His car was the third one down the row, and without a doubt one of the nicer ones. I walked straight towards the trunk and waited for him to unlock it. "Oh, we can't put our stuff in the trunk." he said. "Why?" It didn't make sense, he always puts his stuff in the trunk. "Because your birthday present is in there." A huge grin spread across his face. I walked around to the passenger side of the car and watched him as he jingled his keys around and then hit the button twice to unlock the door for me. He opened the door for me and helped me settle my bags in. When we were done he shut the door and went to his side of the car. As soon as he was in his seat, he cranked the car and blasted the heat. It was thirty-seven degrees outside and we were practically freezing.
"Find something good on the radio," he said quietly. That was funny, usually he didn't like listening to music when he was driving because it gave him time to think without any interruptions. To make a compromise I turned the radio to 93.9 and Duran Duran was playing. Out of my peripheral vision I saw him nod his head in approval. He backed up slowly and then eased the car out of the gravel parking lot. Surprisingly, there wasn't much traffic to get through today so we made it up to the hill in a record time.
The officer at the top of the hill stopped us. I reached for the nob on the radio and turned it down about three notches. I sat up in my seat and stared at him until he smiled and looked back at me. "What are you going to ask now?", he said jokingly. I grinned a little, "Can I have a hint?". He laughed and eased the car forward, "You know the answer to that," and that I did. Connor never gave me hints about anything. I rolled my eyes and looked away. "It's cheating if I give you a hint." He said it in such a sarcastic voice. I turned the radio back up and positioned myself so that I was looking out the window. The sky was grey and it looked depressing. Why did my birthday always have to be on a day when the weather looks depressing? My mind wandered to a million different topics until I was pulled back to reality by the sound of the turn signal. I looked over and realized he had turned his right turn signal on. Confusion spread over my face, and before I could even ask my own question he turned smoothly, and softly said "Your mom told me that you needed to go by the house first." "Oh," I sounded so awkward "well that's fine I guess." We both laughed at how sheepish my voice sounded. Duran Duran faded into a song by Lifehouse, "First Time". This was where the compromise came in, because we both liked this one.
He adjusted his speed and broke the silence with a simple question, "So are you excited?" I laughed. I didn't quite know how to answer his question. One part of me wanted to say yes, and another part wanted to say no. I wasn't expecting some big party because I was only turning seventeen. My parents saved the big stuff for the big years. Instead of giving myself a headache with over-thinking it, I answered just as simply as he had asked, "I don't really know." He shook his head a laughed until his face turned red. "What?!" I asked. "You're seventeen, and you aren't excited?" "I'm excited about being seventeen, yes. But I'm not so thrilled at the thought of what awaits me," a million thoughts ran through my head. "Don't stress it. I promise it isn't bad." That was the reassurance I needed.
He pulled into my driveway and parked right beside my car. I stepped out into the cold air again and took my stuff out of the backseat. We made our way to the porch and I searched for my keys. My cat was waiting for me as soon as I stepped inside. "Hey be-be!" Connor closed the door behind me and then followed me up to my room. Immediately I knew something was about to happen, because my door was closed. I turned to him and he was already smiling, "Open it" he said. I put my door on the handle and eased the door open. Nothing popped out, and nothing was different. I walked in and walked to the window to turn on my lamp. I sat my stuff in the floor and turned around. He was leaning up against the doorway looking right back at me, still smiling. That was when I realized there was a clothing bag laying across my bed. "I'm guessing that I have to wear whatever is in that bag?" "You are correct," he walked over to me and laid a small box on my bed "your mom told me to give you that before you started getting ready. You have an hour, so you should probably try to hurry. I'll wait downstairs." I nodded my head in approval. He walked off and shut the door behind him. Before he even got to the bottom of the stairs he called up to me "Oh yeah, Taylor," I walked to open the door and turned the light on so I could see him in the stairwell "your shoes are in the box at the end of the bed." "Oh, gotcha. Yeah that could have been a problem." "Nah, we would've found them eventually." He laughed and walked away, "Remember, only an hour!" I heard him open the fridge and I walked straight to my bathroom to plug my curling wand up. I left the light on and I walked back to my room. I honestly didn't know which gift to open up first. I started with the clothes.
I unzipped the bag and it revealed a deep purple satin dress; it was beautiful. I took it out of the bag and held it up against my body while I looked in my mirror. The dress had a thick one shoulder strap, and a waist-line marker. It even had pockets. I slipped into the dress within minutes and wandered to the end of my bed to see what my shoes looked like. I opened the box to a pair of dark purple heels. They had small purple jewels all over them, and a platform under the toe. They fit perfectly, and I had come to the conclusion that I was in love. I had been so caught up in what I was wearing that I almost forgot about the box Paul gave me. I sat on my bed and opened the box. A note sat on top that read "To my beautiful daughter on her seventeenth birthday, I love you sweetheart!" I smiled and moved the note. A brand new infinity necklace and ring sat before me. This had to be, by far, the best day of my life I thought to myself.
I looked at the clock and realized I only had twenty-three minutes left. I took off my shoes and rushed to the bathroom to curl my hair. It only took me fifteen minutes to curl my hair, and it looked absolutely perfect. I walked back to my room and put on my new necklace, ring, and shoes. I only glanced at myself in the mirror, and then I walked to the doorway. I had learned one too many times that heels were dangerous with my staircase, so immediately they came off. I rushed down the stairs and told him I was ready to go. Once everything was off I locked the door and walked back to the car. He unlocked the doors again and quickly opened mine for me since he got there before me. Then he walked to the trunk and pulled out a sparkly pink bag, that was my gift. I sat in the car and closed the door behind me. He pulled the door open and hastily sat down, quickly cranking the car to turn on the heat. I looked at him and he handed me the bag, "That's your birthday present from me. I hope you like it." I smiled, "Thank you." I opened the bag easily and pulled out a big clump of tissue paper. A small sparkly clutch laid at the bottom of the bag. I smiled again. "It matches!" He laughed at my amusement. "I know," he said "that's why I got it."
We eased out of the driveway and headed up town. We didn't say anything until we passed through the second stoplight and turned onto the main road. We were heading towards Raleigh. He adjusted his speed to sixty and finally turned down the heat a bit. "So you never really answered my question," he said expecting an answer. "What question?" I asked in confusion. "Remember, I asked you if you were excited to be seventeen?" "Oh! That one! I remember that one," how could I not remember that one, it was the only question he had asked me all day "and I remember giving you an answer. I said I didn't know." He smiled a little because he knew I was being sarcastic. "Well did you ever come up with a real answer?" We both laughed. "Yes I did actually. I'm very excited to be seventeen. It kinda feels weird though, I feel old." He shook his head,"You're not old. You're definitely getting there though!" He turned to me and his face was lit up with redness and laughter.
Before I had time to laugh, it had already started. In an instant, it was if everything had stopped, and in the split second it took to happen, all I would ever know slipped through my fingers. Connor's body jolted forward and hit the steering wheel. Before the feelings could even register in my brain, I felt glass cutting in my skin and my body flinging forward. I laid on the hood and I could feel the warmth running down my side, it was blood. It was getting harder to breathe, and everything was blurry. Through my pain I tried to move and look for him. I looked up at him and tried calling his name and his body remained still. I could see his eyes, they were still open and looking my direction. He was completely lifeless. I whispered his name once and fell back to the position I was originally in. Another piece of glass had shoved its way into my stomach. I felt a tear move from my eye to the hood of the car and the dizziness took over as I gasped for breath. I moved slightly and closed my eyes while I cried my last tears and took what I knew were my last breaths. I looked up once more to see the grey skies, and then shut my eyes with a final hitched breath. Everything was quiet.
~Taylor
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