Lily's birthday has always been the hardest. Not quite knowing whether to celebrate another year of his sister's life or to mourn the death of his mother placed Lucas in an odd limbo, normally the day started all smiles as Lily ripped open her presents, James always sat near her with the excitement of his own approaching birthday bubbling out of him. Then later, after the parties and the laughter, after Lily had gone to bed and James had been tucked up in the spare room he'd sit with Haley remembering his Mom, crying and talking. It was the one time in the year he let himself give into it, in the presence of his best friend with his brother in the next room watching his son sleep and being on guard in case Lily came down the stairs looking for Lucas.
It was the fourth year running that this had happened and the trio were growing into the routine that occurred without fail on the 13th June. Lily and James had been asleep for a couple of hours and the smell of burning cake candles had finally drifted out through the open windows as the oppressive humidity of this summer's heat wave tumbled into every corner, seeming to zap the energy out of every living thing it touched. Haley had turned out the lights earlier and lit candles, another tried and tested cover up technique in case Lily got past Nathan. Luke didn't want his little sister to see him crying, didn't want her to associate her birthday with the same sad event that he did. She was stretched out on the sofa, trying to stay as cool as possible; Luke lay next to her, his right hand absently smoothing the fabric stretched over her pregnant stomach, feeling the life inside kick against his hand.
"I'm sorry Hales, you shouldn't have to do this every year. You should be hidden away somewhere wrapping James' presents or baking his cake or something…"
Haley chuckled slightly and turned her head to look at her best friend, "Why would anyone want me baking Luke? You're doing us all a service by keeping me away from the stove." Lucas smiled, only his second true smile of the day – his first had been when he had Lily sat square on his lap as she blew out those four pink glittery candles, her brown curls sticking out at every conceivable angle, despite Haley's attempts at taming them with a head band.
"I can always count on you Hales." He rolled his eyes slightly, sticking out his tongue at Haley who responded with the same expression. "Come on then you, there's cold pizza in the kitchen that I know you've been dying to get your hands on all night." Lucas pulled himself to his feet and wiped the tears from under his eyes before holding out his hands to help Haley heave herself off the couch.
"You know me so well Lucas Scott, so well." The pair found Nathan asleep in the chair outside the door, "Come on old man, up you get." Haley shook Nathan's arm to wake him brushing her hand against his cheek when he woke up and smiled upon finding his wife's face. "How's our sweet baby James doing?" She glanced over to the bed under the window where James was laid, the bed sheets thrown off in the heat and his bear dangled from one hand.
"Better than we're coping with this weather." Nathan pulled himself to his feet, placing his hand on the small of his wife's back in an attempt to soothe the ache he knew was resting there, as the pair followed Lucas through the room and into the kitchen. "Cold birthday pizza?"
I just realised, the babies are called James and Lily, bit of a Harry Potter parallel there, apart from the whole wizarding world thing. Meh…I was excited :P I hope you guys enjoyed it, please review, I love reading what people think of my stories.
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