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I made a sound that was half a whimper and half a laugh. I smacked a hand down on his arm. “Hey!”
“Don’t mess up, Sang,” Luke said.
“I will if you’re tickling.”
“Tickling is cheating,” Nathan said.
“Oy,” Gabriel said. “Let me see her hand. I want to try some of this.”
“She’s painting my nail,” Luke said.
“Hurry it up, Trouble.”
I aimed the brush at Luke’s finger again, but this time he tickled more. I laughed and wriggled, but plopped the brush down on his nail, half covering his skin with baby blue color.
“See, you messed up,” Luke said, chuckling.
“You messed up.” I dipped the brush back into the bottle, and painted a zig-zag on his arm. “Now I messed up.”
Luke laughed, holding up his arm. “At least I match, sugar plum. You’re like three different colors, now.”
“Want me to do the others?” I asked.
“I think I like it with just the pinkies.”
“Honey?” I called.
“What, Peanut?”
“Can I do your nails?”
“Hang on, Trouble. I want to do your nails.”
“I want to play, too,” I said.
Nathan made a guttural sound and picked himself up off the couch. He slid down onto the floor, sitting with his knees up. “Come here, Sang. You can do a fingernail or two.”
Gabriel grumbled. “When’s my turn?”
“Do her toenails,” Nathan said. He patted the ground in front of him. “Move the coffee table out of the way. I don’t really give a fuck if we mess up this carpet.”
Gabriel shoved the table off to the side. Nathan planted me until I was sitting on the ground between his legs, my back against his stomach. “Put a knee up,” he told me.
I bent my knee and he wrapped an arm around me to plant his hand on it. He moved his hand so his pinkie was extended.
“What color?” I asked.
“You pick,” he said.
“If you let her pick, you’ll end up with pink nails,” Luke said. He sat with his back against the couch, admiring the blue on his arm and his nails.
“Give me your foot, Trouble,” Gabriel said. He scooted forward, sitting cross-legged in front of me. With my other foot extended out, he lifted it to put in his lap. He fingered a couple of bottles on the coffee table.
“Meanie, can I have the red one?” I asked, pointing.
Gabriel smirked and handed me a deep red, not the one I’d picked. “Use this one. It looks better for his skin.”
“I’m not keeping it,” Nathan said. “I’m just letting her have fun and I’m going to wash it off.”
“This doesn’t just wash off. You have to soak it in this shit that smells like gasoline,” Gabriel said.
I took the color from Gabriel, and undid the packaging. This one happened to be in a box.
A pamphlet fell out. Gabriel picked it up, turned it over and flipped through it. “Oh hey, they’ve got pictures.” His eyebrows scrunched together as he studied.
“Can we blow out her candles yet?” Luke asked. “I’m smelling sugar.”
“We should wait in case the others show up,” Nathan said.
“They might not show up. We should just light them up and do it all right now,” Luke said.
“Light one,” Gabriel said. “Whichever one you want to eat. Have her blow out that one early.”
“That’s not going to count,” Nathan said.
“Sure it does,” Luke said. “She’s just got to blow out a candle. It’ll be like in those movies where they do the small cake with one candle. She’ll just do them all individually. Not like it matters. It’s just the doing it part.” Luke knee-walked around us, heading toward the cake box.
I opened the jar of red polish. I aimed the brush at Nathan’s fingers. I felt Nathan’s breath on the back of my neck, and it was making me nervous. I started to giggle.
“Peanut,” Nathan cooed. “You can’t paint it if you’re giggling and shaking.”
“All right,” Gabriel said. He patted my calf. He picked up a neon green bottle and started shaking it. “Now I know what I want to do.” He opened the bottle. He drew my foot closer.
“You should do a pink,” Nathan said.
“Yeah, yeah, this is just a base color. I’m going to do some different things.” Gabriel studied my toes, squinting. “God damn, Trouble. You’ve got the tiniest toenails on the planet. I don’t know if the brush is small enough.” He started dotting the polish onto my smallest toenails first.
I sucked in a breath, trying to focus on Nathan’s nail when it felt like Gabriel was tickling my toes with cool polish. With a slow wipe, I got most of Nathan’s, but his nail was wide and I had to give it several more splashes before the color was even.
“How’s that?” I asked Nathan.
Nathan held up his hand. “You’re turning me into a girl.”
“Just be glad we did this and we’re not doing some makeup thing,” Gabriel said, not looking up from what he was doing.
“Okay, Sang,” Luke held up one of the cupcakes that had pink frosting and slices of strawberry on top. He lit the candle sitting on top. “Make a wish.”
“Hang on,” Gabriel said, looking up, but the brush was poised over my toenail. “We’ve got to sing and stuff.”
“If you’re going to sing, hurry up,” Nathan said. “There’s candle wax getting on the strawberries.”
Luke broke out into a round of Happy Birthday, followed up by Gabriel. Nathan joined in loud on the second line. Gabriel puffed out his chest and started singing louder.
Soon the room was booming with song. I wanted to cover my ears since Nathan was singing close, but I didn’t have the heart to. He wasn’t bad. He was just breaking my ear drums. I couldn’t stop giggling.
When they finished, Luke shoved the cupcake toward me. “Go ahead,” he said. “Make the wish a good one.”
I hesitated, blinking back the threat of a tear forming in my eye. I couldn’t remember the last birthday I’d had, and I certainly couldn’t remember a cake unless I’d made it, and I usually didn’t. Before, among all the other things I had to worry about, a birthday was just another day. Birthdays were for little kids, like Santa Claus and tooth fairies. This was different. This meant something to them and they’d worked together to make it special for me. Maybe it wasn’t what Gabriel planned, but I couldn’t imagine wanting to do anything else.
Luke pushed the cupcake closer. “Don’t wait too long.”
I sucked in a breath, ready to blow it out, when Nathan pushed his face next to mine and blew first, taking out the flame.
“Aw,” Gabriel said. “You big dummy.”
“I just wanted the cupcake,” Nathan said. “Let me have that one.”
I laughed, shaking my head. Nathan took the cupcake from Luke, held the edge, and started pulling the paper away.
“Good thing we’ve got more cupcakes,” Gabriel said. He bent over my foot again. “Just save me one, will you?”
I started painting Nathan’s other pinkie nail red since I’d already started. I was about halfway through when a booming shout startled me so badly, I slipped and caught half his finger.
“I really don’t believe what I’m seeing right now,” North’s voice thundered through to my bones. He stood in the short hallway that lead from the kitchen. There were the sounds of shuffling feet and other noises behind him, so I could only guess a couple of the others were with him. His face looked stern, but his eyes, while still intense, held a glint that betrayed his shouting. He was highly amused. “Sang Baby, what’s all this shit?”
My cheeks heated. I slowly turned my head to share quizzical looks as Gabriel glanced up and Luke, holding another lit cupcake, stood by with an eyebrow arched.
“Birthday,” I said in a quiet voice.
North chuffed, shaking his head. “Nathan, don’t let her watch that movie. She’s got enough nightm
ares as it is. And what the fuck are you doing to her feet, Gabe?”
“I’m painting them,” Gabriel said in a flat tone.
North started to chuckle.
Kota popped in beside North. He glanced around, a finger touching the bridge of his glasses. “Were we not invited to the ... zombie-nail-painting-cupcake party?”
I cracked a smile, and suddenly I was in a giggle fit. I realized right then how silly it probably looked. “Do you want to have your nails painted, Kota?”
“Would love to,” he said. He walked around the couch, plopping down onto the seat. “Just let me catch my breath a minute. Been running around all day.”
“Literally,” North said.
“Did something happen?” I asked. I started to turn, but Gabriel clutched at my foot and shot me a look that told me not to move.
“Dead trails,” Kota said. He waved a hand. “It’s not important.”
“Sang,” Luke said, holding up the cupcake that still had the candle burning. “Get this one.”
“Why is she doing this one at a time?” North said. He moved to sit on the couch next to Kota. “Where’d you get all the cupcakes?”
“Hey!” Silas appeared in the doorway, his arms spread out and a smile on his face. Then he hesitated, his eyebrows arched in confusion. “Okay wait, what are we doing? Is this an American thing?”
“Cupcake zombie nail painting,” North said.
