✔️Soundtrack to My Youth (18+)

On The Day You Come

"Happy Birthday Pumpkin" Dad announced Friday morning, flinging open my bedroom door. I glanced over to my bedroom clock which read 4:52, the sun wasn't even up yet but I had to be? I sat up in my small, single bed, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes while they tried to adjust to the light pouring in from the hallway.

Birthdays were always a big deal to my Dad, he loved celebrating Bridget and I and making our day as special as it could be, even if our birthday fell on a day that we were stuck at our Mother's house he would travel down and take us out for lunch.

"Thank you Dad" my voice thick with stollen sleep, he moved in further to my room and I could see that he was holding a small, square box in his hands. "Dad, you shouldn't have, you already gave me an amazing party and $200 just to go to a theme park." He sat down on my bed, placing the box between us.

"It's uh...not from me, it's from your Mother actually, she left it at the door last night" I look from him to the box, anger building inside of me.

"I don't want it" I tell him firmly, pushing it far away from me, "She couldn't even be bothered to contact Bridget on her birthday and that letter that was sent was absolutely disgusting and now she thinks she can try and buy me? If Bridget saw this it would break her heart"

"I thought that this would be your stance on it but I didn't want to hide it from you, I needed to give you the option of opening it or not and I didn't want to show it to you in front of your sister because, like you said, it would break her heart. I can't tell you not to allow your Mother back into you lives, I can only support You and Bridget in whatever decision you make but, in my opinion, your Mother isn't doing herself any favours by not accepting who her daughter is, she's only hurting herself with her actions" He leans over and kisses the top of my head before standing up from my bed, taking the box with him. He gets to my doorway and turns around, "No school today, I left money on the table, go out for lunch with your sister and enjoy your birthday pumpkin." He closes the door behind him, leaving me in darkness with my thoughts, a few moments later I heard the front door closing and Dad's work van roaring to life before it backed out of the driveway and down the street.

How could she? How could she think that it would be alright to give me a present when she had done nothing for Bridget? When she had told Bridget how much of a 'disappointment' she was to her. That present was never meant to be for my birthday, in fact it wasn't even about me at all, it was about finding a way to get to Bridget, to hurt her and to show Susan's merry band of enablers that she tried but her daughters had rejected her.

They'd never know the full truth of the story, nor would any of them ever dare question Susan, to them, her word was golden, her daughters were the bad seeds and she was the worlds perfect mother.

I got up and paced around my room in anger, it's my birthday, I should be feeling special, happy, cheerful, joyous, ecstatic but instead all I could feel was anger. My birthday ruined before the day had even begun.

I grabbed my phone from beside my bed and sent off a text to Sam, explaining how I won't be going to school today. It was the last day of the term before Easter break so it wasn't unusual for kids to be skipping, with families wanting to leave early for camping to try and beat the holiday traffic rush that would kick in by this afternoon.

I was surprised to hear my phone vibrate with a reply, it was 5:30am, Sam didn't usually wake up until 7 on a school day.

***Happy Birthday bunny, I love you. Can I come over?***

Seeing Sam this morning would certainly turn this bad day back around, I sent back a text saying yes and ran to the bathroom to shower as quickly as I could before he would arrive. I know it was ridiculous, Sam had seen me in my PJs, with bed hair numerous times now but this was my special day and I wanted to put the sour taste of the morning behind me and enjoy my day.