The Club

CHAPTER 3

17th Birthday

April 20, 2006

Your seventeenth birthday is the most pointless of all the birthdays. You're so close to being an adult you can taste it, but you're still a year away. The desperation to finally be legal is rough. Still, there's nothing anyone can do about it but bide their time until that inevitable day actually comes and you can celebrate. Until then, I'll continue being miserable that my life hasn't changed in the slightest and I can still complain that I can't make a single decision or choice for myself. I still have to answer to my parents and essentially, they rule my life. I don't really count as a person and my opinion doesn't matter to anyone else. Being a minor really fucking sucks. God when the hell did I start sounding like a drama queen? I need to get a drink and liven the fuck up.

"Is it just me or does it seem like these birthdays of mine just keep getting worse and worse?"

Kyle walks beside me and opens the door as we step foot into the overcrowded mall. I don't know why I agreed to come shopping with her. Don't get me wrong. I love shopping, but this town is seriously lacking in that area. There might be a lot of rich people who live here but it's still a small town and most people travel to get their serious shopping done. That and why leave your house when you can sit at your computer and buy whatever your heart's desire? You don't even have to get dressed.

"Why do you think that?" she asks as she ducks into a trendy clothing store with a name that makes no sense to me. Why would you want to look like a soaking sea creature?

The music is pounding my brain and a group of pre-teens in the corner are giggling about the no doubt offensive sayings on the graphic tees. Where are their parents?

The polyester fibers from the clubbing dress scratch my fingertips as I run them along it. The sexy look is lost on me when the fabric feels this cheap. The fifteen-dollar price tag should have tipped me off to that one. Of course my best friend doesn't care while she holds similar items up to her body in the full length mirror.

"My fifteenth birthday you missed completely because you were with the sperm donor. Don't even get me started on last year's debacle. And now this year? I just don't see it getting any better."

"Well, you can sit on your ass complaining about how much your life sucks, or you can get up and do something about it. Do you want to watch your life pass you by and only have regrets in the end? Or, do you want to remember living the best life you could?"

"Way to get all philosophical on me." I giggle as she rolls her eyes at me.

She taps her finger at her lip and then her eyes go wide. Oh great. I can't wait to hear what bright idea she has now. "Let's make all the assholes in this school jealous by doing something kickass."

And there's the best friend I know and love. She's always got to bring it full circle. An older woman passing us by at the same time gawks at the crude language coming from Kyle. As if she would have noticed anyway.

"Just don't go off and make out with Graham again this year."

Kyle's comment pulls me out of my people watching and my mouth drops open. "Ugh, don't remind me about that. It was a drunken mistake that will never be repeated. I blame you for that, by the way."

"Me?" She stops her shopping and turns her attention fully to me. "How could you blame me for something when I wasn't even around you when it happened?"

"True, but you dragged me to that party. And if I hadn't gone to the party, I never would have watched Parker do body shots off that girl, and proceeded to get wasted. And you know me when I drink. All inhibitions go out the window and I want to kiss anyone within reach. It just happened that last year Graham was within reach."