Chapter Three Her Birthday

Chapter 3
Her Birthday

Roxana woke up with what she thought was the worst hangover she had ever had in her life. She looked at her clock, groaned and rolled over to go back to sleep. It was still dark in her room; the light from her computer screen illuminated the room, casting shadows on her wall. The liquor from the night before made her feel dehydrated so she went to the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water. When she came back, her message window was blinking. She didn’t want to talk to anyone, but she felt the need to see who had sent her a message. It was from Cam.

Birdman77: Hey there, sweet thing. Just wanted to let you know to leave some room on your agenda for Taylor and me. We have a little surprise for you. Oh, and bring Malina. Call me.

         Roxana felt a stab of jealousy, figuring that he only wanted her to bring Malina because Taylor had liked her. She finished her drink and went back to bed. Later that morning, after eating a breakfast of cereal and toast, she decided to go on ChatSpace and see if she could find Taylor on Cam’s friend’s list.  She presumed that his picture was something other than himself, and gave up the search. She didn’t feel like sifting through hundreds of friends to find some guy who probably liked his friend. She finished her orange juice and went into the living room to watch TV. It was still too early for anyone to call her to wish her a happy birthday, so she decided to vegetate and sneak bites out of the strawberry vanilla cake her mom had gotten for her. Malina would be waking up soon, knocking on her door with cigarettes and beer.  She went back on her computer. Nothing new. Her phone rang. She looked at the caller ID before picking it up. Her mother. “Happy birthday, sweetheart!” Arlene sung “Happy Birthday” into the phone at the top of her lungs. It was so loud, it sounded like static in Roxana’s ear. She smiled though, thinking how nice it was that her mother still did childish things like that. Her and her mother hadn’t exactly been getting along since she hit her teenage years. As Roxana got older she realized how adults worked, especially her family. Her mother had basically used her to stick it to her father.  At this point, Roxana refused to play into her mother’s games. She changed the way she treated her, and she lost all respect for her. “Thanks, mom. How’s work?”
“Fine, same old shit, different toilet. What are your plans for today? Make sure your home when I get home, so we can eat and eat your cake.  And don’t forget to make the rice!”
“Alright mom, I know. I know damn it.”
“Don’t talk to me like that.”
“I refuse to let you ruin my day, I’m hanging up.”
“What about all the birthdays you’ve ruined for me?” her mother retorted. Roxana hung up before she could continue. Her mother always found some way to pick a fight with her, especially when it was a special day, like a holiday or her birthday. Her cell phone rang again, but it was Malina this time. “Happy birthday, slut.”
“Thanks bitch. Come over. I’m bored and we have a lot of shit to do.”
“Like what? I’m dressed and ready to go. I’m on my cell so talk to me while I walk my happy ass there.”
“OK. Hmm… for starters, you need to help me pick out an outfit, I want to look nice tonight.”
“For who? You don’t like Cam do you?”
“No, dork face. I like Taylor. He seems like he could be a real nice guy.”
“He looks like a dirty scumbag to me. He was so rude the other night. Like we weren’t worth hanging out with. He’s probably used to sluts. Oh yeah, I did my little ChatSpace investigation, and they don’t know anyone that we know as far as the friends list goes.”
“You are psycho woman. I haven’t bothered to check. Did you find anyone to chill with tonight? I want to hit the bars. I’m 21 damn it and I wanna drink!”
“You got your ID?”
“I have the greatest luck, I got it in the mail today. I just opened it actually.”
“Open the fucking door, I’m freezing my tits off.” Roxana buzzed her friend in. She looked nice. Black suede boots with silver buckles cut off her dark whitewashed jeans, and her pink shirt was covered by a white and silver short-sleeved wrap. Her hair was loose and curly, and she smelled like honeysuckle and lavender. She was slipping her phone into her black leather coach bag, searching for something all the way at the bottom.
“What the fuck are you doing? Digging for gold?”
“No, I have a present for you, dick.”
“Ooh, goodies. Gimme, gimme, gimme!” Roxana held her hand out in anticipation. Malina withdrew two small blue oval-shaped pills with numbers encrypted on one side and a line down the middle of the other side. Roxana knew immediately that it was her favorite, Xanax. She hugged Malina and laughed as she took one and went to the kitchen for a bottle of water. “Wait bitch, don’t take it yet! That’s for later when we drink. Besides, I don’t wanna be too fucked up around these guys. Lord knows what will happen if they find out that we’re on roofies.” Roxana frowned, but she knew that Malina was right. It wouldn’t look cool if they were both twisted on some pill with guys they barely knew. “All right, fine. But as soon as they drop us off we’re taking them.”
“Fine, now get dressed. Did they call you yet?”
“Cam left me a message earlier, he said he’d meet us at Cybernetics. He said to wait outside, they have a surprise.”
“Oh, no! They’re going to stuff us into a van or something.” Malina stood wide-eyed clutching her gold chain. It had a little heart charm with a diamond in the middle. 
“You’re so retarded.  They don’t give me the psycho killer vibe. You’re right, though. We should be careful, just in case. Oh, and we shouldn’t tell them about the Xanties. They might want some or tell us to take them so they can do shit to us.” Roxana raised her eyebrow and looked at Malina’s face. They both thought the same thing. What the fuck is wrong with us? Roxana’s phone vibrated loudly on her nightstand, she tripped over her school bag and let out a loud “Fuck!” and answered the phone. “Hello!” she said brusquely.
“Whoa, love. What’s your beef?”
“I don’t have beef, I just banged my knee real bad. What’s up?”
“Well we’re here already, and we don’t see you guys anywhere.” Roxana glanced over at the clock. “Oh, shit. My bad, we were so busy talking that I didn’t notice the time. Wait a minute. You never called me to let me know what time we were meeting up!”
“Oh, so sorry.” He laughed aloud. “Well, where are you, we’ll come get you.”
“Uh, I don’t think I feel comfortable letting you know where I live. How about you meet us at the park where we smoked last night?”
“OK, see you in 5.” The girls hurriedly grabbed their pocketbooks and put on their winter accessories. Roxana gave herself one last glance in the mirror. She looked nice with her red with blue trim skullcap and her matching scarf.  Her lips were plump and pink, and her sad chocolate colored eyes seemed unusually happy today.
“Let’s go you conceited ass,” Malina interrupted her appearance evaluation. It was a short walk to the elementary school playground. It was pretty windy, making the girls walk huddled together, arms entwined. They passed the monkey bars, the slide and the baby swings, until they reached the green wood slat benches they sat on a few nights ago. Malina stuffed her hands in the pocket of her hoodless black Guess jacket, after zipping it all the way up. Roxana glanced at ever corner, waiting to see the two dark figures come slowly into her view. There was a black Mercedes parked on the corner with the lights on; an Asian couple was looking at a map. “Fucking tourists.”
“What?”
“Nothing, where the fuck are these guys?”
“How the fuck should I know? They’re your friends dickhead!” Malina seemed pretty pissed, but she knew that Malina hated the cold as much as she did. That was the only downside of being born in the middle of winter. “Why don’t you call them? Duh.” She hid her face behind the high neck of her jacket, muffling her voice. Roxana felt stupid, why hadn’t she thought of that before. She reached into her pocket and dialed Cam’s number. “Where the fuck are you Malina and I have been waiting here for almost 20 minutes. You do realize it is winter, and it’s cold, and we’re girls right?”
“Ha ha ha! You silly girls. We’ve been here the whole time!” Roxana looked around the secluded spot. “Well, maybe I’m fucking stupid but I have no idea where you are. This isn’t funny! You’re scaring me.”
“Relax, hon. We’re in the car right in front of you.”
“Not in the Benz obviously. Which one? There are tons of cars.” Roxana was growing impatient, the cold was getting to her and so was this little game.
“We’re in the gray Volvo.” Roxana huffed, grabbing Malina by the elbow led her in the direction of the car. The got in, the heat from the air conditioner kissed their cold nipped cheeks. It was inviting and they scrambled in as fast as they could.
“Oh my God! It’s so cold!” Malina squealed. Cam was in the passenger’s seat with his blue bubble jacket holding a perfectly rolled blunt in between his index and middle finger. The smell of the marijuana filled her nostrils. She held out her fingers but Cam didn’t pass it. “Hey! Gimme that! It’s my birthday.”
“Where are your manners? Where’s my kiss?” Roxana raised an eyebrow and smiled. He held out his cheek and she gave him a quick kiss. “Don’t forget to say hello to Taylor and this is my friend Devon.” Neither one of the girls had even noticed there was someone in the seat next to them. Everyone exchanged hellos and names once more. “Taylor I didn’t know you had a car! This is great. Where are we headed?”
“Wherever you want to, you’re the princess tonight.” Taylor smiled at her through the rearview mirror.
“Let’s go to Laugh ‘n’ Play. I’m in the mood to whoop someone in Street Fighter.” The car was smoked out everyone was too baked and too comfortable with the heater to open the windows or the sunroof. They reached the arcade in what seemed days. They piled out of the car laughing like hyenas.
“It’s our treat by the way, Lexi.” Cam smiled at her, pinching her cheek lightly with his knuckles. Roxana blushed, as she lowered her gaze she caught a glimpse of Taylor’s expression. She got the feeling that he was the one that wanted to be doing that instead of Cam. Se shook the thought out of her head, and sensually strode off to be at Malina’s side. If he wanted her, he’d have to get her. They split up into partners, exchanging the girls between Devon who was the odd one out. Devon was actually very attractive. He had sparkling blue eyes that were brought out by the pale gray shirt he wore, and his curly brown hair was gelled into the blow out that all the Italian boys were sporting. From their conversation in the car, he wasn’t Italian, but Roxana couldn’t really remember where he said he was from. She didn’t care, it was her turn to be Taylor’s partner. The walked over to the Street Fighter machine. They inserted their tokens and pushed their buttons to get to the fighting. They gave each other a challenging look and turned their attention to the game. Roxana beat Taylor, and she lifted her arms in victory. “Yes! Who is the woman? Huh? Say it!”
“Aw, I want a rematch.”
“As you wish.” They put more tokens in the machine, and went at it again. This time Taylor won, and he didn’t hesitate to remind her. “Who is king? Since it is your birthday, I’m willing to let you try, mind you I said try, to beat me again.”
“Play fair though! Don’t let me win, just because of the day. I want a fair match.”
“As you wish, princess.” They fought for about ten minutes until “K.O” flashed in big red letters on the screen and the speakers screamed “Finish Him!” She landed the final blow, and laughed an evil giggle. “Yes! I am champion of Street Fighter! Ah! Let’s go outside, I’ll give you a cigarette.” Taylor silently agreed, following her out the door.