Birthday Girl

I knew everything was going awry. I knew it before I got in Dylan’s BMW, before I woke up that day. Everything was apparently normal but somehow I knew that being the birthday girl wouldn’t help for whatever was coming.
Dylan’s face was smooth, calm. I stared at him few seconds, not exactly looking at something. When he noticed my gaze, with the corner of his eye, he smiled.
“How are you doing, birthday beauty?” he said after starting the engine of his car, his eyes still on the windshield. “Are you enjoying the day, yet?”
His tone was anxious, his words fast. I looked at him suspiciously, narrowing my eyes. He waited for my answer patiently and then turned his face to look at my expression. “Should I?” I said.
“It’s your birthday” he chuckled. “You must.”
“What if I don’t want to? I told you I didn’t want my birthday to be a big deal.” I tried to say it louder but my voice cracked a little.
He drove his right hand to his tousled dark hair from the wheel at the time he fought a laugh. “Too late”
“What do you mean?” Suspicion took my place. My eyes still narrowed. For the first time since I moved to Berkeley, now three months, I started to distrust Dylan. Maybe this was related to the bad thing that was still coming. Of course it was.
He looked away from my perplex face and accelerated. My back collided the passenger seat as a reaction. We got out of the school’s parking lot before I could even blink. Well, maybe that was because my eyes were widely open rather in fear.
But after thirty seconds of adrenaline he slowed down the pace, though the road was empty.
I looked at him in disbelief.
“What the heck was that?” I shouted. I wasn’t use to that vocabulary but I had too many reasons to invoke it now.
“The most amazing twirl I have ever done with this car” he chuckled.
“If you’re trying to kill me due to a heart attack you better do it hard”
“I’ll try the next time, thanks for the advice” he joked.
“Dylan!”
“Yup?” he said smoothly.
I snarled under my breath and looked through the window at my right. Whatever he was doing, he was doing it well. It wasn’t the Dylan I knew, he was hiding something. I knew I was being a little dramatic, but whatever he was planning got me edgy.
“It’s not working” I said after a quiet minute.
“What’s not working?” he asked interested for the answer as his eyes, now on mine, reflected that.
“You’re not distracting me”
“Should I?” he said, mirroring my voice, his glance straight at the road again.
“You’re impossible! --- W-what’s too late for?” I paused, not exactly waiting for the answer to be done that fast. “What about my birthday thing, Dylan? What did you do?”
No answer, as I expected from this new Dylan.

While the silence became longer I realized that I wasn’t very used to the street were the red light stopped us. It wasn’t my usual way to home and there wasn’t any form that this could be a shortcut or a different way. What a perfect day for my car to need a reparation, and what a perfect idea to accept Dylan’s offer to take me home. In a sarcastic way, of course.
“You know where my house is, don’t you?” I looked at him paranoid, his face smooth. “Dylan, where are you taking me?” No answer. “Dylan!”
He fought a laugh. “Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you. Happy birthday Kristen, happy birthday to you” He started humming that horrible song, well, for the moment I found myself it was hideous.
“Okay, this is all I can endure” I put my seat belt off and took the handle and tried to open it but it was locked. He noted my effort.
“You’re ridiculous. Let alone predictable.” Maybe that was true; my house was nearly thirty minutes in car.
I ignored him and shoved a hand on my pocket to reach my cell phone. I dialed Courtney’s, my best friend at the moment, phone. I waited patiently at the time I put the seat belt back on when the red light became green and Dylan went forward.
“Hello?”
“Courtney, it’s me, Kristen”
“Oh, Kristen.” She sounded surprised that I called her” I can’t talk right now, why don’t you---?”
“No, Courtney. I need you. I’m in Dylan’s car and he is towing me somewhere I don’t know.” I said hastily and desperately. Dylan giggled beside me.
“Don’t be silly” she chuckled. “It’s your birthday; you can’t go to your home as everyday”
“Court!”
“Kris, I’m sure you’ll enjoy yourself. I…” she strangely hesitated. “I’ll call you later”
“Court!” I repeated in a shriek but she’d hung up already.

I put the phone on my lap and waited for my hands to stop shaking. I was truly startled. Whatever Dylan was planning Courtney knew it. This wasn’t good.
I took my phone back and dialed my dad’s hospital number. It was time to startle Dylan.
“Alta Bates Medical Center. How can I help you?” A woman with a nasal voice answered.
“I’d like to talk to Doctor Townsley, please?” I looked at Dylan to see his reaction. Nothing that I expected. He giggled one more time.
“Okay, hon. Hold on a second” she said.
“Doctor Townsley”
“Dad? It’s me, Kristen.” I emphasized dad to make Dylan realize I was serious.
“Honey, what’s wrong?”
“Remember my car wouldn’t work yesterday night?” I said low with my eyes in Dylan waiting for the mood that never came.
“Yes?”
“Well, Dylan Osborne—who once was a friend of mine— said he could take me to the school and next to home. But he is taking me somewhere else and he doesn’t want to tell me where. Dad, I’m really scared” I sobbed.
“Dylan Osborne you say?” he didn’t wait for my agreement. “Good guy that”
“No, dad! He isn’t! He’s kidnapping me!” I yelled and Dylan sighed loudly, not giggling, at least.
I could swear I heard Dad laughing over his breath. “Honey, there’s a cesarean waiting to be done, see you later” And he hung up on me.

See you later he said? Of course he would see me, if someone found my body!
Perfect, I thought, Dad has to do with it.
“Dammit” I muttered, my eyes on the windshield, thinking whether or not I should call 911.

We reached a neighborhood ten minutes later. He didn’t seem so sadistic then, just shallowly wicked. But I regretted this thought when I saw him grimacing at a thought of something when he thought I wasn’t looking. Deep inside his heart, maybe deeper, he didn’t like to see me suffering this way. Yes, I was suffering. If I didn’t want something in my life—besides be done with school and still don’t know what carrier I will exert— was the public shame, something that I was such a magnet for, doubtless. And I had the feeling that whatever he planned would make this day worse than this was just for the fact that it was my birthday.

“We’re here” he said eagerly after cutting off the engine.
I didn’t reply. I wasn’t going to. I didn’t even look through the window to see where the hell he had taken me. I was completely pissed off.
“Don’t you want to know where we are?”
No, I said in my mind to see how much predictable I was.
“That’s a no, I guess. You don’t want to verify that it wasn’t my idea to kidnap you?”
No. I repeated to myself.
“Since you are not talking, would you please nod if you want me to take you to your house?”
You know what? I don’t. Since we are here—wherever we are—I want to see what you’ve planned. I thought. I was looking at my hands. Avoiding his anxious glance.
He took my chin with his frozen fingertips, brushed it gently and made me look at his flawless face. “Sorry”
Don’t touch me! I shouted in my mind. I was going to move my head sharply so his hand would fall, but he moved it away after I could.
He seemed to read my mind. I did was predictable, and this was getting fun. While this got more fun, more childish it seemed to be. So I used my voice again.
“Why are you apologizing?” I asked now looking at his gray, beautiful eyes.
“For make you suffer” he sounded honest. Damn, I was more predictable than I thought I was.
“They’re going to kill me but, do you want me to take you home?” he repeated the question.
“Who are going to kill you?”
“You didn’t answer my question” He objected.
“You don’t answer any of mine, so—“
He interrupted me. “Do you want to go to your house, yes or no?”
“Although I’d want them to kill you, my answer is no” It sounded more convincing than I thought it even was. “Your turn… Who are them?”
“Doesn’t matter” He grinned.
I growled lowly.
“Do you hate me?” he titled his body to my side. Our faces just inches away. He really sounded worried for what my answer was, but jeez, how could I hate this Greek god, even though I had many reasons to?
“You truly expect me to answer another question from you?” That was all I could figure out to say. I wouldn’t say I didn’t hate him because it would be, hum, weird? But I couldn’t tell him I did because it wouldn’t be true.
“That’s a yes, I guess” he assumed and moved away from my face. “Common let’s get out” his voice dry, in disappointment I guessed.

Was he kidding me? He kidnapped me and injured my back and he was disappointed that I hated him. That was the least I could do! Though I didn’t. Maybe I was crazier than him.

I obeyed, unwillingly. Although I didn’t make any kind of expectation, I was hugely surprised to see Courtney, standing in the front of a house I have never seen before, grinning.