The Saddest Song - By Susie Kaye Lopez Page 0,51

until mom threw a clean shirt at me and made me leave for the party. When I got there, Rainey greeted me with a smile, and behind her stood all of our friends. I greeted them all and told Colin and Ethan what my parents had given me. They wanted to leave the party then and there to go see it for themselves. Rather than ruin the party, my dad drove back to our house to get it.

The tree trimming was fun, the food excellent and at the end of the night Rainey brought out a huge cake in the shape of a guitar and everyone gave me gifts. The concert tickets from Rainey were awesome and so were the other things that our friends gave me. I was touched, and happy that they had cared enough to make my birthday special. I hadn’t wanted to celebrate but I was so grateful for the people I still had in my life. I celebrated them.

After we waved goodbye to the last guest Rainey hugged me. “Happy Birthday, Max,” she said. I held her, leaning down to put my head on her shoulder, and breathed in the scent of her perfume. I didn’t let go. I could’ve held her forever.

“Thanks Rainey, for everything,” I whispered. She pulled away first and smiled up at me. Our folks said their goodbyes, and I carried my new guitar out to my parent’s car. I wasn’t ready to leave. It was hard to, actually. More and more I just wanted to be where Rainey was.

Chapter 20

Rainey

I woke up Saturday morning to a text from Rylee telling me to wear clothes that I wouldn’t mind getting dirty. Saturdays with Sophie and Rylee usually meant shopping, lunch and maybe mani-pedi’s. I had assumed today would be more of the same. Curious, I did as she asked, choosing a well worn red and white striped sweater and my oldest, most comfortable jeans. I vacillated between boots and tennis shoes, finally opting for my black converse.

Max knew nothing about the girls’ plans when he picked me up. He had received no texts, and he looked cute in yet another new plaid shirt his mom had bought for him. Obviously the boys wouldn’t be joining us in whatever was happening this morning. This was probably for the best since all Max could talk about was playing with his new guitar. His parents had done a great thing buying it for him. He was happier than I had ever seen him. His happiness was infectious and I felt myself smiling at him while he talked.

When we arrived at Colin’s house everyone was outside.

“Hurry Rainey, we’re going to be late!” Rylee said, as Sophie climbed behind the wheel of her baby blue VW bug. She started the engine while Rylee climbed into the back, letting me have the front seat. We waved to the guys who stood there waving back, and we were off.

“Okay, now can I know what we are doing, please?”

Sophie laughed, “Well, Kara helps run a dog rescue and they are having an event at a street fair today and she needs our help.”

“Yeah, everyone cancelled on her at the last minute,” Rylee said.

“And she didn’t have a psychic moment a couple of days before letting her know this would happen?”

“Apparently not,” Sophie said, laughing.

“Well, what will we be doing?”

“Helping her show the dogs to people and hoping they get adopted. It’s Christmas time, it should help.”

“You like dogs, right Rainey?” Rylee asked.

“I love them. It sounds fun.”

“I’m not a huge dog person, but only because I have never spent much time around them. I like Colin’s parent’s dog a lot. He is great. Kara has been trying to get Ethan and I to adopt forever.”

We got there in minutes and saw Kara standing in the parking lot directing a couple men holding crates.

“Hi girls! Thanks so much for helping us out.” She introduced us to the men and we grabbed crates and followed behind them to their space. I peeked in my crate and saw four little terrier looking puppies staring out at me. They were adorable. There was a wire fence enclosing a space between a pet supply booth and one that sold silver handmade jewelry, and we set the crates down gently inside as Kara began to free an assortment of dogs and puppies, all happy to be out of their cages.

There were a total of eighteen, and the majority of them looked to be Chihuahua mixes.