Too Many Secrets

Chapter 40

"Skylar, Skylar! Wake up," I feel someone shake me. Oh no they must have heard my screaming.

"What's wrong?" I ask, rubbing the sleep from my eyes.

"It's your birthday!" Zach shouts, loudly.

I turn to look at the clock by my bed. "Oh, I guess it is."

"Come downstairs!" Zach says, pulling me out of bed. I hold onto my blanket, too cold to leave the warm sensation that is my bed.

"Can we do this in the morning? I'm so tired," I ask, giving Zach my best puppy dog eyes.

"No, of course we can't wait," Ben says, standing in my doorway. "Get your lazy butt out of bed."

"Ugh, fine." I pull my legs out of my soft sheets and get a pair of socks before I leave my room. I hop down the hallways trying to put my socks on while I'm being dragged downstairs. What do they want? It's the middle of the night.

When we finally get downstairs, which is completely dark, Ben tells me to turn around. Now that I'm facing them, they start to push me softly so I'm walking backwards into the kitchen.

Zach turns on the lights, Ben flips me around, and everyone is there. Cole, Dylan, and Jake are standing around the kitchen table with ten different tubs of ice cream and a small cupcake in the middle.

"Happy birthday Skylar!" they all say simultaneously.
I can't help but let out a laugh. My grin is so wide you can probably count all my teeth.

"You said you didn't like cake so we got you ice cream," Zach says, shrugging his shoulders as if what he did was nothing.

I walk over to him and pull him into a hug.

"Thank you so much. You have no idea what this means to me," I say quietly so only he can hear.

"Anything for you, Sky."

"It's tradition that at midnight we all have cake together, but since you don't like cake, we got you a small cupcake. I hope you like it," Ben says.

"I love it. Thank you, guys."
Jake hands out bowls to everyone. He is the designated ice cream scooper of the night. He takes all of our orders only having to ask once. In the matter of two minutes, we all have giant bowls filled to the brim with our favorite ice cream - mine obviously is covered in sprinkles.

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Last night was so sweet. We all sat around the table for two hours just talking and slowly finishing all ten tubs of ice cream. At around 2 in the morning, I almost fell into my ice cream. I was so tired so I went upstairs. When I got back into my bed, I remembered what happened the last time I closed my eyes. I didn't want to go back to the nightmare that was last year. A year ago, today.

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 I open my eyes and the light from the window is blinding. I guess I forgot to close the drapes. I turn to look at the clock. 9 o'clock. I don't remember falling asleep, but I'm thankful I did.

I look down at my phone, no messages. Well, it makes sense considering none of my new friends know it's my birthday, but there is nothing from my friends back in New York. Not from Kayla, Jasmine, Hailey, or even Kelsey.

I walk down the familiar carpeted stairs and ready myself for all the craziness. My brothers seem to have an obsession with my birthday. Before my cousins left on Friday I overheard a conversation. Jake was talking to Rebecca and Az about how they want to go all out for this day. They want to throw me a giant party with all my friends. Thankfully, Rebecca shut it down from what I heard. I don't know if I would be able to deal with a party today, or anytime soon. I was too nervous to be caught eavesdropping so I went back up to my room, but now I have no idea what they have planned.