I liked presents and I liked it more that he gave me one but that grin would have been enough for me.
“We don’t have wrapping paper and I used all my allowance on that so I couldn’t buy any,” he told me.
“That’s okay!” I chirped, threw off the top of the box and looked down at the gold necklace with the tiny twinkling green jewel hanging off the chain, this attached to a little sheet of plastic.
“They said that’s a peridot. Your birthstone,” Tuck’s voice came at me.
I tipped my head back to look at him. “I like it. Green’s my favorite color.”
He grinned at me again.
“I’m gonna wear it always, Tuck,” I whispered and was about to pull it out so I could put it on but his face went funny and he shook his head.
“It’s cheap, Sylvie,” he said quiet. “The girl I bought it from said you can’t get it wet. It’ll make your skin turn green.”
“I don’t care,” I told him.
“Your Dad will,” he told me.
He would.
Darn.
I looked back down at the necklace and said soft, “I’ll wear it all the other times when I’m not in the water.”
“Okay,” he replied.
I looked up at him and smiled.
Then I jumped up to my feet, ran back to my bike, put the necklace in the basket with my Snickers wrapper because Tuck said his Dad said that littering was bad and you should never do it. So we never did.
I ran back down the pier pulling off my t-shirt and stopping to tug off my shorts. I had my bathing suit underneath.
“Cannonball!” I yelled and dashed down the rest of the pier. I jumped straight off the end as high in the air as I could get. I curled my arms around my tucked legs and hit the warm water.
I barely surfaced before I heard and saw Tuck hit the water beside me.
I smiled.
He surfaced, took one stroke and made it to me then he ducked me.
I came up laughing.
We did cannonballs and dives and had ducking contests and floated and had swimming contests that Tuck let me win because it was my birthday and we did it for hours.
When I got home, my stepmom was asleep so I didn’t get caught being gone and spending the day with Tuck at the lake.
It was the best birthday ever.
Ever.
Chapter Seven
I’m What You Need
Present day…
My eyes opened and I stared at the alarm clock amongst the junk on my nightstand.