I peered up at him and adjusted the high collar of his navy sweater that zipped from the chest; a small portion of the ‘a’ at the end of his tattoo was showing. We’d eaten hours ago and were only waiting for my mother to call us into the living room for cake and to open my presents like she always does. I made a mental note to tell her that I think this year should be the last that we make such a big deal of my birthday; I couldn’t see me still going through the rigmarole at twenty.
My mother stood in the entryway and waved us toward the dining room. I sighed when I stood, trying to hide how ridiculous I felt about the whole production. I mean, yeah, I wanted the gifts, but my mother insisted on the whole singing Happy Birthday, blowing out candles, and…
“Make a wish!” She said with a smile.
I glanced up at Angel and AJ who were both holding a laugh.
“Okayyy, Mom.”
I blew all nineteen of my candles out only to have them burn to life again. With a heavy sigh, I pretended to be amused. “Very funny.”
Instead of making a fool of myself, I grabbed a glass of water someone left on the table and removed the candles from the icing and submerged them one by one.
“Party pooper,” my mother said, kissing my forehead before cutting into my cake. Ever since I got home, she’s been babying me even more than she did before I left. She did the load of laundry I brought home without having to ask; she had my father take my car to get washed, and now this.
While she passed out slices to the ten or so family members who showed up for dinner this year, I doled out the ice cream.
“It could be worse,” Angel said in my ear when she approached with more dessert plates. “At least it isn’t a Hello Kitty cake this time, right?”
I smiled and decided to lighten up. It wasn’t like I wasn’t grateful, I was just waiting for my parents, more specifically my mother, to realize that I wasn’t a kid anymore. Still, I straightened up so she didn’t misread my frustration for something else. All in all, I was appreciative of the time my parents took to plan and celebrate my birthday.
We ate and then cleared the plates from the table before settling in again for me to open gifts.
“You should start with the cards,” my mother suggested.
I shrugged…and then absentmindedly reached toward the stack of colorful envelopes on the edge of the table. It was my mother’s gasp that signaled me that I’d messed up.
“What…is that….on your wrist?” She asked in a clipped tone. Angel took a step back as if to get out of the line of fire.
There was no point in trying to lie my way out of this one; she caught me.
“A tattoo,” I said quietly.
“A what?” The vicious expression on my mother’s face gave me pause.
“A tattoo.”
My father stepped closer and took my hand, flipping it over to examine the initials on my wrist just below my left palm. His eyes darted to AJ.
“He didn’t have anything to do with this,” I offered up just in case my dad decided to aim his wrath in AJ’s direction. “I made the decision on my own, so if you’re mad, be mad at me.”
My mother sighed and shook her head to emphasize how disappointed she was in me. Everyone besides my parents, AJ, and me left the dining room. My father paced, grimacing in my direction every now and again.
“The second you get out there on your own, you start showing out!” my mother scolded.
“Mom, it’s just a tattoo,” I reasoned. “It’s not a big deal.”
Judging by her expression, that was clearly the wrong thing to say. “Not a big deal,” she repeated.
My father shoved his hands in his pockets and stared at the floor. “What were you thinking?” He asked in as calm a tone as he could manage.
“I was thinking that I’m grown and this is my body.” I didn’t mean for it to come out sounding as smart as it did either, but…
He smirked at my comment. “Grown…”
This wasn’t going well. When I sighed, my mother looked my way. I had to try to gain some ground before my parents completely went over the deep end over this. “Listen…I didn’t do this out of spite or to upset you guys. I just thought – “