Ah, poop guys I accidentally put 'last chapter' instead of 'next chapter' in the last one. This is not the last chapter, I'm still dragging this thing out. My mistake! Also, the word 'fuck' is used A LOT in this chapter.

~o~ Chapter thirteen! :D ~o~

I'm Roxas Richards and today is my birthday.

Turning sixteen is one of the biggest birthday's in someones life, but I'm not really feeling it with all of the drama sprouting up, it's only gotten worse. Since Namine and I got together, things seem to have horrible. I mean, between everyone slapping me in the face with whore accusations about her, mostly from people I don't even know in class who just find out that we're dating, and Axel trying to rub his genitalia on my butt, the drama is just getting worse by the day. And now Sora is dragging me into his own drama with his own family and love interests, as if I don't have enough of my own. He doesn't mean to, but it's still there.

On top of all that, my mom is still mad at me for the whole hickey thing, and even though I've been out of Azkaban for almost three months now, she's still been subliminally stacking on the punishment. Axel and our dad just sit there and silently laugh at me while I do the tasks, like take the disgusting garbage to the big dumpster all the way at the end of the street, in hot California weather, or bathe the neighbors cat for them because she's 'too old and frail,' and it doesn't matter if he scratches me in a frenzy. She's even had me walk all the way down to the Walmart on Main, a forty minute walk, to get her some tampons, then makes me go back and return them for another box when I get the wrong ones. I mean, how am I supposed to know the difference between super and super plus? She wouldn't even let Axel drive me when he offered, because it's a waste of gas or something. He walked with me, though, which I have to admit was really sweet. She has yet to stop telling me every time I complain today that I shouldn't even be having this party and should still be grounded.

But, yeah. It's my sixteenth birthday and all I want to do is lay down and read or something. But no, my dad insists on a big party. Aren't I lucky? The correct answer would be no.

I woke up this morning with a headache, and heaved myself out of bed. There was a Scarface t-shirt of Axel's that got mixed up in my laundry on my computer chair that I've been meaning to give back to him, but I didn't feel like finding a shirt to wear so I just pulled it on. What could he possibly say? It was my birthday. Then I threw my door open and waddled into the hallway as I adjusted my boxers to cover me better. I almost fall twice because I just don't want to be up, and I just have no coordination in the morning. Everyone but Axel was in the kitchen, and a quick glance at the microwave told me that it was ten thirty-four on a Saturday morning. He wouldn't be up until past two on these days.

Dad put down the newspaper he was reading and smiled at me from the head of the table. "Well, hey there, birthday boy! You look excited."

I snort and pull out a chair, sitting down. I rub my face with my hands in an attempt to wake up a bit, but it's not working. My mom gives me a look from where she's making herself a cup of coffee and I take my elbows off the table, not wanting her to yell at me today. She will, just not yet.

"You need to RSVP for the party," she tells me, leaning against the counter. I groan.

"Or we could just not have the party at all?" I say. She glares at me and I shut up quickly.

I take a quick shower and when I get out there's a nice outfit waiting for me on my bed that my dad must have bought. It's simple, consists of a just a pair of dark jeans and a white Sublime t-shirt with a pair of new, black pair of black low top Vans. It's pretty basic, and he's the fan of Sublime, not me, but it's a nice gesture that he'd even put them out for me. And I know it's him, too, because there's a birthday card on my bed next to it with the words FOR THE BEST SON IN THE WORLD in bold text on the front and FROM THE BEST DAD IN THE WORLD inside. I mean, how sweet is that?

I lag it back to the kitchen. Axel's been up for awhile now, and our parents are rushing around the kitchen to make all of the food. Axel is in the living room, laying about on the couch with his leg over the back, texting someone while Joshy watches TV. He's dressed and looks like he's about to go somewhere. When he sees me, he groans and sits up, saying, "You ready?"

My hair is still a bit wet, so I don't really want to go anywhere. "For what?" I ask.

He rolls his eyes and stands, putting his phone into the back pocket of his jeans. He walks past me and into the kitchen, talking as he walks, "We gotta go pick up your cake from Costco. Hey, Tifa, can I take the car?" He picks up the Prius key's from the key rack by the back door and jingles them. My mom gives him a look from chopping up potatoes and my dad looks up from the hamburger meat he's seasoning with a 'oh crap' face. Yeah, Axel's never asked to drive the family car before. "Please? It's good for the environment!"

My mom glowers at him and sets down her knife. After a moment, she sighs and says, "Fine. But only because it's good for the environment. I swear, though, if you get a scratch on it-!"

"Thanks!" Axel doesn't wait for her to finish and hops over to the garage door, throwing it open. I follow after him after awkwardly getting the money for the cake from my mom,

In the car, Axel plugged his phone into the AUX jack to play his 'sick tunes'. I stared at him a moment as some Indie band played through the speakers. Shouting over the music, I asked, "Sick tunes? Really?"

He ignored me, though, and mouthed the words of the song into my face with a look of 'nigga does it look like I care?'

I realize after awhile that we aren't going the normal way to Costco. I sigh and look at Axel, who's still mouthing the words to his music. He looks back at me for a moment before back on the road, where he narrowly missed running into a stop sign. I don't know why I get in cars with him. He couldn't drive to save his life. After my heartbeat slows down, I look back at him and say, "Where are we going?"

"We're eloping," he mocks. "I'm taking you to Mexico, and you're going to wear a maid outfit and call me 'big papa.'"

"Big papa," I say. "Where are we going?"

"Damn, I've never been so turned on. Call me that again."

"Will you answer my question if I do?" I ask.

"Yes."

"Big papa."

"We're going to pick up your friend."

"Which one?"

"You have more than one?" I slap his arm and he laughs. "Sora. I figured it'd be easier to just pick him up now, since we're in that part of town. Unless you don't want him to come, 'cause I don't care either way."

"Of course I want him to come," I say. "I just don't want Leon to. You didn't invite him, did you?"

He purses his lips. "Actually, your mom did. Well, I mean, she told me to. So I did. I mean, you don't have that many friends, no offense, so she just had me invite mine. For some reason, she thinks my friends are your friends, too. She don't know that you fucking hate them."

"I don't hate them," I sigh. I turn on the air conditioning because it's starting to get really hot out, and having the windows rolled down just isn't cutting it. Axel rolls up the windows and smiles at me, when he should be looking at the road. I just don't know how he hasn't gotten into a car accident yet.

"You don't? You sure act like it. I think they're cool, but you know, they're my friends so of course I do." He bumps me in the arm with his elbow. "You hate Cloud, though."

"Cloud's a bad person," I say.

We pull up to Sora's house and park on the curb. On the curb. He can't park, either.

Hopping out of the car, Axel walks over the grass while I walk up the driveway. When he gets to the door, he knocks rather harshly and we wait. Moments later, it's thrown open- thrown open!- and Leon stands on the other side. He leans on the door frame, yawning. He looks like he just woke up, with his hair everywhere, but he's dressed. "What?"

Axel smiles. "Did you just wake up?"

"I took a nap. So?" He narrows his eyes at us. I guess it doesn't matter that it's almost noon and way too early to be napping.

"Hey, man, I don't judge." Axel walked past him into the house and I followed after him nervously, nodding to Leon who keeps glaring at me. Axel's whistling as he strolls through, not a care in the world. "Where's your brother? Does he have no sense of time like you? I told him I'd be here by now."

"He's putting on his shoes." Leon crosses his arms, standing in front of the now closed door. Have I ever said how much he scares me? Yeah, I'm going to pee my pants if he keeps looking at me like that. He reminds me of Ted Bundy for some reason. Like he stalks people at night and uses his good looks to lure them to him. Axel leaves, walking into their kitchen and into their fridge, leaving me alone in the living room with Leon. I try to look at anything but him, like all of the pictures they have all over their walls, or the expensive looking furniture around their big plasma, but I can still feel his eyes on me. Oh, god, I wish Sora or Axel would come in here already!

Out of nowhere, Leon says, "Happy birthday."

I stare at him, openly shocked. I stutter out, "Oh, um, t-thanks, Leon..."

He shifts his weight onto his left side and continues to watch me. His eyes are really cold. He's actually a very cold person. I still don't understand what someone as happy and flamboyant as Sora is doing with a guy as cold and dull as him. Not that Leon isn't attractive, and I'm sure he has a good side, but Sora is just so loud and bright. They just don't fit. But, I guess opposites attract. I mean, Axel and I are as different as it gets.

Not that we attract.

At all.

Sora comes down the stairs first, and then Axel comes back from the kitchen with a bottle of Fiji water and two Hostess Cupcakes. He throws one of the plastic wrapped, chocolate love-cakes at me, which I catch rather clumsily as I hadn't known that he was going to be throwing it, and walks past me and out the front door.

As always Costco is as crowded as Disneyland. Axel flashes the Costco card at the lady at the door as we pass, and we're instantly assaulted by the air conditioned air of the warehouse. They always have it way too cold in here. We get in, grab the cake, and get out, only with minor injuries as Sora has no balance today and ended up bumping me, in which I stomped on Leon's foot. And then Sora ran into Axel and almost made him drop the cake. And then, on our way out, he knocked over a stand of oversized jars of peanut butter. We walked out really fast so that we wouldn't get in trouble, naturally. Okay, I know that Sora's clumsy, but he's never this clumsy. Something is throwing him off.

In the car, Sora went to answer his phone, almost dropped it, and flipped it in the air when he tried to catch it. Naturally, because Sora is about as clumsy as it gets, it flies to the front seat and hits me on the nose. I don't think any of them could have screamed any louder when Axel swerves from my first shout of pain and shock, almost running the car into the semi in the lane next to us. I swear to god, Sora could have broken my nose! I mean Jesus Christ, Sora has a Droid, and those phones are freaking huge. I start bleeding almost everywhere, so Axel has to pull the car over to get some of the napkins my mom always carries in the glove department, then pulls out the baby wipes. He leans around his seat to hold the tissue up to my nose and throws the baby wipes onto Sora's lap for me to use after I stop the bleeding to wipe off the blood. I take them from him with a glare at Sora, because that freaking hurt.

"Sorry," Sora blushes.

I just know that this isn't going to be the only time Sora hurts me today.

~o~

"Aw, Roxas! Look at you!"

"You haven't grown much at all!"

"I remember when you were just to my waist!"

"You don't look sixteen! Wow!"

Okay, I know that I'm short, okay? And I know that I have a baby face. I get it! See, this is why I didn't want a birthday party! These people make me angry, they're just so impolite and annoying. And they're smothering me with their love. If I get any more cheek kisses, I'm going to scream.

I'm awkward, okay? And talking to these people who I haven't seen since my last birthday, who I don't even know, isn't what I wanted to do today. I'd much rather go out to dinner like we do on Axel's birthdays. But, no, little Roxas needs to see his family more often. I don't even get presents anymore. What's the point of having a bunch of people come if you only get moneyless birthday cards and gift cards to places you don't go to? Geeze, a dinner would have been nice.

Sora strolls over to me, typing into his phone with his right hand and holding a soda with the left. "Kairi and Namine are coming."

Oh, god. Just when I thought that today couldn't get any worse. I don't want either of them meeting my family. Especially Namine. The only reason I even let Sora come was because I've known him for years and he already met all of my family in elementary school. Heck, he's getting the same treatment as me, with the sugar coated 'you're small' insults and pinched cheeks. He's loving it, though. He's an attention hog.

"She is your girlfriend," Sora says, rolling his eyes at me. I was going to say something snippy at him, but then something catches his eye out the window behind me. I look over, confused and then get a sudden rush of excitement. He says, "Oh. My. God."

"We got a bounce house?! I could hear from the kitchen, and that was it. Axel was speed walking out of the kitchen towards me, his hands turning me around and then on my back. He starts pushing me towards the door, which I have to open, and then outside. The bounce house is glorious, with a basketball hoop and a slide. I don't care if I'm sixteen. This is the chizz. And who cares if my family is all here and my girlfriend is going to meet them? I have a freaking bounce house! This is the best day of my life! This boun che house is enough to prove to me that there is a god, and that he/she wants me to be happy.

I just really love bounce houses.

Sora is already pulling off his tie dye Toms, leaving on the American flag socks he was sporting. Leon comes out to follow us, but he doesn't look too thrilled about this. Not as much as we are. Or at all, for that matter. When Axel pushes me down on the bouncy entrance thing and takes my shoes off for me, and then hops around to take off his own, Leon just stands there. I really don't think he wants to be here. Not that I can blame him.

Sora's first in, then me, and Axel follows. Leon just sits outside on the entrance, probably hating life. I fall twice. Once because Sora falls back on me, and the second time because I lose my footing and fall on top of Axel. We laugh and I roll off of him and onto my back, both of us staring up at the ceiling. I'm already exhausted. Sora comes and lays on my other side, laying his hands on his stomach. Axel's shoulder is touching mine, but I don't have the energy to move.

"Fuck," Axel says, still short of breath. I think Sora is the only healthy one of our group, because he seems just fine. "Having fun takes a lot of work."

"Right?" I say.

Sora lifts himself up a bit to look towards the entrance for Leon, where he's still sitting on the outside of the entrance flaps, on his phone. Sora groans in exasperation and calls out, "Leon, come in! You're so boring!"

"No," Leon says firmly.

Sora sighs and leans back again, turning his head to me. In a low voice, he says, "We're fighting."

"You're always fighting," I say back and Axel snorts a laugh.

We lay there for a few minutes, not talking. I almost fall asleep, but Sora's phone startles me because it's so loud And then it's playing a song I haven't heard in years, so I have to spend extra energy trying to figure out what it is. It's not a surprise to me when I find out it's Ludacris's Whats your fantasy, because Sora has always been into bad music and dirty rappers.

He answers it, "Yeh? Yeh. Alright. We're in the bounce house." There's a pause. "Yes, there's a bounce house. What, you're too good for bounce houses? Haha, we're not that old. Okay, cool. See you in a sec."

I really, really don't want them to meet my family. I feel like something bad is going to happen, and I know that Kairi will never let me hear the end of it. So, needless to say, when they show up and Sora rushes out to greet them (nearly knocking over Leon), I'm a little weary of their presence. The look that Axel gives Namine after we get out is so full of unmasked loathing that I almost feel bad, because she looks so uncomfortable. She looks good, but uncomfortable. Kairi glares back at him for her, but doesn't say anything.

After an awkward silence, Namine hands me a rectangular present gift wrapped in silver wrapping paper with a pink bow on top. I hesitantly take it, and looking at Axel to see his reaction I open it. After ripping it open, I find inside a book. Brand new and red, a yellow border surrounding it, JK Rowling's a Casual Vacancy rests in my hand. I look back up at Namine and, sincerely, I say, "Thank you. I've been wanting to read this."

She blushes and pushes a lock of hair out of her face. "Yeah, uh, I thought you might like it. I didn't know what to get you- I didn't know it was your birthday, so I just stopped by Borders and got that..." She sticks her hands into her sweatshirt pocket and looks to Kairi. "Kairi got you something, too."

"Oh, yeah." Kairi digs into her oversized purse and pulls out a Video game, tossing it to me. I almost drop it in an attempt to catch it. "Yeah, I finished that forever ago, so I'm just giving it to you. I hope you have a 360."

Axel takes the game from me and starts reading the back. I look over to my house to see an aunt sticking her head out the door. Ah, crap, now they've seen them. I turn back to Namine and Kairi and, in a warning say, "Okay, so my family can be a little weird."

"Very weird," Axel says.

"Outrageously weird," Sora adds, proud of himself for using such a big word.

"Not that weird," Leon grumbles.

Axel led the way into the house, and Jesus Christ I don't want to be here any more than I did earlier. I had through that the day turned for the better when I found out about the bounce house, but now it's just back to 'when are these people leaving I have to pee can I go to sleep now.' I just want to go lay down and spend my whole birthday sleeping. But, no, I have to have a party. Namine takes my offered hand and we walk over and into my house. The looks I get make me want to hurl, and Axel snorts behind me and bumps my shoulder when he passes.

"Head down, walk fast," I whisper urgently to Namine, and she presses her side against mine as we walk, looking down at her feet. Smart girl. She knows that she is in the lion's den.

Axel was in the kitchen, digging around in the drawers, and my mom was at the counter with the cake. Axel must have been looking for the candles, because a moment later he lets out a 'ha!' of victory and holds out a multicolored candle box to my mom. One by one, she sticks them in the cake until there's sixteen. Then, satisfied, she puts her hand on her hips and says to Axel, "Go get everyone. We're doing the cake."

Axel groaned, but left. That's when my mom noticed us all, standing there on the other side of the counter. She narrows her eyes at us suspiciously, mostly because I haven't ever brought someone other than Sora to my house, and it's weirder that they're both girls. Sora hops over and starts eating the chips and dip by the sink, Kairi following him, while Namine and I stand at a face off with my mom. Finally, I sigh and say, "Mom, this is Namine. Namine, this is my mother."

"Oh, wow," Namine says. She leans forward over the island counter with her hand out to shake my mom's. My mom takes it reluctantly. "You're really, really pretty, Ms. Turk. Oh, geeze, it's nice to meet you. I'm sorry it took so long, Roxas just wouldn't let me come over."

My mom takes her hand back and subtly wipes it on her thigh. Oh, god, this isn't going to be pleasant. "Hm. I'm sure that's why." She puts the hand on her hip. "So, you're my son's girlfriend. Well, aren't you a lucky little girl. How old are you, Namine? Fourteen? You look fourteen."

Namine frowns. "Actually, I'm-."

People started coming into the kitchen and Namine was cut off by a 'the Almasy's are on their way.' Great. Today is the day I die.

You know that awkward moment when you have to sit there while everyone sings 'happy birthday' so you? Yeah, I'm sure that it makes me feel a lot more awkward than you. I mean, I have to be the most awkward person on the planet when it comes to this kind of stuff. At least Axel isn't throwing things at my face this year, or doesn't particularly look like he's going to shove my face into my cake again. He just stands there next to Leon, the two talking about something on the other side of the kitchen, way away from the group. Sora and Kairi are singing next to my dad, and Namine is taking pictures with her phone. And there's me, at the table and in the middle of the circle, just wanting this day to end, hating my life.

I wish for delivery from this party.

Then came the cards and my most sincere looking thanks. I feel like a fraud.

I don't eat any cake but I do take a slice and smash it a bit to humor my mom. I let one of my bigger aunts take it, because she doesn't want to go all the way back to the kitchen to get another slice, and I don't want to get up from the couch to throw it away. Namine just pokes at hers, which Kairi takes for her and devours, along with half of Sora's. That girl can put it away. Axel's on Tumblr on his phone, because we're never allowed to leave the parties until after everyone leaves. Leon looks like he wants to kill everyone. Sora and Kairi are just talking and talking, Sora braiding Kairi's hair on the side. I know I've already said this today, but god, I just want to sleep.

And then, as if my day wasn't bad enough, there they are. I could hear the music from their car from streets over, and as always they're late. He's laughing loudly when they get out of their car and she's following behind him, brooding. As soon as they come in the house, we hear their argument, about how she doesn't think he should play the music so loud, it's bad for the body, blah blah. He ignores her, because that's just what he does.

I know for a fact that my cousins Seifer Almasy and Quistis Trepe were not invited.

"Roxas!" Seifer shouts when he comes through the front door, his arms out and his voice changing octave. "Rocks ass. My main man. How's it goin'? Yeah, we heard there was a party, but our invitations must've gotten lost in the mail. Oh, here, we got you shit." He tosses a wrapped up box into my lap, a rather heavy box covered messily in Christmas wrapping paper, and I sigh. Seifer sneers at me and says, "Damn, man, you look like you need a nap. Mr. Gumpykins!" He leans down and pinches my cheek, and I've never had a stronger urge to bite someone in my life. I just swat his hand away.

Everyone on the sectional couch is staring at him while his sister slinks away behind him. Naturally, I'm glowering, and so is Leon, Sora and Kairi lose interest quickly and go back to whatever they were doing. Axel is gawking, though, for some reason. I don't know why, I don't care. Seifer watches me until I rip off the wrapping paper and oven the cardboard box. I sigh away my annoyance and roll my eyes when I see that the box is mostly just bubble wrap. No wonder it was so big. I throw the bubble wrap out and Sora and Kairi immediately snatch some up to pop. The presents are at the bottom; a box set of four books, a Team America DVD and a can of spray cheese. I lift up the Easy Cheese and frown.

"Is this chee-."

"Yes." He has on a serious face.

"Oh my god," I lightly chuckle. "I've always wanted one. Thank you."

Seifer waves his hand dismissively. "You can just call me your dark lord Seifer from now on as a thanks, nothing big." He looks to Axel and puts his hand out for him to shake. "Hey, you must be the stepbrother. What's good, man?"

"I follow your blog," Axel says.

Seifer nods with a face of approval. "The stepbrother has good taste. Are these your friends? I mean, I didn't know you had any, to be honest." Always so insulting. Kairi catches his eye as she's popping madly at the bubble wrap. He immediately takes a seat in the gap between her and Sora, and Sora scoots over. He takes Kairi's hand, leaving the other to hold up the deflated plastic. "Hey there. I'm Seifer Almasy. Not to toot my own horn, but I'm Tumblr popular."

"I like pussy," Kairi says, taking her hand back. Well, that's new.

"So do I," Seifer nods. He leans over her to Namine and shakes her hand. "I'm Seifer. And you're Namine, right? I saw you on Facebook, in a relationship with my little baby cousin here. Anyway, Roxas, my mom's coming, too. She's just really late because she's retarded as fuck. Hey, I'm gonna go socialize. Gotta go promote human rights." He slaps my leg and gets up, winking at Kairi who snorts.

"See, that's why I became a lesbian," Kairi grumbles. "So that cute guys can be interested in me after I decide I don't like guys. Fuck my life."

~o~

Seifer was, in fact, promoting human rights. For the next hour, he went from family member to family member with the same lines. "Hey, family member so-and-so! You know, there's a few controversies in America that I would like to talk to you about. What do you think about web censoring? And the death sentence? Oh, really? And how about birth control and abortion? In fact, what do you thing about Obama? Huh. Yeah, I can see that. You seem like the type. Oh, that's what you believe? I guess Mitt Romney was a good vote for you, then! Have a nice time with your narrow mind." Then he moves on to the next one, and the next one. This is what he does every party. He comes up with a scenario and asks everyone their opinion on it, and that's how he decides which family members he likes for the time being. It's always funny to watch people get mad at him, and this is why he isn't invited to parties and stuff. Because he comes, there just to bug people, his sister only gets looked down upon for whatever reasons, and then his mother comes like a tyrannical whirlwind and is more often than not drunk. Axel's met her, but it's kind of funny that he's never met Seifer. Of course, the only time we see him is at other family member's parties, which Axel bails out on because he has no interest in my family. So, it does make sense.

And then his mom pulls up in her shiny new Prius, taking off her sunglasses and flipping her long, blonde hair on her way in. This one is Celes Chere. Yeah, they all have different last names because Celes got around. She's my second cousin or something, my mom's cousin, and I try to avoid her as much as possible. She's really cold and calculating, and her heels are too pointy. Seifer immediately stops his conversation with one of our older second uncles and curses when he sees her. He said, "I thought you weren't coming 'till later."

"And I thought that you would turn out better." She walks over to where I was trying to be invisible next to the fire mantle and takes my soda from my hand, taking a drink. Namine tries to hold in a life at the face that I make. Celes then pats my shoulder, her lipstick making marks on the can and hands it to Seifer who had come over. She looks at him. "Good kid, this one. Why couldn't you have turned out like this, huh?"

"Well, fuck me sideways," Seifer replies. "Sorry being so fucked up. I don't know what could have possibly happened to me."

Every time. See, this is another reason we don't invite them places! All they do is fight and take jabs at each other. I mean, do you know how uncomfortable it is to be in the middle of these two? And it's always been like this, even when Seifer and I were kids. He's had a potty mouth since second grade, and I was just there getting a slap on the hand for repeating things that he said. That's probably why I don't really cuss, to be honest. His mom jut doesn't care anymore. She's young, and she had him and his sister in her teens, so she probably was just too immature to know how to be a mother. It just followed her into adulthood.

"Where's your mother, Roxas?" she asks me, looking around the living room. She doesn't notice the weary looks they're getting.

"Probably out back," I say.

She takes a hold of my wrist. "Alright, let's go." I get dragged behind her while Namine follows awkwardly behind me.

I look back at Sora and Kairi desperately, but they don't notice me. They still haven't ran out of bubble wrap, that's how much Seifer put in the box. When we pass Axel and Leon, Axel looks at Celes, and then to me and mouths, "What the fuck is she doing here?"

I shake my head and let out a noise of despair, and mouth back "Help me!"

They start to follow, too.

"Mom," Seifer snaps at her when we get outside. "Don't drag him around! He can walk on his own!"

"Gettin' real tired of your shit, Seifer," she says. My mom is sitting at the picnic table with her parents when we walk out. As soon as she sees Celes walking towards her, she looks around for an escape, but knows that it's too late to get away when Celes gushes out, "Tifa! Damn, you got big. Are you pregnant again?"

What is with these guys and insulting us?

She pulls me up to her side and throws her arm around my shoulders. My mom looks more angry than when she saw my hickey, but Celes just goes on talking. I really just don't like this woman. All of the bad memories of my childhood flow back, when she would babysit me while my mom was at work, and Seifer would put gum in my hair and push me off the swing set, and she would spank him with the paddle, which was a Home Depot pain stick and rather large to be hitting a kid with. Quistis would hide in closets and under cabinets with a flashlight to get away and read. Sometimes, Celes would bring her work up and just lock Seifer and I into a bedroom with the TV on so we wouldn't hear what she did, and he would tickle me until I threatened to pee my pants. He hates pee, so it always worked.

Seifer pulled me away from her and behind himself as if that would save me. I am beyond saving. I should have hid better when I saw her coming, maybe behind a couch or a fat uncle or something. Seifer snaps at her, calling her some inappropriate words, and she snaps back. Same old thing. This is my childhood all over again.

"You know what, fucker," Celes snaps at him and snatches me back when I had finally gotten my wrist out of Seifer's iron grip. "I'm just trying to spend time with my cousin. If you don't like it then you can fuckin' leave."

Seifer lets out a fed up groan and I know what he's going to say. We all know what he's going to say, save for our friends because they don't know how these two work. My mom jumps up with her hands in front of her, ready to say for me that it's okay if my cousin holds me against my will and that I like it, but it's too late. Seifer says, "No one likes you!" And it's over. There goes my last hope for this party to be normal.

I don't think I've every seen anyone get angrier faster than Celes. Her eyes fly wide, her mouth juts up, she puts her hand out as if she doesn't believe what she heard. Her voice is now high pitched and loud, and she practically screams, "What the fuck did you just say?" She snaps. "I'll have you know, you little fucker, that no one likes you. You're the asshole here."

I don't think that there is anything more awkward than being in between an argument, especially one this full of heat and cussing, and when you have friends over on your birthday. I am going to just cry right now, because I don't want to be here, and I don't want my friends to see my family, and I just don't want to have this stupid party. Namine walks away quickly and stiffly to stand in the general area near Axel and Leon, but I'm almost pressed up against the table, behind Seifer and his mother as they argue back and forth. I'm going to cry, I'm going to cry. I bite it back, but I'm going to cry.

"Can I, um..." I try to cut in, moving uncomfortably. Nope, no way out. "Can I get through? I don't really want to be in the, uh... middle..."

Seifer hears me that time and snarls at his mother. "Move, woman! Ain't nobody got time for this!"

Who would have thought that Seifer would save my life today? On any day? Even if he's half the reason I was cornered in the first place, I'm thankful that he stopped the argument long enough for me to escape. It started back up immediately after I got away, but it was a nice gesture. Everyone starts to migrate inside, and Namine looks horrified. Oh, god, my life really sucks right now. I groan and look over to Axel, who looks really annoyed by this whole thing. He's probably even more done than I am, with that face. Leon looks slightly amused, however, and much brighter than earlier when he looked like he wanted to stab himself to get out of this party. I really, really don't like him at this point.

"I am so done," I mutter as we walk back into the house. Namine automatically goes into the living room and sits next to her sister, who is still popping my bubble wrap with Sora. They just really don't care. Axel throws his arm around my shoulder and I lean down from his weight.

He says, "Well, at least one good thing came out of today."

"And what is that?" I ask.

He opens the front door and we both walk out, alone, away from the party. "I got you a present."

We're not alone after all, because Cloud is out here, sitting on the tailgate of his truck, which looks new and kind of irritates me. He gives me a look of utter loathing and hops off, but I'm not paying him any mind because in his arms is the cutest puppy I've ever seen in my life! It's a small English Bulldog with light brown eyes, and it's excess skin is jumbled up with a large brown spot on it's backs on on both of it's ears. Cloud holds it out to me by the scruff of it's neck, and I take it and hold it up to see it's face.

"Ooh~!" I gush, hugging it to my chest. "Oh my god, this is the cutest lil thing I've ever seen!"

"I told you he'd like it," Axel says to Cloud who snorts and looks at me again. Oh, god, he hates me.

"Well," he said. "Just make sure that dog doesn't die. I have a lot of personal business with the breeder."

Axel looked down at me, but right now I don't care about them or how rude Cloud's being because I have a freaking puppy! And she- I found out she was a girl by the lack of male genitalia- is sweet and keeps trying to lick my face and bite my hands. Axel's addressing me, though, so I look up at him for a moment to show that I'm listening, but then go back to the puppy.

"It took me like, four months to convince our parents to let me get her for you. I had her picked out and everything. Got her from the same breeder that Cloud got his dogs from. Got a discount." He wiggles his eyebrows. "And you know how much big papa loves discounts."

I smile and set the dog down when she starts wiggling. Then I hug him, because I am utterly thankful, and I let him hug me back. This time. I even allow myself to indulge in his smell, and how warm and nice his hugs are, because heck. It's my birthday. I even get a nice bit of satisfaction when we pull away and I see the face of hatred he gives me, with a crinkled, snarl ravened nose. I like that he hates me, because it just proves that I have one up on him with Axel.

Not that whatever Axel and I have is a good thing, I just like to see Cloud cringe.

"Anyway," Cloud says with an aggravated sigh. He digs into his pocket and pulls out some folded up papers, handing them to Axel. Axel then hands them to me. "Those are her dog license, shot records and papers. Axel, you have her tags, right? Okay, good. Don't fuck this up, Richards. My boss is really serious about his dogs, and I don't need one of them dying because he'll ask me about it and he knows when I'm lying."

"I'm not gonna let a dog die," I say, rolling my eyes. How does a dog even die? What, do I forget to feed it? She has all her shots, and it's not like she can get out of our house or back yard and get hit by a car.

He looks like he wants to say something, but bites his tongue and looks to Axel, his jaw set. Axel gives him a look and he sighs, defeated, but doesn't look at me and just sets a hand on his hip and looks down at the dirt. "Yeah, well, happy birthday and shit. I'm gonna leave now, hope you get everything you wished for, blah blah."

When Cloud leaves, I find the ability to thank Axel properly, with another hug and a verbal thank you this time. I have to pick up the dog because she doesn't just follow, and when we get back into the house Sora takes her from me and he and Kairi proceed to scream in excitement. Axel walks behind me as I avoid eye contact with any family member, and I pass a very steamy Seifer, who's eating a slice of cake that he had peeled off of his shirt- which was a #Swag shirt, so I suppose it got what was coming to it- and talking to Leon at the kitchen table. Celes was ranting at my mom in the backyard, and she was also covered in cake, but she wasn't eating it. It's actually kind of gross that Seifer is, because that had to have just been a random piece of cake that was sitting on the picnic table when his mother must have thrown it at him.

Axel sits in the chair next to him, leaving me to the chair next to Leon, and he scoots away from me a bit when I sit. He hates me, too. Oh, well.

"What's up, my main men?" Seifer asks, chewing. I cringe.

I say, "I've always hated the way you ate, Seifer. You're like a cow chewing cud."

"You used to spit you juice back into your cups," he accuses playfully.

"It added flavor."

"Oh my god," he laughs. He makes a face and starts to wipe off the cake smear from his shirt with a napkin he'd gotten out of the napkin holder. Axel made it his freshman year in wood shop, but my mom only puts it out when we have people over so that they think our parents care about the things we make them. Seifer lets out a odd whine, giving up and throwing the napkin on the table top. "I liked this shirt! Fucking bitch, man..."

I sigh. "It says 'Swag' and has a mustache under it."

"I know! Isn't it cool?" He pulls on the fabric and pulls on a frown. "I got this shit from . Do you know how expensive that place is? Very expensive! Burger king don't pay me enough to just be throwing money away..."

People are leaving now, praise the lord. And after the whole fight and Celes started moving from woman to woman, people who would normal stay until late at night are saying their goodbyes. I get more cheek kisses than I can count, and promises of visits that they'll hopefully forget about. These people make me tired, and I'm really glad that my mom isn't like other people and doesn't try to stay in touch with our family. And when they're all gone, I can push my friends out the door and go upstairs to die. Yes, that's my plan.

Quistis, who had been standing awkwardly by a tree in the back, walks into the kitchen stiffly. She walks over and stands next to Seifer, leaning down a bit to say something in a low voice. When she stands up, she adjusts her glasses. Seifer smiles up at her, patting the small of her back, and says, "Yeah, I forgot about that. We'll leave in a sec. But first..." He takes out his phone and unlocks the screen, then looks at Axel. "I need your Tumblr," then to Leon, "And your number."

My mom comes in before they leave, prying herself from Celes, and kisses both of them on the cheeks. At the door, she puts her hands on Seifer's shoulders and says, "You better come visit, okay?" She sends a look over her shoulder. "Just don't tell your mother before you come over."

He snorts and glares in the general direction of the back. "I don't even know how she found out about this. I think she goes through my phone when I set it down."

My mom takes his face now and kisses his forehead. "You can always come stay with us, Seifer."

"Only if I can bring my cat." He smiles, but only for a second because he sees Celes next to me, trying to give me a goodbye. "Cel, come on. We gotta pick up Rai. He better be wearing a shirt this time, or I swear to fu-," he catches my moms eye. "Fudging gosh, I won't do anything about it. It's his choice. 'Kay, by all!"

My mom waves and closes the door after them. She turns to Axel and I, then looks to the dog in my arms (I had to pry her out of Kairi's hands), then back up at us. "It's drooling."

"Ah, crap!" I try to wipe the drool off of my sleeve on Axel. He makes a face and looks at his own sleeve. "We can be drool buddies."

"That's, uh..." My mom pauses, then walks past us, not saying anything else.

Now almost everyone is gone, and Leon and Sora say their goodbyes and Axel takes them home. Namine and Kairi, however, stick around for a bit. We all stand in a circle in my living room, and it's getting dark outside. They're waiting for one of their parents to pick them up or something, I don't know. My dog is asleep on the couch, my parents are cleaning up the kitchen, Joshy was put to bed and I'm tired as hell.

I say, "So, uh, yeah. I'm sorry about my family. And that I didn't invite you guys. And that my mom called you fourteen. You don't look fourteen..."

Namine smiles and pushes my shoulder lightly. Kairi lets out an 'aw, shucks,' and punches my other shoulder. It kind of hurt. Kairi says, "It ain't no thang, chicken wang. But, hey, we all gotta talk. Because there's some serious things going on right now in my family. Namine, do you want to tell him?"

"I guess..." She hesitates and puts her hands into the back pockets of her jeans. The pause is long as she thinks, her face scrunched up a bit. "Okay, well, our parents are kind of going through it, and... Um, they don't really trust me, or let me leave the house too often. And they caught me sneaking out, and they were really mad, and I guess that was the last straw for them. And our brother is coming back from his tour of duty soon, but he lives in Oregon. Well, uh, they want me to go stay with him when he gets back. It's kind of official, they just need his okay."

"Wait," I say, trying to comprehend it. "So, you're moving?"

"Being sent away," Kairi corrects. "Moving is a choice. This is like banishment."

Namine gives her a look, and then looks back at me. "Well, yeah, I'm moving. But I have a few months here. But we can't date after I move, long distance relationships are too hard."

"So you're breaking up with me."

"No!" She sighs and takes my hands. "No, I'm not breaking up with you. You know how much I like you, even if you can be a butt sometimes. I'm still here until the end of the school year. I just don't think that after that we should date. It wouldn't be fair to you, baby."

"Yeah," I agree. "It wouldn't."

Could this day be any worse? I mean, come on! There was a bounce house and I got a dog, sure, but Jesus, today sucks. I want to cry, I think that's what I'm going to do when they leave. Just go lay down and cry. For a week. A month. Maybe the rest of my life. Maybe I'll get lucky and I'll slip into a coma, and when I wake up there'll be a new president, one who doesn't let girlfriends move away and break your heart. This is why I didn't vote for Obama (not that I can vote)! He has no laws protecting boys from their girlfriend's heartless parents.

"You're mad," she states. Gee, what would have given that away? "I'm sorry, Roxas. It's not like I can control what my parents do."

I take my hands back and cross my arms, letting out a frustrated sigh. "Yeah, I know. Sorry. It's just... God, this sucks. Today sucks."

"I know, baby." She cups my cheek and runs her thumb along my cheek bone. There's a honk outside and Kairi groans. Namine sighs and kisses me. "That's our parents. Gotta go." She kisses me again and I lightly wave them off as they leave.

I grab my dog and walk quickly to my room, before anyone can stop me. Putting her on my bed, I lay face down into my pillows. I leave my shoes and clothes on, the lamp on my desk the only light now that the sun has gone down. Everyone took so long to leave, and I have decided that I will never see any of them willingly again, save for my friends. If my mom asks me if I want to go to aunt so-and-so's house for blah blah, I will say no, I am busy doing made up things.

There's a knock on my door and I groan. When it's pushed open, and the person closes the door and jumps on my bed after they've come in, I know that It's Axel. I don't move, save for a little nudge I attempt to give him with my right leg. He laughs and scoots closer to me,throwing an arm around my waist. "Happy birthday."

I go to push him away, but my hand only lands on his face and just kind of stays there, because I don't have the energy to move it, nor do I want to. He has nice skin, okay? He rubs the small of my back, then asks, "Are you okay?" I shake my head. "What's wrong? Was it Namine? 'Cause I'll cut a bitch." I sob loudly into the pillow and move my arms underneath it to push it closer to my face. I knew I was going to cry today. Jesus, I cry way took often in front of Axel. His hand now moves from my lower back to my upper and he leans into my, his face nuzzled up against the side of mine. "Hey, what's up? Come on, I don't even know what you're crying about half the time! It was Namine, wasn't it? Did she break up with you or something?"

I wail into the pillow, trying to choke out a 'she's moving', but it's inaudible. I trail off into more sobs. He hugs my back, partially laying on me, and leans his head on the back of my shoulder. He doesn't say anything, just lets me cry, until I'm done a few minutes later and just staring at my door. I would have still had my face in my pillow mountain, but the pillow my head is on is covered in tears, and I needed to breath at some point. Finally, with his weight on my and my face dried, I say, "Namine's moving."

"Aaw, did she break your little heart?" He catches himself and says, "Wait, sorry. Are you okay? Need anything?"

"I need you to get off my back." Literally. He laughs and rolls off onto his back, and I roll onto mine so that I'm staring up at my ceiling.

He says, "Well, I'm a little upset, too."

I smile, because I know what's coming. "Why?"

"Why the hell didn't you tell me your cousin is Seifer fucking Almasy?!" He goes onto his side and leans his head into his hand, his elbow on my pillows. I turn my head and chuckle. "I mean, you would think that would come up in a conversation. 'Oh, hey, Axel! By the way, since you love Tumblr so much, my cousin is Tumblr famous!'"

"Tumblr popular," I correct.

"'Tumblr popular,'" he mocks. "Yeah, well, you'd think it'd come up on the first date."

I run a hand down my face, unable to hold back my smile. "We don't date."

"Speaking of dating..." He suddenly rolls on top of me, making my new puppy jump in surprise and scuttle onto my pillows. She settled into a crevice. Axel straddled me, and I could only stare for a moment, shocked. "You never got your birthday kisses!"

"W-wait-!" I go to push him off but he takes my wrists and kisses both of my palms.

"One, two..."

Maybe I'll get lucky and he'll forget how to count again.

My right wrist now, "Three, four..." Then all of my fingers on my left hand, "Seven, eight, nine..." My shoulder, my collar bone, and my neck... "Twelve..."

And then my face. A kiss on both of my cheeks, and my forehead. That's fifteen. One more. My heart flutters, and my face is hot. I bite my lip and put my hands on his chest, and for a moment I think that I might let him do it- I'm going to let Axel kiss me. Oh, god, where are my senses today? I'm just tired, I've been crying... My feelings are hurt and I'm going to lose my girlfriend. I'm confused and I just don't know what to do at this point.

"Axel, don't," I sigh, but I honestly don't make an effort to stop him at all. He still has his hands holding my wrists, and he holds them to his chest, and he's been in between my legs since the first few kisses and I attempted to struggle. I'm on pillow mountain so I'm sitting up, and my bed smells like him now. I know I bring up his scent all the time, but it just does something to me. I love it. "Axel, come one, you shouldn't..."

"I should," he says and leans into me. God, he's slow, and he tilts his head. And his forehead presses against mine, and then his lips, and with that, Axel kisses me.

I don't kiss back at first, naturally. I mean, I have a girlfriend, and I'm straight. Bi-curious. Bisexual. Maybe I'm pan-sexual, maybe I don't have a sexuality, maybe I just don't care. Right now, all I can think about is how soft and warm Axel's lips are, and I kiss him again. And again. We're not making out, just kissing, our eyes closed. If I'm lucky, this will be a dream and I'll wake up in the morning and just kind of hate myself. I bite my lip and it hurts, so I know that it isn't a dream and that I didn't just fall asleep earlier when I threw myself in my bed. I'm really kissing Axel and you know what? I don't care.

I'm a cheater, and I don't care.

"Oh, god," I groan and run both of my hands down my face.

I do care.

"'Oh god'?" he asks, frowning. "What?"

I don't move my hands from my face, just lean into them. I want to cry again, this is too much. "Jesus, Axel, I have a girlfriend. Just... God. I don't even know how to feel about this."

He sighs and sets his jaw. "You don't know how to feel about anything. Like, ever." When he gets off of my bed, I watch him fix his shirt and adjust his flannel. He doesn't look at me when he walks out and slams my door shut. He hates me. And I don't blame him.

But whether he hates me or not is not the issue at the moment. I kissed him. I kissed him, and I liked it, and even though he threw a fit, I still have butterflies in my stomach. Kissing Axel was nothing like kissing Namine. It was like an explosion, but at the same time all of my senses were numb. Kissing Namine is just kissing, making out. It doesn't do too much to my body other than the fact that she always tastes really nice.

But, with Axel...

Whoa.

I've never experienced anything like that before.

And, you know what?

I think I like Axel.

~o~

A/N

Look, guys! Look what I gave you! A present!

Naturally, being as into politics as I am, I decided to update after I found out who won the election. As you can imagine, I am ecstatic. :D

Anywho~! I made this chapter long for you guys to make up for my long absence before chapter twelve, and also how short that chapter was. I hope you guys liked it!

Review!