SHADOWS OF KAYLA

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Festus.

“Hey handsome!” A girl called out to me as I walked into the frontage of Gina's house. I swung my head in her direction and smiled awkwardly, causing her and her friends to squeak uncontrollably at themselves, much to my amusement. I wasn't too good with the other gender anyway, I simply sucked at it.

I could hear soft music coming from inside the house and low chattering. I replaced my awkward look to one feeling much more at home as I turned the door knob. The strong smell food mixed with alcohol, body sweat and scents filtered through my nose. It was not like how I planned that the party was going to look in head. I must have underestimated the fact that Gina mentioned it wasn't “much of a party".

I shut the door gently behind me and walked further into the big living room that sent news of the owners being well-off. The golden interior were skillfully laid from corner to corner, with fine leather sofas, thick hand-knitted rugs, classy chandeliers dangling from the white ceiling; a large flat screen TV that had several eyes glued to the animated characters running around it's screen, moving as the consoles of the four gamers led—three guys and a girl around my age.

Guarding each corner of the living room were tall, thin, white porcelains, graced with golden embroidery at their brims and bottoms.

My eyes moved around the noisy room, no one even paid attention to the music wasting away in the background. Some other girls were chatting away whilst their eyes were glued to the screens of their phones and tablets. Bottles and cups of unfinished beer, wraps of chewing gum and cookies littered the table, hiding the black elegance of the table from my calculating eyes.

My eyes stopped by the kitchen which was open wide enough for me to see the two who were busy making out on the kitchen island like the world was going to end the next minute. The girl stopped whilst in the guy's mouth and snapped,

“What you looking at?” Before kicking the door shut in my face.

“Like I'm interested,” I scoffed under my breath, heading towards the dining area where I heard soft giggles of older women four of them, who were gathered round the dining table, playing card games. And seeing the notes laying ununiformly over themselves at the centre of the table, I noted quickly that they were taking a flyer.

Before I could look away, I was caught in my stares by one of the women, whom I quickly figured was Malie—there was a slight resemblance with her and Gina. My lips curved in a pursed smile before I dropped a “Hi, happy birthday,” proceeding to take out the tiny wrapped gift from my pocket

I could feel the eyes of the other ladies boring holes into my skin, sending signals that I was disrupting their game.

One would have thought I offered Malie a ring, but it was a small six-piece set of expensive keychains that could double-task as pendants. They had long been in my possession and I never needed them up until a vacancy for a birthday gift came that they could fill.

It was a blessing as well, because I really wasn't prepared to spend any money on gifts for someone's birthday. All it cost me was a few cents for the box and ribbons. Again, I smiled as I handed the gift over, proud that I didn't come empty-handed.

“Aww! Thank you,” she beamed, putting the box quickly away in a bag of other gifts, with sudden disinterest. I didn't care what she did with, or thought of gift either. If she wasn't genuinely appreciative, then I wasn't at loss myself. It was me basically discarding my old stuff, duh.

“You must be Festus?”

I nodded, “Yeah.”

“Gina's upstairs,” she announced quickly and waved me away, returning to the game.

I headed up the stairs slowly, crossing paths with a few drunk guys heading down the stairs. The more sober one held the other stable as they descended. I flattened my back against the wall while holding my breath to save my nose from whiffing their reeking breaths, as they shoved their staggering selves past my side.

Heaving a tight breath, I walked further up, landing on a long narrow and dimly lit hallway, with a few doors to its sides either ajar or stark open. As I approached one of the open doors, I could hear soft moans of pleasure, and wet sounds of pairs of lips colliding with each other every split second.

It was however too late for me to look away, the kissing abruptly stopped as soon as my presence was noticed. I took a few steps back stiffly, feeling rather bad for interrupting and jealous seeing Gina in the embrace of another guy. I quickly slapped myself to my senses, it was my fault for starting to have some kind of soft spot for a girl who clearly had never been interested in me in that sort of way from the start.

To be real, I didn't realize I had started liking Gina too until that day, seeing that I stood no chance. I wasn't a jerk either, who'd be longing for another guy's girl.

Gina stood up quickly, pale-faced, like I had picked the wrong time, I really had. I countered her flustered expression with my cool one as I pursed my lips to in raised smile.

“Sorry,” I whispered, hoping she would at least pretend like I had not ruined some good time. Gina still wasn't looking herself, as she dropped her face to the guy who had his back to me, causing him to turn his head in my direction.

“Oh, come on!” I snapped, vexedly exiting the door.