“And he brought some sparkly wine as well!” commented one of the unknown girls in a happy shout. That made me remember the bottle, so I walked past Ava and placed it in the freezer. When I came back out, Ava was still standing there holding the gift bag in both hands, looking like a lost puppy.
“Go on, look inside. If I got the wrong thing just tell me. I still got the slip, so you can return it.”
She looked at me with some uncertainty for a second, before slowly pulling the piles of useless wax paper out of the bag. When she finally saw what was underneath, she paused. Then, she tentatively pulled out the purse, showed it to her friends, and they started this high-pitched screaming exercise I only knew from teenage girls in movies until then. It looked like Tess got it right again.
“How did you know I wanted one of these?” Ava asked, still breathing heavily from running around.
“You kept mentioning that brand the other day, and I figured the others would have your presents probably already set.” I answered, matter of fact.
After saying that, Ava’s three guests looked at me in silent approval. I noticed Logan eyeing the whole scene, but especially the purse, with disbelief from the sofa. Then he looked at the coffee table with embarrassment. When I followed his eyes, I saw a cheap no-name Bluetooth speaker Ava hadn’t even taken out of the box to check it out. Whether it was being attentive or being able to fulfill a wish, I had just proven myself more reliable than Logan. That alone was worth spending two-hundred bucks on an utterly useless bag.
Then Ava did something that shocked me. She stepped into me, wrapped her arms around my torso and gave me a tight squeeze.
“I’m sorry we forgot your Birthday!” she whispered into my ear.
The shock from the hug faded. At least enough for parts of my brain to start working again, and I remembered that, even though she was too occupied at the time to participate, Ava was there when Granny had that talk with Claire at Thanksgiving. And the way she now reacted confirmed my fear of having to buy her affection. After they all had that talk with Granny, none of them mentioned anything about it to me, or tried anything in the days since then to introduce me to their fun. They didn’t even attempt to close the gap that had formed between us. There was still no consideration for me whatsoever.
But the moment Ava got expensive shit from me, she was suddenly sorry for forgetting my birthday. I had hoped for this present to serve as some kind of reminder of my existence, that would cause her to slowly come around and rethink her opinion of me. This reaction, however, seemed too sudden and extreme to have a lasting effect.
“Why did you even get me something like this after what we did?” she asked, just as quietly as before.
“Maybe I’m just a better person than you four.” I reproachfully whispered back, unwilling to forget, and immediately disproving my own statement without even noticing. “Or, maybe, I just wasn’t eager for your parents to shit on me again, like last year when I didn’t have something for you.”
Ava immediately let go of me and took a step back, looking almost sad. I mentally scolded myself as I saw Logan’s relieved look, but I just couldn’t resist pointing out the double standard. Maybe I should have embraced Ava, just to piss him off further. Coincidentally, one of Ava’s friends helped me out with that.
“Hey, we were just about to watch a movie. Why don’t you join us?” the vaguely familiar girl asked.
She had stepped in close to me when Ava had stepped back, and was brushing one hand over my biceps as her other hand was pulling a strain of shoulder-long ash-brown hair behind her ear. She looked remarkably cute. Her head tilted slightly to the ground with an almost sheepish expression, looking up at me with doe-like big brown eyes and a shy smile. It didn’t help that she was barely five feet tall, with a slender frame supporting maybe an A-Cup chest. I just wanted to cuddle her to death.
“Oh, yes! Please, join us!” threw one of Ava’s known friends into the round, but she was giving the small girl a conspiratorial grin. I looked at Ava, awaiting her answer. It was her birthday party after all. It was up to her who she wanted to spend time with today. When she nodded her approval, I looked back at the cute one.
“Don’t take this as a cheesy pick-up line, but ... do we know each other somehow? You seem familiar, but I just can’t place it!” I finally caved, and asked.
First, she acted a little insulted that I didn’t remember her, but then she seemed to reach a conclusion and lit up again.
“I’m Jenny. That... “ she pointed at the girl that supported her when asking me to join them “ ... is my big sister, Joan. You helped me out last year, when Jack and his friend wouldn’t leave me alone.”
“That was you! I remember now! But it was more you helping me out than the other way around. I was just there, but you saved me from Coach Jenkins when he wanted me expelled.” I remembered.
“You did bust them up pretty good.” Joan commented, laughing “Not that I’m complaining. They had it coming!”
“Don’t encourage him!” Logan injected by shouting from the other side of the room.
“Well, I’m gonna have to get out of this suit. I’ll join you in a minute.” I said, before making my way to my room to get changed.
For a moment I was thinking about getting into my own swimming trunks, since the people downstairs were all still wearing their swimsuits. And Jenny seemed to appreciate my looks, so sitting there topless would certainly be advantageous. But sitting with three, well four if you count Ava, basically naked hot girls in only my trunks would certainly lead to embarrassing displays on my part. So, I compromised on cargo shorts and a tight T-shirt. I had just put the shorts on, when my door flew open, and Logan stepped into my room.
“The fuck are you thinking, Tiny Tim?” he seethed.
“What do you mean?” I asked, smirking. There were certainly quite a few things coming to my mind he could be pissed about, and I enjoyed how much it seemed to have gotten under his skin.
“Really? Do I need to spell it out for you? Ava doesn’t want you there with her friends. She just feels guilty about your little hurt feelings. Get over it. I put in a lot of effort to make this fun for us. How the hell am I supposed to do this with your sorry ass around?”
“I don’t know. Fuck yourself?” I asked in an aloof voice while pulling my shirt over my head.
I looked at him for a moment with a blank expression. I didn’t know what he would do next. I didn’t expect him to try and attack me, he knew better than to even try. But if he had some other mean move up his sleeve, I’d rather he tried it before we met up with the others. And I hoped he was angry enough to not realize that. Problem was, he just glared at me before he turned and left. So, I had no idea if he was out of options or wanted to put me down in front of an audience again. I resigned myself to whatever my fate would be and got downstairs myself.
The lights in the living room were dimmed and all of the others had already found their seats. Ava and Joan sat to either side of Logan on the sofa. Mia had made herself at ease in the armchair. The only free spot, other than the floor, was right next to Jenny on the loveseat. She had pulled her legs underneath herself, in that impossible way only women could ever find comfortable. She was giving me a huge smile as I spotted the empty seat next to her, so I took that as an invitation and sat with my arm over the backrest while maintaining a respectful distance between our bodies.
I didn’t really know what to expect from this situation. Under normal circumstances, I would have fully expected them to banish me from their festivities again, like Logan had just tried when he came into my room. An invitation from Ava and her friends, who had tormented me in school, would normally have my alarm bells ringing and make me expect some kind of mean prank. But I did indeed help Jenny last year, so maybe she really was interested in getting to know me. And the seemingly genuine display of regret from Ava that I had witnessed when I presented her gift, however short lived it may turn out to be, made me want to risk it and see if this could possibly be the first sign of change. Though, I hadn’t forgotten that the last time I was hoping our relationship would improve, I was suddenly holding a penis pump in my hands while my mother laughed her ass off.