Words Unspoken

Chapter 21 - Happy Birthday

Kaylee's POV

Shouts arose from outside my house.

In answer to that, I groaned, rolled over onto my side, and yanked the pillow from under my head to throw it back over my face to block out the noise.

The shouts continued. They seemed even louder than before, as if my pillow had the power to amplify sounds. Annoyed and tired, I pulled my blanket covers all the way up to my neck and closed my eyes, trying to fall back asleep.

A second later my phone started blasting Avery's favorite hard rock song. I waited for it to go to voicemail. It didn't.

After a good five minutes of constant ringing, I finally gave up when my ears couldn't take it anymore. I was pretty sure the words of the song were already ingrained into my brain by the time I forced myself to get up, answer her call, and stumble over to the window.

Half asleep, I jammed my finger onto the answer button and waited for her to explain why-the phone's clock read: 4:56-she was waking me up at the crack of dawn. And why she was up. Mornings weren't even a vocabulary in Avery's mind.

I put the phone up next to my ear as I pulled the curtains open to stare down at the car parked half on my sidewalk and half on the street.

"Did your fingers break or something because I've called you like seven times already," her voice blasted through the phone. She paused for a second and then, "Anyways, you have five minutes to get your lazy ass up and come meet me outside." There was another pause on her side of the line. "No exceptions."

I hung up and walked back to my bed. Then I curled under the covers again just to piss her off. It was too early for anyone to be up anyways. But just as I did so, the sound of a car honking continously made me groan again. If it didn't wake me up, it most certainly woke up the whole neighborhood.

I laid in bed for a few more seconds before I finally gave in and walked to the bathroom. The first thing I saw in the mirror was my auburn curls all tangled around my face. As I pulled my hair back into a ponytail, something on my hand caught my eye.

Ayden's mark.

It was barely a scratch now, but even as I tenderly ran my fingers across it, it still stung and I winced. I pulled my sleeve down over it to cover it as I finished brushing my teeth, and started down the stairs.

By the time I actually ate breakfast and put on my coat and was about to open the front door, did I remember about Ayden.

I whipped around, expecting him to be watching me from the couch, but he wasn't there. Or anywhere. I ran back up the stairs checking my room and then the bathrooms. He was nowhere in sight.

Relief flooded me as I let out a breath. Maybe he really was gone and out of my life forever. But the only thing that kept me from believing that was the way his things were still littered around the house. His grey sweatshirt laid on the couch where he had been sleeping for the past week, and his boxes were stacked messily next to each other.

I walked back over to the front door and pulled it open.

Avery's van sat parked next to my driveway's sidewalk. Quickly to avoid the cold, I shuffled to the car and the sidedoor pulled open before I could even touch the door's handle, reavealing a whole lot of other people.

"Surprise!" they screamed at the same time. I just stared. Avery laughed.

"You look stunned," Avery pointed out with a grin. I was indeed stunned. Then her face grew serious. "Are you serious?" she studied my face. "You don't remember?" I shook my head slowly, my eyes going between her and the crowd in the car. Remember what? "Oh my god, guys, Kaylee Harrison has forgotten about her 19th birthday." The others stared back, and a few of them dropped their jaws. That was when I noticed Brandon wedged to the side in the backseat. He gave me a tiny smile and offered a tiny wave to go along with his smile, and then leaned his head back against the window before turning away from me. His cheeks flushed red.