Haven

Chapter Fourteen

Something heavy collapsing on top of me chanting happy birthday woke me up. After opening my eyes, I quickly scrunched them closed again due to the light baiting in the opened curtains.

I groan, which turns into a whine as I peek an open and see it's 7.30am.
"There's something wrong with you!" I hiss to Alex, who was of course the culprit that opened my drapes and collapsed on top of me on the last day I could have a lie in which also happened to be my birthday.

"Don't be cranky, come on get up it's OUR birthday." He chants, pulling me by my arm out of bed. I whine loud again, not happy about his incessant happiness.
"So why couldn't WE sleep in!" I retort, as I stumble down the stairs behind him.

Alex chuckles in response and I snatch my arm out of his grip, once at the bottom of the stairs.
However, I can't help but smile at the array of balloons in the hallway. And my smile doesn't go unnoticed by my newfound father, as he grins, clearly very pleased with himself.

I follow him to the kitchen, hoping there's no more surprises. I couldn't reciprocate, and now that I know he's an actual relation that I kinda owe enough to as it is, I feel like I should have gotten him a gift.

My jaw literally dropped when I got into the kitchen. Two giant gold 16 balloons stood on either side of my seat at the island, and on the island there was a MacBook Pro, a diamond encrusted Rolex, a bottle of Chanel perfume and another bottle of Christian Dior Poison Girl.
After staring at the stuff for about it 30 seconds, I whirled around to face him and he looked somewhat nervous. As if I wouldn't like any of that stuff.

I feel a smile spreading across my face. "That's like way too much." I manage to say, cause really it is. But I'm not complaining. I go back to the stuff, opening the card that was there and making a mental note to keep it, my first birthday card from my dad had to be kept surely.
I hear him chuckle behind me, wrapping his arms around me and kissing the top of my head.
"It is a bit over the top, but it's our first birthday together, and I need to make up for the other 15 that missed."

I shake my head, taking the Rolex out of the box, trying it on. That's like $5000 on my wrist.
"And that MacBook is for educational purposes more than anything else, I was informed that most of the kids in that school use them." He explains, as if that makes it any less over the top.
"Alex I have seen your office, and there's spares lying around gathering dust." I argue, lightly while unpacking it.

He chuckles, going to make coffee. "I can take it back if it bothers you that much." I hear him threaten lightly, but I'm too engrossed in adding the photos to my stories on snap and insta to care.
"Not a chance." I murmur back to him, smiling happily to myself. "You've set the bar quite high, should I expect this for all gift giving occasions?" I joke, smirking in his direction with my eyes still locked on my space grey shiny new device.

Alex laughs. "As much as this is the opposite of how I was raised, I do plan on spoiling you a little. I'm not a complete monster." He says in jest and I shrug, nodding in agreement.
"Not today, anyways." I agree, smirking again.

"So here's the plan, I'm making us a nice breakfast. We're going for a hike, then we can come back here and chill out so you can be nice and freak tomorrow." He informs me and I hum in response, engrossed in the MacBook.
"Jaida, I'd like you to acknowledge me when I'm talking to you!" His voice firmer, and I look up instantly, barely keeping the pout off my lips.

I sigh. "If that's all that's on the agenda, what was the need to wake me up so early?" I can't help but challenge. It's in my nature, and with the knowledge of our biological relationship, I didn't lick that up off the ground.
He narrows his eyes, looking like he's about to start whooping my ass. "Jaida, don't start! I wanna be nice today." I nod my head in surrender, because in all honesty I wanted to have a nice day too.

So we had our nice breakfast, waffles and bacon and all that good stuff. Then we went on our hike, and come the end of it I was glad we went. The little things were slowly making me feel at home, the routines were slowly settling my anxiety and spending that time together and furthermore, it still feeling normal after his big revelation the previous day gave me hope that me and Alex could bounce back from it.

When we returned from our hike, we both went off to shower and I decided I'd have one last nice make-up day before the impending doom of school descended upon my life. My only beacon of light was that Ella would be there, although I knew that would inevitably get me in more trouble. After an hour of dressing myself up, I heard Alex opening the front door, and a couple of voices chattering away.

Briefly, I considered getting upset about him inviting people over, but it hit me it was his birthday too and he didn't deserve for me to give him a hard time. But that didn't mean I was brave enough to go follow the noise. No way. So I sat listening, like a creep, trying to figure out who it was and why it sounded like multiple people. As more time passed, I began to wonder why he hadn't come looking for me, then the doorbell chimed again. More people? I picked up my phone and sent Alex a "wtf?" message, to no avail, he simply ignored it. Or else he didn't see it, but since the man is addicted to his phone I figured that was unlikely.

Just as I had intentionally built up enough rage to gain enough confidence to go and confront him, my bedroom door bursted open, following another knock on the front door. All five foot of Ella barged through, with a shit-eating grin on her face. Her caramel hair was loose, beachy waves cascading her heart shaped face.

She instantly jumped on me, wrapping her arms and legs around me, squeezing me close to death. "Did you miss me?" She bounces excitedly, causing me to collapse to the floor. We both bust out laughing, as I nod yes to her question.

"How are you here?" I ask her, as I catch my breath. Her eyes light up, a mischievous gleam appearing. "That has to be the best news I have, not only are we neighbours, but my foster parents are supposedly close friends of your foster dad!" She exclaims, and a shit eating grin appears on my

"You've gotta be kidding?" I can't believe my luck. "Okay so screw your fosters, move in with mine he's proven himself to be cool, check it out!" I tell her, as I jump up to show her my closet. Her jaw drops, and her gobsmacked expression is quickly replaced by a pout.

"How?" She asks, and I decide to drop the bomb on her. "Okay, so don't freak out but he's my dad." She re-adopts her gobsmacked expression so I continue. "I only found out yesterday, but my mom like knew all along who he was and they ran into each other last year and she told him about so here I am."
"What the actual fuck! I almost don't know what to say.." She trails off, and I totally understand. That was my reaction.

"Fuck!-" Just as she's about to go off on another tangent, Alex clears his throat from the doorway and I thank the heavens it was her swearing and not me.
"I see you found her." He jokes, and Ella nods happily. "I'm a foster kid, the only thing I can't find is real parents!" I can't hold back the laugh, and I see her eyes light up. "But not my girl here, she found that!" She laughs, pointing to me. "She's definitely our new navigator! Where's mine at, girl?"

Luckily, Alex found the running commentary as funny as both did. "Well whenever you guys are finished with the string of inappropriate language and comedy, feel free to join us downstairs. There are a few people who'd like to wish you a happy birthday." He points to me and I nod, standing to my feet and dragging Ella up as I do.

I sigh deeply when I get to the bottom of the stairs, cringing at the thought of who might be there since Alex was clearly attempting some kind of party. Taking a deep breath, I looked back to Ella who looked the happiest I'd seen her in years and smiled. Looks like our birthday was just getting started!