Chapter 5: Forgotten
1773 Words
Feral's P.O.V.
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"What the hell is all this?" I asked when I came into the common room to see it full of random people, mostly girls. Young girls.
"Isn't it great?" Poe asked, a girl sitting on his lap.
"They just showed up a few hours ago asking to party," Teo, his twin, added, a girl on either side of him.
I looked at the girls for a long moment.
"How old are you?" I asked them.
"Old enough," the one sitting on Poe giggled.
Yeah, that definitely means they're not. They look like they can't be older than 12, if that. The youngest guy here is 15. That might not seem like a big age difference when you're older, but it sure as hell is when we're this young. Just where the hell did these people come from?
"What the hell is going on?" Kaizen asked when he walked up next to me.
"Oh, hey, Kaizen, right?" A girl asked, latching onto him right away.
Kaizen raised a brow at her for a moment before looking at her in confusion.
"Aren't you in my sister's class?" he asked.
Nadine? Why would someone from Nadine's class be here? Did Naddy invite people over?
"Yeah, she invited us here!" The girl giggled. "She throws a killer party!"
A killer party? What the hell?
"Nadine invited you here?" Kaizen asked, echoing my confused thoughts. "You're all like 12."
"Wait, what??" Teo asked, horrified as he jumped up from the couch and stepped away from the girls. His twin was right behind him, practically knocking the girl that was in his lap to the floor.
"She said it was cool," the girl still clinging to Kaizen said. "She invited the whole class to her party. We were all pretty shocked, but excited. Haven't seen her around though."
"Yeah, it's weird for her to be so late to her own party," one of the girls on the couch said. "We've already been here for hours."
"I guess it is her birthday, she can be as late as she wants," another one shrugged.
All the air left my lungs when I heard those words. I could tell that Kaizen and the twins felt the same way. Even Jinx's head snapped up at those words. For a moment, we were all frozen as the girls giggled about how cool Nadine's party was.
Her birthday party. Her 13th birthday party. The one the ol' ladies convinced her to have because they were worried she was feeling left out by us. The party that they all reminded us about over and over again, making us promise not to miss it.
And we forgot. We forgot about the party. We forgot that today is her birthday. We... forgot about Nadine...
How the hell did that happen? How the f***k could we forget about Naddy? About the ray of sunshine that lights up the whole clubhouse. The sweet girl who bakes us our favorite cake from scratch on our birthdays. How could we forget about the most caring girl in the world?
"Oh no," Teo muttered.
"She's going to hate us," Poe added.
"f***k, how could we forget?" Jinx hissed under his breath.
"How could I do this?" Kaizen mumbled more to himself. "How could I forget her birthday? I'm the worst brother."
"Let's go see her," I said, turning around. "Maybe it's not too late."
The five of us ran through the clubhouse and out the back door. We ran through the backyard all the way to the house where we knew Nadine would be. All of us came to a stop when we saw Naddy sitting on the steps that led up the deck to the pool connected to the back of her house.
Birthday decorations were blowing in the wind. There was a banner that was halfway hanging down. It read: Happy 13th Birthday Naddy! in bright colors with designs around it. The whole deck was plastered with decorations. There were glow-sticks in and around the pool, along with several new floaties. Lights were strung around the deck, changing colors with music that was playing low in the background. There were a few tables lined up with colorful clovers on them. One had a small stack of gifts that were already opened and set aside. The other table looked like it once held food, but now only had a small chocolate cake that was half-eaten. And no one else was here.
We're too late. We fu.cking missed it.
Suddenly, Nadine looked up, and my entire world crumbled. Tears were streaming down her face. Her nose and eyes were red and puffy. The anger and hurt I saw in those jade-green eyes shattered something in me.
We did that. We hurt her. We made her cry. Because we fu.cking forgot about her. The girl that never forgets about us, and we...
"Naddy, I-" Kaizen tried, stepping forward, but Nadine shot to her feet and turned around. She paused with her hand on the wooden railing and her back to us.
"There's cake left if you guys want any," she said before climbing the stairs.
Kaizen rushed after her, and I was right behind him. The other three followed, but you could tell they felt awkward. Naddy was close with everyone, but not as close as she was with me and her brother.
"Naddy, wait, please just—"
"You don't have to stay," she cut him off as she started to tear down decorations. "You can just go back to your party."
"What? No, Nadine-"
"No, seriously," she interrupted him again, this time turning to give him an angry look. "You have better things to do, don't you? Like always. You didn't remember me all day, so don't bother starting now. It's fine. I get it. You're busy guys. Just go back to the clubhouse."
Then she went right back to tearing down decorations. She was clearly angry, but holding most of it in. I don't think any of us knew what to do at that moment. Nadine was upset, but was too angry to let any of us comfort her. Not that we deserved to.
"Where is everyone else?" Kaizen asked gently. "You still invited friends and the ol' ladies, right? Isn't Birdie here too?"
Nadine scoffed and shook her head.
It was right then that I realized the gravity of what we had really done. Naddy's reaction made me realize it. Realize what all of us were too fu.cking stupid to piece together in our panic to get over here.
Not only did we forget about Nadine, but... we kind of stole her party. Her guests never made it past the clubhouse. I guess she probably knew that too. Kaizen and I didn't even know. We were busy doing sh.it for Shooter. Who apparently also forgot that today is his daughter's birthday. That's not all that surprising though, as sh.itty as that sounds.
"Well, pretty sure that the people I invited found a better party to go to," she replied tightly, continuing to rip decorations off the deck. "And it's after midnight, Kaizen. The ol' ladies and Birdie went home. Hours ago. After we waited hours for anyone to show up. After they convinced me to open my gifts. After they sang happy birthday to me and I blew out the candles. I made them wait for hours for at least one of you to show up. I wasn't going to make them wait all night with me and then help me clean up. Especially after they did all of this for me."
None of us uttered a word. I wasn't even sure I was breathing. We had no idea what to do, how to smooth things over, how to make up for this.
"Naddy... we're so sorry," I said softly, hoping it was worth something.
Apparently, it was only worth a heavy sigh. Like I had placed the weight of the world on her shoulders. Like I had burdened her. And man, that sh.it hurt.
Nadine once told me that Kaizen and I were the only people who cared about her. She told me that as long as she had us, she didn't need her mom or dad. She told me that we could be a family together. She was only seven at the time. It hurt to hear her say that. Like she never expected another person aside from her brother to care about her. That was before she started spending more time at the clubhouse and getting to know the other guys too.
And now we've all failed her.
"Just go, okay?" She said, shoving decorations into a trash bag. "I don't need your pity now that you remembered I exist."
"Naddy, it wasn't like that," Kaizen rushed out. "Feral and I were doing something for Dad. We just got caught up in it and—"
"And forgot about me," she finished for him. "It's okay. I understand."
"Naddy..." her brother trailed off helplessly.
"Look, I really do get it," she said without looking at us. "I grew up here too. Club comes first. I don't want to talk about it anymore. It doesn't matter. The day is over now."
"At least go upstairs and get some sleep, Naddy," Kaizen said gently.
"Can't," she replied flatly. "Mom's deal for letting me use the pool was that I clean up before going to bed. She said she wants it to look like there was never a party at all when she wakes up."
"You shouldn't be doing it alone," Kaizen said, reaching to take the trash bag from her. "Let us help-"
"No!" She yelled at him, yanking her hand away. "I got it. By myself. As always. So just go back to your party."
Kaizen sighed as he ran a hand through his hair. He looked at us. All he needed to do was nod and we got to work. Nadine started to yell at first, but Kaizen threw her over his shoulder and disappeared into the house. The three of us finished cleaning up. The last thing we had to take care of was the cake. All we could do was stare at it for a moment.
"I can't believe we did this to her," Jinx mumbled.
"No kidding," Poe agreed sadly.
"I've never felt this... sick with myself before," Teo added.
"That little ray of sunshine didn't deserve this," I muttered.
"We can't let this happen ever again," Poe said.
"We won't," I swore.
Because there is just no way in hell I will be responsible for darkening her light ever again.
- Writer
