Val's Birthday

As the cool night wind blew softly, he stood on his hotel room terrace, his eyes unseeing as they were cast towards the city lights that winked liked stars below him. It had been months since he last saw her. Its funny that he remembered her on a Friday the 13th. A day that superstitious lots feared and anticipated yet ironically a day before the world fell under the commercialism of love.

A ghost of a smile touched his lips as he thought of her. He could see the sneer on her face the last time that they spent February 14 together. He gave her flowers and she gave him that look that made a lesser man cringe but amused him.

"What am i supposed to do with this monstrosity?" she asks as he gives her a pailful of yellow roses.

"I think you're supposed to smush your face in the bouquet and then give me the dewy eyed look that girls usually do when they receive flowers." he answers while he opens the door to the front passenger of her car.

"And when i smush my face in the bouquet, am i supposed to eat the flowers?" she asks a little scathingly.

"We'll you eat the weirdest things, so i dont suppose eating flowers would be any different" he says as he slowly exited the parking lot.

In answer to his statement, she snorted inelegantly at him.

He couldnt help but laugh. "Why cant you just say thank you?" he laughingly asks.

"Why should i? I didnt ask you to buy me flowers. You do this every year and it just always ends up in Val's house." she answered.

"Well, its like hitting two birds with one stone. I irritate you and since you dump those flowers annually to Val, then it also acts as a birthday gift for Val. Its one of the few things i live for. hahahahaha"

His reverie was broken when he heard his mobile phone ringing. He headed back to his room to get his phone.

.-=***=-...-=***=-.

She opened her eyes after wishing on the first night's star. Her whiskey colored eyes held a tinge of sadness. She lit a cigarette to give her hands something to do as she dispelled the thoughts in her head.

It had been months since she last saw him. Until now, she could feel that jab to the solar plexus, just thinking about him; about him telling her that he loved her more than she could give. A part of her died when he told her that he wanted them to be together. She knew that she loved him, but not in the way that he wanted it to be. She knew that she wasnt the best person to be his life partner. She took a drag from her cigarette as she remembered one of her conversations with Amie.

" Just like what i read in a book...'First guy to walk out of my life, definetly not the last. Funny things, you and me. You always stayin' away from love, me always chasin' after it.' Same deal with us girl-o. You're just a plain coward. You say you're smart, but i say youre not. Letting go of a guy who would go over the moon for you. I call it as i see it. You're a freaking coward..."

She walked away from Amie even before she had the time to finish her statement. Each word that came out of Amie's mouth was like a dart.

This was going to be the first time in 12 years that she would be going to Val's birthday without him. She took another deep drag from her cigarette and then walked determinedly to Val's house to face his family and their friends for the first time without Japeth by her side.