a hug, whispering very softly into my ear, “this is not your real gift.”
He let go and pulled away from me. He handed me the thin pink box and I stared at it, confused. Tess walked up to stand next to me. “Well open it up Norah, it’s not going to open itself.” She nudged my arm. I undid the white ribbon that was tied around the box and pulled it open.
It was a box of candy. Lots of brightly colored pieces of candy.
“You ass,” I spat out without thinking, but no one knew why I said that except for me and Josh. I knew exactly what Josh was doing with this gift, and he was doing it on purpose like a child.
Clint walked up and looked at the contents of the box. “Candy? Nice gift Hollows, but I don’t think Norah has a big sweet tooth.”
Josh looked into my eyes, grinning cheekily. “Oh she has a huge sweet tooth. Don’t you Norah?”
I wanted to punch him to wipe that smile off his face. I knew he was making fun of me and the night I got messed up at Club Seil, but I couldn’t do anything about it.
“Try some Norah,” Tess suggested, standing behind me and looking at the array of rainbow colored candy.
“Yeah Norah, try some of my candy.” Josh was trying very hard not to laugh, which made me want to laugh too.
Yeah, yeah joker – I’ll get you for this!
It was too much at that point and I couldn’t contain myself. I started to laugh and Josh laughed too. Clint and Tess just stared oddly at one another like they had missed something.
“Yeah Norah, taste it.” Josh began choking on air as he tried to contain his laughter.
“What?” asked Tess, looking at me and Josh like we were crazy. “What Norah? Don’t you like his candy?”
Josh almost fell down into fits of giggles at our private joke. Clint butt in, “Obviously this is some weird best friend mind thing Tess. We know when we’re not wanted.” Clint started to lead Tess away and then they both started laughing too. The humorous air that we had all created was then interrupted,
by a buzzing.
Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
We all froze. You could hear a pin drop as the buzzing sound instantly took our fun mood and flushed it down the drain. All eyes fell on me and Clint, and he moved so he was right beside me.
Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
I swallowed and looked at Clint. He remained composed, but I knew he must have been about to explode on the inside. “I’ll get it,” Clint said, and gave me a peck on the check before he went over and answered the intercom. Then he went to the door and waited for the delivery man to arrive. I remained standing in the lounge with Tess and Josh, not able to see who was at the front door. We heard voices and then Clint closed the front door and started walking back over to us, carrying an envelope.
It looked like a birthday card. Why send a delivery man over with a birthday card?
“This came for you,” he handed me the envelope and avoided my eyes, but he still didn’t look upset. I took a deep breath and began to open it up.
Inside was a birthday card. Not a shock. There was a picture of a cake and balloons and a happy birthday banner and underneath the banner read ‘a gift for you’. It was all very innocent looking. As I held it, I realized something was lodged inside the card. I opened it and we all jumped in surprise. A song erupted from the card. It was one of those musical cards where you can put your own song on it. The distinctive tune, Cherry Bomb by the Runaways filled the lounge room and inside the card sat a big shiny key.
“It’s a key!” Tess said excited, like she had uncovered some huge treasure.
I took the key out of the card and looked at it. “Well, what’s it a key to?” Tess seemed more curious than either of the boys, who just looked at the key with disdain.
Now, I could have been honest and told them what both the card and key meant, because I knew exactly what this gift was. I knew who it was from, and I knew what the key was used for. They all looked at me for an explanation and I knew I had to say something.