Ray said, reading into the nervous flicker of Silas's eyes and the fidgeting of his hands. He got like that when he didn't want to tell the truth. Or when he was too afraid to. "A hike, and then dinner and cake after." Ray paused. "You like heath bars?"
"Never had 'em," Silas said.
"Well, I'll put some on the cake and we'll see how it goes," Ray said. "Your birthday is important, Silas. We're going to celebrate it every year, however you want to. Get used to it, you punk ass kid."
"How'd you even know it was tomorrow?" Silas demanded. It wasn't important enough to remember. Sometimes his parents forgot. Sometimes even he forgot.
"Because I'm your uncle, and I've remembered every year since you were born. Because you're my family and your birthday is an important day," Ray said.
"Don't know yours. Don't care," Silas said.
"That doesn't matter. I'm old and grumpy. You're only turning 13," Ray said. "Let me finish cleaning up and I'll make you breakfast. Go make your bed."
Silas went back upstairs and started making his bed. But he stopped and went to his desk, where he had a picture he'd taken of the view on that hike.
He stared at it, hating the desperate hope in his chest. He wanted to go hike it again so, so badly. He really hoped Ray wasn't fucking with him on this.
"Please," he whispered, gripping the picture tighter.
This was all he wanted for his birthday.
And the next day, Ray took him hiking. And they had lunch with grandparents in front of that view that Silas had no words to describe. And they went to dinner, letting Silas order an expensive but delicious steak. And they gave him a cake with heath bars crushed on top that was delicious. And they gave him presents and cards and wished him a happy birthday.
It was overwhelming. It was all so new. But it wasn't bad.
Silas hoped Ray would let him go hiking to that view every year on his birthday.
