Happy Birthday

Lauren lay on her side in her princess canopy bed studying the clock on her bedside table. In exactly ten minutes she would be one year older. Whoopee. It wasn't that she wasn't excited for her birthday. It was just that she really wasn't looking forward to the day. She was crazy though. Her birthday would be spent hanging out with her boyfriend, then going on a shopping spree with her mother, and then going off to her surprise birthday party where she would spend the rest of the night drinking, dancing, and passing out. What was more fun than that, right? Sometimes it felt like the same thing over and over though. It never changed. It's not like she was some withdrawn depressed chick. She didn't know how to change things. If she did, she would. She wasn't the type of girl to sit back and watch things go by. Yet her life was flying by and she literally couldn't tell one day from the other.

Lauren watched as 10:29 changed to 10:30. She had been up since 8:00, but she hadn't dared move from her bed. She had been laying there thinking about things and watching her clock. The thought depressed her. God, she was pathetic. She had better things to do with her time, right? She could be picking up what to wear for tonight or out at the beach with her best friend, Autumn. But at the moment she had no desire to do either of those things. All she wanted to do was sit in her bed for the rest of the day and think about how screwed up things were. The girl grumbled pulled her baby blue cotton sheets over her head.

"Laur! Are you up?"

The sudden arrival of her mother's voice made Lauren come out from underneath the sheets once more. She had the desire to say no, but she knew her mother would come in anyway. That was her mother, Georgie James, nosy mother who wouldn't leave Lauren alone for a minute. She sat up in bed, letting her sheets fall down to her lap. "Yeah, Mom. I'm up," she tried to shout back though it was more like a pathetic attempt at a shout. Her mother opened the door suddenly, standing in the doorway perfectly dressed and ready like every other day of Lauren's life. Her mother was perfect. She had perfect blonde straight hair. She had the perfect figure and perfect insured teeth and perfect Juicy lip glossed lips and perfect flawless skin. Sometimes Lauren wished her mother was less perfect so the expectations on her would be lessened.

"Happy birthday, honey!"

Lauren offered a weak smile to her mother. She was technically five minutes early, but Lauren wouldn't mention that. Her mother's greeting would've been perfect if that was all she said. But that never happened. She always had more to say to Lauren than just the typical nice mother things. Lauren expected nothing less. Georgie walked across the room towards the windows and opened the curtains, letting in the bright sunlight to which Lauren shielded her eyes. "Why don't you get up and get ready? Big day, right? Aren't you meeting Cameron in a half hour? What are you doing lying in bed?" she replied with a smile. Lauren sighed and pushed her sheets away from her legs. There it was. There was her mother. The mother she knew never just said 'Happy Birthday'. It was always something more.

"I'm getting up, Mom, ok? Can you just…leave..please."

Georgie turned to her daughter as the skinny girl slipped out from underneath her sheets. The two had an interesting relationship. Though everyone thought theirs was the greatest mother-daughter story since Lorelai and Rory Gilmore, the truth was never that wonderful. Georgie had expected a wonderful relationship with Lauren when she first became a single mother. She raised the little girl on her own. She took more than half of her sorry excuse for a husband's money and she gave her daughter a good life, a life that most girls would kill for. Yet Lauren never seemed to be satisfied with it. Georgie could tell. Years of suffering through a dead marriage with her former husband had taught her how to spot the signs of hidden unhappiness and she could easily spot Lauren's. Of course she never said anything about it. She convinced herself it was a phase. All teenagers went through that phase and Lauren was a teenager. But the phase had turned into a great many years. Though on the outside her daughter seemed to be the perfect Sherman Oaks mini socialite, her heart wasn't in it. Georgie didn't know what to make out of it.

"If I leave you're just going to go back to sleep."

Lauren hid her frustration and stood up from her bed, her floppy sleep shirt falling to her knees. She looked over at her mother who had finished opening the curtains. "Mom. I'm up, ok? I'm standing. Can you just leave?" she said, not a smile on her face. Georgie studied her daughter who stood before her. The girl smiled quite a lot, but never behind closed doors. It hurt her, but she didn't know what she could say.

"Fine, fine. I'll let you get dressed. You know what? Why don't you wear the Chanel dress we picked up last week, ok? The white one with the flowers. That is just gorgeous on you, honey," Georgie replied as she walked towards the door.

Lauren nodded her head though her eyes went back to her digital clock. Georgie stopped in the doorway and turned once more to look at her daughter. "And remember, after Cameron takes you out, we have shopping date at 3, ok?" Lauren nodded once more and Georgie disappeared down the hall while Lauren's eyes remained on the clock. 10:39. Lauren looked around her empty room. There was no one there. Only her. Only the birthday girl. She remained silent before uttering the words she had been waiting two and half hours to say.

"Happy Birthday."

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