Happy Birthday to Me Again (Birthday Trilogy, Book 2) (8 page)

I was driving
around busy downtown Reno, alone on this Sunday while Liesel pulled a double
shift at Uncle Tony’s. I was happy to be alone since I was just six days away
from Liesel’s nineteenth birthday, and I still needed to pick out the perfect
gift.

Can’t the wedding ceremony at the end of
the month be my gift to her? Shouldn’t that count?

Liesel had woken
me up this morning by calling me and reminding me that today was our wedding
day. I screamed, jumped out of bed, and raced down the hallway before I heard
her calming voice echoing through the phone: “April Fools! April Fools!
Gotcha
!” It was a day I hated, because I
was always one of those gullible chums who forgot about it every year. Last
year, though, marked one of the first April Fool’s Days where a joke turned out
to be a harsh reality, with me aging older and older. So I wasn’t exactly
agreeable to the torment today.

I stepped into
the Macy’s at the Sparks Town Center just a few minutes past downtown Reno, and
flagged down a pretty cashier lady.

“So you don’t
want to give her jewelry?” she asked.

“Well, see, I
already gave her an engagement ring. Our wedding’s in just four weeks, but her
birthday’s next weekend. I don’t know what I can do to impress her when we’re
so close to getting married.”

“I have just the
thing,” she said, not just turning around but darting down an aisle and out of
my sight.

I backed up
against the glass and stared out at all the women surrounding me. I couldn’t
see a guy anywhere. I hoped they all assumed I was picking out an item for a
loved one and not for myself.

I waited for
five minutes, at least, for the employee to return, but she didn’t. I figured
she had gotten detained, either by another customer or by her bowels, but I
felt satisfied that at least she didn’t return right away with a Barney stuffed
animal, screaming at the top of her lungs, “April Fools, butt-head!”

I peered down at
the glass in front of me to see all kinds of earrings.
Liesel likes earrings, doesn’t she? But won’t a pair of earrings look
like a lame gift just weeks after handing her an engagement ring?
I
laughed.
Not if I spend enough on a truly
gorgeous pair. She’ll be happy enough to start floating in the air again.

I looked at a
few pairs and compared prices. I started tapping my index finger against the
glass, when a terrifying reflection appeared before me.

Oh no. Please… tell me this is just an
April Fool’s joke.

“Mr. Martin? Is
that you?”

It’s not. What did I do to deserve this?

“Cameron! It
is
you!”

I stood up
straight and calmly turned around, thinking hard about bolting out of the store
and not looking back until I jumped into my car and raced out of the parking
lot.
She wouldn’t be able to do anything
about it, now that I’ve graduated!

“Mrs. Gordon.
Hi.”

My former high
school librarian, and almost sex partner, stood before me, proud and confident,
looking more womanly than I’d ever seen her before. Always dressed so
conservative and unfriendly with make-up in my high school days, Mrs. Gordon
now looked like a true member of the opposite sex, a person, while still scary
in a beastly sort of way, who appeared to take care of herself. She wore light
pink rouge on her cheeks, heavy red lip-stick on her thin, chapped lips, and a
casual pink sweater with a pair of black jeans. The most different quality
about the woman was her cropped hair.

“I almost didn’t
recognize you with your hair-cut,” I said. “It looks good—”

“I heard you’re
getting married,” she interrupted.

I nodded. “That
I am.”

“To that girl
you floated around with at graduation.”

Again, I nodded.
“That’s right. You remember.”

“I sure do. You
impressed a lot of the crowd that night, Mr. Martin. But you didn’t impress me.
That was the oldest trick in the book.
Invisible
wires
. Any fool could’ve accomplished that menial task, if you ask me.”

“You’re exactly
the same,” I muttered, almost inaudibly.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“It’s good to
see you, I guess,” she said. “But I must tell you I’m a little disappointed.”

I caught the
EXIT sign in my eye-line.
It’d be so
easy.
“Why is that?”

“Why do you
think?”

I shrugged. “I’m
not in school anymore, Mrs. Gordon. I don’t have to answer your questions if I
don’t want to.”

I probably
shouldn’t have said that. Now she was out for blood. “I beg your pardon?”

“Well… you know…
you know what I mean.”

“No. Enlighten
me.”

I couldn’t believe
it. Out of school for nearly a year, and here I was, still being prosecuted on
the witness stand by the feisty librarian.

I really need to get out of this town.

I turned to my
left to see if the employee was on her way back. She wasn’t.

“Anyway, what I
was trying to tell you Mr. Martin, before you rudely interrupted…”

That was it. I’d
had enough.

I brushed past
her and started walking down one of the many crowded aisles of the department
store. “I don’t have to take this from you anymore.”

“Hey! Where do
you think you’re going?”

“Goodbye!
Farewell!”

But she didn’t
let me go. She kept following me.

“Cameron, stop.
Stop this now.”

I just shook my
head, trying not to explode in her face.

“Cameron… I’m
sorry… I apologize for speaking to you the way I did… I guess I just liked
resorting back to my old ways—”

I turned around
and jumped right in her face. “You tried to seduce me, Mrs. Gordon! You tried
to have
sex
with me! Do you remember
that? Does that little incident even cross your mind?”

She frowned and
put her hands on her hips. “I was disappointed you didn’t invite me to the
wedding. That’s all.”

I blinked,
trying to comprehend what this old hag was trying to tell me. “WHY WOULD I
INVITE YOU TO MY WEDDING?”

She shrugged and
pursed her lips. “You know… we had a bond, Cameron… don’t deny it.”

I put my hands
in my face. I wanted to cry.

“Oh, sir, there
you are.” The thirty-something employee started walking toward me from the
left. “I couldn’t find you. You just disappeared on me.”

“I waited for
you for ten minutes,” I said to the woman.

“Sorry for the
delay. Here. Do you think your girlfriend would like a perfume?”

It was small and
dinky, so pathetic I wanted to slug this girl and Mrs. Gordon, not exactly in
that order.
 

“I don’t think
so,” I said.

“But it’s a
really nice brand,” the woman said.

Mrs. Gordon
stood to the left of her, stamping her feet against the ground. “Cameron, I
want to talk about this. I don’t see why I can’t go to your wedding. I just
want to be there on your special day, that’s all.”

Two grating
female voices were speaking to me at once. I wanted out of there. I needed to
get out of there.

“Just… uhh…
yeah,” was all I said as I turned around, ready to start charging out of the
store for real.

But before I
could start running, yet another familiar female voice entered my eardrums.

“
Wesley
? Is that you?”

I almost didn’t
turn around at first; she hadn’t said my real name, obviously. But I
immediately recognized who it was.

Hannah, looking
more upscale than she did at Lake Almanor, took a few steps toward me, her
black hair falling down beside her breasts, her nose ring shining under the
overhead lights.

“
Hannah
?” I said, surprised to see her
again. “How are you?”

“Cameron!” I
heard Mrs. Gordon shout behind me. “How dare you turn your back on me! Turn
around this instant!”

“You wanna get
out of here?” I whispered into Hannah’s ear.

“Absolutely,”
she said.

I started
running down one of the aisles, and Hannah followed me, all of the store
employees seemingly flabbergasted as to why these two youngsters were chasing
each other around the store. I didn’t look back to see Mrs. Gordon’s shocked
expression to me abandoning her without a proper good-bye. But I had graduated
from Caughlin Ranch High. I wasn’t her teenager to torment anymore.

I ran down a
stairwell and past a few other stores until I arrived at the food court, which
was busier than ever. I stopped in my tracks, my heart racing, sweat dripping
off my forehead. I couldn’t believe how a simple jog like that could take so
much out of me, when two years ago I could’ve jogged five times that much and
not have even broken a sweat.

I turned around,
not knowing if Hannah had decided to run after me the entire way. She did. She
was sweating, too.

“Whoa. What was
that all about?”

“What do you
mean?” I asked.

“You know. The
running. That old woman calling you ‘Cameron.’”

I shrugged and
turned my attention to the twenty different food joints. I realized in that
moment just how hungry I had become.

“You want
something to eat?”

“Starving,” she
said. “You?”

“Same.”

“Just tell me
something first,” she said, grasping my right arm unexpectedly. Even more
unexpectedly, I didn’t push her away.

“What’s that?”

“Do I call you
Cameron or Wesley?”

I smiled and
started making my way toward the Chinese Express line.

“I don’t know
what got into me,” I said, taking a juicy bite out of my lemon chicken.
“Sometimes I make up a name to people I never think I’m going to see again as
some kind of… I don’t know… defense mechanism? Plus, I’ve never really liked my
name.”

“What’s wrong
with ‘Cameron’? It’s dignified and fun at the same time.”

I took a sip of
my Sprite before digging into some fried rice. “I just wish I had a name that
was strictly for boys. I’ve met more Cameron
girls
in my life than Cameron boys.”

“Well… would it
help you if I said I met a boy named Hannah once?”

“No you didn’t.”

She shook her
head and took a large bite out of her weird-looking veggie Chinese dish. “I
didn’t. But you can’t blame me for trying.”

We both laughed,
and I surveyed the room, which was so crowded I couldn’t even see an empty
table. “This place is crazy busy. I mean, seriously. The food’s mediocre, the
prices are through the roof. Aren’t we in a recession?”

“Why did you say
you never thought you’d see me again?” Hannah asked, changing the subject.

“What?”

“Just now. You
said you didn’t think you’d see me again. Why is that?”

“I don’t know.
We didn’t exchange numbers or anything. Reno’s bigger than people think.”

“Should
we have exchanged numbers?”

I took a deep
breath and crossed my arms. I knew I had to put an end to this madness.
You’re getting married, dummy. Your
bride-to-be has a birthday in a few days. End the conversation and get out of
there.

“No,” I said.

“Should we now?”

“No. Hannah…” I
reached my hand out for hers. She seemed to be happy with the gesture. “I’m
involved with someone… it’s serious…”

She smiled. “Of
course it is. Look at you. You’re the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.”

I was used to
girls swooning over me in high school, but never had I met a girl as beautiful
as this, one a few years older than me, who let her attraction to me known in
such a blatant way.

“Thank you.
That’s very kind of you. You’re very pretty, yourself.”
Idiot.

“You’re sweet.”

I stood up,
nearly knocking my tray to the ground. “Sorry… anyway… I should be going.”

“So soon?”

“Yeah. My
girlfriend has a birthday coming up. I need to get her something nice.”

She nodded. “I
see. Well don’t let me stop you.” She smiled again, and she took my hand in
hers, sensually stroking my palm with the tips of her fingers. “It was good
seeing you again, Cameron, not Wesley.”

 
“You too,” I said with a smile. “I’ll see
you around.”

I unhooked her
hand from mine, grabbed my tray, and took a few steps forward, when I heard
Hannah shout: “Oh, Cameron?”

I turned around.
“Yeah?”

“One more
thing.” She motioned with one of her fingers for me to come closer.
If she tries to kiss you, run.