Always Second

Chapter 21

Scarlett was on campus when her phone started ringing. Picking it up, she answered it. "Hello."

"Hey, do you know where Delilah is, I've been texting her all day and she hasn't answered. She'll usually at least send a small text or something. I just want to check in if she's safe."

Scarlett frowned through the phone, "Jace, don't you know it's her birthday?!!" Scarlett yelled through the phone and heard absolute silence after she asked him that. "Don't tell me you didn't know? How could you not know?!!"

Jace palmed his face huffing into the phone. How could he have forgotten something so important. She must be pissed at him and wasn't answering him. Jace growled through the phone, "How was I supposed to know, no one ever told me? She's probably fucking pissed?" 

Scarlett sighed in disappointment, "I can't believe you never asked?"

Knowing he was at fault, Jace puffed in frustration, "Well shit, I better go."

"Where are you going?!!!!" Scarlett panicked. 

"I don't know. I've got to think of something and surprise her."

"NO!!! Listen to me Jace, do not do anything. OK." At this point, Scarlett was screaming into the phone and everyone around her was looking at her oddly.

Jace frowned, even more confused. One moment he was supposed to know it was her birthday and do something for her but in the other moment, he wasn't supposed to do anything? What the hell? 

"Why? What's the problem?"

Scarlett pursed her lips together and looked up to stop the tears in her eyes from coming out as it made her depressed to think about it. "Delilah doesn't celebrate her birthday. To be frank, she doesn't do anything on her birthday. I mean, anything. Trust me. When she first told me she didn't do birthday's, I thought she was kidding, but when I saw her on that specific day, she looked so distant. She looked so dejected and sorrowful, it was hard to look at and when I tried to cheer her up with a cake and everything, even though she looked up at me, her eyes were so dead and out of it, it was as if she was looking past me. And she said to me with the most desolate voice, to just leave her alone. She'll be back to normal tomorrow, she always is, but please, just leave her be today."

Nodding in understanding, Jace said ok and hung up. Jace put his hands on his knees and rubbed his face with his hands. Delilah was tearing him apart. Just hearing how miserable she was from Scarlett on this day, killed him. He hated to see her in so much despair, especially on a day where she should have been celebrating. He wanted to celebrate with her. It was her big day.  He still very much wanted to do something, but didn't know if he should or not. Would he make it worse or what? Oh lord, what was he going to do? 

Delilah curled up onto the chair of her rooms small balcony. The one in the living room was bigger, but she didn't feel like going out there and running into Scarlett. She wanted to be alone as of the moment, like she was all her life. Chuckling to herself, Delilah smiled and felt tears about to pour out of her eyes. 

She never thought she would be able to say that 'she wanted to be alone as of the moment.' She didn't realize it before, but maybe now she actually has something to be thankful for. Before, she had always been alone and there was no escaping it. Since when did she have to ask to be alone, since when did she have to lock herself up in her room to be alone. 

These past three years, Scarlett had always been there for her and she never realized it. Delilah was truly thankful to have Scarlett in her life and she didn't think she expressed that enough. Delilah laughed at how much of a hypocrite she was. She was always thinking that everyone around her should be thankful for what they had, but she always thought she had nothing to be thankful for. How foolish of her?

Scoffing at herself, Delilah made a note in her head to tell Scarlett how thankful she was to have her in her life. 

Delilah sighed as she looked down at the busy street and people walking by. It was clear as day and sunny outside. As always, the wether never depicted what she was feeling inside. Delilah was thankful for the people around her, she was no longer completely alone, but that didn't get rid of the hole in her heart.

She said all the time that she had been alone for so long that it didn't matter to her anymore since that was all she felt, but deep down inside of her, she knew she was lying. Because deep down inside, there was a raw pain that ached in her and every birthday of hers that passed by, it just kept growing inside of her and got worse and worse. She could call it emptiness, she could call it many things. But how could emptiness cause her to feel so wretched in side. She couldn't express it in words. 

She used to enjoy her birthdays. She remembered small clips of when she was 6, 7, and 8. They used to be fun and both of her parents were beside her. And then all of a sudden, they disappeared and it was just her. No parent's, no presents, no cake, no card, no love and not even a small note with two simple words on it. There was nothing. Absolutely nothing. And it broke her heart year after year.

She should have gotten to used to it, but she never did. Even if she wanted it to, it wouldn't get rid of that pain eating away inside of her. Delilah came to hate her birthday, she despised it. The day she came into the world should have been a happy one, one that was celebrated and it was for eight years, but then it became a day she started to resent. Her father was gone, forever gone in her life, but her mother was still there and she didn't even give Delilah a second of her day to wish her daughter a happy birthday. Was that too much to ask for? 

Delilah felt her lap start to get wet and knew where the source was coming from. No matter how much she tried to stop the tears from coming out, there was no way of stopping them. They poured out so hard, everything was blurry and no matter how much she tried to blink them out, they continued falling nonstop. 

Several minutes later filled with silence and tears, Delilah just kept staring down. She was lost in the moment when she heard lots of commotion coming from the people on the streets. Looking down at them, she saw that they were all looking up. Following their sight of view, Delilah looked up and was complelty shocked. She was completely dumbfounded as she read the biggest "Happy Birthday L" in the sky. Knowing immediatly who it was, Delilah's permanent frown of the day turned upside down for once. Delilah stared at the words until they faded away, cherishing them in her heart and when she thought it was over, she realized the jet was writing something else. In big white letters, Delilah read what it said, "City View Later?" and a few minutes letter, the last message said, "Downstairs at 8?"

She smiled as she understood what he was talking about. Scarlett probably told him. Delilah sighed as she was in a turmoil with herself. She wanted to see him suddenly, but should she? Should she go? She had been alone for so long and she finally realized that she wasn't anymore. Maybe it's time for a change for once.