My Kind of Woman

8. Birthday/A Woman's Embrace

A/N: I know I uploaded only yesterday, but I thought I'd do this part today since I just finished writing chapter eleven and loved writing it. I'll just update whenever I finish the future chapters I'm doing. I'm loving doing this book, it's really taken up most of my time and I don't even mind. It may feel a little boring right now, but the pace builds soon:))

I turned eighteen a week later. My body awoke, refreshed and un-groggy, at five-thirty that day, and I waited for a moment to see whether I'd feel my maturity peaking inside of me. I went to my window, drawing back the curtains and pushing it open with my fingertips. The sun was rising. Orange grew at the horizon, lightening the nightly blue of the sky, and I watched the country lane I lived on become more visible, right up to the thin forest opening away from the road. The air was cool on my collarbone and my hands, and while that made me shiver, there was nothing else. No enlightenment or drastic change with my coming of age, only familiarness, the same as the night before. Though disappointing, I felt it would come, that something would change me in my eighteenth year.

Jackie wasn't at the end of the road that morning so I went into school without her, which was disappointing for a birthday. But during my first free period, I heard her dashing down the corridors, bodies jumping to move as she shot through. Then she latched herself onto me with a single dramatic long jump from a few yards away. It was impressive. I managed to catch her with both of my hands gripping her thighs to hold her against me.

"Happy Birthday!" She exclaimed, sliding down my body to stand back on her feet. "You're an adult woman now, Norah Cook: your adulthood begins now."

"Joy." I said, grinning.

"So, I got you some stuff. But you can only open one now, 'kay?" She reached into her bag and pulled a messily wrapped gift from inside. It was the limit of her arts and craft skills and I found it endearing.

"Don't I get to choose?" I asked, taking the gift from her.

"Don't push it."

I laughed softly and began to unwrap it, scrunching the torn paper in my fist. It was rectangularly shaped and I saw when the paper ripped at the front that it was a book. A thick, dark one and once the paper was off, I blushed. On the cover was a well-drawn illustration of a man and woman kissing, lips drawn with shiny drip and all - above it was the title of 'The Inner Workings of Sex and Relationships'. I pressed the front against my stomach so the kissing couldn't be seen but on the back was a picture of a woman's breasts. I shoved the book down the V-neck of my sweater.

"Seriously?" I hissed with a red face.

Jackie was giggling. "Figured you'd need it soon."

"I don't need it at all. I know enough to not need a book about it..." We stared at each other smiling for a moment before I burst out laughing and roped Jackie in for a hug. I squeezed my arms around her tightly. "Thank you, Jacks."

"Look at you! Getting soppy over a book about sex!" She said.

I shushed her loudly as we began to walk down the hall, still hugging my arm around her neck. "I only said thank you! I won't be nice next time."

After the day passed, we went straight from the school to her house together to decorate. She told me that she'd been out shopping for ribbons and banners and balloons. She seemed more excited for my birthday than I was and it pleased me. Her living room was strewn with ribbon packets and empty balloons; one 'Happy Birthday!' banner had been half hung up over the mantle piece. The door to the poolhouse was ajar, and on the dining table across from it, there was a speaker with a pile of CDs beside it. I wondered if they were Mio's, I wondered what kind of music she listened to.