Growing Up Neighbors

by Frances Hoelsema

  Once she was dressed, she put on her makeup, all of which she learned that to look good it had to look natural. Therefore, she used colors that went with her skin tone and that brought out the color of her blue eyes. Then she curled her long, blond hair and put it up in a ponytail, a look that her boyfriend said he liked the most. Deborah felt it was a pain to do all that, but she wanted to look good for him and for the guests at her birthday party.

  Hearing the doorbell ring, Deborah looked at the clock and saw that it was a little early, but she’d rather have that than everyone arrive late. She was so excited that her sixteenth birthday was now here, and even more excited that her mom let her have her very first co-ed birthday party.

  Must be the first guest, Deborah thought. I wonder who it will be?

  Deborah went to get the door and found Nicholas waiting on the other side.

  She saw how he looked her over, making her feel gorgeous yet a tad bashful. He wasn't lewd or coarse in the action. Just pleasantly surprised.

  “Hey, Debbie. Happy birthday!”

  Nicholas came forward and gave her a hug.

  “Thanks. Come in,” she offered.

  “So are you excited about the party?”

  “Yeah, of course! I’m glad you could come too, even though it’s more to watch over me and my friends than to hang out.”

  “Oh, no problem. I wouldn’t miss it for the world."

  Nicholas gave Deborah a smile and wink, which made Deborah smile in return.

  "So where’s Alex?” he asked.

  “I think downstairs already. He was getting some video games set up for whoever wanted to play.”

  Just last year Ms. Harrington decided to completely finish the basement so that it could add some more living space. She figured that would be a great place for the kids to hang out with their friends seeing as they were all getting older and wanting more space. There were three different areas to the basement that Deborah thought was perfect for her party. One area could hold the food and drinks, another the dancing, and the last section, which was actually a separate room closed off by a door, for the video games or movies that anyone may want to play or watch.

  “Okay. I’ll go find him. And don’t worry, we’ll make sure to stay out of your hair tonight,” Nicholas assured Deborah.

  “I’m not worried. I hope you enjoy yourself.”

  “We will,” he said with yet another wink and smile. Then Nicholas left to go downstairs to find Alex.

  Deborah had to admit that she was beginning to love it when Nicholas gave her that wink and smile. At first when they were younger she thought it was weird, but now she couldn't deny the warm feelings it was starting to produce inside of her. It was like their very own special way of communicating. It also showed Deborah that he was in a good mood and all was right with the world.

  It didn’t take long for others to start to arrive. Her best friend Felicia Russo came next and then a few other friends of hers showed up. Sometime after that, her two friends that each had a boyfriend had showed up with their respective boyfriend. The only person left that needed to show up was Deborah's boyfriend, Gavin.

  Almost forty-five minutes after the party started, long after all the guests came over and the pizza had arrived and was getting cold, Gavin finally decided to grace them with his presence. He didn’t even apologize or anything for being late. As soon as he was invited in and shown where the party was, he went right to eating the pizza and going on acting like nothing was wrong.

  He didn’t even mention how good I looked, Deborah thought.

  She decided to shrug off the thought and forget about it. She was just glad that he had finally made it to the party.

  The night was going by very well according to Deborah’s standards. Everyone was getting enough to eat and drink, with no complaints whatsoever. Some of the guests were even dancing to the music that Deborah had playing on the sound system. Also, Alex and Nicholas did pretty much stay out of everyone’s hair, sticking to the video game room, playing who knows what. Every now and then they came out for some food and punch, but they mostly stayed away from everyone. There was one rule though, which was that the door had to stay open so that the two older boys could be aware of everything that was going on.

  Deborah felt special when Gavin had asked her to dance to some of the slower songs that came on now and then. She didn’t feel like she was good at it, but Gavin wasn’t complaining so she must not have been that bad. However, she did have to keep Gavin from moving his hands a little too far south every now and then.

  “Gavin, don’t,” she would say angrily, but just barely over a whisper so that no one else would hear their conversation.

  That always got him to stop his hands from roaming, but he must have had short-term memory loss because a few minutes later or during the next song they’d dance to he’d try all over again to place his hands on Deborah in a place she was not at all comfortable with.

  Having enough of it, she finally suggested to everyone that it was time for dessert, which everyone agreed to. Her best friend, Felicia, even recommended that she start opening her gifts so when everyone had gotten their fair share of cake and ice cream, they all sat in a circle around the so-called dance floor and handed Deborah the gift that they brought for her.

  Deborah was surprised that she had received some very nice things as she wasn’t expecting anything more than maybe a gift card somewhere or maybe some sort of gift basket that she saw a lot of others get at their sixteenth birthday parties. She was actually fortunate enough to get a really cute set of pajamas, some of her favorite body lotion and spray and even some books by her favorite author.

  “Wow, guys. Thanks so much for the gifts!” Deborah exclaimed.

  “Wait. There’s one more,” Gavin smiled flirtatiously as he handed her his gift.

  She was so excited to open it because if everyone else got her nice things, being her boyfriend must mean he would get her the nicest thing of all.

  I wonder what in the world he thought of getting me, she pondered.

  She quickly tore the wrapping off in anticipation only to be disappointed as the last scrap of paper fell to the floor. However, she hid how she truly felt behind a small smile.

  “Oh, thanks for the gift card, Gavin,” she tried to say kindly.

  “I knew you’d like it since it’s your favorite store.”

  Gavin was wrong on both accounts. Not only did she not like the gift card, but it wasn’t even to her favorite store. In fact, it was a store she had never heard of.

  Guess I’ll have to figure out where this is, she thought. Maybe there’s something nice there I can get with this ten bucks.

  Putting her feelings aside, she addressed the crowd to say, “I just want to say thank you to all of you for coming to my party and making this a great night. And thanks a lot for the wonderful gifts. I do appreciate it.”

  Everyone replied in unison with either “You’re welcome.” or “Happy birthday.” or a “No problem.”

  Deborah decided to clean up a bit by bringing her gifts and all the wrapping paper and boxes into the food and drink area. There were tables set up there that she could place this stuff on so that no one would trip over the garbage if they wanted to dance some more.

  Some of the other guests, and Gavin, surprisingly, also helped out. When a few of them were in the eating area, Gavin hung his arms around Deborah and piped up with a suggestion that about made her gag.

  “Hey, why don’t we play spin the bottle?”

  No one said anything for a few seconds, and Deborah pulled herself away from Gavin’s grasp to look at him with sharp eyes as if to ask what in the world was he thinking.

  “Um, don’t you think that’s a little inappropriate?” Felicia questioned.

  “Why?” Gavin asked.

  “Well, for starters, there’s more girls than guys.”

  “So,” Gavin replied.

  “And the guys that are here, including you, have girlfriends.”
>
  “So.” This time Gavin dragged out his one-word phrase as if to ask what Felicia’s point was. “Well, does anyone want to play? That will liven the party up a bit.”

  By this point Deborah had had enough of Gavin’s antics.

  “Hey, what’s wrong with the party? I thought everyone was having a great time,” Deborah said, feeling a bit hurt.

  “We are,” a couple of friends assured her.

  She added, “And why would you want to potentially kiss some other girl if the bottle just so happened to land on them and not me, Gavin?”

  “It’s just a game. It’s not like it means anything,” was Gavin's annoyed response. He then threw his hands up in surrender. “Fine. We won’t play. It was just a suggestion.”

  Deborah rolled her eyes and shook her head. Just then, Alex and Nicholas both came walking in, neither looking too happy and as if they had something important to say.

  ---------------

  Nicholas and Alex spent most of the evening hanging out in the video game room. Alex was having such a blast because video games were his type of thing. He thoroughly enjoyed showing Nicholas what the different games were about. Nicholas enjoyed playing the games too, but he would have rather been at the party because there was some awesome music playing.

  And because that’s where Deborah was.

  Ever since he got there that night he couldn’t stop thinking of the birthday girl. She blew him away with how she was dressed, but made an effort not to show that to her face. He knew that he didn’t like Deborah in that way, but that didn’t stop him from thinking she was pretty.

  Very pretty.

  He was also excited because he knew he had gotten her the perfect gift and he couldn’t wait until she would open it up.

  Every chance that Nicholas got, he’d leave the video game room to check out the party. He’d ask Alex if he needed anything almost every ten minutes seeing as he knew that Alex would rather just stay and play his games instead of getting up.

  Nicholas could tell that Deborah was having a great time. He saw her dancing with her friends and sometimes Gavin, which made him feel uneasy. Seeing as he couldn’t do anything about it, he decided not to dwell on those feelings.

  But he did keep a close eye on him when he could.

  Nicholas got excited when dessert was ready. He knew where the cake came from and that it would taste divine.

  And it would be another chance to check things out.

  When Alex and Nicholas had finished with their dessert, he offered to clean up a little bit. Alex just shrugged his shoulders, showing just how little he cared. As Nicholas made his way towards the food area where the trash was, he realized that Deborah must have opened her gifts already. He quickly glanced at her presents that were placed on the tables along the wall as he walked across the “dance floor” to get to the trash.

  He smiled thinking about the gift she was yet to get later tonight before he left.

  Then his smile turned upside down when he heard Gavin. Nicholas was glad that the food area was in a corner so that he could stand against the wall by the stairs and listen in without anyone knowing it, which is exactly what he decided to do. He already knew that Gavin was holding on to Deborah too closely and didn’t like what he was suggesting that all the guests do. He listened for a minute to see what they’d decide, but then decided himself to go back and tell Alex about what was going on so that they could stop anything from happening.

  “Hey, Alex, I think that we need to check something out.”

  “What’s up?” Alex asked without so much as even looking at Nicholas. His eyes never even left the TV screen.

  “Well, Gavin is suggesting to play spin the bottle. I don’t think that’s something your mom would want them to be doing.”

  “What?” This time Alex looked at Nicholas.

  Nicholas then explained to Alex what happened and what he heard and thought it’d be best to tell him instead of doing something himself.

  “All right. Let’s go see what’s going on,” Alex suggested.

  The two boys headed to the food area. No one was playing anything yet, which made Nicholas feel glad that they got there on time.

  “So what’s going on, guys?” Alex questioned.

  “Nothing, Alex,” Deborah answered annoyingly.

  She wondered what made the two of them decide to pop in now after sticking to their room all night.

  “That’s not what I hear. I hear that you are going to play spin the bottle.”

  “No, we aren’t. It was just a suggestion that someone brought up, but it was a dumb one so we’re not playing.” She emphasized “dumb one” as she looked at Gavin.

  “Well, you better not. Mom would not like it if you did.”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don’t worry, Alex. You can go back and play your video games. I have this under control.”

  “It’s probably time your friends leave anyway,” Alex ordered more than suggested.

  “They’ll leave when the party is over.”

  “Well, I know it’s getting late and mom will be home soon so don’t make it too much longer.”

  Alex and Nicholas then left to head back to the game room.

  For the rest of the evening, which wasn’t too long, Nicholas was glad he was there.

  Who knows what would have happened if I hadn’t overheard that conversation, he thought. I’m just glad Debbie didn’t go through with it.

  ---------------

  “Bye, Felicia!” Deborah called out as her best friend left the party. “Thanks so much for coming. I’ll see you in school next week.”

  Deborah gave a final wave and then closed the door. She was thankful that Felicia was nice enough to stay for a bit after the party ended to help clean up. However, she did have a curfew to abide by so she couldn’t stay all night, a fact Deborah understood. Deborah didn’t know what she would do without Felicia sometimes. She thought back on the night and how glad she was when Felicia stood up and said something to Gavin about the stupid spin the bottle game he wanted to play.

  Leave it up to him to want to do something stupid, she thought.

  Deborah went back downstairs to help Alex and Nicholas finish cleaning. She was still a little upset at them for barging in. It embarrassed her that her brother not only knew about the incident, but that he tried to boss her around by forbidding the game to be played. Nevertheless, she decided to put that beside her and get everything cleaned up so that she could just go to bed.

  Ms. Harrington came home just as Deborah walked downstairs. She quickly took her coat off and put her things down to figure out where the kids were. She was excited to hear about how Deborah’s party went. As she got downstairs to find the three kids cleaning up, she promptly asked, “So how did it go?”

  “Hi, mom,” Alex said first.

  Deborah looked up at her mom as she carried some dirty plates and cups to the trash and said, “Hi. It went good.”

  I hope no one brings up spin the bottle, Deborah thought as she gave her mom a smile.

  “That’s all you’re going to tell me?”

  “I don’t know what to say. Everyone loved the food and seemed to enjoy themselves. We all had a great time and I got some great gifts,” Deborah added.

  “Great. You’ll have to show me later, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  “I’m going to go take a shower and head to bed because I’m exhausted,” their mom said, emphasizing her words with a sigh.

  “Okay,” both Alex and Deborah said in unison.

  Ms. Harrington headed upstairs and the three kids kept cleaning. Deborah kept to herself as she didn’t have much to say to the boys. Every now and then Nicholas would say something to Deborah or ask something and she would just give a short answer back. She was in no mood to talk with him, which was unusual in Nicholas’ opinion.

  But then again, he knew she was upset over what happened earlier.

  When Alex headed upstairs to do a few things, Nicholas thought that w
ould be the perfect opportunity to say something to Deborah about her attitude.

  “Hey, why are you being so short with me?”

  “Because,” was all she said as she continued cleaning.

  “Come on, you can’t really be that mad at me for telling your brother about you guys playing spin the bottle.”

  “It was you?” she asked as she stopped what she was doing and looked up at her neighbor. Deborah felt betrayed.

  “And here I thought that my brother was the one that dragged you into coming with him to talk to us, but all along it was you who was spying on us and telling.”

  “It wasn’t like that, Debbie,” Nicholas said, defending his actions.

  “Then what was it like, Nick?”

  “I was coming to throw some trash away. I didn’t expect to hear what I did, but when I did I thought that Alex deserved to know. Plus I didn’t think you should play that game either, especially with Gavin.”

  “What does that mean, especially with Gavin?”

  “Look, I know I can’t tell you who to date, but I’ve heard a lot of bad things about him and I'm not crazy with the idea of you being with him.”

  “Well, I’ve never heard anything bad about him, and like you said, it’s not up to you who I date,” Deborah said a little harshly.

  Deborah began cleaning again, leaving Nicholas looking a little stunned and hurt at just how cruel she was acting towards him. Silence surrounded them, save the crinkling of paper getting thrown into the trash bin and tables being folded down and stored away. While staying busy, Deborah thought about her words and actions. She began to realize that she was being unfair towards Nicholas so her attitude towards him softened.

  With a big sigh, Deborah said, “If it makes you feel any better, I never wanted to play spin the bottle anyway. I guess I just wish that you would have come to me instead of to my brother.”

  Nicholas stopped what he was doing and absorbed what she said. He was so glad that she never wanted to play that game, especially if it wasn’t him she’d be kissing.