For the first few moments after Ellie ran, everyone stared at the door in shock. Then they all started talking at once.
"What happened?"
"She looked sick-"
"Did we do too much space stuff?"
"Is she ok?"
Joel stared at the door with a sick feeling in his stomach. This was his fault. He never should have told her what happened. As if she'd want to go to a party minutes after discovering that Adrian was abusing Emily.
"I'll go after her." Dina said resolutely.
Joel grabbed her arm when she was halfway out the door. "No, I think this is my fault. I'll go. You all stay here." He could feel all their worried eyes boring into his back as he turned the way she'd run and walked alongside Tommy's house toward the forest. After a moment's glance at the dense undergrowth, he started the trek.
A few minutes' worth of tramping through the thickly grown plants had his legs itching with poison ivy, but at least the damage Ellie's run caused to the undergrowth made her path clear. He cursed to himself as he followed along, hoping the party could be salvaged. He'd really wanted to make her happy.
Finally, he broke into a small clearing, where Ellie was sitting with her back against a tree. Her knees were curled against her chest. She caught sight of him and flushed. "At least it's you and not Dina." She muttered.
"Dina tried. I had to hold her back." Joel replied as he took a seat next to Ellie and stared into the forest. Ellie had chosen a nice spot. In the sun, surrounded by the brightly colored fall leaves, it was beautiful.
"I didn't know." Ellie blurted out.
Joel's brow furrowed as he looked at her. "Didn't know what?"
"I didn't know today was my birthday." Ellie squeezed her legs tighter. "I knew it had to be around November or December because my mom would start saying I was a year older by Christmas. Like if I was eight, she'd start referring to me as her nine-year-old daughter at some point around then. But I never knew the day."
Joel had no words. He shook his head in disbelief. "Did you ever ask her?"
Ellie shrugged. "She said she didn't know."
Every time Joel thought Ellie's mother couldn't get worse, she managed. He'd never wanted to beat up a woman so badly in his life. "That's shit." He growled.
"Yep." Ellie replied. "I never understood why all the other kids got a special day where they got presents and I never got shit."
Joel took a deep breath and pushed his anger away. "Well," He said. "I think this birthday will be a good start to making up for that."
Ellie stared at him. "You got me a present?" She asked excitedly.
"A present?" Joel repeated incredulously. "I got you presents, plural. And so did Tommy, and Maria, and all your friends. You will be unwrapping until tomorrow morning."
Ellie bounced to her feet, a huge grin on her face. "Why are we here? Let's go back!"
Joel chuckled as he got to his feet and followed her, shooting a quick text to Tommy. 'Shit mom never told her today was her bday. She was startled. Do the surprise again.'
They made it out of the forest in a fraction of the time it took Joel took to find her. Ellie ran to the door and burst through it.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY AGAIN!" Joel heard everyone yell as he slipped in behind Ellie. Ellie grinned sheepishly.
"Sorry guys." She explained. "My mom-"
"Is an asshole." Dina finished. She linked arms with Ellie. "Do you like the decorations?"
"I love them." Ellie gushed. She pulled away from Dina to run to a boulder. "How did you guys do this- holy shit, it's so light!" She yelped as she picked it up.
"I made it!" Lev announced. "It's paper mâché. It took forever."
"I picked out the rug! Do you like it?" Bria gave her dad a pleading glance. "I'm trying to convince Dad to let me keep it."
Tommy laughed. "No way. That's for the birthday girl."
"Yes!" Ellie cheered. "Thanks Tommy!"
Jesse hit a balloon toward Ellie. She flinched as it smacked her in the face. "You like the balloons I blew up, Ellie?" He asked with a grin.
Ellie narrowed her eyes as she snatched two from the ground. "I do." She held up the balloons and rushed at Jesse.
"Girls vs. boys!" Dina yelled as she grabbed her own balloon. Joel, Tommy, and Maria retreated to the kitchen as the living room turned into a war zone.
"All these decorations and they just want to play with the balloons." Tommy sighed as he gestured to a small astronaut statue on the counter.
"I'm sure she'll notice that eventually." Joel said placatingly.
"No birthday parties for her first thirteen years." Maria's dark eyes narrowed in disgust. "I'd like to give that woman a piece of my mind."
"Me too." Joel growled.
"Now, now." Tommy put his arms around them both. "It's a kid's birthday party. Let's not allude to violence."
"Allude to violence? We're witnessing violence." Maria protested as Ellie leapt over the couch onto Jesse, Dina close behind.
"Off the furniture!" Joel yelled. "C'mon, go outside."
The kids obeyed with much grumbling that vanished when they saw the trampoline. Another gift for Ellie that he'd take to his house once the party was over.
Throughout the night as the kids played, Joel unveiled surprise after surprise. He brought out a karaoke machine to distract them from the trampoline – they were bouncing Ellie too high for his liking. None of the kids were good singers except for Ellie, which only made them laugh harder at each other. They even cajoled Joel and Tommy into doing a duet. Joel had never sung Country Roads with such enthusiasm.
After the karaoke machine, Joel gave Ellie a kit to make friendship bracelets. He'd chosen the more 'adult' kit with the nicer beads, but he still wasn't confident she'd like it, especially with two boys in tow. To his surprise, they loved it. They spent ages arguing over their group name so they could all make and wear matching bracelets. Finally, they decided on Milk Crew.
"Milk Crew?" Joel frowned.
"Because when I first met Jesse and Lev, Jesse laughed so hard that milk came out of his nose." Ellie giggled as she explained. "And then Dina and Bria met him after lunch when his shirt was still covered in milk."
"That was literally the first thing we knew about him." Bria added. She grinned at Jesse. "I didn't even ask your name, I was just like 'what's on your shirt?' And he said, 'milk.'"
"And Lev said 'from here.'" Dina tapped her nose. "Then we laughed at him for five minutes."
"And then I told you my name." Jesse rolled his eyes, but he was smiling.
Joel shrugged. Kids were weird.
"Dinner time!" Tommy burst through the back door, his hands full of freshly delivered McDonald's bags.
"No fucking way!" Ellie gaped at the bags, then at Joel. "Joel!"
Joel grinned. "Surprise."
Tommy set all the bags on the table, creating a veritable feast of burgers, nuggets, and fries. The kids attacked it. "This is the best day of my life." Ellie announced with half a nugget in her mouth. Then her eyes widened. "Holy shit, is that a rocket?" She grabbed a little plastic bag with a toy rocket from one of the McDonalds bags. "Is this like the one…?" She let the sentence trail off as she turned to Joel.
"They were about to stop doing the space toys a few weeks ago, so I told the workers why I wanted them. They let me buy a few." Joel explained. "I figured you could each have one.
Ellie's hand tightened on the rocket. "This one is mine." Her eyes were sparkling with tears as she looked at Joel. Joel had to swallow back some tears of his own. The toy rocket was the first thing he'd ever given Ellie.
"Good choice." Joel responded. Then Jesse asked to see it and the moment passed.
The cake was a hit. Ellie had really liked a banana muffin that Jesse's parents had baked a couple weeks ago, so Joel had decided to try a banana cake. To his relief, she loved it.
After dinner, Joel unveiled his biggest surprise: lightsabers for all the kids. While each of Ellie's friends got one that lit up, Ellie got the one that was expensive, and it showed. Her friends teased her, and Joel could tell that his niece felt a little jealous. That was ok with Joel. For once in her life, Ellie deserved to get presents that made people jealous. However, Joel was glad he'd decided to leave the new computer and phone he'd bought her at home.
Night had all but fallen, which made the kids' lightsaber battle look like something from a Star Wars movie. Joel could only see Ellie's silhouette as she and Lev dueled.
They were still fighting at close to eleven when the parents came to pick them up. They'd spread out in the forest, so Joel had to tramp through the woods yelling to get their attention. Finally, he'd found everyone but Ellie and Dina.
"Ellie!" He yelled. "Dina!" He leaned back against a tree and groaned. Where were those girls? Dina's parents had actually come to pick their kid up for once, and Joel didn't want them to turn around and leave because she took too long. He decided to go back to Tommy's house and grab a flashlight.
On the way back, he caught sight of a blue glow – Ellie's lightsaber. "Finally." He muttered as he made his slow way toward them.
"Wow, first a bracelet and now a necklace. You're spoiling me." Joel paused. A tree was blocking his view of the girls, but Ellie's tone sounded different from anything he'd heard. Almost… flirty?
"Well, you're fifteen now. You should look the part." Joel could hear the smile in Dina's voice. When she next spoke, her voice was shy. "I made it."
"What?!" Ellie exclaimed. "How the fuck did you make this? It's incredible!"
"My uncle does some metal work. I asked him to help me make it. He did it, because I, um…" Dina sounded unusually nervous. "I told him I was making it for a really special girl."
Joel's face reddened. He shouldn't be listening to this. But would he disturb them more if he tried to leave and crunched loudly through the undergrowth? Before he could decide, Ellie was talking.
"Me?" Ellie's voice was high-pitched. "I mean, I'm just special today. Cause it's my birthday."
"Ellie, you're special every day." Dina replied. Then they went silent.
Joel leaned from foot to foot, waiting for them to get up and head back to the house. He heard Tommy and another voice he didn't recognize – likely Dina's mother – calling their names in the distance. They had to hear that. But time passed and he heard nothing.
Joel checked his watch. Close to quarter past eleven. He'd given them plenty of time. He stepped around the tree to tell them to get their butts moving.
Ellie and Dina were kissing.
Shit.
"Stop hiding, I see your lightsabers!" Joel jumped as Tommy yelled, now much closer than he had been. Had he seen? Joel turned and felt relieved to see Tommy approaching from the same angle he had, where his view was blocked by trees. Then he turned back to the girls to see that they had sprung apart and were both staring at him like deer in headlights.
They knew.
Joel's face blazed red as Tommy rounded the corner. "Hate to break up the party, guys, but Dina, your parents are here." He tapped his flashlight against the tree as he gave them an apologetic smile. "Your cousin won't be happy to see the last of that lightsaber, Ellie."
"Dina's not her cousin." Joel blurted out. "They're not related."
Tommy stared at him like he'd grown an extra head. "I know, doofus. I'm talking about Bria."
"Oh. Right." Joel hadn't felt flustered like this in decades. The four of them tramped back to the backyard and doggonit, had Joel just inadvertently ruined Ellie's first kiss?
"There you are!" Dina's mother sounded annoyed. "Let's go."
Dina hugged Ellie, then pulled back just enough to see her face. "See you soon?" She whispered.
A grin grew across Ellie's face. "See you very soon." She squeezed Dina's hand, and then Dina was following her mother across the lawn. Joel relaxed a little. At least he hadn't ruined the most important thing.
The silence on the car ride home was suffocating. Joel and Ellie didn't look at each other for the first few minutes. "Did you like the party?" Joel asked hesitantly.
"Joel, I know you saw." Ellie said. He risked a glance and saw that her face was a deep red.
"Ah." Joel mumbled noncommittally. "So is Dina your girlfriend now?"
"Yes? Shit, I don't know. Was I supposed to ask?" Ellie asked anxiously.
Joel snorted. "I don't think Dina's going to run off with someone else because you didn't ask." He responded. "Do you want her to be your girlfriend?"
"I- I think so." Ellie glanced at Joel. "Are you upset? Because I like girls?"
"Hmm." Joel considered it. "I'm not thrilled that you're dating so young. But I can't say who you date matters too much as long as I like them." He stared at the dark road ahead. He never knew how to handle these types of conversations. "Dina seems like a good one."
"She is. A good one. A very good one." Joel knew without looking that Ellie's goofy grin was back.
"Next time you have a sleepover with Dina, she's on the couch." Joel added.
Ellie's smile disappeared. "That's not fair! We've had lots of sleepovers in my bed!"
"Dating is different." Joel replied firmly.
Ellie slumped into her seat. "Ugh." She groaned. "You're the worst."
"Thanks for letting me know." Joel pulled into their driveway. "You ready to open the rest of your presents now?"
Ellie jolted upright. "There's more?" Joel laughed in response as he climbed out of the truck. Ellie followed him. "Also, since you asked before…" She scraped the pavement with her dark green converse sneakers. "I wasn't kidding earlier. Today really has been the best day of my life." Her eyes darted up to meet his. "Thank you." Then she shocked Joel by rushing over and hugging him tightly.
Joel could barely speak through the tightness in his throat. "You're welcome, kiddo."
Ellie pulled away and they started walking inside. "You set yourself a high bar for Christmas, though." She added.
"Oh, don't worry." Joel smiled. "I intend to surpass that bar."