FTVW gave me the prompt for this one (and found me the quote too) so a big thank you for that. 13 down, 87 to go!

Please keep the reviews coming, I'm loving reading them!

*** L&OSVU *** L&OSVU *** L&OSVU *** L&OSVU ***

Birthday

A birthday is just the first day of another 365-day journey around the sun. Enjoy the trip - Author Unknown

Olivia polished off her slice of toast, checked her watch, picked up her book bag and headed into the hallway. Her usual routine at the start of a usual day, perfectly timed to ensure that she arrived at university with enough time to spare to grab a coffee before her first lecture of the day. She'd just reached the front door and put her hand on the handle however when she heard a voice behind her.

"Olivia?"

She turned, surprised, to see her mother stood in the doorway to her study. The apartment had been so quiet that morning she'd assumed she had already left for work.

She glanced at her watch again, "What?" Short, to the point, but then she had somewhere to be.

"Thursday. Your birthday."

Typical. Absolutely typical. Virtually the first time in her whole life that her mother had given an ounce of thought to her birthday before the day itself and it had to be when she was meant to be out of the door and onto the subway.

"I thought we could have some people over."

Well, this was an interesting development. People over? Like a party. She'd had one birthday party in her entire life. She'd begged and pleaded for a Sweet 16th and regretted it later when her mother had organised a surprise bash with a guest list consisting solely of HER friends and colleagues. And actually, as she reflected on her mother's words, it didn't sound like this one would be any different. Besides which,

"Sorry mom. I'm going out with some girls from the sorority on Thursday."

It hadn't been her idea. She'd had enough bad birthdays to want to avoid them all together but she'd let slip to one of her sorority sisters that hers was coming up and she'd insisted on organising an evening out. Which, it had to be said, her mother looked pretty disappointed about. Well momentarily anyway, until she came up with her next big idea.

"Well why don't you meet here? You could introduce me to your friends, and we could have some champagne before you go out."

Mindful of the fact that she was getting later and later by the second, Olivia was tempted to agree to the idea just to shut her mother up so she could get on her way. Tempted, but thinking better of it when she realised that would actually involve having the friends she rather liked, and her unpredictable mother in the same room.

Absolutely not.

She didn't want to be that blunt though, partly because she didn't have time for a row, and partly because it seemed rude to kick her mother when she seemed to be attempting to win a parent of the year award all of a sudden, no matter how irritating she was finding it. Instead she opted for noncommittal,

"Maybe. Although," she added, because although she was late, some thing's were just too important not to mention, "maybe no champagne. You're not meant to be drinking."

Her mother had the audacity to LAUGH, of all things, a tinkering, playful little laugh, followed up with an equally inappropriate comment about "one little drink not hurting" that just made Olivia want to shake her and remind her that she'd never had ONE little drink in her life. She resisted the temptation but her anger must have showed anyway because as she tried to leave a second time, her mother called her back.

"Olivia, have I done something to upset you? Because I'm just trying to arrange something lovely for your 20th birthday and you're acting like I just strangled the cat."

"We don't have a cat." she responded moodily, "And I have to go."

Apparently the response did nothing to pacify her mother who came to her side and grabbed her by the arm, "Olivia! What is all this about?"

Olivia didn't know if it was being physically restrained, or questioned, or just the fact that she was being made late, but whatever it was, it flicked a switch in her that completely pushed her over the edge. She swung round angrily to face her mother, her eyes blazing,

"YOU'RE asking ME what this is all about? I think I'm the one who should be asking you that. Since when do you care about my birthday? You never have before."

"That's not true. We always go out to dinner." Her mother looked like she'd been slapped but Olivia had been pushed too far to care.

"Yes. We do." she conceded, but angrily, remembering all the birthday dinners she'd endured over the years, "And as a kid I really appreciated all the stuffy restaurants with food I didn't like and you working your way down the wine list on the other side of the table. Every birthday I had was just another excuse for you to get to drunk, not that you've ever really needed one." she could tell from the look on her mother's face that she'd gone too far but yet she couldn't stop as 19 resentment of 19 different but equally lousy birthdays came flooding out. "And remember in grade school? When I asked you to help me make muffins to take in for my class? What did you do? You sent me in with pastries from that exclusive bakery that my whole class hated, and actually," she bit her lip hard realising she was close to tears and not wanting her mother to see her cry, "I didn't care that no one liked them. That wasn't why I was upset. I was upset because I wanted us to make the muffins together. I wanted you to spend time with me. That's the best birthday gift you could ever have given me."

"Oliva…" her mother moved to hug her, but she ducked out the way as once again it all seemed like too little too late. "Olivia please." she felt slightly guilty as she realised she wasn't the only one near to tears but what came next was enough to push the guilt right away again "I'll make it up to you. We can spend this birthday together. We can go to a spa or something."

She swallowed hard, shaking her head, "I don't want to go to a spa on Thursday. I wanted to make muffins 13 years ago. Look mom." she glanced at her watch again - she was really running late now and more than that was just desperate to get out of there, "Just forget Thursday. What's a birthday anyway? Its just another 365 days around the sun. I don't care about it, so why should you?"

And with that, she was gone, slamming the door behind her.