Happy Birthday To Me

[karter]

Tittle: Happy Birthday To Me

Legnth:One-shot

Genre: Comedy/Friendship

Characters:Nicole, Trey, Aden, Belle, Roman.

Rating:A

Warnings: Some suggestive sentences, but nothing bad.

Spoilers: Some for australian viewers, though only in character interaction, not actually anything that happens.

Summary: It's Nicole's birthday, but she's the only one that remembers.

A/n- Two things, i'm aware i haven't written anything in ages, so if i suck...um sorry. And two, this story is based of the short story Birthday Girl by Miranda Scool, it's about a girl who finds herself isolated with only her worst enemy understanding her.

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One-shot

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She looked at her calendar and got a bit of a shock, moving down the hallway, Aden bumped into her, she was half-way to uttering an apology when his dark glare silenced her, she rolled her eyes as he slammed the bathroom door, whatever.

Downstairs was quiet, Roman not making a sound as he fiddled with his breakfast, she handed him the orange juice and he replied only with a grunt, clearly he wasn’t in a good mood. Nicole sat next to him in case of need and ate her own breakfast in silence, mulling over the day.

She should be happy.

She should feel different. Older.

She didn’t.

It didn’t feel like a birthday.

Roman left her on her own and she was just scrapping the last of her cereal together when Aden entered, blatantly ignoring her. She took a breath and tried to start a conversation.

“What are you up to today?” she asked gently, with forced casualness, trying not to show how nervous she was.

“I’m going to see Belle.” Came the bit out reply, his back still towards her.

“That’s good.” She managed a small smile he couldn’t see.

“Yeah,” he sounded sarcastic as he whipped around, “Hopefully she’ll forgive me.” He said coldly.

Nicole dropped her eyes, and did her best to stamp down the self-righteous anger that burned in her stomach, two to tango Aden, it wasn’t all her fault.

Aden was gone then and Nicole was left in silence, she sat awkwardly on her chair half tilting it to the left. What to do? What was she supposed to do, party? Cheer? Seems you need other people to do all those things.

Her phone buzzed in the back of her jeans and for a moment her heart leapt, maybe her mother had remembered? She glanced at the screen. Her mobile company offering her free txt.

It seems Nicole was destined to be perpetually lonely. Even today.

She headed to the diner, unsure of why she was nervous, berating herself for hoping. Roman had far bigger things to deal with, Aden hated her and Geoff…was walking out the door with a giggling Claudia, he gave her a shaky smile which she returned tightly and kept going.

Her mother was probably with the lawyers or a new husband and…and that was it, she really only knew four people and two of them by de-fault, the other had forgotten her and the last disregarded her.

Well it’s not like you don’t deserve it a voice chided her in the back of her mind, Nicole was even mad at herself for the self-pity. Was she really so co-dependent? Was she really so pathetic?

She sighed. Probably, it’s not like talking to herself was much fun.

“You looked really stupid for a second there.” She looked up surprised and found Trey, aka Jerkface 0.5 looking at her. She rolled her eyes and jutted her hip, fully prepared to fight him into submission. But he shrugged at her. “Just a second. Staring into space like that.”

An awkward silence reigned and just as he walked past her Nicole found herself speaking, “Where are all your friends?” she asked, her voice softer then she expected.

He stopped just past her shoulder, his hands tucked into the back of his jeans pocket, he shrugged again, “Who knows, avoiding the lynch mob probably,” he said scornfully. “I just got kicked out of there.” He jerked his thumb awkwardly at the entrance to the diner, “I don’t think that’s legal.” He said with a smirk.

Nicole rolled her eyes, “Neither’s slander.” She counted.

He almost looked impressed at her comeback, “You asked.” He said moving to again exit when she spoke once more.

“You don’t know how to play this bad boy role very well do you?” she sounded almost curious.

He half swivelled to see her looking over her shoulder at him, “What do you mean?” he asked.

Nicole shrugged, shifting her weight all to one foot, “If you get caught, the key is to play an angle not act like a wimp and run from the witch hunt. That only makes it easy for them.”

“Like you’d know?” he snorted.

Nicole laughed at him, fixing him with a smirk, “You really are new aren’t you.” He caught a look at her devilish face and laughed. He opened his hands, faced them apart, “Should I be asking advice oh great one?” he asked sarcastically.

Nicole rolled her eyes, turning to face him fully, “Not that’d I give it.” She said shortly, “but you need to pick a personality and stick to it.”

Trey shrugged again, “I learned from some of the best-or worst if you’d prefer, I know what I’m doing.”

“Dropping you eyes and hanging your head whenever anyone sneers at you, pathetic, you’ve got to laugh in their face.” She said dryly almost smug.

Trey crossed his arms, “Kirsty’s tougher then she looks and apparently she has friends” he jerked his head in the direction of the diner

Nicole smirked, “She didn’t bother me.” She said coolly.

Trey snickered, he raised his eyebrows at her in an oh really expression, Nicole grinned, “She had to drag me home from school camp, in the middle of the night, that woman has shockingly bad taste in slippers by the way.”

“I’m surprised their not building shrines in your honour.” He said sarcastically.

Nicole shrugged, “Council red tape.” She said without missing a beat.

He sniggered, “Any other hints?” he asked amused.

“Yeah,” she drawled, “never let them win and stop the moment you turn eighteen, when that happens it’s not funny but sad.”

Trey rubbed his hands together, fitting his best evil smirk on his face, “Yes! Three more months of mischief.”

Nicole rolled her eyes, “And another thing,” she looked at him, “never call it mischief, unless your going to have a slingshot in you back pocket…oh wait, jokes like that aren’t funny with you.”

He glared and she had to resist sticking her tongue out, “So how long have you got left miss-know-it-all, up for a drag race tonight?” he asked jokingly.

Nicole shook her head, her eyes dropping slightly, “As of three am this morning I’m on the straight and narrow, passing the torch if you will, god help us if you’re the only one to carry on my legacy, maybe I could corrupt Annie in some way.” She added a thoughtful pause at the end, tapping her perfectly manicured nail to her chin.

Trey tilted his head confused for a moment, “It’s you birthday today?” he asked.

She nodded.

“What are you doing for it?” he asked.

She shrugged avoiding his eye, “It’s not big deal, I’ll probably just hang out with my friends,” whoever they are.

He looked around her in a dramatic way, squinting over her shoulder, “Where are they?” he asked.

She glared at him, “Probably with your’s,” she answered coldly, “let’s not start that game.”

“What about goody-two-shoes?” he asked. When Nicole looked perplexed he clarified, “Campbell, shouldn’t he be sticking to you like glue or are birthday parties against the rules to?”

Rolling her shoulder’s Nicole tried to sound nonchalant, “We broke up.”

“Good.”

She glared at him.

He shrugged with a grin, “All offence meant, you’ve probably had more personality in this one conversation then the entire time you were with him.”

“Geoff had a personality.” She was unsure as to why she was defending him.

Trey replied dryly, “Boring doesn’t count, that’s more of a mood.”

She didn’t have an answer for that, even a smart-alecky one.

“Nicole!” she looked up to see Ruby, with Jai annoyingly over her shoulder, the youngest Buckton trying to look disapproving. “What are you doing?”

“It’s called a two-way conversation you should try it someday.” Nicole answered dryly.

Xavier who seemed perpetually glued to her hand, looked darkly at Trey, “How could you have a conversation with that troll, doesn’t he communicate in grunts.”

Trey smirked, “Forgive me for dusting off an old chest-nut, but takes one to know one.”

Ruby glared, looking eerily like her big sister, “Don’t be so immature.”

“Say’s the ninth grader.”

Ruby glared.

“Whatever,” Trey added in an overly bored tone, “despite the lovely company,” he drawled, “I have better things to do, feeding my goldfish and all that, I’ll catch you guys on the flip side.” He winked.

Nicole smirked, doing her best not to laugh at his over the top joke.

He swaggered off, Nicole was left surrounded by newest rendition of the Muppets and quickly made her exit sliding past Ruby who was congratulating Xavier on his good argument; Nicole rolled her eyes and found the diner.

Roman was talking to Leah hastily and when the brunette woman pointed out Nicole’s presence her dad turned to look at her, “Would you be able lock up the diner tonight? Colleens not around, and I and Leah are going to go to diner; we might be a bit late.”

Nicole nodded, “Sure,” she answered quietly, wondering if her dad even knew the date of her birthday, well that’d be better then if he just forgot.

She got another text as she sat down; this one was from her mother, again Nicole mentally yelled at herself for getting her hopes up.

We’re close to a settlement, looking good, wish me luck.

XOXO

“Good luck,” Nicole whispered to herself, just as a pair of heels entered her vision stopping just before her, she slowly looked up and found herself staring at Belle, Aden over her shoulder. She sighed. “Oh goody.”

The entire diner was staring at them as Belle continue to rage, Nicole examined her finger nails and shot a disgusted look at Aden, “Double standards,” she muttered under her breath.

“What?” the furious brunette snapped.

Nicole looked up coldly, “I said, shouldn’t you be yelling at your boyfriend or were you under the impression sex was a one way thing, ‘cause if so, I think you’re doing it wrong.”

Slap!

Nicole’s cheek flared red, Nicole rolled her eyes, “That’s not an answer.”

“Your pathetic,” Belle snapped, “a scrag with no standards.”

Something in Nicole snapped, clean in half and she bit out, “A drug addict is talking to me about standards,” the diner went quiet, “tell me Belle, exactly how low would you have gone to get another fix.”

Slap!

The other cheek matched the first. Nicole rolled her eyes, “That’s still not an answer.”

When they finally left Nicole was pretty sure her lip was split, as her insides sighed at her, she strolled casually up to the counter and ordered a shake, like she’d told Trey never let them know that they’d won.

That night she locked the diner as she’d been instructed and trekked back home, her feet dragging, her shoulders getting lashed by the wind, her cheeks stung worse in the cold, when she got home to silence she thought not for the first time about getting a cat.

Well that is sad, a cat lady, really? She thought to herself, again wondering about exactly what an eighteenth birthday was supposed to be about, sure, she could drink and gamble now but she’d done that anyway, voting didn’t interest her and technically being an adult made her feel no different, she’d been exactly the same yesterday.

How about two cats? Heating herself some left over pasta, she had a shower and sat herself on the couch, fully prepared to not move for the next several hours or as long as the bold and the beautiful marathon continued.

And then the doorbell rang.

Nicole groaned glaring at the roof, someone up there hates me; she stood regretfully and dragged herself to the door mumbling under her breath, she opened the door and found…no one.

Nicole blinked, a second away from bellowing like a sailor at the top of her lungs when he eye caught the flicker of light and dropped to the ground.

A cupcake sat on the porch, with the string of a helium balloon in the shape of 18 tucked under its weight. Nicole was pretty sure her jaw dropped, she stared for a moment before gingerly leaning down and scooping up the cake and the balloon, the latter bobbed against her head as she peered at the golden flicker of the candle that was quickly dropping wax.

For a moment she wondered who had sent it before she saw a messily written note written on the cake paper, she struggled to read it for several minutes by only the light of the shrinking candle before she finally worked it out.

I know, not very rebellious don’t tell the other badasses. Happy birthday.

Nicole laughed and she didn’t even know why, but the smile was still on her face as she let out a single breath and extinguished the candle. Its smoke tickled her nose as she closed the door, her back resting against it, she laughed again.

So this is what birthday’s are all about.

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