Fictional- L.C.

02

☆Monster Movie Night☆

     "Today is Wednesday, August 17th, 2005, as of 5:56am this morning I am officially an adult. It's weird, when you're younger you always expect the big 18 to make you feel different but I just, feel like I did yesterday. Besides the point, it's been four days since I moved into Rebecca's room, my clothes are fully unpacked, and my smaller bags. I can't bring myself to open my box of decor though. Every time Jacob comes in he tells me that it looks like "an extremely sad furniture store set up" in here. But I can't do it, maybe it's because it makes the move real, like genuinely real. Or maybe it's because I'm scared of having memories of home when I walk in and not memories of spending time with the guys. Whatever it is, Jacob isn't wrong, it's sad in here. But I guess that's fitting because I'm in here.
I woke up to flowers on my nightstand and the guys here, the Clearwaters too. I want to ask who put them there but that's embarrassing. It's nice though, someone remembered that she used to do that and they mimicked it. And for a moment, just a brief moment, the car crash didn't happen. You hear it on TV "In the morning, there's a brief moment where it feels like you're still here" and I think those quotes are more help than anything that social worker said. It's true, when I first wake up and my eyes are too blurry to see my surroundings, I think the light flooding in the room is from my dad flipping the switch to wake me as he walked by and I expect to hear my mom singing in the kitchen. But the light is just the window and the noise in the house is Jake or Uncle Billy. But the flowers, made that moment last for just a little longer, and I hope the culprit could see the joy it brought me when I walked out smiling. Anyway, they promised to have a monster movie marathon with me for my birthday so I have to go now. (Leah brought Sam, and nothing against the guy but I really wish she didn't. Seeing those two all over each other drives me crazy like nothing else.) This is Iris, signing out."

   She dropped the pink pen on top of the leather journal, taking a deep breath as she stands up. Her eyes fall on the vase of Daisies and Asters, biting her lip softly as a thumb brushes over a white petal. Part of her nagged to find out who put them there and at the same time she didn't want to know. If they wanted her to know, they would have left a note. It was probably Billy or one of the boys anyway, she's ninety percent sure they're the only people she told.
    "Hey, you okay?" The voice causes her head to turn, Embry standing in the doorway with a soft smile. She nods letting her hand drop from the petal, "Yeah, sorry I took so long." The boy shakes his head, an arm falling around her shoulder once she was close enough, "Don't be, if you need a minute, you need a minute. We get that, now come on before Billy starts Dracula without you, he says he's excited to throw popcorn at the vampire." She lets out a soft laugh, "What does Uncle Billy have against vampires? It's not like they're real." The boy shakes his head with a laugh, dragging her down the hall with him. The living room looked so, homey in that moment. Leah and Sam taking up the loveseat as Jake and Quil took up either end of the couch. Billy sits in the corner, his owl bowl of popcorn in his lap. Seth has taken a place on the floor in front of Jake, sitting on a stray throw pillow with his legs pulled up to his chest.
    "The woman of the hour has reappeared!" Jake's horrible announcer voice makes her roll her eyes, falling onto the cushion beside him. "You should stick to your day job, Jakey." He gives her a slight push, her body crashing into Quil's side. Embry sits on a cushion by her legs, his head leaning on her knees, "Well isn't this comfy? Sometimes a family is four guys, one of their dads, two ladies, and the boyfriend of one of the ladies. Movie time." The words send Leah and Quil into a fit of laughter, Jacob and Seth following soon after. "Dude what the fuck does that even mean?" Quil laughs, through the question. "Language," despite the correction, Billy is laughing too. "You know what, I take it back, the only family here are me and my best friend because she doesn't laugh at me, I was trying to be sweet."
     "Stick to being a dork," Iris smiles, pushing his head with her knee. The dark haired male rolls his eyes, readjusting himself as they calm down. "Ready when you are, Uncle Billy." The man nods, pressing play on the old VHS remote. The room is filled with the audio of "Dracula" along with Iris pointing out changes from the book to Jacob who swears he's gonna write his back to school book report on the movie without reading it. Their whispered conversation is coupled with Billy shaming Dracula and throwing popcorn. "God Uncle Billy, what do you have against Vampires?" He turns to her, face dead serious, "Vampires are liars and I'm going to run over their feet." She lets out a laugh, "They're fictional, it's not like you're just casually doing to bump into one." He narrows his eyes, nodding slightly, "But if I did," he rolls his chair slightly forward, "Right over their stupid cold toes." They room lets out another round of laughs at it, Billy even joining in half-heartedly.
    As the day turns to night the group slowly disperses, Leah and Seth had to be home by ten, Sam going with them. Then by eleven, Billy is saying he's too tired to keep up with them, heading off to his room. Leaving the three boys up with Iris. By around one in the morning, they have one movie left out of her line up, the werewolf. It was her favorite, her dad's too. They saved it for last every year so that there was that too look forward to. Jacob yawns, watching her get up to change the VHS, "You know, I remember denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. But I don't remember watching shitty monster movies as a stage of grief." Iris cuts him a glare, knowing he was playing with her. Jake had joined them multiple times on her birthday. He loved the Werewolf too. "If you don't want to join me you can just say that," Iris cuts him a playful glare as she falls back into her seat, the couch being more cramped now as Embry has joined them on it. Her right side pressed against his as his head lolls over to rest on hers. "No, I love this movie, I'm gonna join. I'm just teasing," he goes quiet for a moment, voice dropping to a whisper, "Is it comforting you though?" "Yeah," she whispers back, cutting her eyes over to look at him, "it's nice, today sorta felt normal. Thanks." He pays her knee, "Of course, now let's watch some bad body horror." She presses play, suppressing a yawn.
    Quil disappeared down the hall fourth minutes into the movie, apologizing for going to bed early which Iris brushed off. The group of three don't shift though, even with the extra room on the couch the three stay pressed against each other's sides, enjoying the movie in soft silence. Then, fourth minutes later, the credits are rolling and Jake is turning on the light. The group groans,  each face showing a disgruntled look at the brightness. "We should get this cleaned up so that we don't have to do it in the morning." Despite him being logical, Iris huffs at Jacob's words. She was tired, she didn't want to clean up spilled popcorn. "Iris if you get the pillows and blankets put away, Embry and I can get the popcorn and dishes." It was like he read her mind, and the brunette was going to jump at it.
  The group didn't have many blankets around the room, the weather not truly calling for it. But, she filled the blankets that Billy kept on the couch and loveseat, throwing them over the backs of the couches. Jacob sweeps the floor around the tv and loveseat as Embry gathers cups and discarded bowls, carry far more than he should at a time to set them by the sink. The girl pulls the pillows that Seth and Embry had off the floor, dusting them off and putting them back in the corners of the old couch.
     "Hey Hall, do you want me to take these to your room?" She looks over to the long haired boy, his hand referencing between the presents on the table. She asked if she could open them alone, always feeling embarrassed to open gifts in front of someone. But a part of her just didn't want to open them at all, it made her birthday too real, as silly as that sounds. She went through her traditional birthday traditions but she also did them on days that weren't her birthday. Presents though, that made it real. "Iris?" "Yeah, thanks Call. That would be great." She lifts her yellow fluffy blanket from the couch, "Do you need any help, Jake?" He shakes his head, waving her away, "Goodnight, Ris." "Night Jakey," she wraps the blanket around her shoulders, following Embry down the hall. He placed the packages onto the old dresser, ruffling her hair with a "goodnight" before waking out, closing the door behind him. Iris lets the pastel blanket fall to her bed, grabbing a pair of pajamas from Rebecca's dresser to throw on. Her body falls onto the blanket as she stares at the packages, not quiet knowing if she wanted to open them. She wasn't ready, but at the same time, it was wrong of her to fall asleep before opening them, at least her mother would say so. "Flower, you should always open gifts before you fall asleep the day you get them, that way you can thank them the next time you see them," the words rang through her head clearly as she forced her body up, grabbing the yellow bag that seemed to stare at her.
     It wasn't that bug but it felt giant in comparison to the other things on the dresser. The pink paper sticking out of it parted easily, letting her pull out the contents. A hardcover sketchbook, fine liners, and colored pencils entering her hands. She checked the paper for a card or a note but she couldn't find one. "Who the hell doesn't leave a note?" She whispers, flipping through the pages, back to front. The front pages catches her attention, they did leave a note. "Your mother always called you her own Van Gogh. Don't stop what you love, it could connect you to her. - Uncle Billy (Jacob too)" under the words were a few doodles, obviously from Jacob, tools and cars mainly, but it made her smile. Iris hadn't drawn in months, too caught up in her graduation and then summer seemed like the busiest one yet. The girl placed the contents of the bag with her journal, going through the smaller items on the dresser. An eyeshadow pallet from Embry with "my mom picked it out" written on the connected note. A stuffed grey wolf with "the werewolf" on a paper tag around its neck from Quil which made her giggle. A cd of Madonna's "Confessions on a Dance Floor" from Sam, which she knew Leah helped him pick out but it was still sweet of him. Then there a copy of "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" which was signed "the Clearwaters" on the inside of the front cover. Finally a card sat on the dresser, seeming ominous as she cleaned up the packaging, putting the gifts from the Blacks in her nightstand drawer with her journal and pencil case. The "werewolf" being positioned next to the lamp on her nightstand and the book being placed under it. Iris grabbed the envelope as she put the eyeshadow in the drawer with her other makeup items.
     She taps it against her knee as she settles on her bed, blankets pulled to her chest, the only light coming from the lamp as her back presses against the wall. Who the hell could this be from? Eventually her curiosity, and wants for sleep, got the best of her, tearing open the light colored envelope. The front of the card was simple flowers with "Happy Birthday" across it in shiny cursive font. She opened it with a yawn, seeing a familiar handwriting.

"Iris-
  I'm not going to pretend this is a big important day, I barely paid attention to my eighteenth. And I don't want to pretend that today is supposed to be happy and perfect because it can't be this year for you. I'm not sure if I was supposed to know that though, I just overheard you say it to Jacob. I'm also not sure if I was supposed to know about the daisies and asters, but I heard you say you'd miss them this year so I made it my job as the only girl in your life to get them for you this year. I'm sorry if that wasn't my place. I just want you to know that you can always come to me if the boys begin to be too much for you or if you just need to cry sometimes. I care about you a lot you know, I know you were closer to Rachel when you were younger but I never forgot the way we used to be close too (Seth recently saw photos from when he used to be used as our own living Barbie, he didn't appreciate the pink.) Just know you have me, okay. Happy 18th.
                                               -Leah"