The Monsters In Our Town

27 // THE WORST BIRTHDAY

"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you."

I groaned and pulled my pillow over my head to try and block my parents out.

"Come on Alexander," dad chuckled. "You're eighteen! Legally an adult!"

"I'm tired," I whined. "Can't you do this later?"

"How much later?" Mum teased.

"In another year," I tried. They both laughed, but left the room none the less. I tried to get back to sleep, because the last thing I wanted was to be awake on this godforsaken day. But Jones came in only minutes later.

Unlike my parents though, he sat next to me on my bed and put his hand on my head. He didn't say anything, just sat there. It was nice, because it felt like so long ago that Jones and I had acted like a semi-normal brother and sister would.

"Do you want some cake?" He checked. "It saves them putting candles in it and singing you happy birthday again."

"I could go for some cake," I agreed and got out of my bed. I followed Jones out into the kitchen, where there were more people.

"Happy birthday Alex." Lincoln grinned. Next to her, Orlando extended a wrapped box towards me.

"Is that supposed to be some kind of peace offering?" I scoffed at him. He didn't say anything, and when I looked at him again he didn't look evil. He looked sad.

I wanted to take back what I said immediately, because it hadn't occurred to me that Orlando was grieving.

"Thanks," I mumbled and took the present. I looked for a place to put it and mum swooped in and placed it with a small pile on the couch.

"Where's Lilith and Eve?" Jones asked.

"Lilith wanted Eve to meet some of her friends from when she went to school here." dad answered and clicked his tongue.

"Okay, well I'm going to book club," mum told us. "Don't open your presents until Lilith and I both get back."

"Mhmm." I hummed and she narrowed her eyes at me.

"Don't try and enjoy your day or anything." she muttered and left.

"Want some cake dad?" I asked and he nodded immediately. "Well, it's my birthday so someone else get it for me."

Lincoln volunteered and cut the cake up. I, of course, got the biggest slice, but I was tempted to give it to Orlando. I felt responsible for Renee, and there was no amount of cake I could give him that would make up for it.

"You can open one of your presents if you want," dad shrugged. "But just one of them, I don't want your mother too angry at me/"

"I can wai-" I started.

"Harley sent you something," Jones interrupted with a smile. As if I didn't feel guilty enough already.

We had lied to just about everyone about Harley's whereabouts. After Harley had tried to kill me, Aria took him somewhere. Honestly, even I didn't know where. But his parents were convinced that he had gone to spend his last year of high school at a different school. It was plausible, because he was bullied at Northrun's.

I sighed and went to grab it from the pile. It was just an envelope, but I could feel something else in it. Like a necklace or something. I opened it, and a netted stone bracelet fell onto my lap. The stone in the net was see through and  had blue speckles.

I went to pull the letter out, but there wasn't one.

"That's weird," Jones frowned. I felt bad, because Jones would have loved to hear from Harley. I wouldn't be surprised if Aria made this and not Harley. Did Aria know about Renee?