HAPPY BIRTHDAY IN THE COLD

I stood still, awkwardly watching as everyone sang happy birthday, to me. “Now make a wish, and blow out the candles”, said my mom, a loud hurrah followed right after I did.

I felt a tug on my sleeves, Andrew my tall red-headed bestie pulled me to the side, whispering “so tell me, what did you wish for?”, I said “I think common knowledge dictates you don’t tell anyone your wishes, else they won’t come true”

“How about I guess, and you tell me if I’m right”

“Nice try, but, no”

He chuckled “okay then”

A red minivan pulled up to the driveway. It was Patrick's, another one of my friends.

“Hey Bobby!”, Patrick shouted “Get over here, we going the cluuub” Andrew ran over to him, gesturing for me to follow,

I announced my soon-to-be absence from the party, my party to my mum, and she didn’t mind since the party was pretty much over anyways.

I sat in the backseat, with another one of our friends, a girl named Alex, she was pretty much your average goth girl in appearance, she didn’t talk much but she did love to party, hard.

“So how does it feel to be Thirty?” Patrick shouted, trying to usurp the loud rap song playing in the minivan with his voice. “No different, I guess”

I mean why would I feel different, Yesterday I was 29, today I am 30, my head didn’t get bigger, my voice didn’t get deeper, and I don’t think I started liking or hating anything, I’m still Just me, I guess.

“Well 30 is a milestone bro, it’s the age where thoughts like marriage start to come to mind,” Patrick said, peering towards me.

“Well If I didn’t think about marriage at 29, I don’t think I suddenly will at 30”

“Well fair point brother, let's leave that discussion for another birthday, for now, we party!” He screamed as we arrived at the club.

We showed the bouncers our ID card, not that we needed to, our full connecting beards was enough indication that we were past our teenage years, well except Alex, she did need to show her ID card because she had a little frame and it was hard to guess her age from a look.

We got into the club, “the first thing we are going to do, is shots” Andrew said, rushing to the bar.

“Two shots of Tequila for my birthday boy right here”, he said.

The barman looked to me for confirmation and I nodded.

“And what will you guys be having?” the barman asked, looking at the others

“we’ll get the same as the birthday boy,” Patrick said.

“Cheers”, we said, then gulped the shots at the same time.

“Another!”, Patrick screamed

“Coming right up”, the barman said, coming with four shots right after.

The second shot was actually not as good as the first, it was harsh, and not enjoyable.

“Would you like a Pepsi instead?” Alex asked

“yeah that’ll be great, thanks, Alex”

“Hey it's your day”, she shrugged

“Hey I’m sorry, man,” Patrick said, “I shouldn’t have ordered a second shot”

“It’s all good” I replied

“How about some karaoke you do love singing”

“I guess so, let’s try that then”

We moved away from the bar and waited our turn at the karaoke machine, Alex and I paired up while Andrew and Patrick did.

Alex had a beautiful voice, she always did, I did too, and I was especially good at memorizing song lyrics, one reason I was incredible at karaoke. It got to our turn and we did beautifully, I followed every line perfectly and we both hit the high notes, we were like a duo from an underground singing group. But, for some reason, this time, I did not enjoy it, I guess I finally noticed there’s a difference between being great at something and enjoying it, Patrick and Andrew enjoyed karaoke but were terrible singers

“you guys were amazing,” Andrew said, “there’s another song coming, wanna go again?”

“No, thank you,” I said

“that’s odd,” Andrew said, “you used to do more than once, more than twice even, is there anything wrong?”

“I don’t think I actually enjoy karaoke anymore,” I said, “I m so sorry guys I know you all planned the night for me and I don’t want to seem ungrateful”

“Hey, it’s your night, if you aren’t enjoying what you are doing, then we are doing our job wrong,” Alex said

“Exactly,” Patrick and Andrew said simultaneously.

“what do you think you’d enjoy right now?”

I sat down and thought about it, I didn’t really know what I’d enjoy at the moment, drinking and karaoke were things I did in a sense enjoy, but now, no more. It was a bit frightening to know I could change, that certain things about me could change.

“Guys, I don’t want to be here”

“done,” said Patrick.

We all walked out of the club, outside in the cold, but luckily we all had our jackets on.

“Hey I just checked my phone and that new wisney cartoon ‘old world’ is actually available in the cinema right now, it’s only 20 minutes away if we leave now we can make it,” Andrew said.

“Actually I haven’t watched cartoons in over a year, I don’t really enjoy those too”

“whoa”, Alex said,” I don’t ever want to be thirty”

I laughed for the first time the whole night “It’s not about me being 30, I think people just change in general”

“He really is older than us, he sounds so wise now” Patrick Joked

we all laughed

The day... my birthday finally felt fun, I was doing the simplest things, I was out in the cold, laughing at my friend’s silly joke, nothing felt better, nothing felt simpler.

I think I know something I’d really enjoy

“what is it,” they all asked

“A Walk, I want to go on a walk with my friends and I want them to tell me how their day went, is that possible?”

they all touched my shoulder, “yes Bobby, that's possible and happy birthday”