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Birthday
You say it's your birthday
Yes we're going to a party party
You say it's your birthday
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“Shhh....” I shushed Zoë, Mac and Avie. “Now, when I open the door, we need to sneak up on him....” I put my hand on the door handle and put my finger to my lips. Zoë’s face became a study in seriousness. I gently pushed and the door silently edged its way open. Thank goodness I had thought to use a little WD-40 on the normally noisy hinges yesterday.
The room was still almost black despite the late hour of the morning. My eyes quickly swept around the dark room. Clothes were strewn all across the floor, books lay open on almost every surface, the screen of a laptop computer was scrolling Zac’s latest screensaver. I wrinkled my nose at the fetid smell of sleeping boy. I always found it very funny they bought their parents this enormous new house and Isaac, Taylor and Zac still shared a very messy room. The reasoning was they were so rarely home they didn’t need their own rooms. On the trundle bed, Zac was buried under pillows and wrapped mummy like in his comforter, his long blond hair a mess covering most of his face. Zac’s breath coming out in an almost silent snoring. Isaac was asleep on the top bunk, where he had slept his whole life, his arm draped over his face. I could hear his teeth grinding, Ike was totally asleep. And in the bottom bunk was the object of my current mission. Tay was asleep on his back, his face turned slightly away from me. It didn’t matter that I saw that face everyday (and often in my bed), every time it took my breath away. He moved restlessly in his sleep and sighed out my name. I felt my body flush with instant heat. He loved me and I loved him.
But, I was on a mission.
I turned and looked at Mac, Avie and Zoë and silently counted. “1, 2, 3.” And I pounced. “Happy birthday Tay!!!” I screamed as I landed squarely on him.
“What the...” He said as I slammed my hand over his mouth. He was just about to drop the f-bomb in front of his youngest siblings. He reached up to move my hand, but soon the two of us were wrestling on his bed and rolling over onto Zac, who was painfully extricating himself from his cocoon. “Cleo, you are so gonna pay for that!!”
Soon, I had both Taylor and Zac pinning me to the floor. They were tickling me, the harder I laughed, the less strength I had to fight them and the less I fought them, the more ruthless they became.
“Taylor! Zac! Get off me.” I said trying to push them off of me.
“No, you started this…” Zac said grabbing at my thigh. He knew this to be the most ticklish part of my body.
“For God’s sake, would you shut up?” Ike asked from his bunk. “Can’t a person get a decent nights sleep without being interrupted?”
“Ike, it’s almost 11:00 am.” Taylor said, his hands grabbing mine as I tried to slug him.
“Still...” Isaac said as he jumped off his bunk. “You three need to grow up.” Isaac said as he stepped into the bathroom, scratching his head and stretching. I heard the bones in his back crackle and snap into place.
“Please, stop…” I said, gasping for breath, tears rolling down my cheeks, when suddenly we were all three doused in ice-cold water.
“Ike!!” We all yelled as we scrambled out of the puddle of water. Ike had just made a serious mistake. Taylor, Zac and I were quickly chasing Ike through the house. Soon, we had him cornered in the basement-recording studio. The three of us descended on him. We wrestled, tickled, pinched, prodded and basically just tortured one another for about 10 minutes until Diana walked in the room and put her hands on her hips. “What exactly are you doing?”
“Just wishing Taylor a very happy 20th birthday.” I said extricating myself from the sweaty pile of boys.
“Well, happy birthday baby.” Diana said leaning down and planting a kiss on his wet and sweaty face. “I came down here to find you because, Emory is on the phone for you Isaac...”
Before she even finished her sentence, he was out the door and up the stairs. Emory had been in Ireland for four days and he was literally aching with her gone. Ike and Emory’s wedding was in two months and there was so much to be done. So much planning left to do. And of course, there was the house. I mean, they owned 140 acres. So, Isaac and Emory were building a house just down the hill and over. And I guess, they were at some crucial point in the process that required Isaac to talk incessantly about it. “And Zac, I think it’s time for you to get ready to go to physical therapy.”
“And what about me Mom? What’s my assignment?” Taylor asked from the floor, his hair messy, his face shining with exertion.
“Your only job for the day is to have the best birthday ever.” She said turning and walking back to the door. “And Cleo, your job is to make sure he does that...”
“Gladly.” I said. When the door clicked shut behind her, I turned and looked at my beautiful boyfriend lying on the dirty floor. “And Taylor, what do you want from me for your birthday?” I asked as I fell onto him again. Our lips were instantly attached. Soon, we were rolling around on the floor tickling each other again.
“Ouch!” He said as my way too big diamond ring snagged his arm.
“Oh, sorry...” I said sitting up. “You know, you are very sexy in only boxers...”
“You don’t look too bad in boxers either.” He said taking my hand and looking at the ring. “You know what I really, really want for my birthday?”
“Me, wearing only a red ribbon?” I asked raising my eyebrow.
“No.” He said placing tiny feather light kisses on my fingertips.
“No? Well, then I guess you don’t get a gift, ‘cause I didn’t get you anything else...”
“Actually, what I want from you is simple...” He looked up at me through his eyelashes. He looked so sweet and shy. “Cleo, I want you to pick a date...”
“A date for?”
“Our wedding...” He said absently playing with my engagement ring.
“How about my birthday?”
“Really?” He said jumping up and grabbing my hands and hauling me up onto my feet. “That is only 4 months from today...”
“My 25th birthday.” I said as he hugged me.
“What? That’s in 2 years...”
“Tay, why are you in such a hurry to get married?” I asked walking over to the mixing board and absently pressing buttons. Suddenly the sound of Taylor’s voice came booming out of all the speakers ringing the room, he walked over and punched it off.
“Because, I want to be with you...”
“We are together.” I said.
“Cleo, you know what I mean...”
“No, Taylor I don’t.” I said turning away from him and throwing the door open. I was stalking up the stairs. “Why do you have to start this argument today of all days?”
“God, I love you, why can’t you accept that?” He said following me as I headed toward the front door.
“We’ll get married...” I said as I walked over to my sweet Sentra.
“Are you going?” He asked hugging his arms around him. It was still pretty cold in Tulsa in mid-March and all he had on was boxers. “You aren’t going to spend the day with me?”
“No, I’m not leaving,” I said leaning down into my car to get something out of the backseat. “Emory sent some pictures to our apartment she wanted Ike to see. Some ideas she had for the house, I think...”
“Cleo, I want to live with you.”
“Fine, you can move into my apartment, but I’m warning you, I’m very clean.” I said looking at him shivering. His teeth were literally chattering and his little nipples were hard as rocks. But then again, so were mine. I was still pretty wet from when Isaac had dumped the water on me.
“You know my parents will never agree to that.”
“I know.” I reached out and tweaked one of his nipples. “We’ll get married, let’s just wait till after Ike and Emory’s wedding to set a date.”
“You promise?” He asked, reaching out and tweaking my nipples back. I slapped his hand away.
“Yes, ask me again on April 21st, 20 minutes after Ike and Emory say “I do”...” I put one of my hands on my hips. “And you don’t want to start something here that you can’t finish...”
“Taylor!” Walker yelled out the front door. “Get in the house! You are in your boxers, you idiot kid...” Walker turned and walked away from the front door muttering to himself.
As I was walking up the steps, I felt Taylor’s hand on my arm. I stopped and he pushed me up against the wall and kissed me deeply. “Cleo, tonight... I expect to see you in nothing but a red ribbon...”
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