Yoss reached back into his bag and quickly put something behind his back. His grin was huge. Infectious.
“And for you,birthday girl.”
My eyes widened and my mouth popped open in shock.
“How did you know?” I gasped.
Yoss tucked a piece of my straggly hair behind my ear, his fingers lingering, as they always did. “There’s not a thing you say, even if it’s only once, that I don’t remember.”
“Wait a minute. It’s your birthday, Imi? And you didn’t say anything?” Di demanded.
I shrugged. “I don’t make a big deal of my birthday—”
“Well, that’s just fucking ridiculous,” Shane interjected. He pulled the sweatshirt Yoss had given him back over his head and handed it to me.
“What are you doing? That’s yours,” I protested, holding my hand up, refusing to take it.
“Yeah, well it’ll keep you warm out here. And if I can’t buy you a gift, then I want to give yousomething. Birthdays are important. Just because we live in a condemned piece of shit, doesn’t mean we can’t celebrate,” he argued, shoving the smelly shirt in my lap.
“Happy Birthday, Imi,” Bug added, wrapping the Zippo lighter he had just been given in a potato chip bag from the ground and laying it beside me. Di took off one of the bangle bracelets she always wore and slipped it over my hand.
“Happy birthday,” Karla muttered.
My throat felt uncomfortably tight. My eyes burned with tears.
“You don’t have to give me your things—” I started to protest.
“We want you to have them,” Di said, talking over me.
I held the gifts to my chest, valuing them more than anything I had ever been given up to that point.
“Thanks, guys.” My voice cracked.
“That’s not all,” Yoss announced, pulling a pair of roller skates out from behind his back. They looked two sizes too big and were an ugly shade of brown. One was missing laces and the wheels were chipped and worn down.
“Roller skates?” I laughed, taking them from him.
Yoss reached into his bag and pulled out another pair. “They had thrown out a few pairs at the roller rink in town, so I took them. I thought we could go roller-skating,” he said with a shrug.
“Where the hell are you going to go roller-skating?” Karla demanded, looking annoyed.
“Right here. Come on, Imi. Will you go roller-skating with me?” he asked sweetly.
“I haven’t been skating since I was six,” I warned, taking off my shoes and shoving my feet into the skates. They were way too big and it was questionable whether I’d be able to stand.
Yoss quickly put his own skates on and got up unsteadily. “Well, I’ve never been. But I figure I can hold my own on a skateboard, so I should be oka—”
He instantly fell on his ass.
“This is going to be awesome!” Shane chuckled and Di gave him a standing ovation.
But Yoss was still grinning like he hadn’t just slammed into cold concrete. It took him a few tries to get back to his feet. When he was more or less steady, he held out his hand to me. “Come on, birthday girl.”
I held on to him tightly and almost pulled him over. Yoss gripped my arms and I used his body as leverage to get myself upright. “If I break something, I’m blaming you,” I teased.
Yoss frowned. “If you don’t want to skate, we don’t have to. I just thought it would be something fun to do for your birthday. But if it was a bad idea—”
I cut him off with a quick kiss to the mouth. My feet slid out from underneath me and I had to grab Yoss so I wouldn’t end up on my ass like he had. “This is fun. Come on. Let’s try to figure out how to do this.”
