Where Life Takes Us

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

A V E R Y

My day started out as ordinary as it always was, even though it was September thirteenth; my sixteenth birthday.

I woke up that morning — which was one week after my junior year started — but other than a quick embrace from Noah before school, that was the only birthday greeting that I received. My parents left for work before Noah and I were awake. They briefly explained the night before that they planned to work all day and weren't going to arrive home until after I headed to bed.

As much as I hated to admit to myself, I felt that none of my friends remembered my birthday. I knew it wasn't that important if anybody else hardly cared about my birthday, but I felt a little disappointed that the people I spent almost everyday with didn't seem to care.

I had bigger problems at that moment, as I sprinted down the school hallways. I received a notice from the school library in my locker, saying I had overdue items checked out. I started panicking because I knew my parents would reprimand me if they found out I lost my library pass and they had to pay for it before I told them.

Conveniently, the library was close to where my locker was, so in a couple moments of rushing down the hallways and receiving stares from fellow peers, I eventually made it to the library doors. Once I headed straight past the doorways, my heart dropped.

Standing there and holding a banner that said, "It's your birthday!" were all of my friends. All the girls are kneeling on the ground, when I noticed Willow holding a small cake. The boys were holding the banner and I couldn't help but notice all of their grins, especially Wade, who was in the midst of them with his arms extended outwards.

"Happy sixteenth birthday, Avery!" They cheered out, the eager grins on their faces far from faltering.

At first, I was in utter disbelief, merely by glancing over at them and their poster. "Is this all for me?" I questioned, as I let out an amused gasp and began walking over towards them.

"Oh, no. We decided we were bored and decided to surprise our friend, whose name is also Avery," Parker sarcastically remarked, giving me a bemused look before breaking out into a grin as our friends guffawed.

"Ignore that doofus," Willow giggled, her cheeks slightly turning a shade of red when she glanced at Parker. Everyone began to gather around Willow and I with the cake that had a few birthday candles that were lit up by flames in her hands.

Before I was about to make a wish, I glanced at all of my friends around me. I thought I was extremely lucky to have each and every one of them; Willow, Parker, Ellie, Austin, Tyson, Rebecca, Natalie, and Wade.

I always felt that I never spent my birthday with people that truly wanted to be around me. Looking at my friends' genuine smiles, I knew that something had changed for a moment that day and for that, I was extremely grateful.

__________

"I sorta forgot this before we came here," Wade nervously laughed, walking towards me before handing me the package with a smile. "I didn't have time to wrap it since it was last-minute. This is yours."

The rest of our friends mischievously settled on a nearby table in the library, devouring the chocolate cake that they meant to give me as my birthday cake. Wade and I decided to hang back and told them we would join them later, but the only reason why I stayed back was to get a chance to talk to Wade alone.

Taking the box into my hands for a closer examination, I didn't know what it was until I let out a gasp of amusement. Inside the box were DVDs of my favourite science fiction trilogy that were turned into a series of movies. I should've known from the graphics of the movie depicted on the box's sides that the DVDs came in.