TO THE STARS

Chapter 17

    Day 32

     Everyone experience it and awaits its warm embrace. Plans are made and futures are drawn out. The big eighteen, the day you become an adult to the world yet still a child in your mother's eyes.

     I expected to feel different, maybe a little grown up, however I didn't. My body made weird cracking sounds as I stretched, my arms drawn upwards then to the front. I blinked a few times, clearing away the fog from my eyes before hopping on my feet and sliding on my fluffy slippers. The sky was still a bit dull, no stars in sight with the moon still sleeping on fluffy clouds.

     5:30am, the dainty wall clock read.

     At the other side of the room, Camila was fast asleep, snoring lightly away and nicely concealed underneath her deep purple blanket. She looked so peaceful, an opposite of what I felt inside. It was a happy day, yet there I was, waking up covered with sweat and fright; a feeling I had nearly forgotten.

     The dreams were the same as always, maybe a tad bit scarier. It started out like it always did, him sneaking in and doing the deed, although it had a more sadist ending. In this one, he smiled my way, whispering a "happy birthday princess," before being ushered out by the police.

      It's funny how you think you know someone, but in actual sense, you don't.

     A slight breeze grazed on my exposed arms, causing a trail of goosebumps to appear on my skin, pulling me out of my reverie. I wrapped my arms around my mid torso, using my hands to warm myself up. The view from above was pretty nice. The street lamps contoured a few opened petals exquisitely and the leaves of the surrounding trees and shrubs moved softly to the whispers of the wind.

     The minutes went by quickly as I stood gazing out the window and soon the sky was painted in a beautiful roseate hue. The birds of the air were starting to rise, happily whistling as they began the day's work and a few buds opened up, smiling brightly at the warm peeping sun. Everything was in perfect harmony, everything I wasn't at that moment.

"Andy?" Camila's hoarsed voice called out. Her hand was tangled up in her bed ridden hair, searching for the place that itched most. She stumbled around a bit, stretching as she stood before wobbling to my side. "Hey."

"Hi. "

     She glanced at the wall clock before looking back at me. "You're up early? Bad dream? " She asked, I nodded. Camila was no stranger to my "bad dreams". In fact, I had woken up numerous times before with her above me, shaking my hysterical and unconscious body. "Wanna talk about it? " She asked again, I shook my head. The question always followed after every scare and as usual, I wasn't willing to talk about it.

     She sighed. "You know I'm here if you ever need someone to talk to, right? " I nodded, she cleared her throat and continued. "Anyway, enough of the damp mood, today's your birthday. The day you officially become a woman."

     She paused to pull me into a hug. "Happy birthday Andy!" She yelled into my ear, her face glowing despite her puffy eyes and disheveled hair. "So... How do you feel? Excited? Grown up? A little different? " She rambled on after pulling away, using body language to express each emotions.

     Based on the stories she had told me and I had personally heard, I was meant to feel at least one, if not all of the emotions she mentioned before. In her case, the occasion was celebrated with friends and family, not in there, surrounded by monitored movement. I could hazily recall her telling me that she felt grown up, superior, an adult or so she said. I was yet to experience the "feeling", but at that moment, I was... I just was.