Silent Pain

Sydney's Birthday

 I went to bed that night wearing a pajama gown Allen got me for my birthday last year. It was sky blue with red hearts and my name sewn into the back at the neck line. Allen had it personally made. Since my birthday is on Sunday, I knew it wasn't going to be the same, I didn't want to do anything without Allen. My parents have been asking me where I wanted to go for dinner and I have yet to provide an answer. As for tomorrow morning, I am going over to Kate's house so she can help me with this assignment for Mr. Roberts' class. The sky had cleared up completely by the time I was ready for bed, but I was too tired to look at the moon or stars, so I just quickly fell asleep.

I had another flashback instead of a dream and it was about my birthday last year. We went to Reyna's Restaurant for dinner. It's one of my favorites. A lot of the fanciest restaurants are over an hour long drive, so I try not to request anything out of Lemoore. I wore a red fancy dinner dress with a birthday girl sash and plastic tiara. My dad wore black slacks and a button up shirt, mom wore a black blouse and black slacks. As for Allen, he was in black dress pants, a white button up shirt and a black tie. He used hair gel to part his hair and was wearing some kind of cologne. Most sisters don't talk about how handsome their brothers are but I noted to myself that Allen looked amazing.

Our experience that day was amazing, the restaurant paid for my dessert. The only embarrassing part was when Allen stood up and got all the customers' attention and pointed me out saying that it was my 16th birthday. I remember it exactly. "Attention ladies and gentlemen! Today is a very special day for my sister here, Sydney! She is sixteen today so would everyone please join my parents and me in singing happy birthday to her?" I tried to hide my face as Allen started getting everyone in the restaurant to sing happy birthday. After the song was over, Allen had me stand up and we hugged. Before letting me go, he kissed the top of my head. "I love you sis." The flashback ended, my clock said 4:09 in the morning. I look outside, still clear. I go to the window and look at the moon and stars. "I love you too Allen". I said it the exact same way I said it to him last year at the restaurant. If only I could say that to him one more time for him to hear.

I couldn't go back to sleep, so I tried to get up to chapter 20 in The Scarlet Letter so it would be easier for Kate to help me. I was half way through chapter 19 when I fell back asleep. At 10:30, Kate texted me and asked me when I was going to be there. I told her that I just needed to get dressed and I'll be over in about ten minutes. She said okay, and I proceeded to get ready. When I got downstairs, dad was drinking his coffee and watching the news and mom was cleaning up from breakfast. "Morning Sydney". "Morning mom." "Where are you off to?" "Just to Kate's house, we're going to work together on our assignment in English." "Okay, just let me know when you're going to be home." I nodded at my mom and left the house. I knocked on Kate's door and her dad answered. He let me in and I sat down in the lounge. Kate came down from her room. I told her I got half way through chapter 19 and she was happy to hear that. "Do you want anything to drink?" Kate asks. "No thanks." She let me sit on the long couch and she sat beside me. We pulled out our assignments and Kate compared my answers to hers. "Good, except I think you should add more to question seven for chapter 18." I looked at the question, my answer and then the part of the chapter where I found the answer. I wrote two more sentences and Kate read it. "Better, much better." We finished early and Kate went upstairs to get something. She handed me a wrapped box. "For your birthday tomorrow." "Thanks." I texted my parents and said I was on my way home. Before I parked, I saw Javier's car parked in the driveway. I parked next to him, blocking my mom in and went inside to see Javier talking to my parents. He too, had a present.

"Hey Sydney." Dad says. "Hey." "Javier was just dropping something off for your birthday tomorrow." "Thanks Javier," "you're welcome muchacha." "If you've decided where you wanted to go for dinner tomorrow, I offered to let Kate and Javier tag along." Mom added. I was excited to hear that, so I quickly suggested that we go back to Reyna's Restaurant. My parents immediately made a reservation and I called Kate to invite her. She soon responded saying she had permission and asked me what time we were leaving. I told her we'd be over to pick her up at 5:30. I go upstairs to put away my homework and then come back to hang out with Javier for a little while before he left. This may be better than I thought, my friends are coming to my dinner party tomorrow! This should be great.

The next night, I wore a black dress with black ankle high boots. I put my hair up in a ponytail then curled it. I was wearing light makeup and a pair of earrings. My parents were dressed up almost like last year and my dad was holding a huge card. "Is that my birthday card?" I asked. "Yes", "it's like three feet by four feet!" "It is". Mom adds. "Come on, let's go get your friends." I got in the van and texted Javier saying we were on our way. When we pulled up in front of his house, I saw that he was wearing a nice shirt, jacket and black slacks. Why does everyone think they have to dress nice for my birthday? He handed me a card that was from Martha and Jose. He told me to read it. On the inside, it says, "Dear Sydney, feliz cumpleaños mi querida, we hope you have a wonderful day mija". "What does it say, Javier?" "It says, 'happy birthday my dear." "What does mija mean?" "You know how my parents call me mijo sometimes?" "Yeah," "they basically just called you 'daughter'". Wow, interesting.

We pulled up in front of Kate's house and she too was dressed up nice. Her hair was in a bun on the top of her head, she was wearing a sparkly blue dress with silver heels and matching colored makeup. The gifts from Javier and Kate were in the Trunk. Kate crawled into the back of the van and put her make up bag down on the seat next to her. This is going to be a great night. At the restaurant, we got our table. This was a nice place to sit, but everyone was looking at us. Are we known as the fancy family for always coming here looking like we're rich? I hope not. When our waiter came, Javier ordered all of his food and his drink in Spanish. The waiter responded in Spanish but this kind of threw him off so he spoke Spanish to the rest of us. Kate responded in Spanish then that's when the waiter finally spoke English. "I told him the only ones who speak Spanish are Javier and me". She explains. "I see". What language does Kate not know? I was curious so I asked her. "Well, I don't know Farsi, Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, Finnish, Russian, Zulu, or Polish just to name a few". "So other than English, you know German and Spanish?" "And French." Kate adds. "Wait, what?" "Je parle couramment le français depuis 2009" "What?" "I said, I've been speaking fluent French since 2009". Go figure, another fun fact about Kate.

During our meal, Kate whispered something to the waiter and I had no doubt that it was about me being the birthday girl so I didn't even bother asking. After our dinner plates were picked up, Javier got a text message and said he'd be right back. Kate told me to open the present she got me. I unwrapped the gift and inside a birthday box was a new make up bag, some new eye shadow, perfume and gold lipstick. I thanked her for all of it. Javier came back with red roses, my absolute favorite flower. Attached was a card that said, "you only see me as a friend, but I see you as more than that". It was really sweet. Javier passed me his gift and in it was a teddy bear holding a picture of the very first photo Javier and I took together. We were in third grade and we were at his birthday party at the bowling alley. I loved it. My parents got me a new cell phone with a picture of Allen as the background wallpaper. This warmed my heart, if only Allen were here in person. According to Javier and his culture, Allen is here in spirit and was with me on Halloween night.

As our desserts were coming, the waiters and waitresses were singing and dancing. They sang a special happy birthday song to me as my friends joined in. Javier pulled Allen's old move and pointed me out for all the other guests to see. Great, I was hoping to escape that this year, but oh well, however he wasn't done there. Kate forced me to stand up and Xavier did the unexpected; he pulled me in for a kiss. There were a lot of people reacting around us but I didn't care. My kiss in return was my way of telling Javier I loved him more than just a friend. What a night, way to spend my 17th birthday.