Nancy knew, gliding down the hill back to her house, that no one knew what day it was. She was used to it by now. Nancy was used to the fact that her birthday parties were spent with her three best friends: A bottle of Vodka, A crappy movie, and a bag of gummy worms. She sighed as she passed all of the people walking or boarding down the road. If only she could understand what it was like….to be understood.
No sooner did Nancy pull herself away from the vision of Slash and Linda, Linda massaging his shoulders, Nancy noticed a couple passing by. Hand in hand, they walked down the street, pointing and awing at the snow frosted houses, tuffettes of smoke gently pouring out of the chimneys as the family nestled inside gathered around a warm fire with a good book. The guy, staring off into a distance, shimmered in the sunlight, his glasses refracting the sun. The girl was also glowing, but for a different reason. Nancy recognized the look on her face. The girl had a broad smile, like a red chocolate paint stroke from cheek bone to cheek bone. Her pearly white smile matched the snow around her, and her cute button-like nose was red from the cold. As she giggled coyly, the man wrapped his arms around her. When his hands touched together, and he had her in a full embrace, she let her giggle evolve into a boisterous, but innocent laugh. The man began to laugh too, overjoyed by his love for her. He whisked the girl off of her feet and spun her around, and as the girl popped her feet up behind her and smiled even wider, laughing even cuter and louder, Nancy could see herself in that same position. She saw herself like that with Slash. She wanted so badly to be whisked into his arms, to be held to his chest so that she could too hear the wonder that is his heartbeat; Nancy wanted to hear if it was in sync with hers. Sometimes she felt like maybe… just maybe, they could be.
The couple ran off in a playful game of snowball fighting, and Nancy was forced to ground herself back to reality and keep boarding to her quaint house, locked up and shadowed. When Nancy reached her driveway, she clicked out of her board and trudged up to her house. There was no sign of anybody around. Part of her wanted friends to jump out of nowhere and surprise her with a very happy birthday, but she knew that would never happen. The only thing that seemed different from the way she had left her house, was a tiny pink envelope slipped carefully onto her porch, in the middle of her doormat. The name, "Nancy N." was meticulously sprawled out in calligraphy. On the back, it was sealed with a red wax seal. No one had ever taken this much time on a letter to Nancy before, and this was just the envelope. Soon, the questions flooded her head. Who is it from? What does it say? Do I have a secret admirer? Is this stupid Damien again? She unlocked her door, the envelope pursed carefully between her lips.
Nancy shut the door and threw her keys on the door side table. Without glancing from the envelope she now cradled in her hand, she reached into the back of the far left cabinet and dragged out a sharp bottle of Vodka. Closing that cabinet, she opened the one just below it, pulling out a baggie of gummy worms. Her eyes still were taking in the beautifully hand-crafted letters that spelt her name across the front of the pink envelope. Nancy pushed the envelope to her nose: Peaches. She got a little more excited.
She walked from her kitchen to her upstairs bedroom, still completely focused on the letter. Closing the door softly behind her, Nancy didn't bother turning on the main light fixtures in her room. Instead, she set the bottle of booze and gummy worms on her bedside table, devoting the next ten or so minutes to the letter. Carefully, she removed the wax, and slipped her finger beneath the top fold, sliding it ever so gently through the fold until the letter was open. She took a second to breathe in the sweet smell of Passion Peach before reading:
Dearest Nancy,
Let me be the first to wish you a very happy 19th birthday. And also, even though it is likely you will get this after the race, I'm rooting for you, as always. I was wondering if I could stop by later tonight, say around…11? It is really important I talk to you, but I do not want to disrupt any plans you might have for today. Just give me a call if you don't think it's a good idea.
All my love,
Slash Kamei
Nancy smiled. Eleven is kinda late though….. She thought to herself.
She opened the package of Gummy Worms and began to reread the letter over and over in a ritualistic way, trying desperately to figure out just what it was Slash so badly needed to say. She was just about to turn on a sappy movie and continue what looked like a long and lonely night when suddenly, there was a rather quiet thump on the door. She didn't think it was Slash, but maybe someone else had remembered it was her birthday. When she got up and opened the door however, she wished that she hadn't. Linda was the one who rapped on her door, and looked very discontent and confused.
"Can I help you?" Nancy asked, in a timid yet sarcastic tone.
"Just because you one the race doesn't mean you're so special." Linda snorted.
"What are you talking about?" Nancy looked at the poor girl in utter bewilderment. She invited Linda in, but she refused the offer.
"I saw him first. What was in that envelope he left on your doorstep?" Linda poked. Nancy was a little offended that Linda would attempt to look that closely into her personal life. When push gave to shove however, Nancy had Linda leave with not so much as a door slam in her face. Yet as she walked away cursing, Nancy could hear Linda screaming,
"He mine Nancy! He already promised me! Promised!"
Nancy sat back down on the bed, and glared at the letter that lay beside her.
"Stupid letter," she lied. She flipped the remote into her hands and turned up the volume. She didn't know what to think. Linda probably was right…the way they were always together, the way that she acted around him, it was enough to make Nancy sick to her stomach. This was definitely not how she wanted to spend her nineteenth birthday. That's when she glanced out towards the picture framed on her bedside table.
Her slender figure was gorgeous for someone her age. Wearing a pink jogging suit and grasping a gold medal of honor, Nancy's mother never looked so beautiful, with the five year old Nancy on her shoulders. She had won the race that year, for the first time in seven years. At thirty, Megan Neil was possibly the best looking and fittest mother in all Snowboard Town. Everyone saw her as living past her generation, but nobody had anticipated the horrible accident, not even the driver.
Nancy flipped the picture over so that it faced the floor. Shutting off the television, Nancy slipped the peach smelling piece of paper underneath the picture and collapsed on the bed, hoping to never wake up.