Chapter 13.1

This is the day I was born without my consent.

It's saturday, and my family members are all down stairs waiting for my grand entrance. They're already playing birthday songs and I hear all my cousins, uncle and aunts cheering and laughing. A quick look outside says there are already a lot of people down stairs. I haven't heard about Anne though. She hasn't texted me if she's on her way, but I'm hoping she's going to surprise me.

I chose to wear an off shoulder yellow dress. Mom made me pick out of the four dresses she bought and this one I think looks the best, although I would've preferred jeans and a nice blouse, I'm more comfortable in that. I have the worst posture, I'm gay, thought that might give it away that I couldn't stand up straight, but I'll try.

A background information about what happened yesterday with my brother sleeping over at the Wallace's, I picked him up at school and threw him up his bedroom window. We don't have a choice, my parents are downstairs we can't just walk in like nothing happened that morning, although it would be a good prank to act clueless about it. They'll think they got transported to a parallel universe. But they're too old to buy our shit so Evan has to climb his way up to his room with my help.

I heard a knock on the door while I was fixing my hair, deciding where to part it. I shouted for them to come in. Slowly, the door opened revealing my grandparents. They were whispering loudly at each other. Grandma told Grandpa to keep it down, she hit her playfully at the head with a gift wrapper and I couldn't help but laugh at the old couple. My grandpa and grandma fought their way inside. Each of them pushing each other so one of them will be the first one to make it to me.

"Ellaine! Look how big you've become!" Grandpa cupped my cheeks with his wrinkled hands, even squeezing it. He couldn't see well at a long distance now. So he have to come closer.

"She is a big girl, isn't she Carlo? Our gift would suit her very much." Grandma said.

"Yes, the gift, of course!" Grandpa finally let go of my cheeks and by the time he did it was already red and hurting. "Lenny, where did I put it again?" He whispered though I could hear it clearly.

"It's on your hand, stupid."

That made me laugh again. I turned to my grandpa's arm and there he wears a rainbow hair tie. He got it off of his hand and gave it to grandma.

"Sweetie, would you turn around for me?" She said.

I was confused but I turned to my mirror anyway. There, I saw my reflection and my grandparents behind me smiling. I feel grandma's hand on my brown hair as it started to comb it with her fingers.

"Oh I miss the old days when my hair was still as lively as yours sweetheart." She said. "Hooked a lot of men, even more handsome than your grandpa." She whispered on my ears then I chuckled.

"What are you ladies talking about?" Grandpa interfered but we both just shrug him off. It's a girl talk.

Grandma did my hair into a loose french braid that goes down to the side. She secured it with the hair tie from my grandpa's hand. They both smiled as they admired it well.

"Beautiful, you look like an angel my sweetheart." They put their hands on my shoulder.

"Thank you Grandma and Grandpa. I love it," I said as I touched the hair tie. It even has pearls all around it.

"We heard the lesbians like rainbows!" Grandpa said a little too loud. Only a bunch of people know I'm not hiding it, but other people could view it negatively and I'm glad my grandparents aren't one of those people. They accept and love who I am.

Grandma booped him on the head with a gift wrapper again. He doesn't have a filter with his loud voice.

"Don't be ignorant Carlo. There's people downstairs, they might hear you." She rolled her eyes at him. Poor grandpa. "So..."

Once again, she fixed my hair, patting it. She was once a beauty queen, and could still be today, at least in my eyes she could, no, she is. Grandpa and grandpa both have a good sense of style since they both worked at the fashion industry way back. Grandpa was the one with the camera, capturing the images of Grandma, who was always his model. Their story was so astonishing it will leave you envying them. They deserve a book of their own.

"All done." Grandma said.

I stood up looking fresher than I did before they arrived. I look like a virgin offering about to be thrown into a volcano, but in a good way.

I hugged my grandparents. They lead me downstairs, and I was kind of shy thinking the attention would all be on me. As we got down stairs, I saw balloons flying on the ceiling, all my family members, and a bunch of people I don't know of, staring at me.

Evan and my other cousin popped a party popper on my fucking face. Shameless, they are shameless people. I was ready to wrestle my brother right then and there, but let him go when my parents shot me a glare.

"The birthday girl is here! Time to partyyy!" Uncle shouted hyping me up.

I scanned my eyes everywhere hoping to see Anne on the crowd, but my sight failed me. She's not here yet. I checked outside where there are more tables laid out but still no sign of her. She's coming eventually, I kept repeating on my mind. She forgot to call me yesterday, she's like that sometimes... But she wouldn't go against her words, would she? She will come, I just have to be patient.

The guests started eating. We served all kinds of food, mostly ordered out and came from the cater service. No one in our family knows how to cook professionally speaking. Whatever food is served we'll eat it. There's a choco fountain by the end of the main dining table. It has little biscuits and marshmallows that you could dip in it. I'm not really a fan of sweets, so it's probably for the kids and people who has a sweet tooth. I thought of the first person who would possibly enjoy that part of the table. Karlene. And there she is, entering the door looking around at people. She's wearing mom jeans with a black graphic shirt, keeping it lowkey. What she said to me yesterday when we had the time to chat after her class made me laugh now. She said she's on a look out for hot potential boyfriends. Well good for her, I do have a number of goodlooking cousins.

"Is that your girlfrien-" Grandpa said with his blaring voice. He thought he was whispering, but half of the guests almost heard it. Thank god I blocked his mouth on time...

"Keep your voice down granpa." I sighed.

He kept pointing on Karlene and I was telling him to stop, it's not funny. Karlene noticed me and my grandpa, so she turned to us and started walking in our direction.

"Happy Birthday Buddy!" She patted my shoulder as a greeting.

Pfft~ When did we started calling each other buddy? I thought it started as a joke. But I don't mind it, it's kind of cute.

My grandpa gave her a huge innocent smile. Something in me is thinking he misunderstood this situation. He knew I have a girlfriend, but I think he's suspecting the wrong person.

"Thank you," I scratched my head. Don't really know what else to reply after it. So I shooed her off to the buffet table and told her to enjoy but she stopped on her tracks when he heard my grandpa says an audacious statement.

"Take care of Ellaine, she's my only granddaughter. I don't care if you're a woman, I won't hold back for a pretty lady such as yourself. Hurt her and you'll get what you deserve."

"Oh my god..." •́ ‿ ,•̀ I face palmed. I want to burry myself and die.

I looked over at Karlene and she's as pale as a ghost. She looks like she's scared for her life, confused and obviously threatened. She didn't say any more word, she just nodded and walked stiffly to the dining room to get her plate.

Grandpa's voice wasn't that loud compared earlier. He's actually serious and over protective, which made it more embarrassing.

"That's not her!" I said.

"Oh? My bad." He giggled then he's back to the innocent guy he acted as. "But the way you looked at her is familiar. It's like seeing my younger self looking at Lenny. I felt the longing."

He left me hanging and to wonder on my own just like that. I have no comment on what he had said, mostly because it caught me off guard.

I sighed. Now I have to clear up the misunderstanding to Karlene... I walked to her. She has a plate full of marshmallow and she was dipping them in the choco fountain with shaking hands. I feel so bad.

But before I open my mouth, someone quickly dragged me away by arm. I turned around and saw my older cousin. "Where have you been? You gotta blow the candle dude!" He said while he excuse me from the crowd of people.

I have a lot of cousins. On mom's side, all her siblings have children and they have 3-4 kids that are all coincidentally males. Explains why my granpa said I'm his only granddaughter. Dad's the only child in his family and both of his parents are abroad, but they sent me a video greeting this morning. They are also sweet, but we're not that close. I lean more to mom's side.

Neil dragged me in the center of the main table where all the foods are. He puts a crown on top of my head that says birthday girl, as all the guests sings happy birthday. There seems to be a technical difficulty when I heard Neil and his brother arguing with each other.

"Noah, where's the fucking cake?"

"I-I don't know I thought you were the one who brought it."

"I did not! I told you I accidentally ate it last night, thought you might've bought another one."

"I forgot my p-phone at home. How am I suppose to know about it bro?"

"For Christ sake, Noah."

"Y-you shouldn't have ate it Neil."

Unbelievable. I'm amused by this two brothers. They're on each other's throat twenty four seven.

"Anyway..." I laughed nervously. "Why don't we... Um... Skip this and go on with the games?" I said.

They all agreed with me. Blowing a candle surrounded by people all looking at me sounds awkward. They sing happy birthday for like a minute, what the fuck am I going to do then? Nod and smile?

Everyone gathered on our backyard.

On the middle, there is my aunt and uncle who leads being the MC of the games. They explained each game's mechanics and prizes. There's even beer pong, so I guess I'm going to be having a bit of fun in here. Bring me, games. Eating games, and more but I didn't bother to listen.

I'm still searching for that certain person among the crowd of people in here. I got my phone in my hand the whole time although it didn't bother to ring for just a second. Where is Anne?