Page 69 of Revive

Setting up another few trays full of frozen party food, I slide on the oven mitts, and make the swap. From the corner of my eye I see Sasha corner Drix. It takes everything I have not to walk out of this kitchen and find out what she has to say. Her hands are flailing and his mouth is moving.

They’re mad, and if they’re not careful, the rest of the guests are going to notice, and they’re going to ruin Dakota’s birthday. She looks over to them. Once. Twice. Three times. My feet move like they have a mind of their own, and I’m heading straight towards them like an arrow to it’s mark.

“Be with me.” Those are the only words I hear her say, and like a ticking time bomb I’m ready to explode.

Coming into their vision, their guilty faces are like stab wounds to my already broken heart.

“Taylah.” He says my name with shock, like he may have just remembered he came with someone.

Sasha looks at me square in the eyes, and I give her my very best smile. “While, I’m not a fan of either of you right now, Dakota is about three seconds from coming here and making your problems hers. It’s her birthday. So get the fuck inside like the adults you’resupposedto be and sort your shit out, out of her sight.”

Their heads immediately turn to her, and just like I said Dakota’s worried eyes stare right back at them.

Leaving them behind, I walk up to Dakota and her friends in hope of lightening up the mood. She glances past me one more time, but they’ve already disappeared inside.

“Are they okay?” she whispers.

“Yep. They were just arguing because we accidentally bought you the same gift as your mum, and they both really want to take you.”

“Really?” She’s skeptical but I keep going.

“Tickets to that amateur photo exhibition at MCA. Have you heard of it?”

“Oh my god,” she gasps. “Are you serious? Please tell me you’re not joking.”

“I am definitely not joking.”

She looks back around the backyard, her untainted heart worrying till the last second.

Standing up I give her shoulder a soft squeeze. “They’re okay, D. I promise.”

Dreading the walk back inside, I decide it’s time for me to leave. I’m Emerson’s friend. Nothing more, nothing less. I don’t need to be here.

Stepping back inside, Jagger’s wide eyes greet me. “What?”

He looks at Dakota’s bedroom door and I take it as my cue. “Thanks for having my back, J.”

Holding the door handle, I give myself five seconds to back out. Five seconds to save myself from seeing something I’m never going to forget. Five seconds to walk out of this house with enough pieces of my heart to maybe, one day be able to put it back together.

21

Sasha

Isaw red the minute I noticed her in the house. For a fleeting second I thought how if it was my house I would have been able to ask her to leave.

He did it. He went and did the exact thing I’ve been begging him to do for years. The exact thing that I wanted, but prayed it never happened. He moved on.

It’s my daughters birthday. I have kept it together for all these years, today is not the day I break.

Floating around through the kids, I offer them food and drinks and watch them dance.

When I was sixteen, I had a baby. My friends were getting drunk at their own or someone else sixteenth, and there was even the few time appearances from the kids we called the stoners.

This is nothing like that, and I couldn’t be happier.

“Mum,” Dakota’s voice travels through the people and straight to my ears.

“Yes, baby girl.”

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