A/N: I don't know if people are losing interest in the story, but I have a feeling that they are and I would really rather people tell me where I am going wrong as opposed to just not reviewing at all, so please let me know what you think!

This chapter took a while to write, and I'm hoping I can get the next chapter up as soon as possible because round about now is when things really start going downhill.

I've already planned the entire story out and I can't explain how excited I am to share it with you guys.

Thank you so much for your reviews, favourites, and follows. Have a great day!

Birthday: Part 2

When you get in, Stef is waiting in the dining room and you know right away that she is waiting to talk to you. Obviously Lena called.

"Callie, let's talk."

Strict Stef voice scares you.

You sit down opposite her and she gives you a narrow eye look. "You never went to your last three classes."

"I didn't."

Stef raises an eyebrow and straightens herself, waiting for some sort of argument. "Well, are you going to tell me why?"

For a moment, you stare at her, unsure of what to say. She leans forward, waiting for an excuse or a lie or something but you just stare and shrug your shoulders like you always seem to do and sit back in your chair.

"Callie?"

"I felt sick, okay?" you say, your voice a little harsher than you wanted it to be. "I just needed some time to breathe. You all hover all the time, I just needed to sit by myself and breathe."

"We hover because we worry."

You stand up and pull your bag over your shoulder. "Well you don't need to worry." You mumble. "I'm going for a nap, I have a headache."

...

"Hey callie," You hear someone whispering. You don't open your eyes because you aren't quite ready for it to be morning. You groan and turn over. "Callie, wake up."

When your senses come to you, you realise that it is Jude who is trying to wake you up and you open your eyes right away. "Jude, what's wrong?"

"Nothing…I just..." he sits up on your bed next to you and hands you something wrapped in a piece of tissue paper. "I figured I'd have to wake you up early to give you it."

You open up the tissue to find a small rock inside and you give him a questioning look. "Thanks?"

"I got it on our field trip a month ago, and I thought I'd give you it for your birthday. I know it's not much, but…It's a rock from outer space!"

You smile and ruffle his hair. "No way? Outer space?"

"Yeah, the science teacher said that it's amazing because who knows how long it was floating up there and how far out it was and it ended up here! How cool is that?"

"The coolest." You say, staring at the small piece of rock between your fingers.

"Happy birthday, Callie."

You wrap your arms around him and squeeze him tight. "Thanks, bud."

...

The smell of chicken wakes you up from your 'nap' and you notice that it's since gotten dark outside. You pull a sweatshirt over your head and wander down the stairs towards the kitchen, mentally noting that you've only eaten half an apple today.

Stef is standing at the table, chopping onions and Lena is sitting beside her, grading papers. You can hear Brandon playing piano and Jude and Jesus are playing video games in the living room.

"Good nap?" Lena asks, once she's spotted you.

You shrug and pull a bottle of water out of the fridge. "okay, I suppose. What time is it?"

"It's 6:45, dinner will be ready in about twenty minutes. We were actually just about to wake you up…how you feeling?"

You give her a weak smile and nod and sit opposite her, taking a few gulps of the water. You feel weird, but you think it maybe has something to do with the lack of sugar in your system. Your head feels fuzzy and you feel a little warm and clammy. You think about the food that they are about to serve up and it makes you feel a little nauseous.

"Could I maybe just go shower and go back to sleep? I'm not hungry."

Lena looks up from her papers and takes a good look at you, clearly trying to figure out whether you are lying or not, but then she stands up and walks towards you and places a hand on your forehead. "You feel a little warm."

Mid-day sleeping always makes you feel this way, but all you can think about is getting back into bed and sleeping some more.

Who knew lack of food would make you this exhausted?

"Try and eat something and then you can go to bed, okay?"

"mkay."

Dinner is a solemn affair. You don't bother with the food on your plate and you don't look up from the ground, you just listen to the conversation around you and keep your mouth shut. You notice that you feel ten times worse today than you have in weeks and it just makes you even more exhausted.

Once everyone has finished eating, Lena takes away plates and Stef stops everyone from leaving the table.

"It has come to my attention that we have a birthday in the room!" she chirps and everyone looks directly at you. You smile.

Lena leaves the room for a moment and comes back with a box wrapped in dark purple paper in her hands and gives it over to you, smiling from ear to ear. "Open it!"

You rip open the paper like normal people do and the first thing you see is the Canon logo and then a picture of a Camera. You gasp because it's not just a camera, it's one of those professional SLR camera's fully equipt with two lenses and a memory card and you are physically shaking.

Why? Why would they spend this kind of money on you? Why are they doing this? You don't deserve this. It doesn't make any sense.

You once got a box of chocolates for your birthday in a home and it was the best birthday since your mom died.

Now they're giving you a camera, knowing well how much you love photography. They know how much this means to you and how much you've wanted one of these for years and yet all it does is make you feel physically sick.

Why are they doing this?

"uh….this is…it's too much, I-I."

Stef Stops you and wraps her arms around you. "Nonsense. Happy birthday, Love."

They bring out cake and, in a perfect melody, everyone begins to sing to you with big smiles on their faces and huge candles on the cakes and, when they place it in front of you, your eyes begin to well up.

...

'Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday dear Callie, Happy birthday to you!"

You look around the table at all of your family and friends and you don't think you've ever been this happy before. You got a Barbie convertible, a Barbie dollhouse, Barbie bed sheets, art supplies and a chocolate cake and everyone is here to sing happy birthday.

They place the cake out in front of you and your mom smiles down at you. "Make a wish."

You inhale with everything you've got.

I want to be this happy forever.

Then you blow out all six of the candles in one go.

...

When you're no longer in the memory, you're looking at a vanilla cake and 17 candles and a different group of people who like you just the same. You're looking at a wish that was never granted, at a life that has never been quite as easy, at a brother who thinks you are the best thing in the world. You're looking at people who are going to disappoint you, and a cake that is going to make more room for darkness and they expect you to make a wish when you blow out the candles, but you just close your eyes and exhale and stand up and leave the table with tears in your eyes.

You go to the bathroom, close the door and stand on the scale and sigh when you notice that you are still 110 after a long day of eating nothing at all and doing nothing at all and you wish that it were easier than having to wait for a new day to see a new number. You wish it would just go down as you willed it. You don't understand why you feel so wrong because today was supposed to be right because it was an even number and you are 1lb closer to your next goal and you got a new camera and Stef and Lena love you even though you left school early and they still got you a birthday cake, even if it wasn't chocolate and they still sang happy birthday, but you just feel like today was rock bottom and you can't quite figure out why.

And you don't figure out why until Stef finds you in the kitchen at 3am with a slice of untouched vanilla cake sitting in front of you having a stare off.

"You gonna eat that?" she asks, taking a seat next to you.

"Why do we always end up here?"

Stef smiles and shrugs her shoulders. "We're the night owls of the family."

You let out a dry laugh and look down at the cake, thinking about the 350 calories staring back at you, about what they would do to your progress. "My mom always got chocolate."

Stef gets herself a slice and moves back to the same spot at the table with you. "Oh? You don't like vanilla?"

You shrug and take a deep breath. "I do. She just thought that chocolate was everyone's favourite and that a birthday cake was nothing if it wasn't made entirely of every type of chocolate you could get."

"Sounds like a good cake. I'll remember that for next time."

"mmm."

Stef takes a huge bite of the cake and looks at you intently like she's waiting for you to talk to her, but you aren't entirely sure what it is you want to say. You don't really want to say anything at all.

Sometimes, silence makes things easier.

Stef waits a few minutes before she says anything again. "You don't like birthdays, do you?"

You shake your head and push the cake around on your plate distantly.

"Everyone here loves them."

You look at her and watch as a small smile appears on her lips, you think she must be remembering all the birthdays that have happened over the years. You think it must be so easy to fall into the memories of a family that still exists. When you remember, all you get is nausea.

"That's good." You whisper, your voice monotonous when you want it to be kind.

"My mom used to put everything aside for our birthdays. I guess it's just hard to enjoy them now because they never really measure up." You take the smallest bite of the sponge and you savour the sweetness on your tongue, chewing as slowly as you can. You know you'll regret this later, but sometimes you can't stop yourself from being weak. "You guys came close though. Thanks."

What you want to say is please don't do it again because you can't let them think it's okay to spend money on you and fuss over you. What you want to say is please don't give me a taste of what I can't have once I leave here because you want her to understand what this does to you. What you want to say is please leave me alone but you just sit in a comfortable silence and stare at the piece of cake on the plate in front of you.

Sometimes, you want them to take you in their arms and never let you go.

Most of the time, you know that you will eventually have to say goodbye.

You can't miss what you never let yourself have.

"Are you still unhappy?" Stef speaks into the silence.

You look up from the cake and shake your head slowly. "no." you say.

Although you know that it is a lie and you know that she knows that too because she gives you a look that says how can I help and her mouth opens like she is about to speak, but the words die on her tongue and her head dips down as she sighs.

A few minutes later, her hand covers yours on the table and she looks at you closely. "I'm here."

Then she goes to bed and mumbles something about how you have to get to sleep aswell.

You realise that the reason you are this low today, the reason that it doesn't matter that you've hit 110 and that you've been given presents and cake and been sung to, is because you aren't so sure you're ever going to experience it again.

This is as good as it gets and you haven't even had the chance to enjoy it.

God, you wish you hadn't eaten that mouthful of cake.