She grins and gives me a hug. “You’re totally welcome. Mom and I found it like three months ago when we went to Dallas, and I’ve been saving it for you.”
I head back inside to drop off my gift and Mom’s still not awake. Oh well, I tell myself. I’m an adult now. I don’t need my mom to wish me a happy birthday.
“So have you talked to Caleb yet?” April asks on our walk to school. Although we haven’t texted at all since Operation Lunch, Caleb has said hi to me in the hallways yesterday and the day before.
April has been telling me to chat him up through text, but I never do. I contacted him first last time, and I’m waiting for him to contact me this time. I shake my head.
“He knows it’s your birthday today, so he better freaking text you,” she says. “If not, I’m going to kick his ass.”
I roll my eyes. “He’s a guy…guys are dumb, remember?”
“So why do we like them again?” she asks.
I heave a sigh. Sometimes I really don’t know the answer to that.
My school day is easy enough. Tutorials went really well yesterday and Jonah and I finally got caught up with the lessons my teachers are giving in class, so I breeze by today with no problems. I take notes and I focus and I mark places in the book that I don’t quite understand so Jonah can help me with them at our next tutorial session. I’m starting to breathe easier when it comes to school now. I haven’t missed any more days, so everything is going according to the plan Mrs. Reese set up for me. I might actually graduate now.
April and I eat lunch together, and I resist the urge to look over at Caleb’s table. I don’t know what I was hoping for—a Happy Birthday? A hello?—but it’s like Caleb doesn’t realize I have the same lunch as him.
It’s not until sixth period when he finally acknowledges my existence.
“There’s the birthday girl,” Caleb says as he walks up next to me in the art hallway. I can smell his cologne before I smell him, and I wonder how long we’ll need to date before I can politely tell him to lay off the stuff. One spritz is all anyone needs.
“I am officially eighteen now,” I say.
“You should go by a lottery ticket,” he says, his grin making me swoon. “And anything else you can do as an eighteen year old. Like check out a porn shop or something.”
“Ew,” I say. “Aren’t there just perverts in porn shops?”
He shrugs. “And people who just turned eighteen who are using all their new age privilege.”
I laugh. “So what time do you want to hang out tonight?”
“I don’t know,” he says. “Just text me?”
I nod. “I’ll talk to you later.”
“Later,” he says. Then he leans over and touches my lower back, his hand sliding down until it covers my back pocket. “Happy Birthday.”
I blush from head to toe and I watch him until he walks into his classroom.
***
My aunt Sheryl and a few of my cousins text me Happy Birthday. But by the time I get to the store after school, I’m pretty sure my mom has forgotten that today her only child turns eighteen. She’s wearing her reading glasses and she’s bent over the inventory list, highlighting items as she goes along.
“Hey,” I say, dropping my backpack behind the front counter. “Busy day?”
She snorts. “Hardly. Not a single customer since lunch.”
I watch her for a moment, wondering if she’ll suddenly remember. I don’t expect a present or anything, since money is so tight right now. But I do want some kind of acknowledgement. She doesn’t say anything at all though, she just crunches her brows together and stares at the paperwork as if it’s the inventory’s problem that no customers come into the store.
Mom has a lot on her mind, and that’s what I tell myself as the next hour goes by and she still hasn’t realized it’s my birthday. I straighten some items on the shelves and look up more books to order for the store. It’s only four-thirty, but Caleb hasn’t yet replied to the text I sent him an hour ago.
Me:Gigi’s cupcakes at 5?
I stare at the text, wondering if I should say something else. At 4:45, I send another one.
Me:Headed to Gigi’s! Meet me there!
