It was my eighteenth birthday last week, and what a birthday it was.
Don’t get me wrong though, it started crappy like my last three birthdays, but it ended in a way I couldn’t ever anticipated.

My name is Stephanie, and, as I mentioned before, I am eighteen years old.
I have long straight black hair, don’t call me a brunette though cuz it annoys me, it’s black, not brown, with sparkly blue eyes.
People usually make fun of my height, when you’re only five foot two, it’s bound to happen I guess, and I am a measly one hundred and ten pounds and on my birthday I was… well… I was still a virgin.
What can I say?
I was a traditionalist, I was waiting for mister right.
But something unexpected happened on my birthday that changed my point of view on… well… on a lot of things.

I still live with my parents, well, my mom and her douchebag of a boyfriend really, never liked the guy, he’s hot and everything, and closer to my age than my mom’s but he’s just there to fuck her and live off her freaking money and won’t lift a finger around the house.
I guess my mom wanted a “boy toy” or something, ’cause he ain’t worth a shit!
But enough about him, he ain’t important, and it’s me I want to talk about anyway.

So, I was waiting for my birthday all year, which was this past July, all year long.
I wanted to see what my mom had in store for me, I mean let’s face it, you only turn eighteen once right?
I was becoming an adult, a woman, finally, and I was sure she had the biggest surprise aside for me…
Come the day before my birthday, my mom tells me she had plans for the next day with David (My mom’s boy toy) and that I’ll have to fend for myself coming the day of my birthday.
I tried to argue with her and let her understand I was trying to spend time with her on my birthday and that I was so looking forward to it but she just dismissed it and promised she’d make it up to me…
I can tell you right now that that night I pretty much cried myself to sleep.

The next morning I got up and they were already gone, on the fridge was a note that read…
“I’m sorry baby, I know you’re mad right now but I will be back later tonight, at around midnight, if you’re still up we’ll party or whatever you want, there’s a frozen pizza in the fridge, have a good day and again I am sorry, MOM”

So when I finished reading this, tears started to streak down my cheeks…
That’s when the phone rang, it was Jessica, my best friend, and so I answered.

“Hello”
I said, trying not to choke.

“Happy birthday crazy!”
My friend answered, and as any good best friend she could tell something was wrong.
“You OK baby?”
She asked, with actual concern in her voice.

“My mom’s gone with that fucker David”
And yes, I did keep all the bad words inside, believe me.

“Well that bitch!”
And no, she never kept anything inside, maybe that’s why I loved her so much, if she had something to say, she’d say it, no matter what.
“Well I can’t let my crazy friend spend all of her eighteenth birthday alone.
So why don’t I come and pick you up and we’ll have a decent birthday… What do you say Steph?”

At first I didn’t want to, I knew Michael would be there.
Michael is Jessi’s boyfriend, he’s nice and all, but he keeps looking at me in a way that makes me very uncomfortable.
But what else could I have done on this special day anyway?

After I let out a small sigh I finally answered.
“sure, why the hell not?”

“Good”
She answered, almost screaming.
“Pack your shit kiddo and get ready to rock!”
Again with the almost screaming, at least she was enthusiastic.

So I changed to be a bit more presentable attire, since I didn’t know how many people would show up, if she had plans to call anyone else that is.

Usually it takes her about ten minutes to come and get me but this time it took her twice as long, I was wondering if she got into a car wreck, it would’ve been the exclamation point to a very bad day, but she finally showed up in her little 2008 blue Saturn, honking fervently for me to get out.
And so I did, locking the door behind me.

I got into the car and hugged my friend as tight as I could, I even heard her make a “oomph” sound when I did, I guess I took her by surprise.

“OK girl, Mike’s waiting at home, he can’t wait to see you he said.”

“I’ll bet” I wanted to say but kept it inside.
“What took you so long?”
I finally asked.

“Oh I had to make a detour… My birthday girl can’t have a birthday without a fucking birthday cake I say… Oh and Mike is making something special just for you at home as well.”

I have to give it to Michael, he was one hell of a cook, you know, for a guy.

So, ten minutes later we were pulling in the driveway of Jessi’s home.
Not a big house but enough for the two of them to live, plus a bedroom to spare, it was smaller than my house though mind you, my mom inherited my dad’s money when he passed away when I was seven…
And he had a whole lot of money.
And if you think that rich girls are popular in high school, you’d be wrong, thank God it’s over though.

When we got in the house I bursted out laughing, Michael was wearing an apron that said “Suck the cook” with oven mitts, and seeing him like that just made me laugh, maybe it was the trigger I needed to let out the stress I had lately and make me relax, little did I know that later on that night, something else made me relax a whole lot more.

Michael put a tray of, well I didn’t know what it was until much later, on the counter and came and hugged me, a bit too tight in my opinion but at least he wasn’t trying to cope a feel.

“I’m sorry for your loss.”
He said.

“Huh?”
Was pretty much the only thing my brain could muster after hearing something so absurd.

“Well I heard you lost your mother to some douchebag.”

Again with the laughter, he stopped hugging me at this point but I hugged him right back, laughing and crying at the same time… Let’s be honest here, I knew he wanted me, and I knew he was my best friend’s man but…
Sometimes I couldn’t help myself but to love him, he was such a sweet guy and always knew what to say to change your mood for the better.

In the meantime Jessica was putting the cake, which I never got to see until we ate it by the way, in the fridge and smiling back at me, like a true friend would, even if you’re hugging that said friend’s boyfriend.

It was Noon now and we played video games, we played Rock band and I was the guitarist, Jessi was the bassist and Mike was the vocalist, if you wanted to call that “singing”, sounded more like a wolf howling but hey, it was fun none the less.
We played for hours then watched a few horror movies, all three of us were big horror buffs, and then came dinner.

We had lasagna, my favorite, which was by the way a coincidence, there were having that for dinner, and then we had some cake with my friends singing happy birthday to me, I was full, and I mean full!
But that’s when Michael took his “special” recipe out that he only cooked himself…
It was brownies.

I was full but when I saw that, I wanted some, but decided to wait it out a little.

So we hung out and Jessi got a couple of beers out of the fridge, now I have to say, I don’t smoke, don’t do drugs or drink for that matter, but I said to myself “You know what Stephanie? You’re fucking eighteen, take one, no, hell, take two!”
And so I did, and felt a little buzz from those two beers I drank but tried to hide it from them because I was afraid they’d laugh at me…
They, on the other hand, drank a lot more than just two, they drank five each.
Finishing the twelve pack…
It was getting late, it was already eleven and I needed to go, since my mom was getting back at midnight and she’d freak out if she saw I wasn’t home.
So I got up and said…

“Well I need to go, my mom will expect me to be home at midnight.”

Jessica took my arm and yanked me back on the couch of the living room where we were sitting.

“Nu huh, you ain’t going anywhere missy, you still haven’t tried Mike’s muffins.”
She started laughing.
“Not muffin I, I, I mean brownies”
She snickered a bit.

Mike got up and came back with a plastic container with the brownies in them.

“OK I’ll take one and then I’m leaving, you’ll have to drive…”
I looked at how drunk she was.

Before I had time to resume my phrase Mike handed me a brownie, and so I ate it, slowly.

“It tastes…”

Mike and Jessie looked at me funny, with a big grin on their faces.

Jessie took another one and handed it to me, then took one and gave it to Mike and took one for herself.

“The one that ate his or her brownie the fastest wins.”
Mike exclaimed.

“Wins what?”
I asked.

“fuck if I know.”
We all started laughing.

We all counted to three and gobbled up our brownies.